Today I am requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment — which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers — to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Twitter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-21/us-weighs-security-reviews-for-musk-deals-including-twitter-buy
We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting U.S. politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform.

There is a clear national security issue at stake and CFIUS should do a review.
If this deal goes through, two of the most important U.S. social media platforms will be owned, in whole or in part, by China (TikTok) and Saudi Arabia (Twitter).

This is a dangerous trend, and we don't have to accept it.

Biden administration officials are discussing whether the US should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews, including the deal for Twitter Inc. and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, according to people familiar with the matter.

Twitter shares fell 5.1% as the market opened in New York on Friday.

US officials have grown uncomfortable over Musk’s recent threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine -- he said it had cost him $80 million so far -- and what they see as his increasingly Russia-friendly stance following a series of tweets that outlined peace proposals favorable to President Vladimir Putin. They are also concerned by his plans to buy Twitter with a group of foreign investors.

The discussions are still at an early stage, the people familiar said on condition of anonymity. Officials in the US government and intelligence community are weighing what tools, if any, are available that would allow the federal government to review Musk’s ventures.

There's not been enough scrutiny of the fact that Elon Musk's Twitter takeover has been propped up with cash from Qatar & Saudi Arabia [more]

Elon Musk is a self-declared “free-speech absolutist” who might let Donald Trump and various Nazis return to action on Twitter. “The bird is freed,” he triumphantly tweeted to his approximately 112 million followers when he officially took over one of the most popular social media sites on Thursday. Musk’s idea of open debate apparently entailed his trolling Hillary Clinton Sunday by tweeting a reply to her with a fake news story positing a made-up theory about the recent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.

But Musk’s commitment to absolute freedom of speech is not always so robust. Musk’s biggest partner at Twitter is Saudi Arabia—specifically the country’s Kingdom Holding Company and the private office of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire and member of the kingdom’s large royal family. The Saudis, who helped to finance Musk’s takeover, announced Friday that they are now the second biggest Twitter investor, with a stake worth $1.89 billion. [snip]

Back in 2018, Musk said that because of Khashoggi’s murder, he “probably would not” accept investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. As it turns out though, he did. The Saudi fund owns 16.9 percent of the Kingdom Holding Company, Musk’s new partner at Twitter.

Musk’s reversal may be explained by the fact that his previous criticism was part of his feud with the Saudi fund because they had failed to publicly back his bid to take Tesla, his car company, private. In a text message to the head of the fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, in August 2018, Musk said that due to the fund’s lack of vocal support, “We cannot work together.” That was before Khashoggi’s death. Apparently, money, not the murder of a journalist, was Musk’s main beef with the Saudis. [more]

It's been standard from Nixon on for presidents and presidential candidates to let the public see what they've paid, but not everyone has handled it the same way. Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor, provided a summary of his taxes. Some candidates have just turned over a couple of years' worth of documents. Others have provided returns for many years. But none has totally stonewalled the way Trump has.

As Jen Senko tries to understand the transformation of her father from a nonpolitical Democrat to an angry Republican fanatic, she uncovers the forces behind the media that changed him completely: a plan by Roger Ailes under President Richard Nixon for a media takeover by the Republicans, the 1971 Powell Memo urging business leaders to influence institutions of public opinion (especially the media, universities, and courts), the 1987 dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine under President Ronald Reagan, and the signing of the 1996 Telecommunications Act under President Bill Clinton. The documentary aims to show how the media and the nation changed, which leads to questions about who owns the airwaves, what rights listeners and watchers have, and what responsibility the government has to keep the airwaves fair, accurate, and accountable.

Ms Senko’s groundbreaking film examines the rise of right-wing media through the lens of her father, whose immersion in its daily propaganda had radicalized him. His new fanaticism rocked the very foundation of their family. She discovered that this phenomenon was occurring with alarming frequency in living rooms across America. The film reveals the consequences that this radicalized media is having on people, families, America, and the world.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated what clothing the suspect was wearing when officers found him.

MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch
The Fox affiliate that reported that the attacker of Paul Pelosi was wearing only underwear has quietly issued a correction in small print admitting that wasn’t true—but the damage has already been done. Texas Paul caught them red-handed.
[youtube.com video]
WOW: Texas Paul Catches Fox Affiliate RED-HANDED!!!
A Fox affiliate station in San Francisco erroneously reported that the attacker of Paul Pelosi was wearing only underwear when police arrived on the scene...
10:55 PM · Oct 29, 2022

The stochastic terrorist is the person who uses mass media to broadcast memes that incite unstable people to commit violent acts.

One or more unstable people responds to the incitement by becoming a lone wolf and committing a violent act. While their action may have been statistically predictable (e.g. "given the provocation, someone will probably do such-and-such" ), the specific person and the specific act are not predictable (yet).

The stochastic terrorist then has plausible deniability: "Oh, it was just a lone nut, nobody could have predicted he would do that, and I'm not responsible for what people in my audience do."

The lone wolf who was the "missile" gets captured and sentenced to life in prison, while the stochastic terrorist keeps his prime time slot and goes on to incite more lone wolves.

I get why all the vultures are out. They desperately want to justify the media narrative to completely ignore how unfit people like Herschel Walker are, while leaning into a bullshit "b-b-b-b-both sides!!!1" schtick to claim some asinine mantle of "objectivity". And they don't get to see the effects of a stroke on people like my colleagues and I do. [snip]

I could spend another five thousand words chronicling cases like that. And so I have to tell you, to be doing as good as John Fetterman was doing last night is a huge win for any ER, ICU, or Neuro nurse watching. [snip]

I also- and I realize this is somewhat impertinent as someone who's running for a seat in the oldest legislative body in the United States of America, so I apologize to anyone who may need a fainting couch- feel I should give a big "go **** yourself" to all of the performative concern about John Fetterman from people who lauded Herschel Walker as having a brilliant debate performance. "This poor man should be in rehab," one said. "How could the Democratic party do that to anyone?" another asked, as if any of them actually cared one iota about John Fetterman’s actual well-being. [snip]

I simply hope that, at that point that happens, those people will be granted more grace and humility and understanding than it's clear they'd ever grant someone else.

The Intellectualist @highbrow_nobrow
Fmr Saudi Ambassador to US Prince Bandar said the quiet part loud in a 2004 interview: “The kingdom’s oil decisions can influence the election or non-election of the president of the United States, the largest & strongest country in the world”.
[video]
From Ken Klippenstein
3:26 PM · Oct 20, 2022

𝘾𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚 Persuasion 🆒💙⚠️🗽🇺🇸💞⚠️
@SonOfAlgos
Yes!

And if you see voter intimidation, which includes #MAGA supporters filming voters or standing around with guns in voting areas, including drop box places, report these crimes asap:

Call the FBI at: 1-800-CALL-FBI

Call the Election Protection Hotline at: 1-866-OUR-VOTE
Quote Tweet
The AZ - abc15 - Data Guru
@Garrett_Archer
·
Oct 19
BREAKING confirmed by @SecretaryHobbs office. A complaint has been filed with the AG and DOJ for voter intimidation. It happened Monday at the Mesa drop box location when a voter said they were approached and followed by a group of individuals.
Show this thread
8:38 AM · Oct 20, 2022