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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Rumble CEO @Chris Pavlovski and Rumble Video Creator @SteveWilldoit stepped up in a major way to help survivors of Hurricane Ian today by sending a convoy of 12 travel trailers and generators into Southwest Florida to support a dozen displaced families.  This is a blessed contribution to the recovery effort.

The convoy traveled to Fort Myers where they will be transferred to a dozen families who have lost their homes, providing a temporary housing solution that is much needed.  Just an awesome job by the Rumble Video company and a content creator for the platform.

Thousands of people are displaced from their homes in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Pine Island, Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island.  There isn’t an empty hotel room within 100 miles of Lee County as families struggle to find housing.

There are tents set up in parking lots in the South Fort Myers area as temporary shelters for those unable to find alternative housing.  This type of private sector support is very much needed and appreciated.  Rumble is headquartered in Longboat Key Florida, and CEO Chris Pavlovski extends his belief in civic stewardship with generous support for those families most severely impacted by the recent storm.  Awesome Job.  #FloridaStrong

Video of the convoy arriving, below:

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It seems that “voting with your feet” (this time electronically) still works. PayPal, which had announced new “legal agreements” earlier this month, is backing down.

That sounds like gaslighting to someone who works with corporate attorneys.

Every single word and punctuation mark is approved by legal and corporate before release. “Never intended to be inserted” isn’t a thing.

— Robert Rand (@robertwrand) October 8, 2022

The new agreement, which would have taken effect in early November, attempted to control free speech by its clients. It has since been removed from the PayPal website, but as reported by The Daily Wire:

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The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the U.S. Dept of Justice, National Security Division, and blocked the lower court order instructing the Special Master to review the DOJ claimed, “classified documents.” [pdf Ruling Here]

Essentially the order of the appellate court is based on the DOJ calling the material “classified” and “vital to national security”, and the court’s determination they have no authority to question the decision of the executive branch when it comes to matters of national security.

The court (judicial branch) openly states they defer to the DOJ (executive branch) as to any/all claims of harm to national security that may be caused by a review of documents the DOJ-NSD determine, on their own authority, to be identified as classified (sensitive, secret or top-secret).

Therefore, if the DOJ states sharing the “classified documents” with a special master may harm national security, the court must accept that position without challenge.

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If you combine government use of energy policy, government regulation on individuals around that energy policy, and the self-interested need to control political opposition, you discover one of the most effective ways to control human activity is to control their finance.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave us a great example of that when he weaponized the power of the Canadian government to target the protesting truckers and those who support them.  You might remember Trudeau’s government locked down bank accounts, froze assets, denied loans, blocked mortgages and generally confiscated the wealth and incomes of his political opposition without any due process; all because the people were challenging his totalitarian COVID dictates. {Go Deep}

Take those reference points as an overlay and now consider this undiscussed recent announcement from the Biden administration:

[White House] – President Biden often summarizes his vision for America in one word: Possibilities. A “digital dollar” may seem far-fetched, but modern technology could make it a real possibility.

A United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar. While the U.S. has not yet decided whether it will pursue a CBDC, the U.S. has been closely examining the implications of, and options for, issuing a CBDC. If the U.S. pursued a CBDC, there could be many possible benefits, such as facilitating efficient and low-cost transactions, fostering greater access to the financial system, boosting economic growth, and supporting the continued centrality of the U.S. within the international financial system. However, a U.S. CBDC could also introduce a variety of risks, as it might affect everything ranging from the stability of the financial system to the protection of sensitive data.

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Two journalists surface today with two different aspects to the same big picture story.

First, Julie Kelly notes the DOJ is using social media chat messages as evidence in court against J6 detainees: “DOJ and Big Tech are working seamlessly to excavate private messages and info from deleted accounts to use as incriminating evidence for J6ers.” (link)  Second, Miranda Devine is writing in the New York Post about Facebook spying on private messages to identify people who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election (link)

This ‘surveillance system‘ has been of great interest to CTH for several years, in part because it is a key aspect of the domestic intelligence system now operating as a functioning part of the Fourth Branch of Government.   The overwhelming majority of the investigative resources within the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) are used in this whole of network monitoring system.

