MATT TAIBBI ON THE “FOREIGN/DOMESTIC SWITCHEROO:”

It’s the basic rhetorical trick of the censorship age: raise a fuss about a foreign threat, using it as a battering ram to get everyone from congress to the tech companies to submit to increased regulation and surveillance. Then, slowly, adjust your aim to domestic targets. You can see the subtlety: the original Stanford piece tries to stick to railing against “disinformation” and information from “foreign adversaries,” but the later paper circulated by Aspen slips in, ever so slightly, a new category of dubious source: “foreign or other adversarial entities.”

These rhetorical devices are essential. It would be preposterous to form (as Stanford did) an “Information Warfare Working Group” if readers knew the “war” being contemplated was against domestic voices. It would likewise seem outrageous to suggest, as Stanford did, that journalists respond to a domestic threat by taking a step as drastic as eliminating intra-title competition, and “forming partnerships with other organizations to pool resources.” But if you start by focusing on Russians and only later mention as an afterthought “other adversarial entities,” you can frame things however you want, from espionage to warfare. As reader O’Neill correctly pointed out, “they are now getting close to being explicit about the fact that their motivation for suppressing news is to fight domestic political adversaries.”

To be fair, it always was.

WHERE’S HUNTER, FAT? White House reportedly ‘worried’ over Hunter Biden going rogue with legal defense plan: ‘Legitimate headache.’

HISTORY: The US has never defaulted on its debt — except the four times it did. “Every time the U.S. government’s debt gets close to the debt ceiling, and people start worrying about a possible default, the Treasury Department, under either party, says the same thing: ‘The U.S. government has never defaulted on its debt!’ Every time, this claim is false.”

WAIT, LET ME GUESS — THROUGH A COMBINATION OF IGNORANCE AND PREJUDICE? How the Authors of the Washington Post/Trace Hit Piece on the SIG SAUER P320 Faceplanted.

Suffice it to say that SIG SAUER told us they provided the writers with the above animated illustration of how the P320’s fire control unit works. They also gave the writers a raft of detailed information about the P320 and answered a number of their questions before the article was published.

Virtually all of that was ignored in the final article. And rather than using SIG’s animation, the authors created their own version which leaves out a key component of the P320’s safety system. Strange, no?

For support in making their case that the P320 design is somehow unusual and allegedly inherently unsafe, the authors rely on a report written by a gunsmith and paid witness for the plaintiffs, James Tertin. Tertin claims that “a foreign object or pressure against the holster can leave the gun unacceptably vulnerable to a discharge without an intentional trigger pull.”

This, however, is the same expert witness who testified in a deposition that “the P320 cannot fire without its trigger being fully depressed.” Yes, that directly contradicts his report’s conclusion that the P320 is “unreasonably dangerous and defectively designed.” It seems that testifying under oath tends to concentrate the mind.

Oh, and did we mention that James Tertin works for Magnum Research, part of Kahr Arms…a competitor of SIG SAUER? No? Well…he does.

Did the WaPo mention that? What’s your guess?

Plus: “Yet if the P320 is so dangerously delicate and prone to ‘going off’ if jostled, surely these experts who were consulted by the authors, or those paid witnesses who were employed by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, were able to demonstrate how that happens in real life. Right? Actually, no. The fact is, no one has been able to induce a P320 to fire without the trigger being pulled. Ever. That includes whatever tests the military put the gun through as part of their modular handgun system evaluations.”

DOWN ON YOUR KNEES: KISS musician grovels before social media mob after being mobbed for speaking the truth about child sex changes.

LOL, “JUDGE” LUTTIG, NO LONGER AN ACTUAL JUDGE, NOW JUST ANOTHER DEFECTIVE PRODUCT OF BOEING:

https://twitter.com/xenophonrocks/status/1654529668836360212

Related:

https://twitter.com/xenophonrocks/status/1654492840192356352

Also: Conservative Supreme Court justice hit pieces: We are being lectured on ethics by scoundrels.

