patrick.net

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/grim-vermin-tuesday-december-5-2023

He’s not out of the woods yet, but things were looking up a little yesterday for convicted “meme criminal” Douglass Mackey. The Post Millennial covered the story in an article headlined, “BREAKING: Federal appellate court sides with Douglass Mackey in meme case, drops prison sentence until after appeal.” (As of this morning, Corporate Media was silent as the grave, which means it was good news for the rest of us.)

In October, a federal judge sentenced Mackey to seven months in federal prison for a speech crime: in 2016, as a joke he tweeted a fake meme suggesting that Hillary supporters should vote by text. Judge Ann Donnelly didn’t get the joke. Instead she found it was an attempt to “impair the votes of black and latino Hillary supporters,” who apparently aren’t sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a joke meme and official voting instructions. And according to the judge, black and latino people are gullible, so they believe you can vote for president by text message.

In fairness, the meme was intended to look ‘official’:




Further complicating Douglass’s case were some text messages from a 4Chan message board where he’d workshopped his meme. Several still-unidentified users on that board encouraged Mackey and explicitly expressed hopes that “illegal Hillary voters” would fall for it and waste their votes.

(When these facts emerged this year, some observers wondered whether the users who encouraged Mackey to mislead voters might have been the same FBI agents who also coordinated the Gretchen Whitmer fednapping plot. But who knows.)

Back to Mackey’s sentencing. Sticking the old judicial knife in right up to the hilt, Judge Donnelly devilishly denied Mackey’s request to stay his sentence pending appeal, intentionally defeating the entire point of an appeal. In other words, by the time his appeal was decided, he’d have already served his seven-month sentence. So, take that.

Accordingly, Mackey’s lawyers rushed to appeal Judge Donnelly’s denial of the stay of his prison sentence, so that Mackey could have enough time to appeal his conviction.

Unfortunately for Mackey’s lawyers, an appeal of a stay is almost as much work as an appeal of the conviction itself. To grant a stay, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals must review enough of the case to conclude that Mackey has a “substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits.” This is a high standard. The appellate judges must be convinced not only that Mackey’s appeal is likely to prevail, but also that it’s substantially likely to prevail.

But after reviewing the briefs from Mackey and the government, the Second Circuit granted Mackey’s stay. This was correct, in my view. The order did not comment on the merits apart from simply granting the stay and, in a compromise for the government’s position, “expedited” the appeal by shortening up the briefing deadlines.

As a litigator with decent appellate experience, I can assure you an expedited appeal is both a blessing and a curse. Under the expedited schedule, Mackey’s initial brief is now due on January 5th, meaning Mackey’s lawyers just canceled all their holiday travel plans.

Still, it could be worse. I once had a trial scheduled with jury selection set to start at 9am on January 2nd. Ugh.

https://news.rebekahbarnett.com.au/p/kevin-mckernan-loses-entire-database?publication_id=791657&post_id=139458552&isFreemail=true&r=6gdz

US-based genomics scientist Kevin McKernan says he has lost an estimated US$200, 000 worth of research data after his account on file hosting service MEGA was deleted overnight.

It appears that McKernan’s account was deleted by MEGA in response to an urgent injunction granted to New Zealand’s (NZ) Ministry of Health (MOH) to prevent the sharing of anonymised data leaked by whistleblower Barry Young.

Young, a 56 year old database administrator and former employee of the MOH, leaked data from a ‘pay per dose’ Covid vaccine database to NZ journalist Liz Gunn and US tech millionaire and Substacker Steve Kirsch.

Both Gunn and Kirsch claimed that the data showed conclusive proof that the Covid vaccines are killing people at high rates. Kirsch publicly uploaded the data on Friday 1 December, the same day the injunction was granted to the MOH.

McKernan had ‘mirrored’ Kirsch’s data upload on his MEGA account to make it easier for people to download and analyse after international confusion broke out following the sensationalised release, which brought the integrity of whistleblower’s data into question.

Having heard that an injunction had been granted to the MOH to prevent further distribution of the NZ data, McKernan says that he texted Kirsch to get clarity on Sunday 3 December, but did not hear back.

