Friday, March 29, 2024

Big Tech Draws Up Private Compact to Reduce AI Election Inteference.

Some of the largest technology and social media companies in the world have agreed to a private compact in what they say is an effort to combat the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to disrupt the over 40 national elections being held around the world in 2024. Technology executives gathered in Munich, Germany, for a security conference and announced the voluntary framework on Friday. Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok were among the signatories.

The compact doesn’t commit signatories to any specific actions but does lay out strategies they intend to use to publicly identify AI-generated videos and images “that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election.” It states companies will share best practices, but the compact does not commit them to banning or removing deepfakes or other altered content.

Ahead of the summit, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, stated: “Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own.” Meta is the parent company of social media giants Facebook and Instagram.

GOVERNMENT COLLUSION.

Concerns over deepfakes and other AI-altered content have increased as the nascent technology has rapidly improved over the last year. However, the compact also raises concerns about possible ongoing collusion between governments and technology companies aimed to censor citizens’ speech. Over the past year, there have been numerous instances of the U.S. and foreign governments pressuring social media companies to remove unfavorable content.

Last summer, a federal judge ordered the Biden government to cease communications with social media platforms for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

Discuss
More From The Pulse

DATA: 74% of Hispanics Support Use of ‘Illegal’ to Describe Laken Riley’s Killer.

The vast majority of Hispanics support labeling Laken Riley’s killer — Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra — ‘illegal.’ A significant majority of Hispanics also disapprove of Biden’s performance as President.

When Joe Biden used the term ‘illegal’ to describe Ibarra during his State of the Union address, it was followed by an outcry from far-left extremists in the Democratic Party and pro-illegal immigration advocates across the country. However, nearly three-quarters of Hispanics — 74 percent — believe it was appropriate for Joe Biden to use the term, according to a recent Harvard/Harris poll.

A majority of Hispanics — 63 percent — also believe that the border crisis is getting worse. Seventy-one percent of Hispanics think that the Biden government must do more to make it harder for illegals to enter the country. Sixty-nine percent of Hispanics also believe that Riley’s murder proves stricter immigration policies are necessary.

The poll also suggests that the Biden regime’s willful mishandling of the border crisis is turning support for stricter border enforcement into a bipartisan issue. Seventy percent of all voters polled believe that Riley’s murder highlighted the need for stricter immigration controls, with 84 percent of Republicans, 62 percent of Democrats, and 64 percent of swing voters agreeing.

The data also illustrates the extent to which Hispanic voters — once considered a reliable Democratic constituency — are losing faith in Biden and the Democrats. Sixty-eight percent of Hispanics disapprove of the job Biden is doing on the economy overall, and 70 percent disapprove of his handling of inflation.  Sixty-five percent disapprove of his handling of foreign affairs, and 63 percent disapprove of his handling of immigration.

show less
The vast majority of Hispanics support labeling Laken Riley’s killer — Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra — ‘illegal.’ A significant majority of Hispanics also disapprove of Biden’s performance as President. show more
Source
Discuss

South Carolina Finds $2BN in Bank Account, Doesn’t Know Where It’s From.

The state of South Carolina has discovered roughly $1.8 billion in a bank account accrued over the past decade, with no clear understanding of its origin or intended recipients.

Republican State Senator Larry Grooms from South Carolina, who is leading a Senate panel investigation into the matter, likened the situation to a bank having money in its vault without knowing who it belongs to. The discovery of the large sum comes amid other concerns over the state’s financial records following the 2020 resignation of the state’s top accountant, elected Republican comptroller general Richard Eckstrom, after a $3.5 billion accounting blunder.

The investigation, currently tackled by state and private accountants, is focused on uncovering whence the huge sum came and why state officials never addressed the issue.

With records showing the origins of the $1.8 billion yet to surface, the situation casts a shadow on the state’s financial integrity. However, as Republican Governor Henry McMaster optimistically put it, “The good news is no money was lost.” Furthermore, elected Republican Treasurer Curtis Loftis was reportedly able to make nearly $200 million in interest by investing the money from the mysterious account.

Following the discovery of the mystery money, a constitutional amendment has been approved by the Senate to have the comptroller general be an appointed — rather than elected — position. The proposal is now pending a vote from the House.

