Category Archives: Ayn Rand

The Shawano School Board is calling on a board member to resign after he postedwhat hesaid was "a joke" about the death of George Floyd.

Shawano School Board member Mart Grams wrote on Facebook on Saturday: "You know George Floyd is drug free for 2 months."

The Facebook post was deleted on Monday.

Floyd died in May after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The video of his deathspawned protests around the world including many marches and protests in Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere in Wisconsin.

RELATED: See the more than 45 communities in Wisconsin that have had protests against police brutality and racial inequality

Grams emailed Green Bay TV station WBAY a statement on Sunday, calling his Facebook post"A joke, period. Anyone can say it was insensitive, or poor taste, but, once the racist cards come out, the raw hatred, we have a very poorly trained generation who cannot deal with the slightest contradiction to what the (sic) are told."

Shawano School Board members called a special session Sunday evening to condemn Grams' use of "racially derogatory terminology and of his irresponsible statements mocking the death of Mr. Floyd."

The board called on Grams to immediately resign. As of Monday he has not done so, said School Board Vice President Michael Sleeper. Grams did not attend Sunday night's school board meeting

On Monday community members contacted authorities seeking information about how to formally recall Grams from his elected position, Sleeper said in a phone interview.

"Whether that would come to a recall I dont know," Sleeper said.

By Sunday night - before it was removed -Grams' post had drawn more than 800 comments, many of them calling on him to resign or for the school board to force him out.

One commenter wrote, "Contrary to what you tried to pass off as a reason when you spoke to Action Two News, this isn't just a joke nobody understood. It's racist trash."

The school district, in the city of 9,300located 40 miles northwest of Green Bay, issued a statement earlier Sunday to the Green Bay television station saying Grams was speaking as an individual and doesn't represent or reflect the values of other school board members or the school district.

Since Grams is an elected official, the school district said, "under Wisconsin law, the board does not have the authority to remove or to discipline a member of the board. An elected school board member may be removed through the electoral process, including through recall, but not by action of the school board."

But the measure passed by the school board Sunday evening, following complaints about his Facebook post, contends that Grams' conduct is harmful to the school district and its commitment to equal opportunity and treatment.

According to his LinkedIn profile and Facebook bio page, Grams taught civics in the Shawano-Gresham School District from 1987 to 2016 after teaching one year in the Winneconne School District.He was aU.S. Army intelligence specialist from 1976 to 1980. He earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a master's in history atViterbo University in La Crosse.

His Facebook bio also claims he earned a Ph.D. in economics at Patrick Henry University though when a reporter from the Shawano Leader couldn't find that institution and questioned Grams about it when he ran for school board in 2017, he admitted that he made it up.

Patrick Henry University is a fictional college in Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged." His LinkedIn profile says Gramsearned a doctorate of philosophy from Patrick Henry University.

Grams acknowledged toShawano Leader reporter Scott Williams that students had called him "Dr. Grams" for years, but he said he didn't think he misled them by saying he had a Ph.D. from a fictional university.

Everybody knows that theres no such place, Grams said.

When Williams asked how anyone would know he was talking about a fictional university, Gramssaid: I dont know how they would know, unless theyre well-read.

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Wisconsin school board member asked to resign after posting that 'George Floyd is drug free for 2 months' - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If you want to download the Small Business Administrations data on 4.9 million coronavirus relief recipients, get ready for a computer crash. Theres that much data.

This spring, the SBAs Paycheck Protection Program provided $520 billion in forgivable loans so small businesses could continue paying employees as the coronavirus became a cement block around the economys neck. Politicians of all stripes demanded more transparency, so details on larger loan recipients were released earlier this month.

Its still transparency even if its granted grudgingly.

The SBA released the names of PPP recipients that received between $150,000 to $10 million in funds, which accounted for about 75% of the companies that took benefits. Companies that received smaller amounts were not identified.

Nationally, it makes for interesting reading. Recipients of coronavirus relief funding include a foundation linked to anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, Ruths Chris steakhouse, the Church of Scientology and friends and family of Jared Kushner, Nancy Pelosi and Kanye West.

