Good evening! Today's Evening Edition includes:
- What can be done about Big Tech?
- The World is Watching
- Biden's pick
- Banned by Facebook
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
What can be done about Big Tech?
By Mike Huckabee
With Big Tech companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon acting in concert to crush Parler and silence conservative political speech, the big question is, what to do about it? Rep. Devin Nunes has called for a RICO investigation, but with the DOJ under the control of the Democrats, who benefit from the collusion (ironically!), that’s not likely to happen. Conservatives tried going to other platforms, but the Silicon Valley leftists control so much of the digital infrastructure that they can cut off any competitors’ web hosting, email service, even digital payment systems.
A bill was just introduced to scale back Section 230 protections when social media companies violate free speech rights, but I have little hope of it passing under the Democrats.
This article in the New York Post calls for federal intervention, but admits that won’t happen until at least 2024, when Republicans could take back the White House and Congress. But will they be able to when their free speech and online presence have been purged for four years?
So what can be done right now? Well, there are two things, and they’re already happening. On Monday, Parler turned to the courts, where there are now a number of Trump-appointed judges who actually care about the Constitution. Parler filed a massive lawsuit against Amazon for antitrust violations, breach of contract and unlawful business interference, and demanded that their web hosting service be reinstated. Parler says their contract with Amazon requires 30 days’ notice of termination, and they got less than one day. In fact, they found out about it from the leftwing website Buzzfeed, which apparently was told an hour before Parler was informed (now we finally have an answer to the question, “Which travels faster: an email or a virtue signal?”)
Since Parler CEO John Matze says he’s getting death threats and is afraid even to go home, and I assume those were ginned up on Twitter, then under the same standard applied to Parler, Twitter is responsible for the people fomenting death threats and should be shut down.
Let’s hope this is only the first of many, many major lawsuits against the Big Tech companies. In the meantime, there is also another way to fight back, and it’s already starting. The tech giants think that they can “disappear” 75 million Americans who voted for Trump. But 75 million angry Americans can respond by refusing to do business with them. They can turn off Facebook and Twitter and actually talk to their real friends, or read a book, go outside, spend time with their families, or do something really productive, like restarting the Tea Party movement. They can shop in person at locally-owned stores instead of on Amazon.
This whole “We don’t need no stinkin’ deplorables as customers!” attitude proved its foolishness to the companies’ shareholders on Monday when Twitter’s stock value plummeted by $5 billion in one day, losing 12% of its value (that’s its stock value; I’m not sure what other value Twitter has.)
Also on Monday, other tech stocks took a beating, with Amazon losing 2.15% of its value, Google and Apple losing over 2.3%, and Facebook dropping by over 4%.
That article assumes that this is just temporary, and they’ll bounce back. Or it could be only the beginning. Show of hands: how many of you who have left Twitter plan to go back? How many plan to give money to any of these companies as long as they’re colluding to deprive you of your Constitutional rights? Wow, not seeing any hands out there.
Ultimately, the greatest power is the power of the purse. The leftist billionaires who control these tech companies are dependent on us giving them our time and money. Yet they are so arrogant and filled with hubris that they think it’s we who are dependent on them. For instance, they actually believe that if they deplatform the #WalkAway movement, it will prevent people from walking away from the left. They’re right: people are now running away.
As far as Facebook and Twitter thinking that they're here to stay and we’re permanently dependent on them: How much time have you spent on MySpace lately?
The World is Watching
By Mike Huckabee
Leftists keep telling us that President Trump is an embarrassment to America in the eyes of other nations. Personally, I find it embarrassing that the leaders of other nations around the world, even leftwing leaders, are watching American Big Tech CEOs’ outrageous censorship of Trump and his supporters and condemning the US for its failure to protect the right to free speech.
My favorite quote, from Russian opposition leader Alexy Navalny, who calls the social media purge an unacceptable form of censorship: “Don’t tell me (Trump) was banned for violating Twitter rules. I get death threats here every day for many years, and Twitter doesn’t ban anyone.”
Also worth considering: maybe you’ve gone too far when Germany is telling you you’re acting like fascists
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Biden's pick
By Mike Huckabee
It’s been reported that when she was president of Harvard’s Black Students Union, Joe Biden’s pick to run the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice invited a noted anti-Semite to speak and wrote a letter to the campus newspaper, arguing that blacks have greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities than whites because they have more melanin in their skin.
Ladies and gentlemen, the “party of science!”
Banned by Facebook
By Mike Huckabee
Facebook has permanently banned a clothing retailer called Patriotic Me for alleged violations of terms of service, but the company can’t get anyone from Facebook to explain what they did wrong.
The business was started by a wife and mother who sells non-partisan clothes with patriotic themes, such as the American flag. A portion of every sale goes to the Tunnels to Towers Foundation, a charity to help injured veterans and first responders (I’ve had the founder of that group on “Huckabee” as a Huck’s Hero: https://youtu.be/rryvCv3CYJc).
Sales are down by 94% because Facebook has cut off their traffic, and the owner can’t get through to any live human to explain why so that they can correct it. Let’s hope the increased exposure forces Facebook to respond and relent. In the meantime, here’s the shop’s website, which at least is still allowed to be online.
Pelosi blames "whiteness"
By Mike Huckabee
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed last week’s violent protest inside the Capitol on “whiteness” and people placing "whiteness over democracy."
I think she has a point. All the power in Washington is concentrated in one racist organization whose leaders are two wealthy white men, ages 70 and 78, and a very wealthy white woman who’s 80. They all refuse to relinquish their power to younger, more diverse challengers. In the name of eradicating the corrosive power of whiteness, I call on them to resign immediately.
Well, maybe not the 78-year-old white guy. He’ll probably be replaced by a younger woman of color pretty soon anyway.
BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY
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