Daily Archives: August 4, 2022

Long Live the First Amendment, Now and Forever – The Epoch Times

Posted: August 4, 2022 at 2:50 pm

Commentary

Free speech is under assault.

Yes, The Epoch Times was wrongly censored on Twitter.

But thats only a symptom. The problem goes so much deeper.

This isnt a revelatory statement, nor is it particularly controversial. Any honest individual, regardless of political leanings, will admit as much. The only people who would argue otherwise are either a) the ones who are doing the censoring or b) those who disagree with the viewpoints that are being censored, and, therefore, see no problem.

For the most part, we primarily know the motivations of the people in the first category: they are actively curating the news to support their specific political narrative, which provides a pretext for justifying their own hold on power.

But it is those who fall into the second category that are actually the more worrying ones. They often have been convinced that the views they disagree with arent just a difference in perspective or analysis, but rather that the opposition poses a real and tangible threat to themselves and others.

Once you can get someone to go along with that proposition, theres no limit to where you can lead them.

In reality, though, the two groups are inextricable from one another, and the former is primarily responsible for the existence of the latter.

It isnt enough to make the obvious statement that the majority of news outlets operate from a specific political bias. It needs to be understood that the process of information distribution is in itself a tool of control by those who seek to maintain authority over us.

What follows is a barebones explanation of how maintaining authority works:

The U.S. government is dominated by an unelected bureaucracy (e.g., the State Department, executive and regulatory agencies, the intelligence bureaus, high-ranking military officers, etc.) that seeks to aggrandize and consolidate their own positions.

At the same time, they are heavily influenced by specific interest groups (e.g., contractors, business conglomerates, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and think tanks). One only needs to look at the revolving door between senior intelligence officials and military leaders with high-level positions at weapons manufacturers, private intelligence groups, and government-affiliated multinational corporations, to get a picture of that cycle of succession.

In addition, Congress works in conjunction with, and is often beholden to, these groups. In this way, legislators are able to secure electoral support and financial backing in return for voting the right way, presenting advantageous policy, and ensuring favorable oversight.

All of the above works both explicitly and implicitly in conjunction with corporate media to present a specific picture of the world thats conducive to a larger political agenda.

Unsurprisingly, that agenda just so happens to accrue substantial benefits, in terms of both money and power, to the various players involved in this process. The entire apparatus is thereby able to create, direct, and alter public support, often for positions or initiatives that the population would otherwise be hesitant to support.

Thats what President Dwight Eisenhower was alluding to in his 1961 farewell address, when he warned Americans of the military-industrial complex. Others may also be familiar with the concept of the iron triangle, which is the policy-making relationship among congressional committees, the bureaucracy, and interest groups.

The Epoch Times has provided one of the most impressive accounts of this phenomenon through its various correspondence with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynnone of the few who was able to see firsthand into the depths of this anti-American underworld, experience its depravity and corruption, and live to tell the tale. If you watch only one thing this week, watch the Aug. 1episode of Facts Matter with Roman Balmakov, which does a deep dive into the issue.

It should begin to become clear why the rise of Donald Trump, a political outsider reliant on no one and beholden to no one, was such a threat to the American status quo. It also logically implies why the forces of entrenched power that currently pull the strings in places such as Washington, New York, and even Brussels responded as they did to his candidacy, presidency, andshould it come to behis candidacy once again.

For the entire process of political control to be viable, one necessary condition must be present: an acquiescent population that is either actively in support of a policy agenda or ignorant of what is actually going on. Corporate media and large newspapers in major metropolitan areas previously held a monopoly on information distribution. No more.

The rise of the internet, social media, podcasting, and streaming blew up the old business modelnot only for those who deliver the news but also, more importantly, for those who create it.

For the first time, it became possible to truly understand the moral and ethical bankruptcy of those who wield institutional power over us. We understood that our political ruling class was not, nor previously had been, acting in the interests of the American people.

As it turns out, the exact opposite was often the case.

More than that, it became apparent that those of us who didnt buy into the narrative being professed by our corrupt rulers werent alone. Individuals who had well-articulated viewpoints, but didnt agree with the reigning orthodoxy, suddenly had a way to make our voices heard, and people who it would resonate with.

The increasing hunger for news that wasnt just a propaganda mouthpiece of interest groups in Washington paved the way for outlets such as The Epoch Times. Likewise, so did the desire for politicians who didnt have to live under the yoke of interest groups and pretend to support the radical ideology of the urban elite. We were just waiting for a self-sufficient patriot to walk into the breach.

