Thai Authorities Face Blowback After Nationwide PornHub Ban Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/05/2020 – 19:20
Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta, did the unthinkable Monday, he banned Pornhub and 190 URL addresses of porn sites, prompting outrage among the younger generation Tuesday, reported Reuters.
Punnakanta ordered internet service providers and mobile phone operators to ban porn sites for violating Thailand’s Computer Crime Act.
The ban comes one week after Deputy Prime Minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, said that swift action would be taken against porn sites encouraging young people to engage in “improper” behavior, Thai Examiner noted.
Thailand Pornhub users were greeted with the message Monday night: “This content has been suspended. Because it is guilty according to the Computer Crime Act 2007 by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.”
Pornhub and or other popular porn sites were not available for viewing as of Tuesday afternoon.
Reuters, citing Pornhub stats, said Thai users, on average, spent 11 minutes and 21 seconds last year on the website, which was more time than anywhere else in the world.
The website’s ban could be problematic for Pornhub because Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, was its 10th largest market.
Google Search trends of “Pornhub” in the country have spread like an epidemic over the last three years.
Dozens of Pornhub supporters gathered at government buildings on Tuesday to erect signs and voice their opinion about the site’s shuttering.
One activist group called Anonymous Party said: “We want to reclaim Pornhub. People are entitled to choices.”
Pornhub protesters were seen holding signs saying “free Pornhub” and “reclaim Pornhub.”
Thai Enquirer translates the signs held by protesters. One sign said: “Every evening there’s a horny person – find them.” Another sign said: “Do not hurt the lonely by blocking their entrance.”
Signs from the protest today:
“Every evening there’s a horny person – find them.”
People in Thailand were not happy about the government blocking the porn site.
More scenes from the protest.
As soon as the ban went into effect, Virtual Private Networks (“VPN”) searches from within the country erupted. VPNs are used to help people circumnavigate censorship.
There is chatter on Twitter about a “Pornhub Spring” in Thailand.
This election did not go the way that most people were anticipating. For months, the mainstream media and many on the left insisted that the big national polls were right this time and that a Joe Biden landslide was coming. Obviously, that did not happen. On the other hand, many on the right kept telling us that a huge Trump landslide was coming, and that did not materialize either. Instead, we got the very close race that I have been warning about for weeks. I kept explaining to my readers that we would not know the winner on the night of the election, and that projection turned out to be right on the money. At this hour, votes are still being counted in critical swing states all over the nation, and things could still go either way. I know that the mainstream media is eager to crown Joe Biden the victor, but that hasn’t happened yet. Trump’s campaign team still believes that the final results in Arizona and Nevada will go their way, and they are convinced that could potentially change everything. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
But for now, things are not looking promising for the Trump campaign. By the time many of you read this, more of the votes will have been counted and the mainstream media may have decided to call the race for Biden. If that happens, this could be perhaps the first national election in U.S. history where almost everybody loses.
Let me illustrate what I mean. Here are some of the potential losers in this election…
The U.S. political system – The legitimacy of our system is on the line in this election, and the rest of the world is watching us very carefully. Sadly, the way that this election has unfolded has been a complete and utter disgrace, and close to half the country is going to believe that the election was stolen once this is all over.
On Tuesday evening, it appeared that President Trump was cruising toward re-election. He had huge leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina, and the Trump campaign was getting ready to put on a victory celebration. But then vote counting suddenly stopped in Democratic strongholds all over the nation. Once it resumed, some very strange things started to happen.
For example, a large Trump lead in Wisconsin was suddenly wiped out by a massive vote dump for Biden right at the last minute, and Biden ended up being declared the winner in that state.
Likewise, a large Trump lead in Michigan was suddenly wiped out by a massive vote dump for Biden right at the end of their vote count.
As I write this article, we are seeing similar patterns play out in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Initially, it appeared that Trump had an insurmountable lead in both states, but by the time you read this article the mainstream media may have called both states for Biden.
It may or may not have been intentional, but a lot of people are speculating that Democratic strongholds such as Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Atlanta held back on counting many of their votes until vote totals from most of the conservative areas came in, and to many people it looks extremely suspicious that Biden keeps squeaking out very tight victories in the most critical swing states.