In a thread posted to X on Monday 4 December Boston time* (where McKernan is based), McKernan says he woke up to find that his entire MEGA account, including medical genome sequencing and vaccine sequencing data, with an estimated value of US$200,000, had been suddenly deleted. McKernan is one of the leading scientists involved in researching DNA contamination in the mRNA Covid vaccines.

How the fuck one doesn't have an offsite backup copy sitting somewhere in a safe and still has the gall to call himself a DBA?

https://public.substack.com/p/totalitarian-bid-to-censor-entire

PumpingRedheads says

https://public.substack.com/p/totalitarian-bid-to-censor-entire

Thge author is part of the problem"
But we do know that demands for censorship have come both directly from the US military and from heads of state of Western nations around the world. What's happening should terrify all freedom-loving people.

It is not the "US Military," it is the Biden administration that is demanding censorship. This clown does not want to admit that.

RWSGFY says

How the fuck one doesn't have an offsite backup copy sitting somewhere in a safe and still has the gall to call himself a DBA?

As a DBA, I approve of this message.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/privacy-please-wednesday-december

🔨 In viral news yesterday, mRNA contamination researcher Kevin McKernan suddenly and unexpectedly reported that his entire lab’s data, including all his ongoing projects, was deleted by the authorities — because he hosted a downloadable copy of New Zealand’s jab-death data...

Kevin was understandably upset at Steve Kirsch, who provided the data to many other experts and to the general public with helpful links for downloading the data. (Dear misinformation enforcement team: I did not download the Young Data.) In fairness to Steve, though, it was not easy to foresee the long, withered, legal arm of Te Whatu Ora (or whatever it’s called).

How I would love to see what legal instrument Kevin’s data storage provider was served with, which has caused it to commit commercial suicide. Ironically, Kevin used a storage provider named ‘MegaPrivacy.’ Its slogan is literally, “The Privacy Company.” Well, ‘the privacy company’ has a lot of ‘splaining to do, because my first question is: how did Te Whatu Ora’s thugs so rapidly discover that McKernan hosted the Young Data on his “end to end encrypted” MegaPrivacy account?

Maybe there’s a good explanation, like Kevin said it was on MegaPrivacy or something. But from the outside, it looks a lot like someone or something might just have global access to search ALL these cloud providers, whenever they want, privacy or no, encryption or no. Another question is, could any of these cloud providers possibly be funded by persons or groups with interests that differ significantly from their customers’ interests?

To drive it to a point: Are there honeypot providers only pretending to be privacy-focused? It would make sense. They attract all the folks with the most to hide. We must assume there are honeypot providers, and that there’s no way to tell for sure. To me, today’s story mainly proves that the globalists were so panicked over the New Zealand data that they accidentally revealed capabilities we didn’t know they had yet.

I’ve been beating this drum for years now: Number one, keep your critical data on your own server. Or at least keep a current local backup. Data stored on someone else’s server is not your data anymore. You’re just allowed to access the data — for now. Number two: cloud data is not private, so don’t put anything on the Internet you wouldn’t want the world to see. It doesn’t matter what the providers tell you. Just read their EULAs and you’ll find lots of exceptions for subpoenas.

A subpoena is just a piece of paper.

Also ironically, Steve and Kevin are probably victims of prior rounds of public outrage. The ‘digital privacy laws’ that are almost certainly in play in this story are on the books. The public’s moral panic over ‘digital privacy’ led us right here. The irony is we were mainly trying to keep our data private from the government. But now we have tough, new digital privacy laws that the government can wield against us.

In this case, neither Steve Kirsch nor Kevin McKernan had any idea they could possibly be subject to New Zealand’s jurisdiction (and that suggests a whole ‘nother discussion about the de facto global government). But they might have noticed a teensy little red flag, which was that Barry Young, who uploaded the data, got arrested for it. That was the time to start planning contingencies.

To be clear, I am not suggesting I am smarter than anyone else. I did not see this coming (though I’m not surprised). What can I tell you? We’re in a war. The silver linings are that, first, the globalists have exposed a significant search capacity that we didn’t know they had. Second, it’s obvious they are terrified of the Young Data.