Closer to home, the big news isnt powerful connections but the sheer volume of federal money that poured into St. Joseph in a short period of time.

SBA data shows that $48 million to $118 million in federal funding supported 138 St. Joseph companies, from manufacturers, contractors and machine shops to nonprofits and professional services firms. These companies, firms and organizations employed at least 6,000 people, by conservative estimates.

Those were just the largest recipients. In total, 800 St. Joseph businesses may have received funding. Thats not counting those that indirectly capitalized on government stimulus efforts through enhanced unemployment benefits for furloughed employees, all because of the coronavirus.

This suggests an unprecedented level of federal support for the economy. Even the Ayn Rand Institute in California took a check, although its leadership had something deep and philosophical to say about it.

In the coming months, there will be a time to ask hard questions about oversight of the PPP, how this money was spent and whether some of these well-connected recipients took advantage of the system. After all, the PPP was a rush job involving a fire hose of money.

It will be equally important to look at what happens next. The vast sums of the PPP tended to obscure that reality that this program was short-lived, an eight-week bridge to get businesses to the other side of troubled waters.

Theyre there now, but what happens next? On a local level, the list of recipients points not to political influence or scandal but to survival in unprecedented times. The need to survive doesnt go away.

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St. Joseph reaps short-lived cash infusion - News-Press Now

Thank heavens the public purse is so open for the well-connected, and the sky's the limit for Fox's Sky News numbers well they couldn't get much lower.

The invisible hand that feeds The Ayn Rand Institute, committed to preserving the memory of libertarianism's patron saint, has taken a US government loan of up to $1 million.

The institute, which promotes free markets, applied for a loan under the pay cheque protection program, which gives businesses money to keep workers on. The decision was justified, director Harry Binswanger argued, because "it would be morally wrong for pro-capitalists to humbly step aside and watch the new money go only to anti-capitalists".

The Rand people aren't the only opponents of big government crying out for the public purse during a time of crisis. Conservative group Americans for Tax Reform got up to $300,000. So did a group called Citizens Against Government Waste which, along with Americans for Tax Reform, opposed stimulus bills which underpinned the loans.

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Tips and Murmurs: Ayn Rand Institute gets government handout - Crikey

Were all socialists now, apparently. No, really it turns out even the most rugged of the free marketeers have been coaxed by the coronavirus to fall into the government safety net.

The national press has been filled with stories this week about how the well-connected, the billionaires, the white-shoe lobbying firms and the most anti-government think tanks all got relief money under Congress $2 trillion coronavirus rescue act.

The latter includes no-new-taxes activist Grover Norquist, who infamously wants to drown the government in the bathtub. Also the libertarian Ayn Rand Institute, and anti-debt crusader Citizens Against Government Waste. All these groups that pillory big government suddenly found common cause in lining up to get a piece of one of the biggest government spending programs of all time.

And Im actually OK with that. Its what it was for to provide a measure of relief to businesses in need, of any and all types. The Seattle Times got a Paycheck Protection Program loan, too and we definitely didnt head into 2020 thinking wed be the recipient of government aid.

But I wonder whether this awkward moment will spark any internal reflection about the lift-yourselves-by-your-bootstraps, no taxes ever mantra that dominates the conservative political world.

Take, say, Washington states own free-market think tanks. The Washington Policy Center, a Seattle-based conservative group, got between $350,000 to $1 million from the federal relief program (the loans, which can convert to forgivable grants, were reported in ranges in data released Monday).

Meanwhile, heres the philosophy the think tank uses to describe itself in its annual reports:

We dont receive government money. We dont ask for it and we wouldnt take it even if it were offered. WPC relies on the generous support of our donors people like you who understand that free-markets are superior to a government rigged economy, and liberty is the air that a free people must breathe.

Except for this one time, I guess. To keep on breathing those liberty vapors required being put on a government ventilator.

