Tag Archives: Twitter Controlled by FBI and DHS

Oct 22 2022

Twitter Stuff, Reports of Anticipated Turnover of Employees, Combined with Reports of Treasury Dept Considering CFIUS Review


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 21, 2022 | Sundance 

Whenever we begin to evaluate how the U.S. government may respond to Elon Musk buying out Twitter and changing the dynamic behind Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop, it is always worth remembering a key point.  Elon Musk is not in an adversarial relationship with the U.S. government.  Indeed, almost every Musk venture is tied into the matrix of multiple government institutions.

That said, only Elon Musk knows the full intent of his objective to utilize Twitter and his larger aspirations to open information systems to all people (Iran example).

Having listened to a lot of Musk’s explanations for his endeavors, I’ve yet to nail down how his statements mesh with the public-private partnership that forms the baseline of revenue for his various engagements.

The Washington Post is reporting that Musk may RIF (reduction in force) to 75% of Twitter employees.  “Elon Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000.” {link}

(WaPo) […] On Thursday evening, Twitter’s top lawyer Sean Edgett sent out a note to all employees saying the company did not have any confirmation from Musk about his plans. Twitter’s own, smaller-scale “cost savings discussions” were put on hold once the merger agreement was signed, Edgett said, according to an email viewed by The Post.

In internal Slack groups, Twitter employees reacted to the news with anger and resignation, supporting each other and making jokes about the turmoil of the past few months, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Twitter and Musk are expected to close the purchase by Oct. 28. Planning for the closing is moving forward in apparent good faith after months of legal battles, say people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. If the deal closes, Musk would immediately become Twitter’s new owner. (read more)

Meanwhile Bloomberg was reporting yesterday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), a Treasury Dept agency, was considering a national security review of the purchase due to foreign nationals investing and participating in the funding mechanisms for the buyout.  However, Bloomberg updated that angle today noting any CFIUS review would be unlikely:

(Bloomberg) Alarm over Elon Musk’s recent Russia-friendly tweets is driving Biden administration officials to explore using a secretive review panel to assess the national-security risks of his business interests.

Yet experts say that deploying the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to investigate Musk’s dealings — including his pending $44 billion purchase of Twitter — is unlikely to work and would face legal challenges. 

There may be an argument for some sort of CFIUS review, but it’s thin, according to Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The panel would only get involved if foreign investors were taking a controlling stake in the new company, she said, something Musk doesn’t appear ready to allow.

CFIUS has the right to look at foreign investors, not Musk, Kilcrease said. “So if there’s concerns around Musk, CFIUS is a really messy, imperfect tool to try to deal with that — and I suspect would be subject to legal challenge,” she said. (read more)

Two things about Twitter and the U.S. government are true, and that makes predicting where this ends up quite challenging to game out.

♦First, the U.S. intelligence apparatus is actively involved in the background operations of Twitter.  The extent of the IC involvement may be debatable, but the IC being involved in Twitter is fundamentally true.

♦Second, if the U.S. government wanted to stop Elon Musk from purchasing Twitter, they could – very easily.  As noted, Musks network of business operations is heavily dependent on a partnership with the U.S. government (SpaceX, Starlink, Tesla, etc.)  The State Dept, Pentagon, NASA, FAA, and various intelligence agencies are all parts of a deep network of relationships with Musk’s organizations.

The fact that the U.S. government does not intervene in any Musk effort, including Twitter, is not evidence of Musk being outside the system.  Factually, it would be challenging to find another company with tentacles as wide, far reaching and connected to the U.S. government.

Musk is purchasing Twitter because the U.S. government wants to allow Musk to purchase Twitter.  Musk may be ‘dirty dancing‘ with the government while trying to retain the patina of an outsider, but the network of his company attachments to the U.S. government run counter to that outlook.

Again, I don’t know what Musk’s intent is, and hopefully the Twitter outcome is something much more open and transparent than currently exists.  However, that said, we should not assign too much weight to any media outline of the dynamic until we have actual reference points to any possible change.

