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Fact-Checker Laments That Twitter’s Birdwatch Feature Marked Tim Pool Tweet as True
There have already been some rumblings of “fact-checking” third-party organizations that Big Tech hires not being happy with the possibility that some social media giants are looking for ways to fact-check content natively.
Twitter and its experiment called Birdwatch is one such initiative, and — rhetoric about democracy and truth aside — it’s easy to see why the fact checking industry would dislike it: it takes away their business, and potentially waters down control over content that is exercised through them.
Now we’re seeing Poynter Institute, which is far from an impartial actor here, as it runs the fact-checking site PolitiFact and owns the International Fact-Checking Network, “intervene” to shape Birdwatch more after its own image.
This “fact-checking skirmish” involves journalist and YouTuber Tim Pool, and he called the way Poynter presented its criticism as an “absolutely incredible cultural moment.”
More from entryreqrd
Caroline Glick: One Week in Progressive America
The Democrats had a lousy week. It began with former President Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate.
Trump’s acquittal was a major blow to the Democrats. It isn’t that anyone believed Trump would be convicted. Whether Republicans love or hate the former president, the fact is that it is unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former officeholder. And for that reason alone, there was no chance that more than a smattering of Republicans would support the move.
But once their farcical trial ended, public focus moved to the Democrats — who now control both houses of Congress and the White House. True, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already planning to drag Trump back to center stage with her “January 6 Truth Commission.” But that won’t happen for several months. And in the meantime, for the first time in five years, the Democrats find themselves, and their actions, the focus of public attention.
The first casualties of the scrutiny have been the Democrat governors of the most populous Democrat-run states in the Union — Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California.
After a nearly a year in which Cuomo was lavished with adulation for his leadership of the coronavirus pandemic in New York; upheld as the future of the Democratic Party; touted as a possible candidate for Attorney General; and even won an Emmy for his press conferences, the truth has caught up with “America’s governor.”
77 views · Feb 20th
Third Stimulus Checks: Would You Get $1,400 For Each Dependent?
by Jessica McBride
Sat Feb 20 2021 12:40:29
A new proposal winding through Congress would give qualifying Americas a third COVID-19 stimulus check worth $1,400 each.
However, how much money would you get for each dependent?
According to the House Committee on Ways and Means, the proposal to give qualifying Americans a “recovery rebate, would include $1,400 for each dependent.
According to KARE11, the payments are part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan for COVID-19 relief. Biden does not have unilateral authority to get his proposal through; for that he needs Congress because the Constitution gave funding authority to that body. The plan could come to a vote in the House next week. It’s called the American Rescue Plan. It could be amended in a committee on Monday, however.
Democrats hope the plan passes though Congress by mid-March. Fox59 indicated that Biden might be willing to negotiate on some aspects of his relief plan, like the minimum wage, so get more Republican support for other portions.
Here’s what you need to know:
Although it’s a Tax Credit, the Rebates Would be Paid Out in Advance, like Stimulus Checks
According to the Ways and Means document, the plan “provides a $1,400 refundable tax credit for each family member that shall be paid out in advance payments, similar to the Economic Impact Payments in the CARES Act and Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.”
How much will people get?
The credit is $1,400 for a single taxpayer ($2,800 for joint filers), in addition to $1,400 per dependent. The credit phases out between $75,000and $100,00 of adjusted gross income ($112,500 and $150,000 for head of household filers and $150,000 and $200,000 for joint filers) proportional to the taxpayer’s income in excess of the phaseout threshold over $25,000 ($37,500 for head of household filers and $50,000 for joint filers). Thus, under this phaseout structure, the credit is reduced to zero for all taxpayers at the $100,000, $150,000 and $200,000 AGI levels (depending on filing status).”
Who Counts as a Dependent?
For purposes of this credit, “a dependent includes both children and non-child dependents,” the U.S. House document reads.
“A taxpayer is eligible for a credit with respect to any individual in the household for whom a Social Security number is associated with such individual on the tax return. Advance payments are generally not subject to administrative offset for past due federal or state debts, including offset for past-due child support.”
