patrick.net

The Twitter Files are damning to the government
They show a coordinated attempt to suppress speech and cover up Hunter Biden’s laptop

There are two pieces of deeply disturbing news to emerge from the “Twitter Files” released by Elon Musk. The first is that Twitter, under its old management, was not the open, politically neutral platform it pretended to be. Journalist Bari Weiss has shown that Twitter had secret “blacklists” and related methods specifically designed to limit the reach of conservative commentators. When Twitter’s old management denied that bias, as it did repeatedly, it was lying.

Second, we are learning that Twitter worked closely with like-minded government bureaucrats to squelch legitimate news, information, and discussion. They did so to protect favored candidates (Democrats) and political positions (progressive). We will undoubtedly learn that Facebook, Google and other media giants had similar ties to Washington. We certainly need to know.

The government’s role here is damning. Its primary job under the First Amendment is to protect free speech, not to kill it. It botched that vital job, and it did so deliberately to increase its own control over private speech in public fora and, apparently, to promote certain political views. ...

As bad as Twitter’s old management was, the reaction of left-leaning journalists to Elon Musk’s efforts has been frankly astonishing. Instead of seeking full disclosure, as reporters normally would (and should), they have attacked Musk for trying to ensure it. Instead of demanding free speech, as honorable journalists would (and should), they have demanded even more censorship to stop legally permissible content from appearing on the social media platform. They believe in “free speech for me, but not for thee.”

Their distorted priorities are the hallmark of today’s media and another reason why the public no longer trusts journalists or their mates in the government bureaucracy. They are why the New York Times and Washington Post didn’t mention the “Twitter Files” story when it broke last Friday night or Bari Weiss’s bombshells when they broke Thursday night. “Nothing to see here” is the message from the paper that carries the banner “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” The Washington Post, which proclaims “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” went dark over the story. They are precisely what they warned us about. ...

The FBI and others were apparently careful to avoid any direct statements like “don’t publish this.” Instead, they said something like what King Henry II said when he effectively ordered the execution of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry asked his knights, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” The king’s retainers did not mistake his meaning. They rode to Canterbury and murdered Becket in the Cathedral. The king’s indirect request was enough to communicate his clear purpose.

That seems to be how senior FBI officials communicated their desires to Twitter (and presumably Facebook and others). That’s how the Bureau seems to have killed the distribution of the damning story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. US law enforcement and intelligence agencies knew the New York Post was about to publish that story. Knowing that, they told social media giants, including Twitter, that the Russians were about to dump some disinformation. When the Post story appeared immediately after that FBI warning, Twitter connected the two. The link was even clearer when 51 former high-ranking intelligence agents publicly stated that the Hunter Biden story had “all the earmarks of a classic Russian disinformation operation.”

But the laptop story was not disinformation. It was true and well vetted when America’s fourth-largest newspaper published it. Hunter Biden himself never denied the laptop was his. Nor did he deny the contents in the newspaper story. Years later, mainstream media outlets have confirmed the truth of the New York Post story. But at the time, thanks to the government’s false narrative connecting the laptop with Russian disinformation (repeated for years by Democratic representatives, led by Adam Schiff), the story was suppressed on social media. The New York Post’s Twitter account was blocked. Private users were blocked if they tried to circulate the story. Twitter’s rationale for this suppression was that the laptop was “hacked material.” It wasn’t, and they knew it. Even Twitter insiders were troubled by that threadbare rationale.

We need to know everyone who was involved on the government side of this shameful exercise. We need to know what they knew, when they knew it, and what they secretly communicated to the media. We need to know if other social media sites besides Twitter were involved in this operation. And we need a few journalists with the backbone to stand with Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and Bari Weiss to expose this malfeasance.

The Hunter Biden laptop story is the loose strand of yarn that, when pulled, will unravel a vast network of corruption at the highest levels of the Administrative State.

As the tweets rolled out one by one, the machine once again whirred to life, with the blue checks running interference to ensure “the take” was disseminated to all media. Naturally, those in the press obeyed the command. They’ve learned their lesson by now not to object or dissent or think for themselves. ...

The Hunter Biden laptop story was meant to be an October surprise, which is standard operating procedure during an election.

What we don’t usually have is a coordinated effort to suppress it. We never had an entire media establishment aligned with the government to make that even possible. Trump changed all of that. The media took a side, which meant pushing the “Russian disinformation” lie a no-brainer.

Imagine taking the Access Hollywood tape, for instance, and trying to suppress that in the run-up to the election out of fear it might damage Trump or was “Russian disinformation.” How do you think that would have gone over?

What was so terrifying about watching the 2020 election was just how coordinated the media and social media have become to push the talking points of the Democrats like mindless robots.

Here is a mashup of those media voices compiled by Steven Bannon’s War Room podcast: ...

The story here is how much power was concentrated on one side, which has become a greater threat to Democracy than anything MAGA could ever have done. They spun themselves a fanciful tale that just kept getting bigger and more fantastical. They were isolating themselves inside their own feedback loop, and at some point, their imaginings about Trump morphed into irrational, uncontrollable, full-blown hysteria. ...

