Paul Chesser

Mueller Report: Trump Believed Special Counsel Had Conflicts of Interest

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Special Counsel Robert Mueller

The legacy media (of course) has focused on all the evidence Robert Mueller considered in his report about whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice during the Russian (non)collusion investigation, questioning whether the special counsel made the right decision not to prosecute the Commander-in-Chief.

Perhaps most significant among that evidence is the claim that Trump wanted former White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller removed as special counsel, because of conflicts of interest, then asked McGahn to deny to the media that the president asked him to fire Mueller.

There are disputes in the testimony between witnesses, which is why Mueller didn’t move forward with a “prosecutorial decision” on that point (or on any other). But setting aside the analysis about what happened, and interpreting it under the law, there is one question that is not being addressed:

What about Mueller’s conflict(s) of interest?

There was… Read More ➡

More Evidence That Google CEO Pichai May Have Lied to Congress

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Google CEO Sundar Pichai

If it wasn’t already obvious that Google CEO Sundar Pichai lied to Congress in December about its censorship practices, more leaked information from inside the company should make it clear now.

Documents given to The Daily Caller show the Internet gatekeeper maintains a manually controlled blacklist against conservative websites that determines how and where their content appears in search results. The censorship is intended to filter out of top results content that runs afoul of Google’s “good neighbor” and “misrepresentation” policies.

“The deceptive_news domain blacklist is going to be used by many search features to filter problematic sites that violate the good neighbor and misrepresentation policies,” the leaked document says, later adding:

“The beginning of the workflow starts when a website is placed on a watchlist which is used for monitoring of sites to determine if they violate the Good Neighbor Policy. This watchlist is … Read More ➡

Senator Crapo Hits Big Banks for Playing Politics

Posted on by Paul Chesser

The Left has tried to sway businesses’ behavior to comply with their public policy goals through shareholder activism, and used the cudgel of law enforcement and regulation to choke off funding for businesses it disfavors, but now signs are showing from elected conservatives that they’ve had enough.

Much in the way organized progressives have attacked Fox News’ advertisers to deter them from supporting programs they disagree with politically, so also have they pressured banks and other financial institutions to persuade them to stop lending money, or providing everyday money management services, to legal businesses they oppose – think gun dealers, payday lenders, and precious metals merchants.

At the end of March, Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho – who chairs the Senate Banking Committee – notified eight major banks that he expected them to not succumb to the demands of political agitators.

“Banks serve customers who are geographically and … Read More ➡

Tim Cook Intensifies Apple Censorship Through App Store

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Apple CEO Tim Cook

Most of the time when conservatives and libertarians think of censorship by the large technology companies, the image that comes to mind is some leftwing millennial in a Silicon Valley cubicle who is blocking their article post from others’ view.

They are often told they have “violated (company’s) terms of use” or something similarly mysterious, then are left to stew without any explanation from an actual human being.

But the extermination of conservative thought from accessing the Internet is becoming more comprehensive.

The effort by the Left and the platforms they control (think Google and Apple, as well as Facebook and Twitter) has escalated from muting these voices, to cutting off their oxygen.

For a while conservatives could count on at least having equal access to Big Tech’s platforms, whether they were search engines; phone, tablet and computer operating system applications (or “apps”); or social media.… Read More ➡

Win or Lose, Nunes’s Lawsuit Could Still Be Effective Against Twitter’s Bias

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Devin Nunes/PHOTO: Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons)

The $250-million lawsuit filed in Virginia by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) – against Twitter, a handful of fake accounts on the social media platform, and a libertarian political consultant – may not succeed in court, but it may not have to.

It may be just enough to (further) expose the company’s hypocrisy and bias in the ongoing battle against censorship of conservatives by the big tech companies, which also include Facebook, Google and Apple. And it may lead to other productive actions, legal or otherwise.