Oct 14 2022

Kanye West – Can the Banks Cancel Someone?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Oct 14, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Kanye West is a polarizing character, which is part of his celebrity. He says things to shock people and counter the current societal norms. He has long spoken out against the woke agenda, making waves by appearing with Candace Owens in “White Lives Matters” shirts. He was temporarily banned from social media platforms after talking poorly about the Jewish community while also saying black people are also Jewish. The man admits to having a mental illness. Still, they put microphones in his face and promote what he has to say as shocking and offensive to sell a story. It is no surprise that he was temporarily canceled from social media as all the major platforms cancel dissenters on a mass scale for much less. However, what happened next was a wake-up call for coming social credit scores.

JPMorgan Chase made an announcement that West is no longer permitted to bank with their institution. West, a billionaire, must remove all his funds from the bank by the end of the month. I do not care about celebrities, but I do care about corporations having the ability to remove freedoms over free speech. JPMorgan Chase showed that anyone who speaks out against the norm could have their funds uprooted.

The bank acts as the jury and judge. Epstein was permitted to hold funds at JPMorgan Chase despite an ongoing pedophile ring trial. Bernie Madoff banked with JPMorgan Chase. The same bank took direct action in World War II to aid the Nazis. Chase bank issued Rückwanderer marks so that American Nazi sympathizers could buy German marks for a discount. Those funds were mainly stolen from Jews who fled Germany as antisemitism was on the rise. Let’s not forget former President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed a freeze on German assets in the US at that time, which is another topic. Chase bank funneled Third Reich assets through South America to avoid FDR’s ruling.

PayPal released an internal memo earlier in the week stating that they were considering fining users $2,500 for “misinformation” and quickly backtracked after their stock plummeted. Social credit scores are being ushered in by the New World Order. The same banks that fund pedophiles and actual Nazis can discard your funds if they personally disagree with you.

Oct 11 2022

U of F Students Protest Against Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse as University President


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 10, 2022 | Sundance

Students from the University of Florida (Gators) showed up to protest against the installation of Nebraska Governor Ben Sasse as their university president.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, “the protesters made five demands. They wanted Sasse to decline the president’s job and the UF board of trustees to release the names — thus far withheld — of all 12 people they had interviewed for the post. They also demanded more transparency during the selection process and the repeal of a new Florida law that makes presidential searches at state colleges and universities largely secret.” (more)

Everyone in Florida knows Governor Ron DeSantis cleared the field for his friend Senator Ben Sasse.  As noted by Politico: “Sasse’s sherpa through the university search process was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff James Uthmeier, who was put in contact with Sasse several months ago after he quietly expressed interest in becoming UF president.“ (link)

Senator Sasse is a never Trumper reelected in 2020 and his term doesn’t expire until 2026.  Sasse is expected to depart this year and the Nebraska governor will make an appointment to fill his senate seat.

…”Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts would then appoint a replacement for Sasse under state law, with the seat then up for a special election in 2024. One of the people familiar with Sasse’s plans said Ricketts himself is viewed as a potential appointee for the seat.”

Oct 10 2022

Stop Funding School Drag Shows


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politically Correct Re-Posted Oct 10, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The mother in this video said she hopes her plea for help goes viral — here you go! I cannot believe that this needs to be said, but American public schools need to stop funding drag shows. The mother in the video above proved her point. She would not have been allowed in the school wearing the same outfit that a man dressed as a woman was permitted to wear while dancing in front of young children.

"Does this outfit make you turn your head? Does this outfit seem appropriate for anybody here to see? This is what the man dressed like in front of our kids. So if this makes your head spin — if this pisses you off in any way, shape, or form — it should. Because I’m embarrassed to stand here in the outfit that I am in today, but I have a point to prove — that this outfit should not be ever accepted in our schools anywhere."

Worse, the school failed even to do a background check on the exotic dancer. A simple search, as the mother pointed out, showed that the dancer had very questionable pictures online with blood smeared across their face. Kids are told to leave school for wearing shorts that are too short or even sandals. Why are primarily left-leaning American public school boards normalizing this alternative lifestyle and sexualizing children?

Hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars have gone toward placing crossdressers in schools, often without parental consent. There is no educational basis behind these crude shows. It is wrong. The goal is to normalize the woke agenda. Women no longer exist as there is now a full spectrum for gender, and children too young to tie their shoes properly can now make life-altering decisions on a whim without parental consent. This is not a conspiracy theory. The far left is increasingly bringing cross-dressers and drag queens into schools to teach (i.e., groom) very young children about sexuality. This has gone too far.

Oct 7 2022

Tucker Carlson Exclusive With Kanye West – “The majority of the media has a godless agenda.”


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 6, 2022 | Ad rem 

Rapper Kanye West joins Tucker Carlson Tonight and discusses blowback over the controversial shirt, his father, and the history of racial discrimination in America.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zGKrtPOX9zY%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Oct 6 2022

The Advisory Committee on Racial Equity


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Oct 6, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

ALL AMERICANS ARE HURTING FINANCIALLY. But the Treasury Department plans to prioritize people based on the color of their skin. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen announced the first “Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity.”

From the Treasury’s website:

“[T]he Committee will identify, monitor, and review aspects of the domestic economy that have directly and indirectly resulted in unfavorable conditions for communities of color. The Committee plans to address topics including but not limited to: financial inclusion, access to capital, housing stability, federal supplier diversity, and economic development.”

The 25 inaugural members are completely unqualified as many have no experience in finance. Former mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter will act as chairman. He was unable to manage his home city, let alone work for the Treasury. Vice chair Felicia Wong said they will make “racial equity central to the Treasury Department’s mission.” Wong has strong ties to George Soros.

Wong is part of the liberal megadonor foundation, Democracy Alliance. Wong argues that every policy has “racialized effects” and believes capitalism strengthens the patriarchy and white supremacy. Wong, the CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, penned many articles noting her radicalized view of the world with no basis in economics or logic.

“True equity means equity of outcome, and not accepting the promise of ‘opportunity’ within a system that continues to systematically exclude,” Wong wrote. “It demands redistribution of resources—especially when wealth for some has been extracted from many—and a redistribution of decision-making power.”

This is an absolute disaster as we are putting socialists in charge of a department of our Treasury. The Roosevelt Institute wants to “reimagine” capitalism and views everything as a form of racial inequality. Naturally, the Democrats are appointing this useless agency as a desperate attempt for votes. Discrimination is now legal against the majority.

Oct 5 2022

Musk Twitter Purchase Back on Table, Unfortunately with Plan for Everything App


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 4, 2022 | Sundance

The only thing I can do is research and write about it.  With an even stronger degree of certainty than originally expressed, and with all of the subsequent data points falling into alignment with the initial suspicions, the background of Jack’s Magic Coffee shop remains unchanged. {Go Deep}

Six weeks ago, the Twitter security ‘whistleblower’ came forward to congress.  The whistleblower is a former technology expert who came from within the research farm of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, is a well-known cybersecurity expert who left government work, entered the public world, and eventually became the head of Twitter security, reporting directly to the CEO. {Go Deep}

According to a recent SEC filing [LINK HERE], Elon Musk is now back to supporting the purchase of Twitter as the first step in creating the “everything app.”

{{{sarcastic voice}}} Gee, what could this be about?  I mean what could go wrong?….  We already know the infrastructure of Twitter’s operational database is tied into portals with the Dept of Homeland security {citation}, and now Musk wants to use that central infrastructure to create an all-inclusive “everything app”?

The bigger risk to the surveillance state is discovery that Twitter and the U.S. intelligence community are in a public-private partnership. The Dept of Homeland Security has access by design, not flaw.  How the stakeholder media are reporting on the issue shows the nature of the risk, (emphasis mine):

[…] The scathing disclosure, which totals around 200 pages, including supporting exhibits — was sent last month to a number of US government agencies and congressional committees, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. The existence and details of the disclosure have not previously been reported. CNN obtained a copy of the disclosure from a senior Democratic aide on Capitol Hill. The SEC, DOJ and FTC declined to comment; the Senate Intelligence Committee, which received a copy of the report, is taking the disclosure seriously and is setting a meeting to discuss the allegations, according to Rachel Cohen, a committee spokesperson. (link)

How would it damage the U.S. government if previous claims about the Chinese government having access to all user data on TikTok, are shown to be exactly identical to the U.S. government having access to all user data on Twitter?