The polling industry – This is the second presidential election in a row when the polling industry has failed dramatically. Last night, Van Jones almost came to tears on CNN because he was so disappointed that the “blue wave” that the national polling had suggested was coming did not materialize. I don’t know how anyone is going to trust the national polls in future elections after how wrong they got it this time around.
The mainstream media – Throughout this election season, the mainstream media has discarded any pretense of objectivity, and in the process they have deeply alienated a large portion of the population. At this point, everyone can see that the mainstream media has essentially become an arm of the Democratic Party, and they are never going to be able to restore the credibility that they have lost.
Democrats– This was supposed to be the election when Democrats finally took back the Senate and strengthened their hold on the House of Representatives. Instead, it appears likely that Republicans will hold the Senate, and Democrats could end up losing up to 10 seats in the House.
Republicans– Yes, Republicans performed better than expected all over the country, but losing the White House definitely cannot be considered a victory.
Donald Trump – This is not the way that Trump and his supporters envisioned that the MAGA era would end. As I discussed the other day, a Trump loss would be the worst emotional blow that conservatives in this country have suffered in decades.
Joe Biden – You would think that Biden should be labeled a “winner” if he ends up becoming the president-elect. But if Republicans hold the Senate, they will be able to block everything that Biden and the Democrats want to do. Biden has been waiting 47 years to finally get to the White House, but when he finally gets there he will be forced to get Republican permission for any bill that he wants passed.
The American people – When this is finally over, the American people will be left with a political system that is in shambles, a country that is more divided than ever, and a deeply corrupt politician that is no longer all there mentally as president.
So are there any winners?
Yes.
Coming out of this election there will be one big winner, and her name is Kamala Harris.
Everyone acknowledges that it is just a matter of time before Biden will have to step aside. Personally, I expect it to happen sooner rather than later.
Whenever that happens, Kamala Harris will become the president of the United States, and she is very much looking forward to that day.
Of course once that day arrives, it will actually be a complete and utter nightmare for about half the country.
In the end, it appears that nothing good is going to come out of this election, and our nation will never be the same again from this day forward.
* * *
Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32f1WvG Tyler Durden
Here Is The Age Distribution Of Trump And Biden Voters Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/05/2020 – 18:40
Whoever wins the presidential race, one thing is certain: voter turnout is set to be the highest since 1900.
“Did mail-ins or passion increase this”, asks Jim Reid in his daily noting that if it was the former, Covid may have shown how we can enfranchise more voters around the world by offering an alternative to the traditional ballot box.
Reid then makes another observation, pointing out that according to an exit poll by Edison Research, 76% of Trump voters felt rebuilding the economy now, even if it hurts efforts to contain the coronavirus” was more important than “containing the coronavirus now, even if it hurts the economy”, while 80% of Biden voters felt the opposite showing how polarized views on lockdowns etc. possibly are.
So will the young voters win it for Biden?
Answering this question, and assuming Biden does creep over the Electoral college line, today’s chart from Reid shows estimates of the Dems advantage over the GOP in 2020, 2016 and 2004 by age. 2004 was chosen as that seems to be the last election before there was a big intergenerational age split in voter’s party preferences.
Among 18-29yr olds, Biden is estimated to have secured a 27% lead versus 19% for Clinton 4 years ago and Kerry’s 9% in
2004.
This means that if only those 29-and-over voted, based on Reid’s back of the envelope calculations, Trump would have been ‘only’ 2% behind in the popular vote and would possibly have had enough to have won the electoral college. In other words, if the soon to be 78 year old Joe Biden does win, he have the Gen Zers to thank.