Nunes, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee the last four years, was subjected to a relentless smear campaign during the 2018 election cycle – much of it in the form of tweets. Political communications strategist Liz Mair is the named consultant in his complaint, as are accounts controlled by unknown individuals that go by the Twitter handles … Read More ➡

Google Must Embrace Sexual Harassment Shareholder Proposal in Wake of Cover-Up Allegations

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Schmidt and Rubin

The revelation this week that Google made mega-payouts to two former executives accused of sexual harassment highlights the need for the adoption of a resolution by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which is a shareholder in parent company Alphabet Inc.

According to NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty, “Alphabet’s management must end the stonewall. A necessary first step is to embrace our shareholder proposal on sexual harassment.”

According to disclosures related to a civil shareholder lawsuit that alleges Google consistently hid sexual harassment and discrimination claims by employees, former Android software creator Andy Rubin was paid $90 million upon his departure, and head of search Amit Singhal was offered $45 million when he left, although the amount was reduced to $15 million because he was hired by a competitor.

Information from the lawsuit says a former employee under Rubin claimed that he pressured her into oral sex, … Read More ➡

Google, Facebook, Apple Weigh in AGAIN for DACA Amnesty

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

It is February 2019, and major corporate CEOs – who are in most cases reluctant to weigh in on controversial political issues lest they repel significant segments of their customer bases – have no hesitation advocating for the amnesty for DACA recipients, or “Dreamers.”

They have been at it since President Trump was elected.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, initiated by President Obama’s executive order in 2012, granted protections from deportation and work permits to illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children (including teenagers) and have been here five years. President Trump intended to rescind DACA in 2017 but delayed the decision to await a Congressional fix, which never happened, but now the status of the program remains as the efforts to phase it out are tied up in the courts.

In a letter addressed to the top leaders of both … Read More ➡

Netflix Tries Again to Bully North Carolina on Transgenders

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Long after North Carolina and dozens of businesses and organizations resolved a conflict over a policy to allow so-called “transgenders” (regardless of their genitalia) to use the public/business restroom of their choosing, Netflix is trying to stir up trouble again.

According to Jonas Pate, the creator of a series called “OBX” who Netflix has contracted with for an initial ten episodes, the company doesn’t want his show filmed or produced in the Tar Heel State, because a law that overrode the original “transgender bathroom” law of a couple years ago wasn’t good enough.

Pate, who lives in Wilmington, NC after 25 years in Hollywood, had his hometown in mind for location shooting. “OBX” is shorthand for “Outer Banks,” the barrier islands that stretch nearly the entire coast of North Carolina.

Pate says Netflix asked him to explore sites in South Carolina, including coastal Charleston, for potential filming – but … Read More ➡

Liberal Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Caves to Saudi Arabia

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings/PHOTO: jdlasica via Creative Commons

What is it about Silicon Valley corporations that make them want to pander to the sensitivities of oppressive dictatorships?

The answer, of course, is earnings, share price and the almighty dollar. But the recent example in which television-streaming service Netflix yanked a program critical of the oppressive Saudi Arabia regime is extreme cowardice, even for the most conflict-averse corporation.

The background: Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing journalist and Saudi dissident who was critical of the government’s intolerance of dissent, was murdered and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. International and U.S. intelligence assigned the responsibility for the killing on Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the regime has denied his involvement. Many have called for the United States to alter diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia until justice is served in Khashoggi’s death and the nation enacts reforms regarding personal … Read More ➡

LinkedIn Billionaire Funded Alabama Senate Race Deception

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Reid Hoffman/PHOTO: jdlasica via Creative Commons

A tech industry billionaire has apologized for – but claimed ignorance about – a social media scheme that gave the impression the Russians meddled on behalf of Republican Roy Moore in his failed campaign against Doug Jones, the victorious Democrat in last year’s special Senate race in Alabama.

The co-founder and executive chairman of social media website LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, backed an effort by cyber security firm New Knowledge, run by Democrat operative Jonathon Morgan, to mimic the same tactics blamed on the Russians for affecting the 2016 presidential election. About $100,000 of Hoffman’s money funded the ruse.

“The project’s operators created a Facebook page on which they posed as conservative Alabamians, using it to try to divide Republicans and even to endorse a write-in candidate to draw votes from Mr. Moore,” the New York Times reported. “It involved a scheme to link … Read More ➡