South Carolina‘s accounting troubles can be traced back to multiple historical issues. However, given the significant amount of money lying unclaimed, ongoing investigations are essential to clarify the money’s origins.

show less
The state of South Carolina has discovered roughly $1.8 billion in a bank account accrued over the past decade, with no clear understanding of its origin or intended recipients. show more
Discuss

Sadiq Khan Lights London with ‘Happy Ramadan’ Displays over Holy Week and Easter Weekend.

London’s public spaces are being festooned with ‘Happy Ramadan’ lights through Holy Week and Easter weekend, the most important holiday period for Christians.

Ramadan, a period of fasting in Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Islamic faith, moves in line with the moon each year. This year, it overlaps with Holy Week and Eastertide and appears to be taking precedence over them, despite the United Kingdom’s status as a constitutionally Christian country.

London’s Ramadan displays, now in their second year, adorn the key locations in the West End, including Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, and Oxford Street. Khan, of the left-wing Labour Party, personally switched on the lights earlier this month.

The choice of decoration, funded by the Aziz Foundation set up by billionaire property magnate Asif Aziz, has drawn criticism from some Conservatives.

“The thing I would question is this: there has been a Ramadan celebration in the window of Westminster city hall. But I just wonder if the Easter one is going up very soon? Easter is one of the most important Christian festivals of the year but what are [the Labour-run municipal government] doing to celebrate it?” he asked.

“I am not aware they are. I suspect the window display is not going to change.”

Some have also noted the Ramadan decorations are going up at a time when London is gripped by anti-Israel protests every weekend, with some featuring open calls for jihad.

show less
London’s public spaces are being festooned with ‘Happy Ramadan’ lights through Holy Week and Easter weekend, the most important holiday period for Christians. show more
Source
Discuss

Inflation Comes for Chocolate Prices.

As Easter weekend approaches, cocoa futures have reached record-breaking highs due to an escalating supply shortage. The crisis has left chocolate manufacturers desperately searching for new sources of cocoa beans.

Increasing demand saw cocoa futures in New York climb to as high as $10,047 per ton on Tuesday — marking an increase of approximately 4.1 percent on the session. The price of cocoa has significantly increased over the past week and is currently up 150 percent since the start of the year.

One of the key drivers of the cocoa bean shortage is the ongoing agricultural crisis in Ghana. A failure of cocoa crops has left the Ghana Cocoa Board unable to secure foreign financing to pay farmers due to a lack of beans, which are used as collateral.

The cocoa market was already grappling with weak harvests due to adverse weather conditions and crop diseases across West Africa, the globe’s primary cocoa-growing area. Due to the upsurge in cocoa pricing, consumers will likely pay higher prices for cocoa-based products, including chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies. Commodities market analysts also warn that by Easter 2025, the cost of chocolate may surge even higher if cocoa-tree diseases, inclement weather, and elevated sugar prices continue to exacerbate the deficit.

Elevated prices driven by inflation and supply-chain breakdowns continue to dog the Biden government as the Democrat President kicks off his re-election bid in earnest. Two key indices monitored by the Federal Reserve have shown an acceleration in the rate of inflation in the U.S. In February, Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that high prices for American consumers are likely here to stay.

show less
As Easter weekend approaches, cocoa futures have reached record-breaking highs due to an escalating supply shortage. The crisis has left chocolate manufacturers desperately searching for new sources of cocoa beans. show more
Source
Discuss

13.7 Million Illegals So Far Under Biden, Proving Trump’s Predictions Right.

New data shows that the number of illegal aliens in the United States has risen to 13.7 million under President Joe Biden, marking an increase of 37 percent. In addition, the total foreign-born population in the U.S. was an estimated 51.4 million in February 2024, a new record high. The number of foreign-born individuals in the country has increased by 6.4 million since Biden took office in January 2021.

In October, President Trump told The National Pulse exclusively that he believed Biden would preside over the importation of upwards of 15 million illegals. The new data shows Trump is likely to end up almost exactly correct by the end of the Biden term.

An average of 172,000 legal and illegal immigrants arrived in the U.S. each month under President Biden. However, the data — from the Center for Immigrant Studies (CIS) and based on the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) — may not fully account for the number of illegal aliens in the country.

The National Pulse previously reported that a retired immigration judge uncovered evidence that the Biden government has released over 100,000 illegals into the U.S. each month. This suggests the Census Bureau’s survey may be drastically undercounting the number of illegal aliens entering the country.

