State Department’s Global Engagement
Center — accused of pushing censorship
to combat online ‘disinformation’
— shuts down
Posted By: 4250Luis, 12/27/2024 5:31:43 AM
The State Department’s controversial Global Engagement Center (GEC) shut down this week after congressional lawmakers nixed reauthorizing the agency in spending legislation to keep the government open. “The Global Engagement Center closed on December 23, 2024,” read a message on the agency’s website. The GEC came under fire from House Republicans after journalist Matt Taibbi uncovered evidence that it pressured US social media platforms early in the COVID-19 pandemic to censor Americans online, purportedly to counter “disinformation,” such as theories that the virus leaked out of a laboratory in China.
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News that top US intelligence officials in 2021 suppressed research pointing to a Chinese lab leak as COVID’s origin raises two key questions: Exactly who, and why?
That is, who made the call to keep Defense Department and FBI input out of the August 2021 briefing to President Biden on the issue, and out of the resulting official federal finding that COVID most likely arose naturally?And, indeed, to also block Sen. Charles Grassley’s requests for the Defense research?
We know that Dr. Anthony Fauci and his public-health cronies had fought from the start to discredit all lab-leak talk.
In addition, now that Syria has been closed off as a supply route to rearm Hezbollah, Iran is reportedly considering weapons airlifts directly to Lebanon to resupply Hezbollah, so they both can continue their shared goal of eliminating Israel. The mullahs have got to go. So long as they remain in power, the chances for enduring peace in the region is zero.
Iran's recent losses have left the regime clinging to the hope that nuclear weapons will enable it to secure its reign and dominate the Middle East, then the rest of the world, using Venezuela and the Caribbean to incapacitate the "Great Satan," the United States.
Mayor Eric Adams wants to rein in excessive overtime in the NYPD, the FDNY and two other Big Apple departments in the wake of the alleged sex-for-overtime scandal that has rocked the police force.
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Literally "flat, dark calm," Dunkelflaute is characterized by a simultaneous lack of wind and sun in winter, when demand for electricity in Germany is at its highest... On December 12 of this year, for example, German electricity production from wind and solar power was thirty times lower than the demand for it.
But this is "for the planet", right? Not even close. Despite its commitment to so-called green energies, Germany still has a high carbon footprint due to its increased reliance on coal and lignite to make up for energy shortfalls.
The State Department’s controversial Global Engagement Center (GEC) shut down this week after congressional lawmakers nixed reauthorizing the agency in spending legislation to keep the government open.
“The Global Engagement Center closed on December 23, 2024,” read a message on the agency’s website.
The GEC came under fire from House Republicans after journalist Matt Taibbi uncovered evidence that it pressured US social media platforms early in the COVID-19 pandemic to censor Americans online, purportedly to counter “disinformation,” such as theories that the virus leaked out of a laboratory in China.
Spy chiefs “silenced” researchers in the Defense Department and FBI who discovered strong evidence that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a Chinese lab, The Post has learned.
As a result, their findings were kept out of an August 2021 report to President Biden on the origins of the global pandemic.
That report concluded that the virus behind COVID “was probably not genetically engineered.”
Wuhan Institute of Virology
7
New evidence has emerged of top spy brass allegedly stifling evidence to back up the lab leak theory during the early pandemic days.
AP After the pandemic erupted in Wuhan, China,
The new $9 toll to drive into Midtown Manhattan could soar another 25% — to $11.25 — on “gridlock alert days’’ starting next year, The Post has learned.
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California has made a big bet on a technology to meet its self-imposed green energy target. It could work. Maybe. Might happen. If the real world matches the optimism. But there are challenging hurdles ahead.
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Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year — especially in an election year.
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Our politics, and the world, needs that spirit more than ever.Letting go of the hatreds built up over a bruising election cycle isn’t easy,
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is drawing up plans to help illegal migrants dodge deportation when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
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Pilgrims lined up early Wednesday to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica, as Christmas marked the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome.Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300. On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis knocked on the door and was the first to walk through it, inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee that he dedicated to hope.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Faulkner Focus,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) discussed the suspected murder of a woman on the New York City subway and argued that the prosecution of Daniel Penny has had “a chilling effect” on people coming to the aid of others in dangerous situations.
