Musk's Twitter Skewers a Biden Lie
Elon Musk's Twitter has context-checked a since-deleted White House tweet boasting of increased Social Security benefits for seniors amid concerns over the spread of misinformation and fake news on the platform.
On Tuesday, the official White House Twitter account tweeted: "Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President [Joe] Biden's leadership." The tweet did not mention that the payments were increasing automatically due to the U.S. inflation rate reaching its highest level in decades.
A Twitter feature called Birdwatch, which was introduced before Musk bought the platform and allows users to add "helpful" context to "potentially misleading" tweets, was activated after the White House issued the tweet. A note about the increased inflation appeared under the tweet, which was deleted by the White House a short time later.
Musk responded to libertarian activist Spike Cohen's tweet detailing the sequence of events by tweeting, "The system is working," while sharing a "rolling on the floor laughing" emoji.
The new owner of Twitter responded to a different tweet on the incident by praising the "awesome" Birdwatch feature, while adding that the platform's "goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation."
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Big changes continuing at CNN
CNN President Chris Licht signaled layoffs are imminent, telling the embattled network’s staffers that the pace of its ongoing internal shakeup “will accelerate” by the end of the year.
Licht, who has led an effort to reshape CNN as a centrist news outlet, said in a memo to employees Wednesday that the network’s aim was “to have most of these decisions made by the end of the year so we can start 2023 feeling settled and prepared for the future.”
The CNN boss cited a need to prepare the company for a global economic downturn as recession fears mount across the world.
“There is widespread concern over the global economic outlook, and we must factor that risk into our long-term planning,” Licht wrote in a memo obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization. That, by definition, is unsettling. These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects.”
Licht added that he would “send updates as I have them” to CNN staffers. He also indicated plans to host town hall meetings with employees in November and December.
The executive did not provide an indication of how many CNN employees are likely to be laid off during the restructuring effort.
“When we emerge on the other side, CNN will be a stronger, more nimble organization, ready to weather whatever the global economy throws at us and to grow into the future,” Licht added.
Licht’s memo emerged on the same day that CNBC reported the executive was planning to slash “parts of CNN that have become bloated over time.” Sources said that CNN parent WarnerBros. Discovery plans to cut more than 1,000 employees by the end of the year.
Licht told CNBC in a recent interview that he wants to shift CNN away from outrage-driven programming.
“The brand is the most trusted brand in the world when it comes to journalism, right up there with the BBC,” Licht told CNBC. “I think what happened a little bit here in the past was it’s easy to take the quick sugar high of ratings and outrage. So, I’m trying to do no harm to a great brand.”
CNN has already made major changes since Licht took the helm earlier this year, including shuttering its doomed CNN+ streaming service just one month after its launch, firing longtime network personality Brian Stelter and canceling his show “Reliable Sources.”
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Leftist tribalism
Tribalism is practised in contemporary democratic societies too. The distinguishing features of tribes are less physical and more manufactured. One-way progressives do this is by defining the out-group as those who don’t entirely accept their view on something, thus creating false dichotomies. A foot in both or neither camp is impossible.
Some examples include that if you’re not pro-vaccination, then you’re an anti-vaxxer; if you question Net Zero, then you’re anti-science; if you don’t declare your pronouns, then you’re transphobic; and that if you don’t acknowledge systemic racism, then you’re a racist.
Most Australians are sensible, and thus think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But ‘the middle’ is a foreign concept to a tribe. Tribes demand absolute loyalty.
And the fact that progressives dominate the ruling class means that instead of dismissing these binary categories as harmful, they cowardly validate them, thereby increasing political division.
Anomalously, tribalism has caused Indigenous Australian culture, history, and people to be revered. This isn’t a bad thing in principle, but how it’s executed matters.
Undoubtedly, there is a big gap in opportunities and outcomes between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians. But there are also many in both groups who share the same daily struggles, be it from homelessness or domestic violence.
Over the long term, differences between groups dissolve by finding common ground and acting with good faith. Things like the Indigenous Voice and (the now ubiquitous) Welcome to Country, however, hamper this process. This is because they serve as a reminder that Indigenous people are different from everybody else, and for this reminder, that difference would’ve eventually become meaningless.
Put simply, the more you treat people differently based on race, positive or not, the longer race matters.