As Reid concludes, “the right have generally outperformed in elections over the last decade across the world. To see this continue they may need to address their falling support among the young.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3lgcMJn Tyler Durden
Managing editor, Ed Harrison, is joined by Jay Pelosky, co-founder and CIO of TPW Investment Management, to provide an update on his current outlook amid a turbulent election and uncertain future with stimulus and COVID-19. Pelosky argues that markets are getting closer to end of this period of peak uncertainty around these variables and that deep cyclicals like airlines and oil will rally sharply higher. Pelosky also explains that as the election race comes to a close, markets have been oversold in the past week and are becoming more comfortable with the idea of a split government as investors gain clarity. He digs further into the question of stimulus – a matter of “when,” not “if” – and contends that a vaccine may roll out sooner than stimulus, which would cause the markets to react aggressively, raise rates, and could set up a rotation trade out of tech and into cyclicals. Finally, he also discusses asset allocation and his thesis of a tripolar world. In the intro, Real Vision’s Haley Draznin looks at markets rallying as the U.S. presidential election outcome is still uncertain and analyzes the K-shaped recovery that continues to form as the job market remains high.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32kGqWm Tyler Durden
Watch Live: President Trump Delivers Remarks Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/05/2020 – 18:25
In his first public appearance since the small hours of election night, President Trump will be delivering remarks to the nation at 630pm ET from the James Brady Briefing Room at the White House.
A shot across the bow of social media after having practically every tweet blocked today? A victory lap? A concession speech? An announcement of his 2024 running mate? Or an impassioned plea for transparency in our free-and-fair election counting process?
Maybe Trump Jr.’s recent tweet is a hint: ” It’s time to clean up this mess & stop looking like a banana republic! “
Watch Live (due to start at 1830ET):
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2I8buSc Tyler Durden
Nations far poorer and less technologically advanced have no problem holding quick, efficient elections. Distrust in U.S. outcomes is dangerous but rational.
The richest and most powerful country on earth — whether due to ineptitude, choice or some combination of both — has no ability to perform the simple task of counting votes in a minimally efficient or confidence-inspiring manner. As a result, the credibility of the voting process is severely impaired, and any residual authority the U.S. claims to “spread” democracy to lucky recipients of its benevolence around the world is close to obliterated.
At 7:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the day after the 2020 presidential elections, the results of the presidential race, as well as control of the Senate, are very much in doubt and in chaos. Watched by rest of the world — deeply affected by who rules the still-imperialist superpower — the U.S. struggles and stumbles and staggers to engage in a simple task mastered by countless other less powerful and poorer countries: counting votes. Some states are not expected to finished their vote-counting until the end of this week or beyond.
The same data and polling geniuses who pronounced that Hillary Clinton had a 90% probability or more of winning the 2016 election, and who spent the last three months proclaiming the 2020 election even more of a sure thing for the Democratic presidential candidate, are currently insisting that Biden, despite being behind in numerous key states, is still the favorite by virtue of uncounted ballots in Democrat-heavy counties in the outcome-determinative states. [One went to sleep last night with the now-notorious New York Times needle of data guru Nate Cohn assuring the country that, with more than 80% of the vote counted in Georgia, Trump had more than an 80% chance to win that state, only to wake up a few hours later with the needle now predicting the opposite outcome; that all happened just a few hours after Cohn assured everyone how much “smarter” his little needle was this time around].
NYT’s predictive needle for Georgia less than four hours later, at 12:12 a.m., early Wednesday morning.
Given the record of failures and humiliations they have quickly compiled, what rational person would trust anything they say at this point? A citizen randomly chosen from the telephone book would be as reliable if not more so for sharing predictions. And the monumental failures of the polling industry and the data nerds who leech off it, for the second consecutive national election, only serve to sow even further doubt and confusion around the electoral process.
A completely untrustworthy voting count is now the norm. Two months after the New York state primary in late June, two Congressional races were in doubt by what The New York Times called “major delays in counting a deluge of 400,000 mail-in ballots and other problems.” In particular:
Thousands more ballots in the city were discarded by election officials for minor errors, or not even sent to voters until the day before the primary, making it all but impossible for the ballots to be returned in time.
It took a full six weeks for New York to finally declare a winner in those two primary races for Congress.
The coronavirus pandemic and the shutdowns and new votings rules it ushered in have obviously complicated the process, but the U.S. failure to simply count votes with any degree of efficiency, in a way that inspires even minimal confidence in the process, pre-dates the March, 2020 nationwide lockdowns. Even if one dismisses as aberrational the protracted, Court-decided, and still-untrusted outcome of the 2000 presidential election — only four national election cycles ago — the U.S. voting process is rife with major systemic failures and doubt-sowing inefficiencies that can be explained only as a deliberate choice and/or a perfect reflection of a collapsing, crumbling empire.