Or take the Freedom Foundation, a business-backed outfit out of Olympia. Its been rallying against government spending and taxes since the early 1990s. Recently its been on a jihad against unions. During the pandemic it has called for governors to halt all public-sector union dues payments, on the grounds the union organizations dont need the money and the workers do.

But unions specifically werent eligible for the paycheck protection program, so they were left to fend for themselves. Not so the Freedom Foundation, though it got between $350,000 to $1 million from the federal relief fund, records show.

We have a vision of a day when opportunity, responsible self-governance, and free markets flourish in America because its citizens understand and defend the principles from which freedom is derived, the Freedom Foundation says on its website. We accept no government support.

Maybe just this one eensy-weensy time.

The laissez-faire capitalist Ayn Rand Institute, in California, went still further, rationalizing that going on the dole this one time would somehow strike a moral blow against big government.

It would be a terrible injustice for pro-capitalists to step aside and leave the funds to those indifferent or actively hostile to capitalism, it explained in a statement, titled To Take, or Not to Take.

Look, Im a capitalist too, but what a crock all that is. As I said up top: Its fine for any qualified business or association to get the relief money. Yes, even Kanye West, whose Yeezy clothing and footwear line got between $2 million and $5 million. Even the paid anti-government scolds. The programs point was to disperse the money as rapidly and widely as possible, to keep the economy somewhat functioning during this pandemic. It did that to more than 16,000 businesses in Washington state alone.

But To Take, or Not to Take that is not the question. The coronavirus has shown, if nothing else, that we all sometimes need a little boost. We have just been treated to a national case study in how we all depend on strong governmental social and health safety nets and not only when theres a pandemic.

This is not about taking at all, or shouldnt be. Its about giving back paying for basic good government and then, sometimes, when you need it, receiving help.

So can we at least dispense now with the breath of liberty canards? The drowning the government in the bathtub nonsense? The whole no-tax bluster?

Because now we know: Even groups that put freedom right in their name have apparently concluded theyre A-OK with some big-government, debt-financed, taxpayer-backed collectivism after all.

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Local anti-tax groups find even they need big government aid sometimes - Seattle Times

A group of organizations that condemn taxation and government spending werent so circumspect when the supposed gravy train pulled into their stations. They eagerly climbed aboard, taking several million dollars worth of loans under the Paycheck Protection Program that they wont have to repay if they retain their work forces.

The money was included in the initial CARES Act, the $2 trillion emergency relief package that Congress passed to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a May 1 statement by Citizens Against Government Waste, the CARES Act is stuffed with wasteful and unnecessary spending. Apparently, loans of up to $350,000 that the organization obtained do not fit either category.

Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, condemned a provision of the law that provides supplemental unemployment benefits for laid-off workers. He did not voice any objection, however, to the Cares Act provision under which the organization borrowed up to $300,000.

The Ayn Rand Institute, named for that conservative champion of rugged individualism, received a loan from the collective people of the United States of between $350,000 and $1 million, calling it partial restitution for government-inflicted losses.

It would be a terrible injustice for pro-capitalists to step aside and leave the funds to those indifferent or actively hostile to capitalism, said institute board member Harry Binswanger. Indeed, every federal dollar that the institute claims for itself is one that cant unjustly go to someone who actually needs it. Its a wonder that the institute didnt think of that sooner.

If such hypocrisy were a vaccine, COVID-19 would have been vanquished before Atlas decided to just shrug and take the cash.

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Climbing aboard the PPP train | Opinion | citizensvoice.com - Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice

Oil industry magnate Bud Brigham, owner of Austin-based Atlas Sand, has long been a fan of the late libertarian-minded philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand, who espoused a code that promoted, among other things, self-reliance.

Brigham a geophysicist who has sold two companies for billions of dollars bankrolled two movies based on Rands novel "Atlas Shrugged" and recently made a five-year gift to the University of Texas to pay for a Rand-inspired program examining the relationship between economic freedom and freedom of thought.

Brighams Austin company is also among the recipients of government largesse related to the coronavirus epidemic, according to an American-Statesman analysis of newly released data.

