Propaganda vs expanded sources of news

image credit: vectorstock.com

Cherie Zaslawsky’s article, “Trump Derangement Syndrome: A Misdiagnosis” starts off:

Listen to Fox News, and you'll hear phrases such as “Trump derangement syndrome” and “liberal heads are exploding” on a daily basis. 

Conservative newscasts are peppered with comments like these: “They're delusional!”  “The Democrats just can't seem to accept that they lost the 2016 election.”  “They've gone crazy!”

Crazy like a fox.

. . .

From the beginning of its “long march through the institutions,” the Left has been playing the long game.  That hasn't changed.  Leftists are playing it today.

Why did they take over the media?  The universities?  Hollywood?  To get their hands on the key levers of propaganda.  Add to this the leftward tilt of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and we're looking at a virtual lockdown on the primary sources of information and public influence.

. . .

What can be done?

I suggest that, rather than only responding to each of the Left's baseless attacks on our president, those on our side change the debate by exposing the radical leftists' use of propaganda — by shining a light into the dark recesses of their strategy.  This may wake up some of their followers and maybe even begin to free America from the dark power of the Left.

I have had limited success pointing the media’s corruption to people I know who still rely on The New York Times or NPR or CNN for their news. One suggestion that has worked a few times is to propose that a person expand their sources of news. Tuning in to conservative talk radio can be traumatic, but browsing through aggregators and at least comparing headlines has made a difference with some friends and relatives. These days my go-to sites are Politipage, Instapundit, Lucianne, and a few others (but not Drudge any more). Full American Thinker article is here.

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Claws of the Red Dragon

“Claws of the Red Dragon” will air on One America News Network this Friday Oct. 25 at 8PM (runs 1 hour). Thomas McArdle and the Editorial Board at Issues and Insights report:

To twist Lenin’s quip, it will be a communist who sells capitalists the cheap advanced telecommunications technology with which China hangs them.

A new and exciting movie was just released illustrating through semi-fictional dramatization how the Chinese government-controlled telecom company Huawei is a primary economic weapon in an arsenal through which Beijing seeks global domination.

The names of the people and the company are all changed, but “Claws of the Red Dragon” dramatizes Canada’s arrest at U.S. request last year of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s financial chief and daughter of its founder, for violations of sanctions on terrorist Iran and other offenses. In retaliation, Beijing detained two Canadians, an ex-diplomat and a businessman, for spying, and retried a 36-year-old tourist serving a 15-year drug offense, sentencing him to the death penalty.

It depicts a real life-based Chinese-Canadian reporter reluctantly taking on the story and risking her life to connect the dots between the company and the Communist Party and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. And the film goes behind closed doors to show the scheming of party operatives whose sights are set on global dominance in our lifetimes.

Having premiered over the weekend on the One America News Network, which will show it again Friday evening, the film is the work of New York-based Chinese-American New Tang Dynasty Television. The production values and acting, particularly Dorren Lee as journalist Jane Li, are top notch. Ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who’s an executive producer, hosted a press screening in New York City last week, where he brandished a well-worn copy of “Unrestricted Warfare,” a 1999 book by two senior Chinese air force colonels. They argue that economic warfare, attacks on digital infrastructure, and terrorism can enable a lesser power to win a war against the U.S., especially as part of a “grand warfare method” pairing military and non-military tactics. Beijing hasn’t veered far off that strategy in the two decades since.

. . .

Full report is here. I have not seen this program and am giving it the benefit of the doubt -- in spite of Steve Bannon’s involvement.

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Surveillance by Google: alternatives

image credit: Tutanota

Never heard of Tutanota? Neither had I. Via Lucas Nolan at Breitbart:

A recent report from security and privacy experts Tutanota, which bills itself as a Google alternative, outlines how mass surveillance has become commonplace online and the effect it has on free speech.

The report is here, and it concludes:

Tutanota states that “Any social credit system — be it private or public — undermines freedom of speech,” and encourages users to keep their private data private. One of the ways that users can do this is by leaving Facebook and Google, here’s how they suggest that users do that.

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Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary Death of A Nation

Over the weekend, our household watched Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary Death of A Nation. From the documentary website: 

Not since 1860 have the Democrats so fanatically refused to accept the result of a free election. That year, their target was Lincoln. They smeared him. They went to war to defeat him. In the end, they assassinated him.

Now the target of the Democrats is President Trump and his supporters. The Left calls them racists, white supremacists and fascists. These charges are used to justify driving Trump from office and discrediting the right "by any means necessary."

But which is the party of the slave plantation? Which is the party that invented white supremacy? Which is the party that praised fascist dictators and shaped their genocidal policies and was in turn praised by them?

Moreover, which is the party of racism today? Is fascism now institutionally embodied on the right or on the left?

Through stunning historical recreations and a searching examination of fascism and white supremacy, Death of a Nation cuts through progressive big lies to expose hidden history and explosive truths.

Lincoln united his party and saved America from the Democrats for the first time. Can Trump—and we—come together and save America for the second time?

Progressives will not like this film (for example, see here). We had some quibbles, but overall, it is excellent. The film includes some historical footage as well as some impressive re-enactments.

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Weekend fun at Powerline’s Week in Pictures

Cartoon credit: Mike Harris Artwork

(click to embiggen or scroll down at the link below)

And this weekend, it’s the “Powerline Week in Pictures LeBron 2020 Edition.” Click here.

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Kasich: our former Governor on impeachment

A.F. Branco cartoons at Legal Insurrection

Being the son of a mailman does not inoculate you from corruption. Here’s The Hill on Kasich and impeachment:

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) said Friday he would back President Trump's impeachment if he were in the House. 

“Look, I fought with people on air over, ‘Is there a quid pro quo’ and ‘Does this rise to the level of impeachment.’ I now believe that it does,” Kasich said during an interview on CNN. “And I say it with great sadness. This is not something I really wanted to do.”

Such a surprise.  And he is relying on bad reporting by the media on Mick Mulvaney's press conference. The link to The Hill report is here.  

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Facebook censors another conservative voice

Pamela Geller reports:

In a breathtaking act of chutzpah, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal to – wait for it – defend freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Go here: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Makes The Case For Free Speech in WSJ OpEd While Censoring and Banning Conservatives

Then via Freedom Headlines:

By Freedom Headlines, October 17 2019:

Facebook is stepping up their game to try and prevent Donald Trump from winning reelection. They are quite literally meddling in the election process by using their influence and reach to censor the internet and prevent people with opposing views from sharing anything from a conservative viewpoint.

The social network giant just removed one of the largest (if not the largest) pro-Trump Facebook fan pages.

They cited that it was because, “It looks like recent activity on your Page doesn’t follow the Facebook Page Policies regarding impersonation and pretending to be an individual or business.”

. . .

“Donald Trump Is Our President” with 3,276,000 fans, which we paid FB around $100,000 to build, using ‘page like ads’ was removed yesterday. Please help me spread the word so we can help Facebook know and fix, what I am sure is an honest mistake.

I have made my identity perfectly clear, I am, in no way associated with President Donald J. Trump, nor have I ever claimed to be. This was/is a fan page, we make that abundantly clear in many places on the page.

On top of that Facebook approved the name change back in 2016 …. So why now, all of a sudden has my life’s work been ‘unpublished.’ I’m sure this is a mistake, but please help me alert FB so we can get this cleared up, thank you! – Mark Sidney

Full report with screenshots of postings is here. If you are on FB (I am not), perhaps you can register objections to this latest censorship.

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