The document adds the following,
Treasury is directed to issue this credit as an advance payment based on the information on 2019 or 2020 tax returns. Furthermore, Treasury is given broad authority to make payments to non-filer populations based on return information available to the Secretary. Treasury shall conduct outreach to non-filers to inform them of how to file for their advance payment. Taxpayers receiving an advance payment that exceeds their maximum eligible credit based on 2021 tax return information will not be required to repay any amount of the payment to the Treasury. If a taxpayer’s 2021 tax credit exceeds the amount of the advance payment, taxpayers can claim the difference on their 2021 tax returns.
--Stimulus Checks 3: Would You Get $1,400 For Each Dependent? | Heavy.com
--https://heavy.com/news/1400-stimulus-checks-dependents/
-RETRIEVED-Sat Feb 20 2021 14:47:35 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time)
64 views · Feb 20th
The Lesson from Ted Cruz’s Cancun Trip: Never Apologize To The Mob
by Matt Palumbo
Look, I will be the first person in the world to admit that the optics of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) jetting off to Cancun in the middle of a once in a lifetime winter emergency in his home state of Texas weren’t good.
I don’t think any rationale human being would even bother to argue that the optics weren’t terrible.
Additionally, Cruz didn’t help himself by offering a series of half-explanations and half-excuses. From a purely PR perspective, Cruz completely and totally botched this – no doubt about it.
However, this over-hyped Cruz fiasco is a good reminder of two incredibly important lessons for conservatives going forward.
First, if you are a conservative who finds yourself in hot water with the mob for some half-baked reason – don’t apologize. Never, ever apologize to the mob.
Second, if you are a conservative opinion leader who sees a situation where the mob is coming for one of ours – don’t help the mob. Never, under any circumstance, should conservative thought leaders do the spadework of the left.
Cruz’s transgressions are entirely about optics. Cruz couldn’t do anything more for Texas by staying in Texas. His only sin was entirely one of perception.
Cruz, and any conservative guilty of a PR only offense, needs to understand that no amount of apologizing will appease the left-wing mob and their allies in the media.
The only real option for Cruz in this situation, once he made the decision to make this trip to Cancun, was to fight back.
Instead of offering a series of half-baked excuses and kinda-sorta apologies, Cruz should have told the left and the media to shove it. He should have focused on the fact that there was nothing more Cruz could do from Texas than he could do from a hotel in Mexico.
He should have pointed out the absolute hypocrisy of the left – Democrat after Democrat have flaunted their own COVID shutdown regulations. Cruz should make it clear that he won’t take criticism from these hypocrites.
If the shoe were on the other foot, and it was a Democratic member from Texas who flew to Cancun this wouldn’t even be a national story.
The media would actually be doing the spin for the Democrat – explaining to viewers and readers how overblown the story was and how there was nothing that the member could further do for Texas by staying in Texas.
So lesson 1 is never apologize to the mob.
Lesson 2, for conservative thought leaders, is just as important as lesson 1: in the event that someone from our side finds themselves in a “scandal” that has nothing to do with actual policy and only to do with optics – never, under any circumstances, do the work of the left by attacking one of our own.
This honestly shouldn’t be so hard to comprehend, and indeed I find it perplexing that this lesson even needs to be taught to the folks on our side. The left doesn’t need anyone to teach them this lesson.
Not only will they never participate in the character assassination of one of their own embroiled in a purely PR crisis, they’re reticent to even criticize one of their own when their actions ended up killing people (see NY Governor Andrew Cuomo).
The left realizes that the job of attacking the left is best left up to their opponents on the right.
Too many on our side, however, don’t comprehend this and rush to be the first to “condemn” someone on our side who is guilty of nothing more than offending the sensibilities of those on the left.
Almost every single time that Donald Trump said something that the left declared was offensive, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, and a hoard of spineless Republicans would rush to find a microphone or a reporter so they could “denounce” the comments.