Are there any honest politicians left in New Zealand? It’ll be up to them now.

https://www.leefang.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information?publication_id=1239256&post_id=139476619&isFreemail=true&r=6gdz

As the Israel-Hamas war began to heat up in late October, Courtney Carey, a Dublin-based employee of the Israeli website building company Wix, posted the Irish words “SAOIRSE DON PHALAISTIN” -- “Freedom for Palestine” -- on her LinkedIn page.

Within 24 hours of Carey’s LinkedIn post appearing, Alon Ozer, a Miami-based investor, took a screenshot of the post and shared it with a WhatsApp group of more than 300 like-minded investors, tech executives, activists, and at least one senior Israeli government official. Ozer took care to note that Carey worked for Wix.

Oded Hermoni, a tech journalist-turned-venture capitalist, piped up to assure everyone that Batsheva Moshe, Wix’s general manager for Israel and a member of the group chat, had been “on it since Sat[urday] night.”

Moshe then chimed in to assure her peers that the issue with Carey had been “taken care of since it was published.”

“I believe there will be an announcement soon re our reaction,” she added.

Wix terminated Carey the following day.

I hope that's not really the whole story. You should be able to say "Freedom for Palestine" without getting fired.

It's not that I'm on the side of Hamas, I just think free speech without penalty is extremely important.

Patrick says

I hope that's not really the whole story. You should be able to say "Freedom for Palestine" without getting fired.

The employer also has a right to hire whom they wish. Freedom of speech applies to restricting government from sanctioning you.

Seems like there is definitely a violation of rights in that. California of all places does not let employers fire you for political activities outside of work.

But that should also be a federal law, so it's part of my platform:

https://patrick.net/post/1303173/2017-02-19-patrick-s-platform

Prohibit discrimination in hiring and firing based on political activities outside of work.

Patrick says

Prohibit discrimination in hiring and firing based on political activities outside of work.

That is too broad a brush. If I am a Jewish owner of a radio station, I should be able to fire an employee who marches in a Nazi parade. If I run a Catholic Hospital, I should be able to let go an employee who joins a protest to force my hospital to perform abortions. An employer has freedom of association, which includes firing for political activity. That freedom of association also includes items like an owner of a Chinese restaurant wanting to hire only Chinese ancestor folks for a wait staff to preserve a Chinese ambience. Same with a Black barbershop who only wants Black barbers and Black customers.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/chicken-soup-saturday-december-9

💉 The most recent GOP debate was interrupted by an 8-minute blackout that was perfectly-timed to delete Vivek Ramaswamy’s entire answer to Megyn Kelly’s question about vaccine problems:




The trouble started when Megyn asked candidate Ramaswamy about the horrifying failure of the federal vaccine liability program:

“The Trump administration and private industry developed the covid vaccine in record time. The program protected the drug companies from virtually all lawsuits over vaccine injuries. The government has a program to compensate for such harm but critics say it is a black hole of bureaucracy. 12,000 claims filed, 10% decided, only 8 payouts so far, in a forum with no right to counsel, no hearings, no appeals. Mr. Trump says he’s very proud of Warp Speed. Should he be?”

First, to assuage Trump supporters, Megyn’s question was totally unfair to Trump. Trump created neither the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 nor the 2005 PREP Act, which shield pharma from legal liability for vaccine injuries. Those laws were passed under Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively, and both laws passed with wide bipartisan support.

The next problem was that both Megyn and Vivek immediately got in the ditch by confusing those two laws. Megyn’s question properly asked about the PREP Act and its Orwellian CICP program, deservedly called a ‘black hole of bureaucracy,’ which has only paid out eight covid vaccine claims in the last three years. Worse, the average payout on those eight claims was insultingly low, around $1,200.

It’s a punchline to a bad joke.

Vivek and Megyn both promptly confused the two programs. In fairness, it can be a little confusing. Bush’s PREP Act and its CICP program handle Emergency Use Authorized “countermeasures.” Reagan’s NCVIA and its vaccine court handle FDA-approved vaccines. PREP covers covid vaccines. (I am currently preparing a lawsuit to challenge the PREP Act.)