Enter Trump and the Make America Great Again movement.

But if you think that the malicious self-serving power-holders endemic to our system of government were going to simply sit back and allow this to happen, you were wrong.

The constant attack on not only Trump but also anyone who wasnt actively burning an effigy of Trump in their front yard became a staple of the nations political discourse. The intent of all liberal mainstream media coverage became to attack the 45thpresident as an illegitimate figure motivated by hate.

This has been the story since Day One. We saw it from the moment Trump came down the escalator in Trump Tower, up until now, and on to the indefinite future: through the stolen election lie, the Russian collusion lie, the very fine people lie, the quid-pro-quo lie, the ongoing insurrection lie (manifested in both another impeachment and the present show trial of the Jan. 6 commission), and undoubtedly into countless lies in the future.

Is this article meant to be an ode to Trump? No. Its only to say that Trump clearly was (and is) the most pressing threat to business as usual for the U.S. ruling class. Everything was a deflection on the part of the latter from that they were desperately losing their grip on power, and had to subsequently manipulate the American people to maintain narrative control.

Just like with Trump, the attack on particular media that didnt stick to the prescribed script had to be heightened. Dissenting viewpoints became equal to hate speech. Disagreeing with the government approach to the COVID-19 virus or medical treatment options became paramount to killing fellow citizens. The list of censorship is endless, but the point here is only to say that we in America have been blessed, thanks to our rights enshrinedin the First Amendment.

The people who are in favor of ceding their rights due to scientific consensus or hate speech unknowingly advance the cause of authoritarianism; they do this under the grounds that, ironically, free speech is actually a threat to freedom. Thats how you get individuals such as Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)saying that Canada is freer than the United States.

Canada seemingly has become more or less an authoritarian regime in its crackdown on free speech and peaceful protest. This conception of freedom that leftists refer to is defined by a centralized government authority forcefully mandating their accepted radical ideology, while eliminating all contrary viewpoints; the latter is necessarily equated with harming other individuals in order to morally justify the suppression.

Thats obviously contrary to the concept of freedom that the United States was founded upon, in which freedom of conscience is unalienable, even if (perhaps especially if) someone is offended by its expression. And thank God. One only needs to look across the pond and recount a UK veteran being arrestedrecently by a group of police officers for reposting a meme that poked fun at the ruling classs LGBT ideological orthodoxy.

Anyone in the United States should justifiably be shocked by the scenario. Yet, we should also take solace in the fact that our wise founders foresaw this exact progression. They knew that free speech was so integral to any free society that they made it the most prominently presented, and firmly enshrined, right when laying down the foundations of this society. They also knew that it would, subsequently, be the first target for anyone who would seek to upend that society, and end that God-given freedom.

The First Amendment is absolutely, unequivocally essential, and must remain uninfringed upon for this republic to survive.

And that, of course, is why the founders immediately followed it with the Second Amendment.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Dominick Sansone is a PhD student at the Hillsdale College Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship. He is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times, and has additionally been published at The American Conservative, The Federalist, and the Washington Examiner.

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SpaceX will launch South Korea’s 1st moon mission today: Watch live – Space.com

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A SpaceX rocket will heft South Korea's first moon mission into space today, and you can watch the event live.

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) mission is scheduled to launch at 7:08 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Aug. 4 (2308 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in coastal Florida. The spacecraft's journey to the moon is expected to take four and a half months.

SpaceX typically broadcasts launches on its YouTube channel (opens in new tab) beginning about 15 to 20 minutes before liftoff occurs. If the launch is successful, the broadcast will run through the landing attempt of the Falcon 9 first stage atop a drone ship in the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

Related: South Korea's moonshot will explore lunar magnetic mysteries and more

KPLO is also named "Danuri," a melding of two Korean words that mean "moon" and "enjoy."

The lunar orbiter includes six payloads that are designed to study the moon's magnetism and search for water. Five were developed by Korean universities and research organizations, and the remaining one is from NASA.

The NASA instrument is ShadowCam, which aims to capture shadowed regions on the moon using high-resolution equipment including a camera, telescope and sensors. It was co-developed by Arizona State University and San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems. The instrument's optical camera is based on the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard NASA'sLunar Reconnaissance Orbiter(LRO) but is 200 times more sensitive than any camera that has visited the moon to date.

Danuri's prime mission is to orbit the moon for at least a year, searching for key lunar resources like water ice, helium-3, uranium, silicon and aluminum. It also aims to create a topographic map to identify potential lunar landing locations.