Recall the mass confusion that ensued back in January, in the very first Democratic Party primary election in the Iowa caucus, where a new app created and monetized by a bunch of sleazy Democratic operatives caused massive delays, confusion and an untrustworthy outcome. Later in the process, many Super Tuesday states — including California — were still counting votes weeks or even longer after the election was held (more than a week after the Democratic primary, California had still only counted roughly 75% of the ballots cast, depriving Bernie Sanders of a critical narrative victory on election night).
The 2018 midterm elections were also marred by pervasive irregularities. The Washington Post noted “thousands of reports of voting irregularities across the country…. with voters complaining of broken machines, long lines and untrained poll workers improperly challenging Americans’ right to vote.”
Voter suppression in NY is rampant and repressive.@NYGovCuomo is acting in the interests of Wall St, Big Pharma, and luxury developers by allowing 1.8 million New Yorkers to languish without representation.
Right in line with GOP tactics to suppress ppl of color at the polls. https://t.co/fsUaixkqrv
And the full extent of the “irregularities” and treacherous outright cheating by the Democratic National Committee in the 2016 primary race between Clinton and Sanders was never fully appreciated given how pro-Clinton the press was. As just one example, “200,000 New York City voters” — many in pro-Sanders precincts — “had been illegally wiped off the rolls and prevented from voting in the presidential primary” (for one of the best-documented histories of just how pervasive were the shenanigans and cheating in the 2016 Democratic primary across multiple key states, listen to this TrueAnon episode).
However one wants to speculate about the motives for all of this, one thing is clear: it does not need to be this way. To eliminate all doubts about that fact, just look at Brazil.
After the pervasive voting problems in the 2018 midterms, I wrote an article with my Brazilian colleague Victor Pougy describing the extraordinary speed and efficiency with which Brazil — a country not exactly renowned for its speed and efficiency — counts its votes.
Brazil is not a small country. It is the fifth most-populous nation on the planet. Although its population is somewhat smaller than the U.S.’s (330 million to 210 million), its mandatory voting law, automatic registration, and 16-year-old voting age means the number of ballots to be counted is quite similar (105 million votes in Brazil’s 2018 presidential election compared to 130 million votes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election). And on the same date of its national elections, it, too, holds gubernatorial and Congressional elections in its twenty-seven states.
And yet Brazil — a much poorer and less technologically advanced country than the U.S., with a much shorter history of democracy — holds seamless, quick vote counts about which very few people harbor doubts. The elections are held on a Sunday, to ensure as many people as possible do not have work obligations to prevent voting, and polls close at 6:00 p.m.
For the 2018 presidential run-off election that led to Jair Bolsonaro’s victory, 90% of all votes were counted and the results released by 6:00 p.m. on the day of the election: the time the last state closed its polls. The full vote tally was available within a couple of hours after that. The same was true of the first-round voting held three weeks earlier — which also included races for governor, Senator and Congress in all the states: full vote totals were released by computer shortly after the polls closed and few had any doubts about their accuracy and legitimacy.
Hundreds of millions of Americans went to bed on Tuesday’s election night seeing Trump in the lead in key states, with the data experts of major outlets indicating that his victory in many of those states was highly likely. They woke up to the opposite indication: that Biden is now a slight favorite to win several if not all of those remaining key states. But what is clear is that it will be days if not longer before the votes are fully counted, with judicial proceedings almost certain to prolong the outcomes even further.
No matter what the final result, there will be substantial doubts about its legitimacy by one side or the other, perhaps both. And no deranged conspiracy thinking is required for that. An electoral system suffused with this much chaos, error, protracted outcomes and seemingly inexplicable reversals will sow doubt and distrust even among the most rational citizens.
The next time Americans hear from their government that they need to impose democracy in other countries — through wars, invasion, bombing campaigns or other forms of clandestine CIA “interference” — they should insist that democracy first be imposed in the United States. An already frazzled, intensely polarized and increasingly hostile populace now has to confront yet another election in the richest and most technologically advanced country on earth where the votes cannot be counted in a way that inspires even minimal degrees of confidence.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/368d7an Tyler Durden
Plaintiff’s defamation claim (Count VII) relies on three alleged defamatory statements made by the Crimson: (1) that [Eric] Clopper “improperly worked on the play during work hours,” (2) that he “is anti-Semitic”; and (3) that he “engaged in a ‘nude, anti-Semitic rant’ in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.” The court determines that none of these statements is actionable.