This behavior was and is as idiotic as it is self-defeating.
Ted Cruz should probably have avoided this entire dustup by not going to Cancun to begin with – and someone on his staff should have made the case to him that the downside way outweighed the upside.
Once the decision to go was made, however, Cruz shouldn’t have apologized and no one on our side should have piled on.
We will never make the left happy. No matter how much we apologize or how often we are willing to condemn one of our own – so don’t bother trying.
116 views · Feb 20th
More from entryreqrd
Caroline Glick: One Week in Progressive America
The Democrats had a lousy week. It began with former President Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate.
Trump’s acquittal was a major blow to the Democrats. It isn’t that anyone believed Trump would be convicted. Whether Republicans love or hate the former president, the fact is that it is unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former officeholder. And for that reason alone, there was no chance that more than a smattering of Republicans would support the move.
But once their farcical trial ended, public focus moved to the Democrats — who now control both houses of Congress and the White House. True, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already planning to drag Trump back to center stage with her “January 6 Truth Commission.” But that won’t happen for several months. And in the meantime, for the first time in five years, the Democrats find themselves, and their actions, the focus of public attention.
The first casualties of the scrutiny have been the Democrat governors of the most populous Democrat-run states in the Union — Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California.
After a nearly a year in which Cuomo was lavished with adulation for his leadership of the coronavirus pandemic in New York; upheld as the future of the Democratic Party; touted as a possible candidate for Attorney General; and even won an Emmy for his press conferences, the truth has caught up with “America’s governor.”
77 views · Feb 20th
Third Stimulus Checks: Would You Get $1,400 For Each Dependent?
by Jessica McBride
Sat Feb 20 2021 12:40:29
A new proposal winding through Congress would give qualifying Americas a third COVID-19 stimulus check worth $1,400 each.
However, how much money would you get for each dependent?
According to the House Committee on Ways and Means, the proposal to give qualifying Americans a “recovery rebate, would include $1,400 for each dependent.
According to KARE11, the payments are part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan for COVID-19 relief. Biden does not have unilateral authority to get his proposal through; for that he needs Congress because the Constitution gave funding authority to that body. The plan could come to a vote in the House next week. It’s called the American Rescue Plan. It could be amended in a committee on Monday, however.
Democrats hope the plan passes though Congress by mid-March. Fox59 indicated that Biden might be willing to negotiate on some aspects of his relief plan, like the minimum wage, so get more Republican support for other portions.
Here’s what you need to know:
Although it’s a Tax Credit, the Rebates Would be Paid Out in Advance, like Stimulus Checks
According to the Ways and Means document, the plan “provides a $1,400 refundable tax credit for each family member that shall be paid out in advance payments, similar to the Economic Impact Payments in the CARES Act and Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.”
How much will people get?
The credit is $1,400 for a single taxpayer ($2,800 for joint filers), in addition to $1,400 per dependent. The credit phases out between $75,000and $100,00 of adjusted gross income ($112,500 and $150,000 for head of household filers and $150,000 and $200,000 for joint filers) proportional to the taxpayer’s income in excess of the phaseout threshold over $25,000 ($37,500 for head of household filers and $50,000 for joint filers). Thus, under this phaseout structure, the credit is reduced to zero for all taxpayers at the $100,000, $150,000 and $200,000 AGI levels (depending on filing status).”
Who Counts as a Dependent?
For purposes of this credit, “a dependent includes both children and non-child dependents,” the U.S. House document reads.
“A taxpayer is eligible for a credit with respect to any individual in the household for whom a Social Security number is associated with such individual on the tax return. Advance payments are generally not subject to administrative offset for past due federal or state debts, including offset for past-due child support.”
The document adds the following,
Treasury is directed to issue this credit as an advance payment based on the information on 2019 or 2020 tax returns. Furthermore, Treasury is given broad authority to make payments to non-filer populations based on return information available to the Secretary. Treasury shall conduct outreach to non-filers to inform them of how to file for their advance payment. Taxpayers receiving an advance payment that exceeds their maximum eligible credit based on 2021 tax return information will not be required to repay any amount of the payment to the Treasury. If a taxpayer’s 2021 tax credit exceeds the amount of the advance payment, taxpayers can claim the difference on their 2021 tax returns.