South Korea aims to put a robotic lander on the moonby 2030, and to launch a asteroid sample-return mission further into the future. The asteroid mission follows similar efforts by NASA's OSIRIS-REx and Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft.

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SpaceX’s Starlink has soared, but a course correction may be on the horizon – Fast Company

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The servicewhich advertises download speeds of 50 to 200 Mbps and uploads of 10 to 20 Mbps, and touts its absence of data capswas nearing 500,000 users worldwide in June, per a presentation that CEO Musk shared on Twitter. Among the more inspiring users: Ukrainians defending their country from Russian invaders, and rural Americans who would otherwise be bereft of broadband.

Its honestly life-changing for people like my family, emails Christina Deese, a work-from-home office manager in Cusseta, Georgia, who had previously limped along with slower broadband from a geostationary satellite that had more stringent data caps. I can now video conference with my team, my supervisors and participate in company remote functions, which I had to pass on before.

But Starlink has also seemed to struggle with demand since exiting its public beta test. Users have spent months waiting for receiver hardware to ship and reported performance slowdowns. Meanwhile, Starlink has hiked pricesin March, raising its monthly rate from $99 to $110 and bumping its hardware charge from $499 to $599also, moved to diversify its business by lining up a more lucrative customer base.

But while such clients as airlines and cruise lines may do more to cover capital costs in the billions of dollars, they also complicate SpaceXs math as it tries to balance demand with satellite capacity. Which may lead to even more rural would-be customers waiting for a Starlink box to arrive.

Deese, for example, put down a $99 deposit for Starlink in June of 2021 but did not have a Starlink kit shipped until February.

Jack Mangold, a retiree in Collettsville, North Carolina, waited even longer, having placed an order in February of 2021 that shipped this past April. He says service has been reliable but not particularly fast, writing in an email that hes only getting 25 to 50 Mbps downloads.

It can be all over the place if I test several times a day, Mangold said.

That, however, still represents a major improvement over his previous connectivity: an antiquated digital-subscriber-line service from AT&T.

In June, the network-measurement firm Ooklas Speedtest app showed that Starlinks median U.S. downloads in the first quarter of 2022 hit 90.55 Mbpsa big increase from a year ago, when Starlink downloads sat at 65.72 Mbps, but a drop from the prior quarters 104.97 Mbps. (SpaceX did not return an emailed request for comment.)

Ookla also found Starlink offered faster downloads in every other country tested, topping out at 160.08 Mbps in Lithuania. The likeliest explanation: Demand in the U.S. is outpacing demand in other countries. Its that constant race between capacity and consumption, says analyst Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics.

Consistency at any one location can be an issue too: The Starlink connection must be handed off from one satellite to another, and nearby obstacles can block the signals. For example, Deese says tree foliage can sometimes interrupt the connection for several seconds.

Peggy Schaffer, executive director of the ConnectMaine Authority, says Starlink users in her state often need a backup connection, such as a smartphones mobile-hotspot function.

Schaffer adds that some rural Mainers have reported an extra complication: The equipment uses more power than most off-the-grid homes with solar can manage.

With all of these obstacles to adoption in mindand with last years infrastructure law providing some $42 billion in federal funds to build out wired broadbandindustry analysts dont expect Starlink to do more than fill in gaps in coverage. For example, the market-research firm GlobalData predicts that low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband wont exceed 1% of the U.S. residential market through 2027, with fiber-optic broadband taking the biggest bite out of cables market share.

But while Starlinks most enthusiastic early adopters could resent that forecast, Musk himself might not. He has stayed uncharacteristically conservative about Starlinks possible reach, saying in June of 2021 that its really meant for sparsely populated regions.

Starlinks recent move to start selling service to recreational vehicles at much higher pricesand without a wait for hardware to shiprisks embittering the customers who need Starlink the most.

They threw a wrench in their whole effort, Entner commented, adding this option is open to queue jumping by people placing orders for Starlink RV service who dont own RVs.

In a June filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the agency to deny Starlinks bid to offer service to moving vehicles, ships, and aircraft, Harold Felt, senior vice president of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, griped thatSpaceX has decided to give customers in rural America a back seat to gamers on mountain tops and luxury RVs.

The FCC granted Starlinks request for mobile service anyway, leading to the companys announcement of a $5,000/month maritime service for large boats. Its also signed up Hawaiian Airlines and the small regional-jet carrier JSX to start using Starlink for inflight Wi-Fi, which each airline says will be free to use.