While restaurants lead the way as recipients of potentially forgivable loans from the federal governments coronavirus bailout fund, hundreds of medical and law offices and an assortment of mom and pop businesses were also awarded the bailout money as well as the politically connected.

Atlas Sand received a loan of between $2 million and $5 million, to help retain 213 employees, from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to government records provided to the Statesman after it and other news organizations filed public information requests.

Brigham, who has met in recent years with high-ranking state and federal officials to win permission to mine sand in areas home to a rare species of lizard, did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Among the questions Brigham declined to answer: Was the federal money needed to keep Atlas Sand afloat; how has Atlas Sand used the money; and did applying for the aid clash with his free-market principles or change his views on the uses of big government?

Atlas Sand was among scores of prominent Austin businesses that applied for and received the federal loan money.

Westlake Dermatology, for example, received a loan of at least $2 million to retain 220 employees.

Dr. Gregory Nikolaidis, CEO of Westlake Dermatology, told the Statesman that without the federal loan, the company would have had to lay off a third of its staff. The company was shut down for six weeks because its medical procedures were nonessential as the governors office tried to ensure medical supplies were readied for hospitals.

The loan "allowed us to reopen with staff we otherwise would not have been able to maintain," Nikolaidis said.

SXSW LLC, beleaguered from the cancellation of the annual South by Southwest festival that it operates, also received at least $2 million.

Other prominent companies that received at least $2 million include Tacodeli Holdings and publicly traded development company Stratus Properties.

The money from the federal loan program has been "absolutely crucial" for many area businesses, said Dana Harris, vice president for federal/state advocacy at the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

"Some businesses wont have stayed open without it," Harris said. "This is about keeping people on the payroll and employed, and having businesses pay the rent and keep the lights on. If people are out of jobs, thats a problem for the entire economy."

Auto dealerships also figure prominently as recipients of the pandemic money. Austin Infiniti, Covert Buick, Leif Johnson Ford and Nyle Maxwell of Austin were among those to receive loans worth at least $2 million apiece.

Darren Whitehurst, president of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association, which represents about 1,400 dealers, has calculated that sales and service at dealerships have been off by at least 40% around the state.

Dealerships "are fairly people-intensive businesses," he told the Statesman earlier this year, and, "as the name implies, part of the reason behind the Paycheck Protection Program was to try and make sure people didnt end up in unemployment."

Nonprofits also benefited from the federal program. Disability Rights Texas, for example, was awarded a loan of at least $2 million, and Any Baby Can received one for at least $1 million.

Edie Surtees, a spokeswoman for Disability Rights Texas, said the money was important for making the groups payroll as the organization worries about the future of grants that underwrite its work.

Wheatsville Co-op received a loan worth at least $1 million. Wheatsville did not immediately return a request for comment.

Overall, about 25,000 Austin-based businesses and nonprofit entities received forgivable loans under the federal program designed to help keep the U.S. economy running amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The cumulative amount of loans to Austin recipients totals between $2 billion and $6.3 billion, based on a wide range of loan data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration on Monday.

Under the program, the loans dont have to be repaid if theyre used to keep employees on payrolls. The loans were backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, but administered and approved by banks and other financial institutions.

Some of the Texas companies that received the loans are led by prominent supporters of President Donald Trump.

McKinney-based Pogue Construction received at least $2 million in federal money. Members of the Pogue family donated at least $200,000 to Trumps campaign since August, and in February the president pardoned construction company owner Paul Pogue for tax crimes to which he had pleaded guilty.

Pogue Construction officials did not respond to a request for comment from the Statesman.

Muy Brands a San Antonio-based company that operates Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Wendys franchises was approved for a loan worth between $5 million and $10 million, according to The Associated Press. Its owner, James Bodenstedt, has donated $672,570 to Trump since 2016, records show. The AP reported that the company did not respond to a request for comment.