I cannot emphasize the importance of the connections enough.

Surveillance of domestic communication, to include surveillance of all social media platforms, is now the primary mission of DHS.  The information is gathered by social media, funneled by direct portals into the DHS network then distributed to DOJ-NSD and FBI officials as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.   This communication surveillance network is what DHS, created as an outcome of the Patriot Act, is all about.

The four pillars of the Fourth Branch of Government are: DHS, ODNI, DOJ-NSD and the revised/political FBI.  All four pillars were created as an outcome of the Patriot Act. These institutions – as specifically named – represent the domestic surveillance state.  The subsidiary institutions like TSA etc, exist under their authority.  There is no oversight or counterbalance to this system.  The Fourth Branch exists using the shield of “national intelligence” to hide their activity.   Domestic surveillance is done by the intelligence apparatus under one big connected system, operated by the ODNI and DHS.

New York Post – Facebook has been spying on the private messages and data of American users and reporting them to the FBI if they express anti-government or anti-authority sentiments — or question the 2020 election — according to sources within the Department of Justice.

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Republicans created the Patriot Act, the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The same agencies that Barack Obama later weaponized with the creation of the Dept of Justice National Security Division (DOJ-NSD).

The root issue around domestic surveillance and ultimately power & control, underlines Washington DC’s united opposition to Donald Trump.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; the institutions were already weaponized by the Patriot Act.  The Patriot Act turned the surveillance radar from pointing outwardly, to pointing inwardly, monitoring activity inside our nation.  We The People were now the threat being monitored.

What President Obama and AG Eric Holder did was take the preexisting system and retool it, so the weapons of government conducting surveillance only targeted one side of the political continuum.  Domestic terrorists were now defined through the prism of political opposition.

Ultimately this retooled system surfaces in 2022 with the FBI saying domestic terror threats from right-wing extremists are the biggest national security threat.   This is why the Biden administration says, without pause, that Trump voters are a “threat to democracy.”  The origin of that surveillance inflection point explains where we are today.

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The suspicions surrounding Jack’s Magic Coffee shop are not new.  {Go Deep} Indeed, the recent whistleblower claims of data insecurity seem to align with the overall theme that U.S. government interest are more than a little deeply involved in the domestic surveillance system known as Twitter specifically, and big social media in general.

In the latest datapoint assembly, a solid dive by MintPressNews into the number of former FBI officials working at Twitter, shows just how enmeshed the federal police are with the social media platform.  The scale is really quite remarkable. [SEE HERE]

Big picture – the number of FBI officials working for Twitter indicates some strong connective tissue behind both enterprises.

[MintPressNews] – […] The FBI is generally known as a domestic security and intelligence force. However, it has recently expanded its remit into cyberspace. “The FBI’s investigative authority is the broadest of all federal law enforcement agencies,” the “About” section of its website informs readers. “The FBI has divided its investigations into a number of programs, such as domestic and international terrorism, foreign counterintelligence [and] cyber crime,” it adds. (read more)

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During a segment on his broadcast this evening, Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Center for American Liberty founder and lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon about how Facebook censored and supressed he Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 election. {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH:

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During a discussion with Joe Rogan, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about the removal of content, specifically citing the example of the pre-2020 election Hunter Biden laptop story.  In his response Zuckerberg says the background context is important because the FBI came to Facebook and told them Russian disinformation was about to drop, just before the New York Post article was published.

This discussion comes on the heels of an FBI whistleblower approaching the Senate Judiciary Committee with evidence the Washington DC field office was specifically working to coverup any discoveries around the Hunter Biden laptop (per Chuck Grassley).   Add the Zuckerberg statement to the whistleblower claim and the resounding implication is the FBI taking advanced proactive measures to stop information they deem adverse to the interests of democrats.  The issue surfaces at 05:00 of the video below.  WATCH (prompted):

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