In order to build out its constellation, it seems clear that SpaceX will need multiple revenue streams to cover costs that, according to Musks own prediction, could hit $30 billion. SpaceXs current FCC authorization allows a first-generation deployment of 4,408 satellites, but an August 2021 FCC filing envisages a second-generation system of 29,988 satellites.

That volume of satellites raises concerns over orbital congestion and interference with Earth-based astronomy, but it will also require a bigger rocket: SpaceXs not-yet-flown Starship. That two-stage, fully reusable transport could deploy many more Starlinks per launch than the 60 its Falcon 9 can deliver today.

Falcon 9 isnt going to do it, says Marco Cceres, an analyst with the Teal Group.

SpaceX also needs Starship to loft its version 2.0 Starlink satellites (larger, heavier and higher-capacity successors to the current model).

We need Starship to work and to fly frequently, or Starlink 2 will be stuck on the ground, Musk told Everyday Astronaut host Tim Dodd in a May YouTube interview in which he called those next-gen satellites much more capable.

Unlike those other providers, SpaceX builds its own rockets. And its boss has a motivation beyond money to make them work.

Ultimately, his goal is to get Starlink up, but the bigger goal is to colonize Mars, says Cceres. And for that, he needs Starship.

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SpaceX and Viasat fight over whether Starlink can meet FCC speed obligations – Ars Technica

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Enlarge / A Starlink satellite dish.

Starlink

Over a year and a half after tentatively winning $886 million in broadband funding from the government's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), SpaceX is still trying to get paid by the Federal Communications Commission. One problem for Starlinkthough not the only problemis a series of objections from satellite company Viasat, which says Starlink lacks the capacity and speed to meet FCC obligations.

In a new FCC filing, SpaceX denounced Viasat's "misguided campaign" against the Starlink funding. "Viasat is transparently attempting to have the Commission impede competition at all costs to protect its legacy technology," SpaceX told the FCC. The new SpaceX filing was submitted on Friday and posted to the FCC's website Monday, as pointed out by Light Reading.

But SpaceX might have struggled to get its funding even if Viasat never objected. Starlink was tentatively awarded $886 million in December 2020 by the FCC during the final weeks of Chairman Ajit Pai's tenure. Consumer advocacy group Free Press accused Pai of "subsidiz[ing] broadband for the rich," pointing out that Starlink was awarded money in urban areas including locations at or adjacent to major airports.

Starlink service isn't geographically restricted in the same way as wireline networks, but the RDOF and other programs require ISPs to bid on specific census blocks. Starlink won bids covering 642,925 homes and businesses in 35 states.

In addition to rural areas, SpaceX won "the right to serve a large number of very urban areas that the FCC's broken system deemed eligible for awards," Free Press said. A design flaw in the FCC's mapping system made it possible to bid on subsidies in census blocks that were "surrounded on all sides by fiber."

That RDOF auction was apparently mismanaged by Pai, as Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced in July 2021 that the agency must "clean up issues with the program's design originating from its adoption in 2020." The FCC cited "complaints that the program was poised to fund broadband to parking lots and well-served urban areas."

Rosenworcel's office sent letters to dozens of winning bidders, suggesting that they voluntarily give up portions of their funding. SpaceX was one of the auction's biggest winners, and Rosenworcel's FCC asked the company to give up funding in about 6 percent of the 113,900 census blocks where SpaceX tentatively won FCC grants.

The FCC letters to SpaceX and other ISPs pointed to concerns "that certain areas included in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction are already served by one or more service providers that offer 25/3Mbps broadband service or otherwise raise significant concerns about wasteful spending, such as parking lots and international airports."

SpaceX didn't agree to give up any funding and is apparently still trying to get the full amount. While the FCC review of SpaceX's funding is ongoing, the commission has periodically released RDOF money to various other ISPs over the past year. The FCC also recently proposed $4.3 million in fines against 73 ISPs for defaulting on their bids.

Pai's auction also awarded $1.32 billion to a Las Vegas company called LTD Broadband to serve 528,088 locations in 15 states. But LTD subsequently "missed filing deadlines and failed to secure regulatory approvals needed to receive the money," The Wall Street Journal wrote.

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Asked which of his kids is most passionate about SpaceX and Mars, Elon Musk said – Moneycontrol

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Which of your children is most passionate about SpaceX and Mars? Elon Musk was asked. Here's what he replied.

