Paul Chesser, Author at National Legal & Policy Center

Senators Turn Up the Heat on BlackRock Over China Investments

Posted on June 17, 2020June 17, 2020 by Paul Chesser

Following an effort by National Legal and Policy Center to urge the world’s largest investment firm to divest its customers’ money from 137 companies based in communist China, two Senators have also turned up the pressure.

In a letter dated Monday, Republican Sens. Martha McSally and Kevin Cramer – of Arizona and North Dakota, respectively – asked BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to explain apparent inconsistencies in the company’s approach to managing its funds. Specifically, the senators wanted to know why BlackRock’s U.S. investments are held to a higher standard as it pertains to appeasing activist investors with a progressive agenda, as opposed to its holdings in foreign companies that do not comply with minimal legal and auditing standards.

Fink has led his firm into the decision-making of the U.S. companies where BlackRock has its investments, voting “on 18,758 shareholder proposals and participated in 2,269 shareholder … Read More ➡

Tech Giants Bankroll Extremists; Fuel False Narrative

Posted on June 5, 2020June 5, 2020 by Paul Chesser

Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of an out-of-control Minneapolis police officer, and demonstrations mixed with riots across the country, many American corporations weighed in with official statements or financial support for causes – or both.

Unfortunately the involvement of some put them more on the side of divisiveness than unity, at a time when the country needs the latter the most.

Ultimately many of the companies and/or their top-ranking officers got behind (again) the dubious narrative that there is “systemic racism” in law enforcement, and that minorities are disproportionately treated as suspects – or singled out for violent police tactics – more than whites. As Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald and former US Attorney Andrew McCarthy explained earlier this week, citing very convincing statistics, the idea there is structural bias in policing is a myth.

“However sickening the video of Floyd’s … Read More ➡

Antifa’s Call to Violence Gets Free Rein on Twitter While Trump is Censored

Posted on June 1, 2020June 1, 2020 by Paul Chesser

Twitter has twice muted the voice of prolifically tweeting President Donald Trump with a “fact-check” and another shielded post where he allegedly “glorified” violence against the thuggish rioters in Minneapolis (which he didn’t).

But groups and individuals who identify with Antifa, the anarchists who agitate for violence and destruction — most recently following the excessive police force death of George Floyd in Minneapolis — have been allowed to spread their destructive messages on Twitter.

Sure, the platform suspended the account of one such group, but dozens — if not hundreds — more spout their disruptive anarchist garbage on the site, provoking followers to violent resistance against authorities.

Twitter’s rules explicitly state:

You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence. Learn more about our violent threat and glorification of violence policies…You may not threaten or

… Read More ➡

Investment in Chinese Companies Explodes as an Issue; BlackRock on the Spot

Posted on May 14, 2020May 14, 2020 by Paul Chesser

Donald Trump/PHOTO: Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons

President Trump said this morning in a Fox Business interview with Maria Bartiromo that he is “looking at” the question of Chinese companies listed on American exchanges. His comment came a day after National Legal and Policy Center asked the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to divest its customers’ holdings in 137 Chinese companies listed on American stock exchanges.

Earlier this week, agencies of the United States government took a similar step. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which manages retirement savings for government employees and military, announced that it would freeze its plan to invest in Chinese stocks this year. The decision came at the urging of officials in the Trump administration and from members of Congress, who do not want to see the communist nation rewarded with American investments following its mishandling and cover-up of the release … Read More ➡

‘Plandemic’ Documentary Makers Outfox YouTube Censorship

Posted on May 8, 2020May 12, 2020 by Paul Chesser

A brilliant method has been discovered to get massive PR for your documentary: Carve out a compelling 25-minute clip; Encourage everyone to upload it everywhere on the Internet, for free; Warn that Big Tech media companies (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) will almost certainly take it down – and then watch them remove it!

That counterintuitive approach worked magnificently with a segment of “Plandemic,” a documentary scheduled for full release this summer, produced by filmmaker Mikki Willis through his small company called Elevate.