Irving-based M Crowd Restaurant Group, which owns 27 Texas restaurants including the Mi Cocina chain, was approved for between $5 million and $10 million. Ray Washburne, one of the companys founders, was vice chairman of the Trump Victory Committee in 2016 and donated $100,000 to the political action committee last August, the AP reported. The AP reported that the company did not respond to a request for comment.

The AP also reported that broadcasting company Patrick Broadcasting, which is owned by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a conservative Republican and former talk radio host, received a loan of $179,000, according to Patricks senior adviser Sherry Sylvester. Patrick is the Texas chairman of Trumps presidential campaign.

The money was used to cover the payroll and expenses of 13 employees.

"The loan did not cover his salary, but he was able to save the jobs of all his employees, many of whom have been with him for decades," Sylvester told The Associated Press.

Other political players have benefited from the federal program.

Fort Worth-based car dealership company JRW Corp., owned by U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin who ranks as one of the wealthiest members of Congress received at least $1 million in loans to retain 122 employees, according to the federal data.

Williams, who is running for reelection in the 25th Congressional District, which includes parts of Austin, as well as Dripping Springs and Wimberley, had declined an interview request from the Statesman, but his office has said the program has been crucial to retaining employees.

The political committee of Democrat Christine Mann, a candidate in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas 31st Congressional District, which encompasses most of Williamson and Bell counties, received a $28,000 loan through the federal program.

"As a grassroots campaign and like many other small businesses, we were hit financially during the pandemic," a spokesperson for Manns campaign told KXAN, which first reported on the loan. "As a front-line doctor testing patients during COVID-19, Dr. Mann did not fundraise the ways she had previously but wanted to ensure her staff continued to receive a livable wage."

Mann has said she paid the loan back.

Correction: This story has been updated to correctly refer to a rare species of lizard found in West Texas.

CORONAVIRUS IN TEXAS: What we know, latest updates

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Prominent and politically connected Austin firms among those getting bailout loans - Austin American-Statesman

A model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington is now predicting Indiana coronavirus deaths could near 2,500 by August. Here's why. Wochit

Indianabusinesses that applied for and received a loan as part of a national effort to save small companies during the coronavirus pandemic is now public information.

The U.S. government has released a list of businesses that have received emergency pandemic loans of $150,000 or more.

Designed to cover expenses such as payroll and rent, the loans do not have to be paid back if at least 60 percent of the money is spent keeping or rehiring workers. Otherwise, it carries a 1 percent interest rate and must be repaid within two years.

Search through Indiana businesses that benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program with our database by searching below. Narrow the list by typing in a business or city name.

(Note: Not seeing the search bar above? Click here.)

Results show the range of the loan received, jobs retained, date approvedand other details released by the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration Monday, July 6.

Across the country, more than 660,000 businesses received $150,000 or up to the $10 million maximum from the small-business lending program.

Known-names across the U.S. include:

The Ayn Rand Institute received a loan and defended it on Twitter.

Restaurant chains like P.F. Changs, Legal Sea Foods and Silver Diner either received PPP loans or had investors connected to the company that did.

Internationally, South Korean airline Korean Air received a PPP loan.

Wall Street investment groups, including Semper Capital Management LP and Domini Impact Investments LLC, which manage billions of dollars, also received PPP loans according to Reuters.

Politically, according to the Washington Post, companies with connections to a handful of federal lawmakers, like Foremost Maritime, which is a shipping business controlled by the family of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, have received PPP loans.

John Farrell, a Republican donor and real estate developer also received a PPP loan.

Several law firms, including ones with ties to President Trump (Kasowitz, Benson & Torres) and former vice president Al Gore and film producer Harvey Weinstein (Boies Schiller Flexner) also received PPP loans.

The Roman Catholic dioceses in California, New York, Nevada, Tennessee and Kentucky also received loans.

Grace Pateras and Joe Harrington contributed to this story.

Daniella Medina is a digital producer for the USA TODAY Network. Follow her on Twitter @danimedinanews.