The “cabal” that bragged about rigging the election in TIME magazine admits all of this but they paint themselves as the heroes, saving the country from the villain they invented, fighting a war they didn’t understand, with Mollie Ball as their PR rep doing zero journalism:

They rigged the election by making it an uneven playing field. They used their power to distort the truth, find votes and bring in the win. They dragged Joe Biden, who didn’t campaign at all, over the finish line.

Even with all of that power, all of that control, they still just barely won. But that power they claimed didn’t belong to them. It belonged to the American people. But it is power they keep and still use.

Now, Elon Musk is a problem for them. ...

The Democrats now represent the elite ruling class. They keep their status and wealth by using marginalized groups and “woke” virtue signaling as shields. If they brand themselves as down with the newfound zealotry on the Left, they get to keep their stuff.

We now know that America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) not only knew the truth but conspired to conceal it.

It has since been confirmed by multiple sources that the laptop did, in fact, belong to the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

The laptop revealed that Joe Biden and his family had knowingly taken money from former leaders of the intelligence services the Chinese Communist Party.

A staggering 62 percent of Democrat voters say it’s “likely” that they would have “changed” their vote during the 2020 presidential election if they knew the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, a new poll has revealed.

The survey, by TIPP Insights, found that 67 percent of American voters overall believe that the FBI and the intelligence community (IC) “misled the public” by claiming that the “Laptop from Hell” was part of a “Russian disinformation” campaign.

While it’s no surprise that Republicans feel that the suppression of the story corrupted the vote, the shock is how many Democrats and independent voters feel the election may have been swayed.

According to the survey, 31 percent of Democrats say it’s “very likely” that they would have “changed” their vote if they knew about Hunter’s laptop.

An additional 31% of Democrats also said it’s “somewhat likely” that the information would have “changed” their vote. ...

President Biden claims he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business.

The emails on Hunter’s laptop prove otherwise.

So I asked Elon about this:

Hunter Biden appears to also have had access to the property’s garage where the misplaced classified records from the Obama-Biden administration were stored, according to a report from RealClearPolitics.

George Soros Revealed as Player Behind Twitter Operation to Shut Down Hunter Biden Laptop Story

First Draft News, a now-defunct nonprofit that left-wing billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations funded, played a key role in Twitter’s preparation to shut down the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, according to internal documents published by author Michael Shellenberger as part of Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files.”

TAX CHEAT? Joe Didn't Report the $50,000/Month in Rent Hunter Claimed He Paid

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/01/16/tax-cheat-joe-didnt-report-the-50000-month-in-rent-hunter-claimed-he-paid-n1662135

TAX CHEAT? Joe Didn't Report the $50,000/Month in Rent Hunter Claimed He Paid

Classified Documents Were At Joe Biden Residence While Hunter Biden Took Millions For “Representing The F**king Spy Chief Of China”

Hunter was intoxicated and having blackouts — and just feet away from classified documents — during period he was taking money from men tied to Chinese military intelligence

@ggreenwald
Fixating on Hunter Biden's life - his sex and drug use - is not only wrong in itself but will backfire.

What matters is a) who created the lie that reporting about his father was "Russian disinformation" and b) whether the Bidens corruptly pursued profit in China and Ukraine.

Hunter was employed in Ukraine (by pro-Russian businessman Zlochevsky

HERE IT IS – THE SMOKING GUN: The 20 Point Email of Classified Information from His Father that Hunter Biden Sent to Burisma Board Member in April 2014

As reported earlier by Cristina Laila – According to emails uncovered from the “Laptop from Hell,” Hunter Biden sent his business partner Devon Archer a very detailed email on Ukraine on April 13 12, 2014 – just one week before Joe Biden visited Ukraine to meet with then-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

It appears that Hunter Biden was emailing Devon Archer information he received from a briefing his father and Vice President Joe Biden held earlier. Or the information may have come directly from top-secret documents.

The Gateway Pundit scoured the bowels of the Hunter Biden laptop and found the document in question.

The images come from the Marco Polo report on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Bidens Finally Come Clean, Admit Laptop Is Real, Demand Criminal Probes, Threaten to Sue Tucker Carlson

After over two years of denials and gaslighting, the Biden family has finally admitted for the first time that Hunter’s infamous “Laptop from Hell,” and the information on it, is genuine.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers admitted in a letter late Wednesday that the laptop belongs to the Democrat president’s son.

The admission deals a massive blow to the disinformation merchants in our intelligence agencies and the Democratic Party and their allies in Big Tech and the corporate media.

The confession has come as House Republicans launch investigations into the president and his son over their shady family business deals.

As the Bidens’ lawyers now know they can no longer deny that the laptop is real, they have apparently switched tactics and are trying to shut down anyone who reports on it.

Hunter Biden finally admits infamous laptop is his as he pleads for criminal probe ...

Beginning on Oct. 14, 2020, The Post published a series of exclusive reports about the laptop’s contents, including emails proving Hunter introduced an executive of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma to his father while Joe Biden oversaw the Obama administration’s policy toward the Eastern European nation.

The reports were initially dismissed by former top intelligence officials as the product of “Russian disinformation” — only to be belatedly confirmed by media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CBS News.