Much more interesting to me was how the debate moderators panicked and pulled the plug on Vivek’s answer. I’ll skip discussing how awful that was. Consider it stipulated. But consider this: the debate was live streamed. Moderators must have had prior instructions to delete this question and Vivek’s answer.

Who gave that instruction?

Next, consider the blackout in its historical context. Can you ever recall something like this happening before? A Presidential candidate’s answer censored in real time to “protect” voters from “misinformation?” About drugs?

It has never happened before.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are truly in a brave new world when our overseers control which answers to Presidential debate questions we get to hear. Orwell would probably be jumping up and down, pointing and shouting about having told us so. But they gave away the game by ham-handedly blacking the question out.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/rumble-hit-unprecedented-cyber-attack-after-posting-j6-security-cam-footage

Free speech video hosting platform Rumble was hit with an “unprecedented” cyber attack shortly after new security camera footage from January 6 was posted on the platform. ...

Last week it was revealed that the GOP-controlled Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight had created a new Rumble channel to post hours of security footage from Capitol Police taken on January 6, 2021.

“The first few videos were posted to the Rumble channel on Dec. 5. By the next day, the collection grew to 135 clips—each about 10 minutes long. The channel had nearly 700 followers on Dec. 7,” reported the Epoch Times. ...

Shortly after, Rumble was hit by a massive and seemingly organized attack that left people unable to upload or watch content.

“I can confirm that this attack has been unprecedented and has been happening since this weekend,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski posted on X.

“I also suspect it is political, coming from activists and/or organizations who want to censor our creators, and related to J6 videos being posted on Rumble,” he added.

Rumble was only able to completely restore services last night.

https://reclaimthenet.org/ny-times-targets-pro-trump-memes-equates-them-with-deepfakes-and-advocates-for-regulation

It’s that time of the US election cycle again: what were formerly known as “newspapers of record” attempting to, for political reasons, promote odd ideas like regulating jokes.

It’s the New York Times this time, looking like it’s terrified that Donald Trump might be successful in his new presidential bid, and so going guns blazing after what it calls his “troll army.”

And “troll” here means – meme creators. As for the memes themselves, the NYT either pretends not to or doesn’t get the joke – namely, that they are jokes, and basically treats them as sinister tools for peddling misinformation and deepfakes.

To add insult to the paper’s injury, the memes not only support the Trump campaign, but Trump also enjoys them, and takes time to communicate with the meme creators.

The article claims that there is a large number of “sexist and racist tropes” being repeated in these memes, but singles out a video collection of some of President Biden’s many gaffes. ...

But it’s the suggested “solutions” that are the most bizarre part of the article.

One is the implication that memes should be treated as ads that run on TV and radio, meaning, regulated for “accuracy, fairness and transparency.”

And then onto the creators: the paper wouldn’t mind if they start being considered “super PACs” (i.e., independent expenditure only political activity committees), who would have to disclose any donors and provide reports about spending – and, possibly face restrictions on coordinating with campaigns.

Lol, it's flattering that they see the power of memes to expose their own lies and spin!

I get no donations, have no spending, and do not coordinate with any campaign, so good luck regulating those things.

zzyzzx says

RWSGFY says

How the fuck one doesn't have an offsite backup copy sitting somewhere in a safe and still has the gall to call himself a DBA?

As a DBA, I approve of this message.

@zzyzzx

Hosting companies don't have backup processes?

HeadSet says

That freedom of association also includes items like an owner of a Chinese restaurant wanting to hire only Chinese ancestor folks for a wait staff to preserve a Chinese ambience. Same with a Black barbershop who only wants Black barbers and Black customers.

@HeadSet,

I actually agree with you. Freedom of association was fucked in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act. If we had TRUE freedom of association in America, you'd see self segregation like crazy. Maybe the Civil Rights Act had more to do with keeping America together instead of nurturing an environment that could break America up into separate countries.

GNL says

Hosting companies don't have backup processes?