August 03, 2022 / 03:23 PM IST

Elon Musk has spoken time and again about his dream of colonising Mars but do any of his nine children share in his vision of making humanity a multi-planetary species? If the billionaire entrepreneur behind SpaceX is to be believed, his two-year-old son X A-12 does.

On Tuesday, the official Twitter handle of Galaxy Heroes cryptocurrency posed a question to Elon Musk: Which of your children is most passionate about SpaceX and Mars?

Elon Musk has nine children, including X A-12 whom he welcomed in May 2020.

After losing his firstborn son Nevada Alexander Musk, Elon Musk had twins Griffin and Vivian with author Justine Wilson in 2004.

The former couple also has triplet sons Kai, Saxon and Damian, who were born two years later in 2006.

With Grimes, Musk also has a daughter, Exa Dark Siderl Musk, whom they had via surrogacy in December 2021.

Last month, court documents obtained by Business Insider revealed that Musk also had twins with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Neuralink, in November 2021. After the information was made public, the richest man on earth said he was doing his bit to combat falling birth rates.

"Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis," tweeted Musk. "A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far," he added.

It was also reported last month that Musk spent most of his time talking about Mars and extolled the virtues of boosting birth rates on Earth at a tech conference, skirting around the topic of his deadlocked Twitter deal.

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Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons to Perform at The Den Theatre in October – Broadway World

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The Den Theatre will welcome back comedian Greg Fitzsimmons for an evening of stand-up on Saturday, October 15 at 9:30 pm on The Heath Mainstage, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets ($18 - $38) are currently available at thedentheatre.com or by calling (773) 697-3830.

Mixing an incisive wit with scathing sarcasm, Greg Fitzsimmons has achieved success as a stand-up, Emmy Award-winning writer and host on both radio and TV. Greg is host of The Greg Fitzsimmons Show, on SiriusXM's "Howard 101" and twice a week puts out the hugely popular FitzDog Radio podcast. A regular on @Midnight, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and The Tonight Show, Greg has made more than 50 visits to The Howard Stern Show.

Greg has a new one-hour standup special on Comedy Central, stars in season 2 of How to be a Grown Up (TRU TV) and appeared on Louie (FX) this past season. He is a frequent guest on The Adam Carolla Show and The Joe Rogan Experience and will appear later this year in both Comedy Bang Bang (IFC) and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Adult Swim).

A frequent panelist for five years on Chelsea Lately, Greg also spent five years on VH1's Best Week Ever, hosted Pumped (The Speed Channel) and he starred in two half-hour stand-up specials on Comedy Central. Greg's 2011 book, "Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons," climbed the best-seller charts and garnered outstanding reviews from NPR and Vanity Fair.

Writing credits include HBO's Lucky Louie, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The Man Show and many others. On his mantle beside the four Daytime Emmys he won as a writer and producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, sit "The Jury Award for Best Comedian" from The HBO Comedy Arts Festival and a Cable Ace Award for the MTV game show he hosted called Idiot Savants.

Tickets: $25 regular seating ($18 obstructed view); $38 front row VIP table seating; $32 VIP table seating; $28 mezzanine table seating. All ticket prices include cocktail service with a two-drink minimum.

COVID guidelines: In the interest of keeping patrons and staff safe, and in accordance with the League of Chicago Theatres, The Den will continue to require proof of vaccination to attend any event for the indefinite future. While masking is no longer required, The Den strongly encourages patrons to continue wearing a mask when not eating or drinking. For the most current information on The Den's COVID guidelines, visit thedentheatre.com/covid19-policy.

Artistic Director Ryan Martin opened The Den in 2010 in the Wicker Park neighborhood with a single theatre space. Now celebrating its twelfth year, The Den is a multi-level live entertainment venue that boasts five intimate and unique theaters ranging from 50 - 300 seats. The first floor houses The Den Bar & Lounge - a full-service bar where audiences gather before and after performances to share a drink and community with like-minded culture-hounds. Currently, The Den is home to four resident theatre companies including Broken Nose Theatre, First Floor Theater, Haven and The New Coordinates (formerly The New Colony). Hundreds of other companies and artists from Chicago and beyond have called The Den home - from national names to local stars, The Den consistently plays host to a lineup of exciting and diverse talent. As a building created for interdisciplinary arts, The Den has accommodated a wide variety of programming, including plays, musicals, film screenings, dance, improv and stand-up comedy, seminars and speaking engagements. For additional information, visit http://www.thedentheatre.com.