The first statement, for example, is not reasonably capable of a defamatory meaning because it is demonstrably true. The Complaint directly acknowledges that plaintiff worked on his play during work hours, see Compl. para. 12, and while plaintiff appears to suggest that the Crimson falsely characterized this work as “improper,” review of the article itself reveals no mention of the propriety of any work he did on his play during work hours.
Portions of the third statement are also demonstrably true. Plaintiff did include nudity in his performance. See id. para. 20. And even assuming, as plaintiff suggests, that he did not specifically perform a “nude … rant” because he did not speak during the nude aspect of his performance, the court disagrees that the “nude, anti-Semitic rant” headline is reasonably capable of the defamatory meaning proposed by plaintiff. Statements must be read in their context, and here, the context of the referenced headline indisputably dispels any defamatory interpretation. The first line of the article, after all, explicitly clarifies that “Harvard is ‘reviewing’ reports that University employee Eric Clopper made anti-Semitic comments and stripped to the nude during a public performance he gave in Sanders Theatre.” The article also includes several quotations from plaintiff describing his nude performance as the conclusion or “about the last 20 seconds” of his play.
As to the remaining statements—the second statement and the portions of the third statement characterizing plaintiff’s performance as a rant or anti-Semitic—the court determines that they are not actionable because they constitute opinions based on disclosed, non-defamatory facts (i.e., direct quotations from the performance). The court accordingly dismisses Count VII in its entirety.
The court also dismisses the remaining claims against the Crimson. The civil rights claim (Count II) fails because the Complaint does not plausibly allege that the Crimson interfered with any of plaintiff’s constitutional rights by means of threats, intimidation, or coercion, as required by the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 12, secs. 11H, 11I. And finally, the tortious interference (Count IX) and conspiracy (Count X) claims fail because they depend on the viability of the nonactionable defamation claim.
“We’ll Get Fu*king Torn Apart Again In 2022”: Democrats Livid In Leaked Caucus Call After Crushing Election Losses Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/05/2020 – 18:00
House Democrats were livid during a Thursday caucus call after the so-called ‘blue wave’ they were promised by pollster evaporated, and they lost several seats, according to leaked excerpts.
According to AP‘s Erica Werner, Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger was reportedly the most vocal – reportedly complaining that “we lost races we shouldn’t have lost. Defund police almost cost me my race because of an attack ad. Don’t say socialism ever again,” yelling that the party needs to “get back to basics.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly interjected – saying that they “won the House and the presidency.”
According to The Hill, centrist Democrats are now talking about throwing their support behind a challenger to Pelosi, with two prominent Democrats telling the outlet that they are reaching out to their colleagues about backing Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to take Pelosi’s place.
“He’s the only one prepared and positioned” to become speaker, one of them said. ” He bridges moderates and progressives better than anyone. And most importantly, he’s not Nancy Pelosi.”
Jeffries immediately ‘shot down’ the idea, saying that he’s focused on keeping his spot as one of Pelosi’s top lieutenants.
Heading into the polls, Pelosi enjoyed the overwhelming support of her caucus — facing no threat of a Speakership challenge — and Democratic leaders were eyeing big gains to their majority, with some estimates in the double digits.
But the early returns revealed a different reality: Not only did Democrats lose a number of their most vulnerable members, they had not picked off a single Republican incumbent heading into Wednesday evening.
The results immediately emboldened Republican leaders, who accused Pelosi and her party of being out of touch with the country. And Democrats on and off of Capitol Hill were left licking their wounds and questioning the strategic decisions that guided their party’s message throughout the campaign.
“Pelosi needed to hammer Trump but instead she chose to let him slide,” said one former senior Democratic aide. “Last night should have been a bloodbath for Republicans.” –The Hill
Perhaps Democrats should have mentioned their crowning achievement – Trump’s impeachment – even once during the election. Instead they mysteriously swept it under the rug.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3k0a2hK Tyler Durden