A bulk of the immigrant arrivals into the U.S. under Biden have come from Latin America — although other data suggests that  African, Middle Eastern, and Asian illegal aliens are beginning to comprise greater shares of those encountered by border agents. Additionally, among the 6.4 million who’ve entered the U.S. in the past three years, 44 percent lack having attained an education level beyond high school.

Immigrants now comprise 15.5 percent of the U.S. population. Last year, the Census Bureau released an estimate stating the U.S. wouldn’t hit that number until 2040. Under former President Donald Trump, just 42,000 immigrants were entering the U.S. each month — with the number trending on a decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Obama government saw 76,000 immigrants entering the country monthly.

show less
New data shows that the number of illegal aliens in the United States has risen to 13.7 million under President Joe Biden, marking an increase of 37 percent. In addition, the total foreign-born population in the U.S. was an estimated 51.4 million in February 2024, a new record high. The number of foreign-born individuals in the country has increased by 6.4 million since Biden took office in January 2021. show more
Source
Discuss

Jan 6 Defendant Released.

January 6 defendant Kevin Seefried of Laurel, Delaware, has been granted early release from prison after the Supreme Court agreed to take up a relevant appeal.

Seefried was handed a three-year prison term for “obstruction of an official proceeding,” with additional periods of one year and six months on misdemeanor charges.

The obstruction charge is at the center of the Supreme-Court-approved case Fischer v. United States, which questions the novel way Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has used it to prosecute many Jan 6 protestors.

While the DOJ argues the disruption of the 2020 election’s certification caused by protestors amounted to obstruction of an official proceeding, the relevant laws were passed in the wake of the Enron scandal. They were not intended to target protestors, but people who doctored and destroyed documents to sabotage an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Should Fischer succeed in the Supreme Court, a large number of protestors tried on obstruction of an official proceeding charges could be freed. Moreover, “conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding” and “obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding” are among the charges special prosecutor Jack Smith has leveled at Donald Trump, and Fischer‘s success could cut the case against the former president “in half.”

Years on from 2021, Jan 6 prosecutions are accelerating rather than decelerating. Prosecutors are targeting protestors for increasingly minor offenses, including MAGA influencer Isabella DeLuca, whose alleged crime is touching a table that was later passed out of a broken window.

show less
January 6 defendant Kevin Seefried of Laurel, Delaware, has been granted early release from prison after the Supreme Court agreed to take up a relevant appeal. show more
Source
Discuss

Finally, A Win for Election Integrity!

Republicans won a major battle over election integrity in Pennsylvania yesterday, as three Democrat judges voted in favor of signature verification for mail-in voting.

The details: The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which is made up of three Democrat-appointed judges, ruled 2-1 to overturn a lower court’s previous ruling that said the state could not enforce a “dated signature requirement” for mail-in ballots.

Back up: In November 2022, the RNC sued to ensure signature verification, and the state Supreme Court ruled in their favor. But this past November, a federal court struck down that ruling, leading to this most recent appeal and judgment…

The 3rd Circuit declared: “The Pennsylvania General Assembly has decided that mail-in voters must date the declaration on the return envelope of their ballot to make their vote effective… thus, failure to comply renders a ballot invalid under Pennsylvania law.”

Big picture: In 2020, Pennsylvania saw 2,637,065 votes cast by mail-in ballot. And according to the official tally, Joe Biden won by roughly 80,000 votes.

  • Translation: Even the slightest amount of mail-in voter fraud could have been the deciding factor in that race.

Pennsylvania is critical. If it’s going to allow vote-by-mail, then having signature verification is a major step toward ensuring the upcoming election is secure.

This article is adapted from the free ‘Wake Up Right’ newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

show less
Republicans won a major battle over election integrity in Pennsylvania yesterday, as three Democrat judges voted in favor of signature verification for mail-in voting. show more
Source
Discuss

DATA: Trump Ally Alex Bruesewitz Opens 20-Point Lead In Wisconsin Primary.

Early polling of the election to replace retiring Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) shows Alex Bruesewitza staunch ally of former President Donald Trump — holding a commanding lead. Bruesewitz comes in at 36 percent, with State Sen. André Jacque at 15 percent, and Roger Roth — rumored to be backed by Gallagher — at 12 percent among Republican primary voters. An additional 36 percent of Wisconsin Republicans remained undecided.

The poll — conducted by the former Vivek Ramaswamy campaign pollster, Cygnal — indicates 64 percent of Republican primary voters in the district would prefer a candidate who wasn’t a career politician. This sentiment could favor Bruesewitz, who hasn’t held elected office before. Meanwhile, both Jacque and Roth have had long tenures as elected officials.