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Opinion | Trump Has Big Plans for 2025, and He Doesnt Care Whether You Think Hell Win – The New York Times

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If Fox breaks its ties to Trump, the network would be likely to seek out another candidate as the conservative standard-bearer with DeSantis a front-runner, although the competition for the Fox imprimatur would be intense.

Trump is the subject of a wide array of lawsuits and of a host of criminal and civil investigations. The Washington Post reported on July 30:

Trump is facing historic legal and legislative scrutiny for a former president, under investigation by U.S. lawmakers, local district attorneys, a state attorney general and the Justice Department. Authorities are looking into Trump and his family business for a medley of possible wrongdoing, including his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and how he valued his various assets for loan and tax purposes.

The filing of formal criminal charges against Trump, much less a conviction, would have a major impact on his prospects as a candidate.

At the same time, it would be a fundamental mistake to underestimate Trumps prospects. In a Wall Street Journal column last week, Karl Rove described the amount of money awaiting Trump should he decide to run for a second term:

The former president controls four political-action committees Save America; Make America Great Again, Again! Inc.; Trump Make America Great Again PAC; and Make America Great Again Action. The PACs cash on hand as of June 30 came, respectively, to $103.1 million, $10.3 million, $7.3 million and $700,000, giving Mr. Trump more than $121 million at his disposal.

Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of Democracy 21, a campaign-finance reform advocacy group, wrote in an email responding to my inquiry that Trump cannot directly transfer this money into a Trump for President 2024 committee:

But he can arrange the money in a way that the money will be spent only on his campaign. Trump can consolidate all his PAC funds into one super PAC, which is informally known as a single-candidate super PAC. The super PAC must make expenditures independent of the candidate it supports and it makes all of its campaign expenditures to support one candidate, in this case Trump. But everyone gets around the independence requirement by having close political associates control the single-candidate super PAC. Its a wink and a nod situation.

In addition to the political action committees cited above, the network of fund-raising organizations and tax-exempt advocacy groups at Trumps disposal include the America First Policy Institute, The Conservative Partnership Institute, America First Legal, American Moment, the Center for Renewing America and the Claremont Institute, Save America JFC joint fund-raising committee, Save America leadership PAC, Trump Victory, and Make America Great Again Policies Inc.

Tracking the flow of money to and from these organizations is exceptionally difficult because the organizations continuously transfer money among themselves. For example, in the 2019-20 election cycle, America First Action, a super PAC, reported contributions of just over $20 million from America First Policies, Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization categorized as a 501(c)(4) under I.R.S. rules, according to the Federal Election Commission. During the same period, America First Action gave America First Policies $2.04 million to cover the cost of in-kind payroll/offices expenses.

Trump has a vast array of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit tax-exempt advocacy groups that serve several purposes. They perform what Peter Singer, a senior fellow at New America, describes as a shadow government function, filled with people who either have been or want to be in government or both, a way station for prospective political appointees. These advocacy groups, Singer continued, can set a political partys agenda, giving a 2025 Trump administration a jump-start.

I asked several political scholars about Trumps 2025 agenda. Some were less alarmed than others at the threat posed by the former president.

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Opinion | Trump Has Big Plans for 2025, and He Doesnt Care Whether You Think Hell Win - The New York Times

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Fight over online political ads heats up ahead of midterms – POLITICO

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On Wednesday, the NYU researchers launched a searchable database of Facebook digital political ads theyve managed to pull together despite the ban, putting them right back in the companys crosshairs.

Im scared of getting sued. But what Im more scared of is another Jan. 6, said Laura Edelson, one of the academics behind the project and co-lead at NYUs Cybersecurity for Democracy project.

Meta, Facebooks parent company, stripped Edelson and two NYU colleagues of their access to its own database of political ads just weeks before Joe Bidens presidential victory two years ago. The company accused them of breaking its terms of service on privacy by creating a browser extension that enabled users to provide the researchers with granular information on the types of ads appearing in their news feed. Meta also threatened to sue the researchers, who argued their work didnt violate the companys policies.

We are still getting that fundamental data [from Meta] through other channels, Edelson said when asked how NYU was still collecting the companys political ad database almost two years after getting banned from directly accessing that data. She declined to say what those other channels were.

Meta, which opened up more of its Facebook political ad data to vetted outside researchers in May and subsequently provided greater transparency to the wider public over how they were targeted with paid-for messages on the platform, said the NYU researchers work still broke the companys terms of service.