GET IN SHAPE: Etekcity Food Kitchen Scale. #CommissionEarned

DISPATCHES FROM A FAILING STATE: South Africa’s only driver’s licence card printing machine has broken down — again.

That’s OK, people can just take the train, instead.

South Africa’s collapse — previously in slow motion but now accelerating — doesn’t get much notice in the news, but it’s been all over Twitter.

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Robot plants could be used to grow infrastructure in space from scratch.

THE “MATH IS RACIST” ENDGAME: Chicago-Area High School Offers Racially Segregated Math Classes.

REALITY BITES: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs.

FILM LADD: The Onion Wants To Crowbar You To Death With LAUGHTER.

LAUGHING WOLF: About That ‘Attack’ On The Kremlin. “Let’s get a few things out of the way. Someone raised on my timeline on Twitter that this could have been a Doolittle-type raid to raise morale. In terms of U.S. and Western culture, possibly. However, in terms of Russian (and Ukrainian) culture, NO. It is far more likely to keep things going in Russia in support of the invasion, and even cause escalation. I can’t stress enough how different Russian culture is from our own. They are not ‘just like us but talk funny.’”

Much more at the link.

SPACE: SpaceX lifts another 56 Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit.

THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF BEING READY: The Administration Is Nowhere Near Ready for the Surge at the Border Next Week.

WHY WE SHOULD HAVE YEAR-ROUND DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME: Fall time change associated with rise in sleep disorders.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Long-term beta blockers may be unnecessary after mild heart attacks.

INDEED: Evangeline Lilly Asks Why Our Modern Society Villainizes Femininity In Women But Not In Men: ‘Let Each Be Who They Are.’

“Why are we only applauding masculinity in women and villainizing it in men? And why are we only applauding femininity in men and debasing it in women? Why can’t we just allow for all of it?” Evangeline writes in the caption of her photo. “Why do we feel the need to vilify a man wearing shit-kicker boots, driving a pick-up truck who’s not afraid to punch someone in the face, but if they were a woman, they would be the epitome of cool? Why is a man who loves make-up, cries easily and stays at home to tend to the domestic responsibilities valiant, but a woman who does the same is pathetic?”

This is billed as another of Lilly’s “controversial takes.”

CDC’S ROCHELLE WALENSKY RESIGNS, CITING PANDEMIC TRANSITION:

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, submitted her resignation Friday, saying the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic was a good time to make a transition.

Walensky’s last day will be June 30, CDC officials said, and an interim director wasn’t immediately named. She sent a resignation letter to President Joe Biden and announced the decision at a CDC staff meeting.

Flashback: Howie Carr: All the COVID heroes of yore are now being flattened.

OOH, I KNOW, I KNOW! CALL ON ME! Why do we villainize femininity in women while praising it in men?

LIES, TALKING POINT, WHATEVER: Intel Officials’ Letter Was Pitched to Provide Joe Biden With Debate ‘Talking Point.’

TEXAS: Lina Hidalgo’s Continued Contempt for Transparency. “Remember Democratic County Judge and de-facto Queen of Harris County Lina Hidalgo, she of the numerous staff corruption charges? There have been a lot of Freedom of Information Act requests coming her way over all the alleged crooked dealings, so she went to her legal counsel to thwart transparency.”

LIGHTNING DEAL: ONEARF Wine Glasses Set of 2. #CommissionEarned

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (RUSSIA EDITION): Russia’s Mercenary Chief Prigozhin Screams ‘NOT MY FAULT’ Over Massive Losses. “Prigozhin is right to think that his Wagner mercs are being wasted as Putin’s cannon fodder because Kyiv’s cannons have left a whole lot of Russian fodder at Bakhmut.”

ROUTINE BUT NEVER BORING: SpaceX rockets past 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit with another Falcon 9 launch. “Landing of the first stage on Thursday’s mission occurred just as the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cut off to deliver the Starlink satellites into a preliminary parking orbit.”