Let that question settle in for a few moments, because that is exactly what I have been alleging since, well, 2011, when the U.S. State Dept first collaborated with Twitter in a joint public-private partnership to use the platform as a communication tool exploiting the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt, Libya and beyond.

The issue of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop is an issue of financial viability.  The business model of Twitter just doesn’t exist as a free social media discussion platform while running the ultra-expensive data processing system needed for millions of simultaneous users.  A global chat that requires exponential database responses as an outcome of simultaneous users is just ridiculously expensive. {Go Deep} However, if the computing system and massive database were being subsidized by the U.S. government, then the viability of the ‘free coffee‘ business model makes sense.

“Cloud computing is one of the core components of the strategy to help the IC discover, access and share critical information in an era of seemingly infinite data.” … “A test scenario described by GAO in its June 2013 bid protest opinion suggests the CIA sought to compare how the solutions presented by IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) could crunch massive data sets, commonly referred to as big data.” … “Solutions had to provide a “hosting environment for applications which process vast amounts of information in parallel on large clusters (thousands of nodes) of commodity hardware” using a platform called MapReduce. Through MapReduce, clusters were provisioned for computation and segmentation. Test runs assumed clusters were large enough to process 100 terabytes of raw input data. AWS’ solution received superior marks from CIA procurement officials”… (MORE)

♦ Legal Stuff – The issue of American citizen privacy and U.S. constitutional limits against the government listening in on communication is functionally obsolescent.  The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) prohibits communication intercepts on U.S. citizens without a valid search warrant.  However, if a U.S. citizen is engaged in a conversation with a foreign person, all privacy restrictions are essentially gone. [Insert example of Michael Flynn taking to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak here]

Your phone calls can be intercepted by the government from the foreign side of the call.  The govt can freely monitor the calls that involve foreign actors.  The only rule is that your privacy must be maintained. If the foreign actor is in communication with a U.S. citizen, the U.S. citizen must be “minimized” or not identified in any intercept.

However, what happens when the phone call is on a community line that is connected, and visible, to the entire world?   That’s the benefit of social media monitoring from a surveillance perspective. It is from that opaque and unresolved archaic legal perspective that surveillance authority of social media platforms, by the U.S. intelligence community, exists.   Now you see why the SSCI is taking an interest in the Twitter whistleblower, classic risk mitigation.

Hopefully, you can also see why the 200-page whistleblower document was leaked, by a Democrat staffer, to the Washington Post and CNN.

CNN defends the equity interests of the U.S. State Dept., and WaPo defend the Intelligence Community (CIA, DHS, etc).

Within the narrative as constructed you will note, “Zatko further alleges that Twitter’s leadership has misled its own board and government regulators about its security vulnerabilities, including some that could allegedly open the door to foreign spying or manipulation, hacking and disinformation campaigns.”

If the relationship between Twitter and the U.S. intelligence community is a public-private partnership, why would Twitter want to shut down the portals given to the Dept of Homeland Security?

Answer, they wouldn’t… Ergo the response from Twitter to the whistleblower complaint is (emphasis mine), “What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.”

Put another way, the “lacks important context” is the nature of the security risk, which is structural to the relationship between the intelligence community and the platform.  See how that works?

The integration between Twitter and the United States Intelligence Community has been hiding in plain sight:

July 26, 2021, (Reuters) – A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters.

Until now, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) database has focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organizations such as Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Over the next few months, the group will add attacker manifestos – often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence – and other publications and links flagged by U.N. initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.

The firms, which include Twitter (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube, share “hashes,” unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other platforms use these to identify the same content on their own sites in order to review or remove it. (more)

A shared hashing protocol is a form of data system integration.  The databases of the identified social media platforms are integrated with the U.S. intelligence system.

…. And now Musk wants to integrate an “everything app”?

Follow the bouncing ball and you enter the world of the comprehensive surveillance state.   But if you don’t do anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear right?  Insert example of non-vaccinated repercussions, Canadian truckers and Dutch farmers here.  Then add a digital identity, digital currency, energy resource apportionment and social equity.  Where do you end up?