Only if you trust the hosting company, which you shouldn't.

Borders on outright anti-Semitism, but there is truth in it too.

https://news.rebekahbarnett.com.au/p/australian-medical-regulator-finally

Australian medical regulator finally relaxes Covid gag order on doctors

But doctors say the regulatory environment remains 'hostile to individualised care'

A directive to health practitioners barring criticism of the Covid vaccines and rollout has finally been dropped by Australia’s medical regulator, AHPRA.

On 9 March 2021, AHPRA and the National Boards published a joint statement to help health practitioners “understand what’s expected of them in giving, receiving and advising on and sharing information about COVID-19 vaccination.” This has now been superseded by a general information page on vaccination. ...

This was not an empty threat. In the first year of the Covid vaccine rollout (2021-22) AHPRA suspended 21 health practitioners and investigated many more in response to 1,300 notifications relating to Covid and the vaccines.

https://transcriberb.dreamwidth.org/124138.html

Forest of the Fallen Disappears!
Daily Insight ( at ) DailyRant Australia
March 9, 2023
https://odysee.com/@DailyRantAustralia:d/forest-of-the-fallen-disappears!:4

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: The transcript is already in the show notes on the video's Odysee page; I reproduce it here with added notes in brackets. The Forest of the Fallen is a silent vigil of bamboo poles planted in the ground, each topped with a page set at eye-level with the story and photo of someone who was injured or killed by the covid jabs. For more information see: https://theforestofthefallen.com/

MALE VOICE: Yesterday 8th of March 2023 there was an article posted on news.com.au titled Eerie scene emerges around Australia*

[Screen shows a screenshot of Google search results with the article at the top, then we see a screenshot of the photo accompanying the article, of a woman in a blue sundress reading a piece of paper affixed to a pole. Her face is pixelated.**]

It shows a picture of a lady looking at some signs that have been erected in a park to remember those who were injured or fallen. It's unclear in the photo what they were injured from.

[Screen returns to screenshot of Google search results with "Eerie scene emerges around Australia" at the top]

This link can still be found on Google at the time of making this video, however, when I click on the link I get a page not found error.*

[Screen shows screenshot of news.com.au Page not found]

At the top it reads Eerie Forest Of The Fallen Exhibitions Pop Up in Australia.

[Screen shows screenshot of another photo of a woman, her face pixelated, reading one of the stories affixed to a pole in the Forest of the Fallen]**

This news was definitely available yesterday. I saw it for myself. But today it is not. I can't remember the exact details of the article, my memory seems to have failed me but it was something about something where people died from something. And now the news don't seem to want to talk about it. Strange.

https://transcriberb.dreamwidth.org/124929.html

Vivek Ramaswamy Subject to "Technical Issues" When Talking About Censorship
Dec. 15th, 2023 12:45 pm

https://twitter.com/michaelpsenger/status/1733328375677329525

Hat tip: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/chicken-soup-saturday-december-9

TEXT OF TWEET: During the last GOP debate, this entire discussion on liability for COVID vaccine injuries and the Trump administration’s fast-tracking development of these mRNA vaccines through “Operation Warp Speed” was blacked out, allegedly due to “technical issues.”

TRANSCRIPT OF ATTACHED VIDEO

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: This video is a report on the Republican Primary Debate hosted by News Nation. The full debate, including this part transcribed below, is posted as dated December 7, 2023 on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpIwZNlBAE. Show description: "Republican presidential hopefuls Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy take the stage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for a pivotal debate on NewsNation, moderated by Elizabeth Vargas, Megyn Kelly, and Eliana Johnson. For analysis, highlights and to watch the full debate, visit https://www.newsnationnow.com/ "

TEXT ON SCREEN: This was the 2023, 4th Republican debate [as Vivek Ramaswamy is speaking]

VIVEK RAMASWAMI: —competitive market place begins, that's crony capitalism and that's the answer.

TEXT ON SCREEN: What you're about to see is exactly what happened

MEGN KELLY: OK. Through Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration and private industry developed a Covid vaccine in record time....