During his 2022 run for Lt. Governor, Roth — the son of former nine-term Congressman Toby Roth (R-WI) — declined to endorse former President Trump’s running again in 2024. Roth implied that if the former President ran, he’d divide the Republican Party and face stiff primary competition.

Gallagher announced he would retire early last week. According to the Wisconsin Republican, his retirement will take effect on April 19 — placing it too close to the general election for a special election to be held. The seat will remain empty then until November.

Responding to Gallagher’s underhanded decision to prevent a special election, Bruesewitz posted on X (formerly Twitter): “If Mike Gallagher doesn’t do the right thing and resign by April 2nd, the people of Wisconsin hope [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene] introduces a resolution to EXPEL him from Congress!”

Several of Gallagher’s House Republican colleagues have floated the idea of moving to expel him from Congress before mid-April so that a special election can still be held.

show less
Early polling of the election to replace retiring Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) shows Alex Bruesewitz — a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump — holding a commanding lead. Bruesewitz comes in at 36 percent, with State Sen. André Jacque at 15 percent, and Roger Roth — rumored to be backed by Gallagher — at 12 percent among Republican primary voters. An additional 36 percent of Wisconsin Republicans remained undecided. show more
Source
Discuss

Here’s How Mass Migration is Threatening America’s Food Security.

Animal health experts are warning that mass illegal immigration is threatening the United States’ food supply. Since 2021, authorities recorded an estimated nine million encounters with undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. These illegal aliens are rarely subject to any meaningful health checks and carry with them a variety of diseases.

“These people are just destroying our country. And our food supply is going to be a real critical issue,” Dr. Michael Vickers, a veterinarian who served on the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), told The Epoch Times.

Vickers highlighted the fact that thousands of cattle in Texas were slaughtered after being infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). The source of these infections was the illegal aliens who worked at the affected dairies. Vickers noted that “people from Central America and beyond” milk “[m]ost of the dairy herds in the United States.”

In two cases, a combined 23,000 cattle were infected with TB. Investigators discovered that the TB strains were human and originated outside of the U.S. Twelve illegal aliens working with the herds were infected with TB, Vickers said.

Vickers also expressed concerns that the ongoing border crisis risks a severe New World screwworm epidemic. New World screwworm cases are surging in Central America, and last year, the USDA had to provide emergency funding to foreign farmers to combat outbreaks.

While the threat the ongoing border crisis poses to Americans is often evident, few realize how dangerous unfettered migration is to the U.S. food supply. Biden’s ‘newcomers‘ strain public resources, commit crime, and carry disease. Now those diseases risk destroying the country’s food supply.

show less
Animal health experts are warning that mass illegal immigration is threatening the United States’ food supply. Since 2021, authorities recorded an estimated nine million encounters with undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. These illegal aliens are rarely subject to any meaningful health checks and carry with them a variety of diseases. show more
Discuss

Impeachment Articles Against DHS Sec Mayorkas Will Be Sent to Senate on April 10.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has formally notified Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that he will transmit the articles of impeachment for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on April 10. The House Speaker encouraged the Democrat Senate leader to promptly hold a trial for Mayorkas, whom the House of Representatives impeached in mid-February.

“We call upon you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to hold this trial. The American people demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability fwilor those responsible,” Johnson’s letter concludes. “To table articles of impeachment without ever hearing a single argument or reviewing a piece of evidence would be a violation of our constitutional order and an affront to the American people whom we all serve.”

Several other House Republicans signed the letter, including Reps. Mark Green (R-TN), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Clay Higgins (R-LA), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). The signers represent various factions within the House Republican Caucus, underscoring that its members remain unified in their push to remove Mayorkas from office for his dereliction of duty in allowing the border invasion to continue unabated.

Senate Democrats have signaled they may table the impeachment articles without a final up-or-down vote. The move, Sen. Schumer appears to believe, would help protect several vulnerable Democrat Senators who are up for re-election this November, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Bob Casey (D-PA). Immigration and the ongoing border crisis have become a top campaign issue this election cycle.

READ:

show less
House Speaker Mike Johnson has formally notified Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that he will transmit the articles of impeachment for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on April 10. The House Speaker encouraged the Democrat Senate leader to promptly hold a trial for Mayorkas, whom the House of Representatives impeached in mid-February. show more
Source
Discuss