American Companies Relying More and More on CCP Ad Dollars

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

It appears the CCP continues to gain inroads into American companies in major ways, this time in advertising, where China’s rising ecommerce Empires like Temu are spending billions of dollars on ad space sold by American companies like Meta and Google. China as a client for Meta, for instance, already accounts for 10 percent of Meta’s business.

Excerpt from nytimes.com

… Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said on a call with analysts that Chinese-based advertisers accounted for 10 percent of its revenue, almost double over two years ago. In the last year, Temu has placed about 1.4 million ads globally across Google services, and at least 26,000 different versions of ads on Meta, according to Meta’s Ad Library.

… The rush of spending by Temu and Shein has “single-handedly” driven up the cost of digital advertising, Josh Silverman, chief executive of Etsy, said on a call with analysts in November.

Discount Chinese e-commerce companies have grabbed increasing attention in the United States over the past few years, tempting buyers with low-cost goods when inflation was driving up prices.

Microsoft’s Copilot Designer Creates Demonic Images for Prompt “Pro-Choice”

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

Microsoft Engineer Shane Jones wants his own company’s AI tool Copilot Designer taken offline after discovering, among other things, that the prompt “pro-choice” produced images of dagger-toothed demons consuming infants, among other dark images.

Jones has written a letter, which was highlighted by the AI tool’s interpretation of the spirit of “pro-choice,” which is a sanitized way of endorsing the practice of murdering unborn human beings, especially as a means of mitigating the consequences of sexual activity. He said of the program, “This is really not a safe model.”

Excerpt from gizmodo.com:

… When Jones prompted Designer with the phrase “pro-choice,” the AI image generator spat out images of demons with sharp teeth about to eat an infant, and blood pouring from a smiling woman. In another example, Jones prompted Designer with “car accident” and received images of sexualized women in lingerie next to violent car crashes. CNBC was able to replicate similar images, but Gizmodo was not in our testing.

… “We are committed to addressing any and all concerns employees have in accordance with our company policies and appreciate the employee’s effort in studying and testing our latest technology to further enhance its safety,” Microsoft said in a statement to Gizmodo…

Biden Wants to Build Port for Hamas

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

President Joe Biden is announcing plans to build an aid relief port on the Gaza port in a move that some see as ultimately benefitting Hamas in a military way. The port will be run by the U.S. military, meaning this war could potentially see both combatants of the war being served in some capacity by the same “ally,” America.

U.S. Court Upholds Striking Down of Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. District Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that struck down Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act, which made it illegal for companies to racially discriminate against Americans in training that suggests white people invented evil, or words to that effect.

Governor DeSantis said of the court’s ruling, “We disagree with the Court’s opinion that employers can require employees to be taught—as a condition of employment—that one race is morally superior to another race. The First Amendment protects no such thing, and the State of Florida should have every right to protect Floridians from racially hostile workplaces.”

Excerpt from afn.net:

… “By limiting its restrictions to a list of ideas designated as offensive, the Act targets speech based on its content. And by barring only speech that endorses any of those ideas, it penalizes certain viewpoints — the greatest First Amendment sin,” Circuit Judge Britt C. Grant wrote for the court. Britt was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

The law prohibits teaching or business practices that it says contend members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilt for past actions committed by others. It also bars the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race or gender, or that discrimination is acceptable to achieve diversity.

Army Man Arrested for Selling Secrets to CCP

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

U.S. Army Intelligence analyst, Sergeant Korbein Schultz, was arrested March 7, 2024 and charged with providing national defense information to China. Schultz has been allegedly sending U.S. Defense secrets to a Hong Kong contact since 2022. He allegedly made $42,000 total from the deals.

Excerpt from lebanondemocrat.com:

The Justice Department said it included information about potential US plans in the event that Taiwan came under military attack.

It also included documents related to fighter aircraft and helicopters, hypersonic equipment, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and studies about the US and Chinese military.

U.S. Court Halts Compelled Transgender Surgery on Religious Healthcare Providers

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

The North Dakota U.S. District Court struck down mandates from the Biden administration that would compel people and institutions to provide “gender affirming” surgery to patients even if it goes against their moral and/or religious convictions.

The court stated, “Performing or providing health care coverage for gender transition services under the EEOC and HHS coverage mandates impinges upon CEA’s beliefs,” the court wrote in its recent ruling. “CEA must either comply with the EEOC and HHS mandates by violating their sincerely held religious beliefs or else face harsh consequences like paying fines and facing civil liability… (but) religious freedom cannot be encumbered on a case-by-case basis.”

Biden Asking for Sharp Increases in Taxes

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

President Joe Biden plans on asking congress for $1 billion in new taxes by raising the corporate tax rate from 15 percent to 21 percent, making it over a 20 percent increase in the tax rate. He also hopes to get more revenue by creating a new 25 percent tax on Americans worth at least $100 million. He made this appeal in his SOTU Speech, claiming the tax changes are intended to force the wealthy to “pay their fair share.”

Will Congress Ban TikTok?

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

More congressmembers across the aisle have been talking about introducing legislation that would essentially force CCP-owned ByteDance to sell TikTok to non-CCP-affiliated partners or else be banned from the United States altogether. One bill might be voted on in the House as early as next week. President Trump has come out against the idea, claiming it helps Facebook, which he implies is more of a threat than TikTok is.

Canada Looks to Make Offensive Comments a Criminal Offense

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

The Canadian government, under the far-left extremist government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is looking to pass legislation called the Online Harms Act, which will make “harmful content” a criminal offense. Harmful content includes content that “foments hatred.”

Excerpt from www.fasken.com:

The Act targets seven types of online harms that it deems to be “harmful content”:

intimate content communicated without consent;

content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor;

content that induces a child to harm themselves;

content used to bully a child;

content that foments hatred

content that incites violence; and

content that incites violent extremism or terrorism.

“Intimate content communicated without consent” means a visual recording where a person is nude, exposes sexual organs or particular regions, or is engaged in explicit sexual activity, where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the person does not consent to the recording being communicated. Such content also includes a visual recording that falsely presents a person in the above manners, including deepfakes, if it is reasonable to suspect that the person does not consent to the recording being communicated.

Notably, the Act does not define hate, but does clarify that content does not incite hatred solely because it “expresses disdain or dislike or it discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends”.

Sweden Becomes a NATO Member

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

At long last, after holdouts Turkey and Hungary finally acquiesced and removed their opposition, Sweden is officially a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, which recently experienced a revival after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, perhaps characterized the nature of Sweden’s radical switch from neutrality to joining NATO, stating “one more country in Europe has become more protected from Russian evil.”

It remains a debated point as to the veracity of such claims, but, nonetheless, Europe’s perception of that “truthfulness” is largely the reason Sweden is now a member of NATO.