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Indiana PPP loan recipients: See the full searchable list of who received them - Courier & Press

Staff Report Published 6:37 p.m. CT July 8, 2020

If you are a small business owner and have not yet applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan yet...According to Business Insider, you may be out of luck and too late to receive funding. The US government recently added a second round of $310 billion to PPP loan program. The goal is to fund small businesses that have been economically impacted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bankers, lawyers, and consultants told Business Insider that the volume of pre-approved loans will soak up the second round of funding.If you don't receive emergency government funding, it's suggested for small businesses to seek funding through tax relief, private companies, local governments, and organizations offering small business grants. Wochit

Mississippi businesses that applied for and received a loan as part of a national effort to save small companies during the coronavirus pandemic is now public information.

The U.S. government has released a list of businesses that have received emergency pandemic loans of $150,000 or more.

Designed to cover expenses such as payroll and rent, the loans do not have to be paid back if at least 60 percent of the money is spent keeping or rehiring workers. Otherwise, it carries a 1 percent interest rate and must be repaid within two years.

Search through Mississippi businesses that benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program with our database by searching below. Narrow the list by typing in a business or city name.

Across the country, more than 660,000 businesses received $150,000 or up to the $10 million maximum from the small-business lending program.

Known-names across the U.S. include:

The Ayn Rand Institute received a loan and defended it on Twitter.

Restaurant chains like P.F. Changs, Legal Sea Foods and Silver Diner either received PPP loans or had investors connected to the company that did.

Internationally, South Korean airline Korean Air received a PPP loan.

Wall Street investment groups, including Semper Capital Management LP and Domini Impact Investments LLC, which manage billions of dollars, also received PPP loans according to Reuters.

Politically, according to the Washington Post, companies with connections to a handful of federal lawmakers, like Foremost Maritime, which is a shipping business controlled by the family of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, have received PPP loans.

John Farrell, a Republican donor and real estate developer also received a PPP loan.

Several law firms, including ones with ties to President Trump (Kasowitz, Benson & Torres) and former vice president Al Gore and film producer Harvey Weinstein (Boies Schiller Flexner) also received PPP loans.

The Roman Catholic dioceses in California, New York, Nevada, Tennessee and Kentucky also received loans.

Grace Pateras and Joe Harrington contributed to this story.

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Mississippi PPP loan recipients: See the full searchable list of who received them - Hattiesburg American

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), part of the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security package (CARES), is intended to blunt the economic damage from the current pandemic. As CNBC reports, the payouts include a $5-10 million loan for the Archdiocese of New York, $350,000 to $1 million to the Ayn Rand Institute and $1-2 million for the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, named after the son-in-law of President Trump. The media payouts were also of interest.

Forbes Media bagged at least $5 million, according to CNBC and the Washington Times got at least $1 million. The Washingtonian and the Daily Caller both got at least $350,000, and The American Prospect received at least $150,000. While propping up media, the PPP payouts did not neglect the political side.

The Ohio Democratic Party got at least $150,000 and the Florida Democratic Party Building Fund got at least $350,000. The Womens National Republican Club of New York got at least $350,000, with some $150,000 going to the Black Republican Caucus in Florida. PPP also shelled out $5-10 million to the Boies Schiller Flexner law firm, headed by David Boies, whose clients include former vice president Al Gore. As embattled taxpayers assess the merits of these payouts, they might consider an item CNBC managed to miss.

As Evan Symon reports in the California Globe, PPP loans of $150-350,000 went to PlumpJack Winery, owned by California governor Gavin Newsom. Last year Newsom reported more than $200,000 in income through PlumpJack, so the governor remains a beneficiary even though he relinquished control while in office.

Before the July 4 weekend, Gov. Newsom shut down bars, restaurants, zoos, movie theaters, museums and winery tasting rooms in 19 California counties. Missing from the shutdown list is upscale Napa County, where PlumpJack is located.

All told, the PPP payouts show some distancing from the kind of accountability taxpayers have a right to expect.