The company declined to comment specifically on whether the academics new ad database was similarly in violation of its policies.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Georgetown University in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.|Nick Wass/AP Photo

The conflict highlights how little has been resolved over how online political ads should be tracked and how outside groups can be allowed to keep tabs on digital advertising spend that is estimated to hit $1.3 billion during the midterm election cycle. Thats playing out in the build-up to Novembers election an early warning sign ahead of the flood of digital campaigning already starting ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

With Congress failing to move forward on any rules for how social media companies monitor politically divisive content or falsehoods, the companies have been left to fend for themselves. Theyve rolled out online platforms to promote get-out-the-vote campaigns, worked with outside fact-checkers to dampen the spread of incorrect information and reduced how political groups can target would-be voters via digital ads.

Yet outside researchers like those at NYU believe social media companies still are not doing enough to police how political messages and misinformation spread widely on these platforms.

And as digital political tactics quickly evolve ahead of the tech companies existing efforts including the use of paid social media influencers to promote partisan messages lawmakers and former employees also question how successful, and even willing, these firms are at policing their online platforms between now and the November election.

Its very frustrating, said Katie Harbath, Facebooks former public policy director for global elections and a former Republican Congressional staffer. Its been very hard to get a sense of what is happening. There are a lot of new vectors that are popping up that are going to remain really tricky for the platforms to deal with.

Outsiders who track political ads also argue that Facebook is failing to solve one of the easier problems providing user-friendly access to detailed data on political ad spending. Other issues like determining when politically divisive content falls afoul of its terms of service have proven tougher to combat as the amount of polarizing content on the worlds largest social network has skyrocketed.

My frustration about [Metas] ad library is that theres a sense of oh, look what you can do. But actually, unless you actually try to use it, you dont realize what a poor tool it is, said Claire Wardle, a professor at Brown Universitys Information Futures Lab and co-founder of FirstDraft, a nonprofit organization that tracked election-relation misinformation.

Edelson has become the public face of the pressure campaign for Facebook to improve its tools. The former Palantir computer scientist testified to lawmakers in the wake of the 2020 presidential election about the need for better data access to understand what is happening on social media. She won friends within Congress like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who wrote to Metas chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, questioning his companys ban imposed on the NYU academics.

Facebook has not fixed the fundamental security vulnerabilities in both their ad networks and their platform more broadly, Edelson said in an interview. I dont think Facebook is doing a good enough job of providing functional transparency.

Rules for broadcast television require disclosures on political spending from politicians and outside groups. But there is no similar requirement for major websites and almost all spending on them remains a black box especially on connected TV services like those of DirecTV and Comcast.

Edelsons team collects reams of publicly available political ad information directly from Meta, including demographic and regional breakdowns for such paid messaging. They then analyze it for patterns about who is spending the most on these ads and which groups are not abiding by the companys rules that require political players to publicly outline they are spending to reach voters nationwide.

Ahead of Novembers election, Facebook spending on political ads has so far focused on wedge issues like the recent Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, as well as what limits, if any, should be placed on Second Amendment rights, according to POLITICOs analysis of the NYU database.

Since late May, for instance, almost $13.5 million has been earmarked for abortion-related ads, with a signficant spike in purchasing in the wake of the decision in late June to overturn Roe rulingg. Planned Parenthood, the abortion-rights group, represented more than one-third of that spending with ads that targeted states like Texas, where a local court ruling outlawed abortion.

Edelson argued the database provides a much-needed resource to track spending both by campaigns and lobbying groups that were funneling money into swing state elections.

Maybe this cycle is when Facebook really nails it, that they provide transparency tools that will put us out of business, she said. But if they dont, then I think were going to need to do this all over again in 2024.

Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Katie Harbaths name.

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The mind just keeps on boggling | Contributed Columns | wyomingnews.com – Wyoming Tribune

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Bullet Train takes Brad Pitt for a ride before it goes off the rails – The A.V. Club

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The Wolf (Bad Bunny) and Ladybug (Brad Pitt) square off in Bullet Train.Photo: Sony Pictures

A constant social media refrain asks if certain older movies could still be made today based on elements like cost, logistics, politically incorrect content, or a filmmakers formula-defying creative process. Bullet Train begs the question of whether movies inspired by those filmmakers should even be attempted today, unless theyre being done by the original directors themselves.

Bullet Train filmmaker David Leitch may fancy himself a spiritual descendant of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, who established their distinctive styles decades before Ktar Isakas acclaimednovel of the same name was published in 2010. But Leitchs talky, violent hit man movie, with Brad Pitt at the center of an over-cranked ensemble cast, reminds us why Hollywood has all but abandoned attempts to copy the successes of Tarantino and Ritchie. This film is not just bloated, tedious, dim-witted, and glib, its also redundant.

