The Morning Briefing: White Supremacy Alert and Much, Much More

Good Tuesday morning.

Here is what’s on President Trump’s agenda today:

The president meets with the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil
President Trump participates in an expanded working lunch with the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil
The president participates in a Joint Press Conference with the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil
President Trump and the first lady receive an update on the initiative to stop opioid abuse and reduce drug supply and demand
The president participates in the ceremonial swearing-in of Administrator Neomi J. Rao to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Must read for the day: McCain and the salacious, unverified dossier

My friend Julie Kelly has a terrific piece over at American Greatness about John McCain and the questionable dissemination of the garbage dossier used to attack and undermine President Trump.

Kramer’s recently unsealed court deposition in a lawsuit related to the dossier contains bombshell revelations that not only directly contradict media reporting about how McCain came into possession of the dossier, but Kramer’s December 2017 testimony also undercut claims made by McCain himself in his 2018 book. This might explain why Kramer refused to appear before the committee for a second time.

Why would McCain get involved?

McCain, true to form, put a selfless, patriotic spin to what he did. “I did what duty demanded I do,” he wrote. “I gave it to the people best equipped to answer those questions. Had I done any less I would be ashamed of myself.” The reason he was given the dossier, McCain explained, was not that he was a Republican foe of a Republican president who had won the office that McCain twice failed to win himself, but because McCain is “known internationally to be a persistent critic of Putin’s regime.” Anyone who disagreed with his handling of the dossier could “go to hell,” he warned.

Go read the whole thing.

We’re going to have to talk about white supremacy

Presidential candidate, senator, and fake woman of color Elizabeth Warren promised to combat white supremacists because they “pose a threat to the United States like any other terrorist group.” Warren was responding to a question at a CNN town hall when she was addressed by an attendee who claimed that under Trump, “white supremacists have become more emboldened.”

“White supremacists cause a threat to the United States like any other terrorist group, like ISIS, like al Qaeda and leadership starts at the top. And that means you’ve got to call it out,” she said.

CNN/the left wants you to know that Trump did not sufficiently denounce white supremacy following the horrible massacre in New Zealand. I can’t imagine a group of people more ill-suited to address “white supremacy” than the band of jokers who have reduced every person in America to their color, gender, and sexual preference while elevating victimhood to the highest virtue. What did they think was going to happen when they insist people are identified primarily by their attributes?

Last night on Martha MacCallum’s show, Heather Mac Donald addressed the issue of purported white supremacy rising. Mac Donald pointed out:

The number of reported hate crimes—and we don’t know how many of those are Jussie Smollett hoaxes—last year was identical to what it was 10 years ago when there were 25 million fewer people in the United States and many fewer reporting agencies. And if you go 10 years before that, you have 3,000 more hate crimes reported. The idea that there has been some surge in hate, much less white supremacist hate, is completely ridiculous.

Nevertheless, the House Judiciary Committee is going to hold some hearings on the white nationalist threat, so we can keep this topic in the news cycle.

The House Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing in the next few weeks on the rise of white nationalism.

Officials from within the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are expected as key witnesses.

The hearing is expected to take place in April.

More social media shenanigans

Let’s cut the crap. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are not simple platforms or tools to transmit information on the internet but rather are publishing and media outlets. They select what appears on their outlets, they take content down, they verify users according to internal criteria and they promote and feature content of their liking.

Recently, Twitter played a fun new trick on Sean Davis, who had a tweet mysteriously disappear to the outside world while it remained visible to him. By all appearances, Sean would think his Twitter followers chose not to engage with him but that doesn’t seem right. After all, Sean has a large Twitter following, so it’s hard to believe not one single twidiot liked or retweeted him, especially because many people have bots following them who engage on everything.

Twitter confirmed to Davis: “Our priority is to keep people safe on Twitter. As part of that work, we sometimes mistakenly remove content that doesn’t break our rules.” “When those mistakes happen, we work quickly to fix them,” the tech company added. “We have corrected the issue.”

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1107736676602925056

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1107741692504014849

Pretty amazing since Sean’s tweet wasn’t dangerous, violent or threatening. Sadly, Sean isn’t the only recent victim of social media. Dan Scavino Jr., the Trump social media director, was punished for some inexplicable reason by Facebook.

Scavino posted a screenshot of the ban with the caption, “Dear Facebook—AMAZING. WHY ARE YOU STOPPING ME from replying to comments followers have left me – on my own Facebook Page!!?? People have the right to know. Why are you silencing me??? Please LMK! Thanks.”

Scavino’s ban was because “some of your comments have been reported as spam,” and that “to avoid getting blocked again,” he should “make sure your posts are in line with the Facebook Community Standards.”

It’s time to end this charade. If Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are going to police and curate their content, they are no different than newspapers and television stations and they should be liable and held accountable for what they chose to publish.

Someone has decided to do just that.

California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes filed a major lawsuit seeking $250 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages against Twitter and a handful of its users on Monday, accusing the social media site of “shadow-banning conservatives” to secretly hide their posts, systematically censoring opposing viewpoints, and totally “ignoring” lawful complaints of repeated abusive behavior.

In a complaint filed in Virginia state court on Monday, obtained by Fox News, Nunes claimed Twitter wanted to derail his work on the House Intelligence Committee, which he chaired until 2019, as he looked into alleged and apparent surveillance abuses by the government. Nunes said Twitter was guilty of “knowingly hosting and monetizing content that is clearly abusive, hateful and defamatory – providing both a voice and financial incentive to the defamers – thereby facilitating defamation on its platform.”

If Twitter can censor Sean Davis, it certainly can stop real abusive content, right?

Your daily WTF:

Chinese buyer bids record $1.4 million for racing pigeon

Historical picture of the day:

Socks the cat peers over the podium in the White House briefing room Saturday, March 19, 1994. A White House groundskeeper was walking Socks when he stopped and lifted Socks to the podium. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)

Other morsels:

Reuters reporter takes heat for sitting on Beto O’Rourke hacker story until after Senate race against Cruz

National Enquirer paid $200,000 for Bezos texts: report

Of course. Student Who Accosted Chelsea Clinton ‘Disappointed’ To See Omar Support Two-State Solution

Whoops. Washington Post Refers to Israel as ‘Jewish-Only State’ Before Correcting

Elizabeth Warren wants to abolish the Electoral College

Cord cutters feel weight of subscription fatigue as video, TV streaming options multiply

Brazil’s Bolsonaro talks controversial tweet, mysterious killing in Fox News exclusive

Tragic. Death toll from Indonesia floods, mudslides rises to 89

State Department bars press corps from Pompeo briefing, won’t release list of attendees

Polls: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Less Popular Than Trump, Hillary

Fools. Delaware House passes bill to give state’s Electoral College votes to popular vote winner