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Paycheck Protection Payouts Give Taxpayers Plenty To Ponder | K. Lloyd Billingsley - The Beacon

The basic idea of Parler is an awful lot like Twitter. But instead of tweets, users post Parleys. Instead of retweets, there are echoes. And upon registering, the suggested accounts to follow include new outlets such as Breitbart, the Epoch Times, and the Daily Caller, as well as the political accounts for Rand Paul, Mark Levin, and Team Trump.

In June, right-wing users started flocking to this alt-Twitter, whose main selling point is that it vows to champion free speech. As mainstream platforms banned more far-right accounts, removed hate speech with newfound vigour, and attached warning labels to a few of President Donald Trumps tweets, Parler became, for many, an attractive solution to Twitters supposed ills.

Now, its the second most popular app in the App Store, and last week it was estimated to have reached more than 1.5 million daily users, snagging somehigh-profile newbies: Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Elise Stefanik, Representative Jim Jordan, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump. What led to Parlers founding in August 2018 was, predictably, disillusionment with the likes of the Silicon Valley giants. Henderson, Nevadabased software engineers Jared Thomson and John Matze created the platform, according to Parlers website, [a]fter being exhausted with a lack of transparency in big tech, ideological suppresssion [sic] and privacy abuse.

Yet while the platform is being billed as the big free speech alternative to Twitter, it isnt exactly unique. Nor is it as uncensored as it claims to be. Parler is just the latest in a long line of rival social networks that have appeared (and, often, disappeared) in the past decade as alternatives to Big Tech. And, if the past is any indicator, its unlikely that Parler will become anything more than a fringe platform in the near future.

Some of the platforms to emerge as alternatives to the major social networks have taken a hard line on data privacy.Ello, for example, was founded in 2014 as an ad-free network that promised never to sell user data to advertisers. (After beingdubbed a Facebook killer,the site was overwhelmed with new users and crashed frequently; it could never scale up and instead became acommunity for digital artists.) MeWe, another Facebook rival, offers theindustrys first Privacy Bill of Rights. (It also takes alaissez-faire approach to content moderation.) And while its 8 million users are dwarfed by Facebooks2.6 billion, MeWe is one of the few successful alternative networks in that its continued to grow since its founding in 2016.

Also read: UnderstandingRight-Wing Resurgence in the US and India

Matze, Parlers CEO whocounts Ayn Rand and conservative economist Thomas Sowellamong his influences, fancies his platform a sort of free-speech utopia: Were a community town square, an open town square, with no censorship, Matzetold CNBC. If you can say it on the street of New York, you can say it on Parler. And while Parler says it is unbiasedMatze isoffering a $20,000 progressive bountyfor a popular liberal pundit to joinits evidently become an unofficial home to the far right, which has long claimed to be mistreated by mainstream platforms. When alt-right celebrities, such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer, are banned from Twitter, Parler is their next step. (Loomer announced last week that she has become the first person whose Parler following572,000exceeds her pre-ban Twitter following.)

In this regard, Parler is most similar to Gab, the free speechdriven platform launched in 2017 thats known as ahaven for extremists. [F]ar angrier and uglier than Parler, Gab quickly became a breeding ground for anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, where postscalling for terrorist attacks and violence against minoritiescirculate.

Gabs fate, however, represents one iteration of the circle of life for platforms of its ilk: After it was connected to an instance of terrorism in 2018, when the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shootingposted about his intentions to actjust before he killed 11 people, Gab never quite recovered. Its server, GoDaddy, dropped it, and though it eventually found another home online, its popularity waned following the shooting and the period offline. In 2019, a software engineer for Gabs web hosting companysaidthat the platform probably had a few tens of thousands of users at mostrather than the 835,000 that Gab claimedthough the hosting company laterdenied that.

But Parler doesnt quite have Gabs teeth. (Andrew Torba, Gabs founder, hasreferred to Parleras a network for Z-list Maga celebrities.) While even Gab has limits to free speech, since its content policypurports to ban extremism, Parler is stricter. It goes far beyond what you might expect from a platform whose entire ethos is freedom of expression. Matze listed a few of the basic rules in a Parley on Tuesday:

As the top Twitter comment points out, Twitter allows four of the five things that Parler censors. Parlers thoroughcommunity guidelinesalso prohibit spam, terrorist activity, defamation, fighting words, and obscenity, among other kinds of speech. And Parlersuser agreementincludes clauses that may seem antithetical to its mission.

