Tucker Carlson used his opening monologue Friday evening to outline his perspective on the Elon Musk takeover of the social media platform Twitter.   Generally, Carlson does a good job framing the big picture of national events; however, Carlson outdid himself on this contextualized delivery.

While the underlying premise of Carlson’s position is structured on a yet-to-be-seen possibility of free speech, the context for the importance of the moment is very well presented.  I hope that Tucker Carlson is correct in regard to the altruistic intent of Mr. Musk.  Well worth watching:

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Earlier today President Trump noted he would not be returning to the Twitter social media platform; he likes Truth Social better:

(Source)

Additionally, with a great deal of interest in what will happen to the Twitter platform, Mr. Elon Musk has announced a diverse moderation council will be created to make content rules and guidelines.  Following up with a reply, “we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies.”

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Elon Musk officially took control of Twitter on Thursday evening.

Immediately after taking ownership, Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ned Segal, and the Head of Legal Policy, Vijaya Gadde, the person who took responsibility for banning former President Donald Trump from the social media platform. According to The Washington Post, Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel was also given the boot.

The CEO, CFO and top legal officers all immediately removed. Nice start. Immediately after the top brass cleaning, Musk Tweeted “the bird is freed.”

According to financial reports, the S&P 500 is exiting Twitter (TWTR) from its stock market index effective November 1st as Musk takes the company private and promises to open source the background code to the public.

While there are many people waiting to see exactly what the changes mean to the user engagement aspects of the intelligence community engaged platform, this is easily the biggest change in the public information space in many years.

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The dissidents at Project Veritas have received leaked whistleblower information from the FBI highlighting a guidance document that puts “disinformation” into the category of an “election crime.” [Source Article Here]   According to the internal guidance, sharing “false or inaccurate information intended to mislead others” may lead the FBI to charge people with election crimes.

[WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oct. 27, 2022] Project Veritas published a newly leaked document today provided by an FBI whistleblower.

The document details how the Bureau will tackle what they consider to be “election crimes.”

It lists “misinformation” as a potential election crime, describing it as “false or misleading information spread mistakenly or unintentionally.”

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Just a quick notice and alert to highlight some common technological ‘glitches’ and occurrences that are appearing around the internet, coincidentally timed as a result of the pending 2022 midterm election.

By now everyone is familiar with Big Tech control mechanisms like blocking, shadow banning, downgrading and throttling.

Essentially, these are methods within the technology space that are designed to influence opinion and block access to information and communication adverse to the ideology of the provider(s).

Most often we associate those terms with social media platforms; however, within the infrastructure of the internet itself the same intent is also carried in various forms you might not be familiar with.  I am seeing a lot of deployed control systems triggered recently, it is worth mentioning in case you notice something different.

Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) are increasingly directing your background internet travels and blocking you from access to content they define as against their interest.  Major players in the field of providing online access (comcast, Xfinity, AT&T, etc.) as well as regional operators also have a vested ideological stake.  If you find yourself having difficulty navigating the internet, especially during this election season, be aware the ISP provider could be in control.

Cell phone communication networks also have the ability to control data transmitted through their systems.  Text messages containing links to unapproved or dissident websites can be blocked by code and algorithms assigned to monitor traffic.   Phone browsers and portable internet hot spots may also be controlled by the provider.  You may not be aware, but your agreement with your cell phone provider gives them the ability to filter data on your device according to their individual standard.

Again, just be aware.

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By all outward appearances the acquisition of the Twitter social media platform by billionaire Elon Musk looks like it is going through.

According to bank filings and financial transfer documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal {link}, the process to finalize the purchase is taking place.  Meanwhile Mr. Musk used the platform to notify Twitter advertiser of his intent in the purchase {link}:

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According to a released article in Time Magazine, Twitter employees have drafted a letter containing several ‘demands.’ In addition to demanding they are not fired, they demand assurances against discrimination for their political beliefs.

(TIME) […] TIME reviewed a draft of the open letter circulating among Twitter employees on Monday. “Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” said the draft of the letter, which has not yet been published. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.”

The letter demands that Musk commits to preserving Twitter’s current headcount if his takeover of the company goes through. It also demands he does not discriminate against employees based on their political beliefs and that he commits to “fair” severance policies and more communication about working conditions. “We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” the list of demands says. (read letter here)

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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.

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Cultural Marxism is the modern philosophy to advance political correctness toward the agenda of social change.  Creating fear around speech is a technique for controlling what people are permitted to say and ultimately think.  Cultural Marxism is the merging of political correctness with advanced social pressures, including from the Big Tech social media platforms, from the political left to stop and shun any speech they disagree with.

One of the common ways to understand this is to realize that speech the leftists disagree with, they label as ‘violence’.  However, actual violence that supports the leftist agenda is labeled as speech.  Cultural Marxism is the twisting of words and control of language to advance a far-left agenda.

In part of his monologue tonight, Fox News host Tucker Carlson uses the example of Elon Musk and Twitter to highlight the threat they perceive from the possibility of an open public discussion. {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH:

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When it rains, it pours.

At the same time as Hurricane Ian decided to make life a challenge for Southwest Florida residents, the PayPal controversy erupted that blindsided the Treehouse.

As most of you know PayPal has been the primary processor for financial contributions to the Treehouse to help pay for a wide variety of site costs including server hosting, data processing and container costs, proprietary commenting systems, site engineers, software licensing fees etc.

As it directly relates to our conversation CTH has never had an issue with PayPal, even during our site deplatforming from WordPress/Automatic.  However, that said, the initial terms of service changes that PayPal announced, then retracted, that begin November 1st was beyond ridiculous.  It is not surprising that everyone was shocked at the proposed change in terms, and many want an alternative.

Moving forward, the critical issue for CTH extends beyond the actual processing of financial support and into the sphere of privacy.  One of the reasons CTH costs so much to operate is the foundational stance we take on user engagement and privacy; it’s not something I can ever, or will ever, compromise upon.

Almost all funded websites contract payment and subscription services to third party providers.  CTH does not like the security window this approach creates.  If we need to switch financial processors, now is the time to use this opportunity to close any security vulnerability.

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