--Stimulus Checks 3: Would You Get $1,400 For Each Dependent? | Heavy.com
--https://heavy.com/news/1400-stimulus-checks-dependents/
-RETRIEVED-Sat Feb 20 2021 14:47:35 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time)
64 views · Feb 20th
The Lesson from Ted Cruz’s Cancun Trip: Never Apologize To The Mob
by Matt Palumbo
Look, I will be the first person in the world to admit that the optics of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) jetting off to Cancun in the middle of a once in a lifetime winter emergency in his home state of Texas weren’t good.
I don’t think any rationale human being would even bother to argue that the optics weren’t terrible.
Additionally, Cruz didn’t help himself by offering a series of half-explanations and half-excuses. From a purely PR perspective, Cruz completely and totally botched this – no doubt about it.
However, this over-hyped Cruz fiasco is a good reminder of two incredibly important lessons for conservatives going forward.
First, if you are a conservative who finds yourself in hot water with the mob for some half-baked reason – don’t apologize. Never, ever apologize to the mob.
Second, if you are a conservative opinion leader who sees a situation where the mob is coming for one of ours – don’t help the mob. Never, under any circumstance, should conservative thought leaders do the spadework of the left.
Cruz’s transgressions are entirely about optics. Cruz couldn’t do anything more for Texas by staying in Texas. His only sin was entirely one of perception.
Cruz, and any conservative guilty of a PR only offense, needs to understand that no amount of apologizing will appease the left-wing mob and their allies in the media.
The only real option for Cruz in this situation, once he made the decision to make this trip to Cancun, was to fight back.
Instead of offering a series of half-baked excuses and kinda-sorta apologies, Cruz should have told the left and the media to shove it. He should have focused on the fact that there was nothing more Cruz could do from Texas than he could do from a hotel in Mexico.
He should have pointed out the absolute hypocrisy of the left – Democrat after Democrat have flaunted their own COVID shutdown regulations. Cruz should make it clear that he won’t take criticism from these hypocrites.
If the shoe were on the other foot, and it was a Democratic member from Texas who flew to Cancun this wouldn’t even be a national story.
The media would actually be doing the spin for the Democrat – explaining to viewers and readers how overblown the story was and how there was nothing that the member could further do for Texas by staying in Texas.
So lesson 1 is never apologize to the mob.
Lesson 2, for conservative thought leaders, is just as important as lesson 1: in the event that someone from our side finds themselves in a “scandal” that has nothing to do with actual policy and only to do with optics – never, under any circumstances, do the work of the left by attacking one of our own.
This honestly shouldn’t be so hard to comprehend, and indeed I find it perplexing that this lesson even needs to be taught to the folks on our side. The left doesn’t need anyone to teach them this lesson.
Not only will they never participate in the character assassination of one of their own embroiled in a purely PR crisis, they’re reticent to even criticize one of their own when their actions ended up killing people (see NY Governor Andrew Cuomo).
The left realizes that the job of attacking the left is best left up to their opponents on the right.
Too many on our side, however, don’t comprehend this and rush to be the first to “condemn” someone on our side who is guilty of nothing more than offending the sensibilities of those on the left.
Almost every single time that Donald Trump said something that the left declared was offensive, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, and a hoard of spineless Republicans would rush to find a microphone or a reporter so they could “denounce” the comments.
This behavior was and is as idiotic as it is self-defeating.
Ted Cruz should probably have avoided this entire dustup by not going to Cancun to begin with – and someone on his staff should have made the case to him that the downside way outweighed the upside.
Once the decision to go was made, however, Cruz shouldn’t have apologized and no one on our side should have piled on.
We will never make the left happy. No matter how much we apologize or how often we are willing to condemn one of our own – so don’t bother trying.
116 views · Feb 20th
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