Also read: As the Far-Right Culture War Escalates in Germany, Concerns Grow

The platform may remove any content and terminate your access to the Services at any time and for any reason or no reason, it states. But perhaps most surprising is this:

17. You agree to defend and indemnify Parler, as well as any of its officers, directors, employees, and agents, from and against any and all claims, actions, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to all attorneys fees) arising from or relating to your access to and use of the Services. Parler will have the right to conduct its own defence, at your expense, in any action or proceeding covered by this indemnity.

The indemnity provision means that if Parler faces a lawsuit for something you post, you pay. Basically, youre free to say whatever you wantas long as it falls within the community guidelines, and as long as youre willing to take the risk.

That Parler has beenreportedly banning usersen masse this week only further illuminates the faade of free speech on the platform; but regardless of the extent to which one can or cannot Parley whatever they want, the fact remains that the platform is becoming an important space for the American far right.

Its worth considering, then, what its members might do with it. Part of the concern over polarised platforms is that they can lead to radicalisation: In general, theyre seen as part of the pipeline to extremism. First, extremist movements find a foothold in mainstream platforms, where they present their norms in a slightly more palatable way, explained Jeremy Blackburn, a computer science professor at Binghamton University who researches fringe and extremist web communities. Then they gain ground in platforms like Parler that straddle the fringe and mainstream.

Once you remove any question of there being an echo chamber, theres just obvious consequences, Blackburn said.

While this may be cause for concern,Amarnath Amarasingam, an extremism researcher and professor at Queens University, is skeptical that Parler will really galvanise the right. I think part of what animates the rightand the left to some extentand particularly the far right, is the ability to argue with the other, Amarasingam said.

Interacting (and fighting) with the left reinforces the far rights identity, giving it meaning and purpose, he said, and from studying similar platforms like Gab, Amarasingam has found that talking to yourself in the dark corners of the internet is actually not that satisfying. And while he believes it might lead to the radicalization of certain individuals within the far right, the platform itself wont necessarily further the ideologies of extremist right-wing groups.

What Parler could do, Amarasingam believes, is serve as a kind of sounding board for the far right, a place for fringe movements to try out and refine different arguments. Essentially, it could be a factory of sorts, churning out ideas before theyre deployed into the mainstream. Maybe one day, at leastfor now, a good portion of the conversation of Parler is about how fantastic the platform is and how dumb the old tech giants are. Amarasingam acknowledged this.

[W]hat that indicates to me is that they actually are just using Parler to vent their anger of being suspended from what really matters, which has been more mainstream platform, he said. And so I think theyll very much try to get back into wherever the conversation is happening.

Also read: Why Regulating Social Media Will Not Solve Online Hate Speech

Theres also the matter of growth. Normally, these networks just dont get that big. Theyre considered fringe platforms for a reason, and theres rarely a solid business model behind them.

In Parlers case, the network was started with angel funding, and Matze hasnt devised a clear business plan since. Currently, histentative modelis to match conservative influencers with advertisers, and have Parler take a cut of the influencer fee. But given brandsrecent reluctance to advertise on Facebook, this plan seems far from foolproof. With only 30 employees, Parlers ability to handle more users will be tested.

It might growespecially if Trump does decide to join after allbut, as Amarasingam put it, if youre not in the mainstream, youre not in the mainstream.

Generally speaking, what I expect to see in these sites is they hit a certain threshold of users, just like any other social networking platform, said Blackburn. And then for these types of platforms that are explicitly attracting these certain types of users, probably one of them will do something stupid, then they get shut down or deplatformed, and the next one pops up.

Chloe Hadavasis a writer based in Washington.

This piece was originally published onFutureTense, a partnership betweenSlatemagazine, Arizona State University, and New America.

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Whats the Deal With Parler and its Rising Popularity? - The Wire