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The US hasn’t learned lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that it could use to mitigate the threat of pathogens like H5N1 bird flu that keep showing signs of their own pandemic potential, health experts told CNN Friday.
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Birx called for much wider-spread testing of farm workers who make up the majority of identified cases in the US, noting the country is heading
Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Americas Newsroom,” Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary commented on President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States.
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The Silicon Valley immigration priority was not the topic I thought would explode and fracture the tenuous MAGA alignment with the New Big Tech group represented by Elon Musk and his billionaire network. However, we learn more every day. This is a jaw-dropping moment to watch unfold as a very influential sector of the political discourse begins a full-frontal attack against those who are pointing out how the tech community abuse H1B visas to replace American workers. In the background, of course, is the context of widespread immigration policy fraud being one of the priorities for the average Trump supporter.
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Biden and some of his aides have boasted to confidantes “in recent days” that the president should’ve stayed in the race and could’ve won a second term, the Washington Post reported Saturday citing multiple anonymous sources briefed on the conversations. (Photo) Instead, the 82-year-old buckled to pressure by Democratic Party elites to drop out of the race in July because of poor poll numbers and his rocky June 27 debate performance, in which he gave incoherent answers and appeared to
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Trump supports immigration visas backed
by Musk: ‘I have many H-1B visas on
my properties’ 13 replies
by Musk: ‘I have many H-1B visas on
my properties’ 13 replies
President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” added Trump
As many companies are cutting back or ending diversity initiatives, Costco's Board of Trustees is pushing back on efforts to end the company's DEI programs.
The Board urged its shareholders to vote against a proposal submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research that called on Costco to eliminate DEI programs. The group claims that DEI programs are discriminatory and put the company at financial risk.
"It's clear that DEI holds litigation, reputational and financial risks to the Company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders," the National Center for Public Policy Research wrote in its letter of support.
The hunters are becoming the hunted.
Earlier this month it was reported that Jack Smith’s team of partisan prosecutors are lawyering up as they brace for President Trump.
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Are they deleting evidence of misconduct and anti-Trump bias?
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Jack Smith asked to dismiss both the January 6 case and classified documents case against President Trump.
Mega holiday winnings.
A Mega Millions player in California won the estimated $1.22 billion jackpot Friday night — ending the lottery’s three-month drought of having no grand prize winners.
The winning numbers were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55, and the gold Mega ball of 6.
The ultra-lucky ticketholder matched all six numbers, defeating the 1 in 302,575,350 odds of winning the grand prize.
The ticket was sold at a Sunshine Food and Gas station in Cottonwood, located in northern California, 146 miles north of Sacramento.
Michelle Obama recently shared a holiday message on Instagram, lamenting how “difficult” the last few months have been, and how Americans are feeling “anxious” as we head into the New Year.
"Happy holidays, everyone!” she began, keeping everything generic and non-Christmasy. “I know it’s been a difficult few months for so many of us — and that folks are feeling a little bit anxious and uncertain.”
Umm, says who?
The fact is, Michelle Obama’s message of anxiety and uncertainty feels wildly out of touch with the reality many Americans are experiencing. In fact, a recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that 57% of Americans are hopeful
An easier way to show illegals the door
12 replies
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by a Jess Bravin reported that attorneys general of many blue states are not going to give up quietly when Donald Trump, as president, begins to honor his election promises, such as the mass deportation of illegals. “A host of blue states are staffing up and building out legal battle plans for Trump’s return trip to the White House.”
When Donald Trump will be sending ICE agents to blue sanctuary states to solicit help from local sheriffs and other police forces, the only response he may get is “civil and criminal litigation” from entities such as Maryland’s Federal Litigation Unit.
The Reckoning in Higher Education: Why
Linda McMahon As Secretary of Education
Has Academia Shaking 12 replies
Linda McMahon As Secretary of Education
Has Academia Shaking 12 replies
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon is sending shockwaves through the ivory towers of American higher education. For years, university presidents and chancellors have enjoyed a largely unchecked reign, overseeing bloated bureaucracies, skyrocketing tuition, and ideological indoctrination masquerading as scholarship. McMahon's appointment and President-Elect Trump’s comments about reforming higher education signals the arrival of long-overdue accountability that I and many others in higher academia have been praying for.
McMahon is the former head of the Small Business Administration.