The portion of the feature that Willis made available for upload consisted (in entirety) of an interview with virologist Judy Mikovits, a PhD scientist who – among other things – claims that patent incentives are a conflict of interest, and that Dr. Anthony Fauci – director of National Institutes of Allergy and Infectiousness Diseases at the National Institutes … Read More ➡

COVID Empowers Google, Facebook & Twitter Censors

Posted on May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by Paul Chesser

The Wuhan virus has presented the left-leaning Big Tech companies yet another opportunity to burnish their reputations for censorship of conservatives and independent thinkers.

They have seized that opportunity.

To be sure, Google/YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have allowed much speech and activity on their platforms that dissents from official government advisories and loyal liberal orthodoxy to such. But whatever the techs’ standards are, they are applied inconsistently.

The latest, largest, and likely most egregious example is a video interview with two Bakersfield, Calif. physicians, Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, by KERO-TV, in which the medical professionals expressed skepticism about the threat of the virus to the public, following their own experiences and analysis of various data about the disease. After earning more than 5 million views in just a few days, and getting the broader attention of the national media, Google-owned … Read More ➡

Zuckerberg Quashes Dissent About Social Distancing on Facebook

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 by Paul Chesser

If you are among the thousands of Americans who advocate for the reopening of the economy of your state from lockdown measures by governors, and you also believe social distancing guidelines are not the best health policy to attack the Chinese coronavirus, then Mark Zuckerberg thinks you should be censored on Facebook.

That’s what came out of an interview the social media CEO gave George Stephanopoulos of ABC News on Monday’s “Good Morning America,” in which Zuckerberg said he had an army of “fact-checkers” at the ready to censor what his teams deem as “harmful misinformation.”

“How do you deal with the fact that Facebook is now being used to organize a lot of these protests to defy social distancing, and defy the social distancing guidelines in the states?” Stephanopoulos asked. “If someone is trying to organize something like that, does that qualify as harmful information?”

“Certainly, … Read More ➡

Yet Another ‘Progressive’ Starbucks Policy is Costing It Business

Posted on April 16, 2020April 16, 2020 by Paul Chesser

Two years ago, National Legal and Policy Center’s Carl Horowitz foretold that policies implemented by Starbucks, in response to a nationwide uproar over an incident in a Philadelphia store, “will not work.”

Horowitz emphasized the failures of mandatory diversity training, which the company imposed on employees across its more than 8,000 locations in May 2018, while shutting down business for the day. The action was taken following a conflict in an upscale neighborhood store, in which two black men waited for a friend at a table, and were denied access to the Starbucks’s restroom because they had yet to purchase anything, were then arrested for refusing to leave.

“I’m embarrassed, ashamed,” said then-CEO Howard Schultz – a liberal who briefly contemplated running for president this year – at the time. “I think what occurred was reprehensible at every single level. I think I … Read More ➡

Viruses and Transgenders: Twitter Reveals More of Its Double Standards

Posted on April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 by Paul Chesser

Twitter’s bias and inconsistencies in applying its rules and standards are getting ridiculous.

While Chinese government mouthpiece Zhao Lijian – who accused the U.S. military of being the source of the Wuhan virus outbreak – remains on the platform spouting propaganda, American users are being censored or shut down over alleged coronavirus “misinformation,” and for running afoul of the Left’s transgender agenda.

Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, who have become online celebrities with their entertaining pro-Trump duologues as “Diamond and Silk,” found their account blocked Wednesday after Twitter said they violated their rules, because they supposedly misled the public about public policy and how people should respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The only way we can become immune to the environment; we must be out in the environment,” the rule-breaking tweet said. “Quarantining people inside of their houses for extended periods will make people sick!”

Seriously? … Read More ➡

Trump & Biden Go to War Over Twitter’s Biased ‘Manipulation’ Labeling

Posted on March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 by Paul Chesser

With the first implementation of a new policy that purports to promote transparency in labeling videos that have been edited in ways that could be deceptive or misleading, Twitter couldn’t have succeeded better in making transparent its own liberal bias.

Last weekend the social media platform marked a video posted by White House social media director Dan Scavino, and retweeted by President Trump, as “manipulated media.” The label had never before been used, although Twitter warned that it was coming.

The video showed a clip of a speech by Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden in his own stumbling words, which were cropped to make it appear he was endorsing Trump. The Democratic National Committee called attention to Twitter that the video was “manipulated,” according to The Daily Beast, and Twitter immediately slapped the label on it.

“This is an example of our ongoing disinformation work, … Read More ➡