TEXT ON SCREEN: The screen froze, then went black

TEXT ON SCREEN: Then this screen came on with some GOP buzzkill melody

TEXT ON SCREEN: WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK

TEXT ON SCREEN: The break last for over 8 minutes.

TEXT ON SCREEN: This is what you didn't see.

TEXT ON SCREEN: I got the footage

MEGYN KELLY: — the Trump administration and private industry developed a Covid vaccine in record time. The program protected the drug companies from virtually all lawsuits over vaccine injuries. The government has a program to compensate for such harm but critics say it is a black hole of bureaucracy. 12,000 claims filed, 10% decided, only 8 payouts so far in a forum with no right to counsel, no hearings, no appeals. Mr. Trump says he's very proud of Warp Speed. Should he be?

VIVEK RAMASWAMI: Well this question specifically on liability goes back to actually Reagan, and Reagan is a president who I admire, many of us do. I think that reviving that spirit is in many ways going to be good for this country, in so many ways. But one of the areas where he erred was this special form of lobbying, to say that one kind of manufacturer, a vaccine manufacturer, cannot be sued for their product liability. So I have pledged this part of my legislative agenda, we will repeal that. Just like we will repeal every other form of crony capitalism. People who have been harmed by those vaccines deserve accountability. They cannot be forgotten Americans.

And I think one of the top lessons we learned from that covid pandemic is that free speech in this country is most important in those alleged times of emergency. If we had been allowed to openly debate the merits of those vaccines, they would have been never mandated in the way that they were.

And in general I don't think that we should want capitalism and democracy to share the same bed anymore. It's time for a clean divorce. Let companies be companies, but I don't like the crony capitalism. This dates back a long time in both parties. And I think that we need to end the lobbying. And I personally believe that if you have been working in the government you should not lobby that government for 10 years. If you have been a government elected official, doing deals with companies, be they Boeing or be they pharmaceutical companies, you should not join the board of that company for 10 years after. The former chairman of the FDA, the lead commissioner of the FDA, ended up on the board of Pfizer. Nikki Haley, that deals with Boeing, ends up on the board of Boeing. I don't care if it's a Republican or Democrat, we need some basic principles that end the corruption in government. That's how we got the health insurance exemptions, that's how we got the pharmaceutical product libaility exemptions—

MEGYN KELLY: OK, Thank you.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY: — we end the corruption.

RON DESANTIS: We need—

TEXT ON SCREEN: But people didn't see that, they still saw dead air, then commercials for another 5 minutes

2:54
[video speeds through the commercials]

3:06
TEXT ON SCREEN: Then the show came back, it was the final question of the debate...

ELIANA JOHNSON: — Alabama. Final question before closing statements, and we want to get you all in, so we're going to get you 45 seconds for this last one. Governor Christie, we're going to start with you. Which former president would you draw inspiration from for your own presidency and why?

https://www.igor-chudov.com/p/this-blog-will-be-censored-by-newsguard?publication_id=441185&post_id=140038575&isFreemail=true&r=6gdz

Newsguard is a well-financed, shadowy partisan group pretending to be a neutral arbiter of which websites are “reliable” and which are not. While the good news is that I am important enough for them to react to, the bad news is that NewsGuard is angling to declare my blog an “unreliable news source.” I received this email from them:




NewsGuard is asking me to “disclose my anti-COVID-vaccine perspective.” At the same time, they are not asking Pfizer-sponsored pro-COVID-vaccine media to disclose their “pro-COVID-vaccine” bias. It's a bit unfair, I would say and shows how flawed NewsGuard’s process is.

In any case, do expect my blog to be rated an “unreliable news source” and blocked by major social networks such as Facebook. Oh well.

Patrick says

In any case, do expect my blog to be rated an “unreliable news source” and blocked by major social networks such as Facebook. Oh well.

"Unreliable News Source" should be recognized as meaning "does not push the current narrative."

https://notthebee.com/cleanArticle/have-you-heard-anything-from-the-media-this-week-about-the-massive-farmer-protests-in-germany

https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2024/01/10/instagram-hunter-biden-laws-joe-biden-removed-video-n2391616