Sandra Bullock

Maria Beetle

Trained killer Ladybug wants to give up the life but is pulled back in by his handler Maria Beetle in order to collect a briefcase on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka. On board are fellow assasins Kimura, the Prince, Tangerine, and Lemon. Once on board the five assasins discover that their objectives are all connected.

Pitt plays Ladybug, a former hitman hired by his longtime handler Maria (Sandra Bullock, returning a favor after Pitts appearance in The Lost City) to steal a briefcase full of cash from active hitmen Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry). Despite Marias assurances about the simplicity of the job, Ladybug quickly encounters opposition not only from Tangerine and the Thomas The Tank Engine-obsessed Lemon, but also The Prince (Joey King), a conniving Brit posing as a schoolgirl; Yuichi Kimura (Andrew Koji), an anguished Japanese father seeking vengeance after his son was pushed off of a roof; Hornet (Zazie Beetz), an assassin with her own designs on the briefcase, and other targets to execute; and The Wolf (Benito A Martinez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny), a Mexican cartel member who came to Japan after the death of his wife, for which he blames the luckless Ladybug.

Ladybug must not only defeat these foes, but figure out what events put all of them in his path. This leads to a variety of flashbacks, subplots, surprises, and secret motives, which Leitch and screenwriter Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street: Part Two1978) shuffle with little regard for pacing or the basic logistics of the films setting: how long exactly does it take for a high-speed train to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto (it was Morioka in Isakas novel)? A quick Google search indicates that the trip lasts about two hours and 15 minutes, but for some reason, this train runs all nightmaking Ladybugs escalating gauntlet feel more like a meandering travelogue through the characters one-dimensional personalities.

The muscular, charming energy that Leitch brought to set pieces and fight sequences in Hobbs & Shaw extends past the tipping point of improbability here, with a train thats full of passengers at times and empty others, without any real explanation. There are stabbings, poisonings, gunshots, snake attacks, hand-broken windshields, explosions, derailings, and more, and the only person who seems to notice is a little old lady who wishes Ladybug and Lemon would be quieter while they beat each other senseless.

As a conflict-averse assassin, Ladybugs efforts to resolve each new confrontation runs out of gas, especially since Pitt has played some version of a capable dope with more words than brains since at least The Mexican. Watching the actor have fun on screen should actually be fun, but here it feels like hes dragging the train along, instead of effortlessly riding it. Meanwhile as Lemon, Henrys obsession with Thomas & Friends is like a remnant of the era in which Tarantino spiced up Crimson Tide with monologues about the Silver Surfer. And the result here is just as obnoxious as it was watching Tarantino rant about Top Gun when he appeared in Sleep With Me. And even though Taylor-Johnson tapped into a surprisingly appealing persona when he adopted a working-class Cockney accent for a supporting role in Christopher Nolans Tenet, he repeats himself here and reduces his charm to sub-Guy Ritchie levels.

The less said about the rest of the cast the better, although Koji and the always stellar Hiroyuki Sanada desperately fight to inject dignity into the story of their familys multi-generational betrayals and misjudgments. But Leitch and Olkewicz feebly draw out those themes across the myriad conflicts and saddle these performers with those topics in an act of misjudged authenticity. Controversies over a mostly English-language adaptation of a Japanese novel notwithstandingwhich Isaka himself has largely dismissedwhat proves to be more offensive is the films unskilled attempt to inject seriousness into what should have been a cheeky summer distraction. Its fine for a movie about a bunch of competing killers to itself place no value on human life, and even to joyfully indulge in that kind of nihilism, but the way the filmmakers inject a sense of pathos feels about as earnest and meaningful as an airport gift shop souvenir before the flight home from some far-flung foreign country.

That said, whether or not Isaka started with an adequate level of originality on the page, this kind of story occupies a place thats simply too well-defined on screen. Especially when its anchored by an equally familiar performance by Pitt, whose movie stardom has been amplified by the talents of filmmakers like Tarantino and Ritchie, but doesnt always generate enough wattage to juice up a lackluster project on its own.

Ultimately, Bullet Train aims to be slick when it needs to be smart, and predictable when it should be provocativeeffectively making all of the wrong stops at exactly the wrong time. The problem isnt that Leitch doesnt have the talent to pull off a film like this, but that he doesnt have the personality. Rather, he possesses the proficiency to be a contemporary studio journeymanas long as he chooses the right journey.

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