All I can do is research and write about it.

Even the influential members of the ‘Rebel Alliance‘ used to think I was crazy….  Not any longer.

.

.

….Me Right Now

Oct 4 2022

BREAKING: KANYE WEST IS WHITE & JOE BIDEN IS PUERTO RICAN! | Louder with Crowder


Steven Crowder Published originally on Rumble on October 4, 2022

Kanye says white lives matter, Joe Biden is Puerto Rican, and you’re a homophobe if you don’t want to see a gay sex comedy. We’ll make sense of all of it! We also check in to see how crime is going in NYC only to discover the “Green Goblin Gang.” #whitelivesmatter #kanye #bros

Oct 3 2022

Citizens for Sanity


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Oct 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Have you seen any of these billboards or magazine ads? Citizens for Sanity is trolling American Progressives by promoting their woke ideologies to show just how asinine the thinking has become.

The mission statement:

Citizens for Sanity’s mission is to return common sense to America, to highlight the importance of logic and reason, and to defeat “wokeism” and anti-critical thinking ideologies that have permeated every sector of our country and threaten the very freedoms that are foundational to the American Dream.

These advertisements are clearly parodies, but they show what the far-left would like to normalize. They even call out individual politicians:

In Atlanta, GA: “Thank you, Senator Warnock, for voting to keep violent criminals out of jail. Gang members need to earn a living too.”

“Thank you, Senator Warnock, for voting to keep violent predators out of jail. Unmasked toddlers are the real criminals.”

In Las Vegas, NV: “Thank you, Catherine Cortez Masto, for voting to keep our border open. Drug cartels need all the help they can get.”

In Phoenix, AZ: “Thank you, Mark Kelly, for voting to keep our borders open. The drugs aren’t going to smuggle themselves.”

In Epping, NH: “Thank you, Senator Hassan, for voting to keep our border open. Drug cartels need all the help they can get.”

In Philadelphia: “Thank you, John Fetterman, for fighting to keep violent criminals out of jail. Gang members need to earn a living too.”

In Miami, FL: Thank you, Val Demings, for fighting to keep violent criminals out of jail.”

The organization goes on to attack the IRS: “If you do not like being audited then you’re the problem.”

“Too much freedom is a bad thing. Get your IRS audit today.”

These advertisements are a good laugh, but in truth, they are a direct reflection of how woke culture is destroying America. There is no logic or reason behind the woke agenda, and yet, politicians are pandering to support it in an effort to seem “progressive.” America must restore its sanity.

Oct 1 2022

Apple VP Fired for a Joke


Blog/Politically Correct

Posted Oct 1, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
@itsdanielmac

Quite the occupation this man has ✍️ #mercedesbenz #supercarstiktok #slr #car

♬ original sound – DANIEL MAC

https://v16m-default.tiktokcdn-us.com/07c87ebcc3cdb4155ff2eaa5db366d1f/63388309/video/tos/useast5/tos-useast5-ve-0068c002-tx/84f780f87af94f65bc8c189c3b1206d6/?a=1988&ch=0&cr=0&dr=0&lr=tiktok_m&cd=0%7C0%7C1%7C0&cv=1&br=4662&bt=2331&cs=0&ds=3&ft=eXWR6H-qMyq8Z7LoDhe2Nizufl7Gb&mime_type=video_mp4&qs=0&rc=aGQ8NTk7aTc6Zmc7NTk1OEBpamk3Mzk6ZmY5ZjMzZzczNEAyNWAzMDRgXjMxXzMvLTM0YSNla2dscjRfZl9gLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&l=202210011212002DF487AE20CCE52794E9

Apple’s VP of procurement, Tony Blevins, was fired for the video above. If anyone is familiar with Daniel Mac, his specialty is going up to people in expensive vehicles to inquire what they do for a living. He has a large following as people are always interested to see how others afford luxurious lifestyles.

Blevins’ quote is from an older movie called “Arthur.” It was a joke. He lost his job as a result of this video. Some may find it crude or in poor taste. The woman in his car was clearly laughing. This is just another example of woke culture going too far, as everyone must be politically correct at all times, on or off the clock.