Tribalist policies won’t assist in closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Rather, the best ideas rest in common-sense liberal ideas, such as equality of opportunity instead of outcome, preferring substance over form, and treating people based on their needs, not their skin colour.
If progressives want to live up to their name, then they must start thinking more like libertarians and less like colonisers.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/10/are-progressives-the-new-colonisers/
**********************************************************Like FDR’s New Deal, Biden’s Tax-and-Spend Policies Have Been an Economic Wrecking Ball
The economic gaslighting coming out of Washington is astounding, even by D.C. standards.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently praised the Biden administration for its handling of the economy, ignoring failures on inflation, boondoggle spending, and energy taxes.
McAuliffe even compared fellow Democrat President Joe Biden’s failed American Rescue Plan to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
The unprecedented interventions of the New Deal included wage and price controls, so-called jobs programs, and a tripling of taxes to fund bloated government budgets. Far from ending the Great Depression, the New Deal prolonged it and created several bouts of inflation in the 1930s.
McAuliffe’s comparison of Biden to FDR is right, however, though for the wrong reason.
Both presidents initiated massive interventions in the economy, and neither improved economic outcomes. Far from an accomplishment, handling the economy like FDR is a sign of failure.
The numbers prove Biden’s policies have made people’s lives and livelihoods worse.
Massive federal deficits, funded by the Federal Reserve, have caused skyrocketing inflation under Biden, who took office when inflation was only 1.4% and real wages were rising. In just 18 months, Biden managed to push inflation to over 9% and prices were rising nearly as fast in a single month as they did in the entire year before Biden took office.
The prices that businesses pay have risen even faster than prices for consumers. This wholesale inflation hit 13 new record highs under Biden and has been stuck in double digits for more than a third of Biden’s presidency.
Inflation has not gotten better under Biden, but far worse. It has not been this bad in more than 40 years.
The idea that Biden’s agenda somehow saved a stalled economy is also fallacious. Biden inherited an economy growing at a $1.5 trillion annualized rate. In only a year, the administration’s policies have caused the economy to shrink, contracting in the first six months of this year.
The slowdown has not been limited to economic growth, either.
The labor market was in a robust recovery when Biden took office, but shortly thereafter, the American Rescue Plan was rammed through Congress. Job growth slowed dramatically in the wake of that excess spending, with average monthly job gains being cut in half.
The recovery under President Donald Trump added more jobs in less time than under Biden.
The nationwide impacts of Biden’s economic agenda have clearly been negative, but the individual impacts have been devastating for the average American. The average worker has seen prices rise so much faster than wages that it has been the equivalent of a 5.5% pay cut since Biden took office. That may not sound like much, but it adds up to more than $3,000 a year in lost income.
To add insult to injury, interest rates are rising fast, and that increases borrowing costs on everything from credit cards to mortgages. On average, higher rates today compared with when Biden became president are costing an average of $1,200 per year. For a typical family with both parents working and both earning the average income, they are effectively $7,200 poorer than 21 months ago.
Many people are even worse off than the average. Consider the mortgage on a median-priced home: That mortgage has gotten 80% more expensive since Biden took office, costing an additional $10,000 a year and an additional $300,000 over the course of the loan. It’s no wonder that homeownership affordability has plummeted more than 35% under Biden.
Even those with savings instead of debt have gotten crushed under the weight of Biden’s policies. The average 401(k) has lost $34,000 this year, or about 25%. Those nearing retirement are faced with the stark reality that they likely cannot retire anytime soon.
Far from saving the economy, the Biden administration’s policies have demonstrably slowed the recovery and then pushed it in reverse.
The economy was returning to pre-pandemic levels at an accelerating pace before Biden’s American Rescue Plan was passed, but then it slowed considerably.
The Biden administration was not handed an economic mess, but it created one. It did not save the economy, but sent it into a stall. It has not made people’s lives better, but made them demonstrably worse. The numbers prove it.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
1 comment:
Biden's anti-fossil fuel policy alone is the basis for most of the economic downturn just as Trump's emphasis on fossil fuel was the basis for the economy that Biden inherited.
Our economy runs on fossil fuels right now, Biden's failure to allow for the continued use of fossil fuels until adequate alternatives are in place is a singular failure.
It is also an example of how the left thinks, they assume that by declaring things should happen they can make them happen no matter what the state of preparation and often ignoring simple reality. The left is a bunch of wishful thinkers with a tenuous grasp of reality.
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