(WND)—It is an election year. The U.S. House passes a “bipartisan” bill to restrict personal freedom, and it is hailed as a giant step to protect democracy.
Congress apparently hopes to restructure TikTok by force of law. Wednesday the House passed a bill effectively banning the app. Meanwhile, Microsoft records every keystroke on every computer using its operating system and app software. Not only does it collect any data it wishes to collect, Microsoft reviews the user files, manipulates those files for Microsoft’s financial gain, and exposes everyone’s files to governments and to other private users.
Yet many in Congress are upset the Chinese are “poisoning young people’s minds.” Perhaps the Congress ought to apply a constitutional standard to everyone. That would mean we are safe in our homes and in our personal papers from unreasonable search and seizure, and freedom of the press is allowed to reign.
Microsoft defaults everything its software touches to OneDrive. Even if the user uninstalls the OneDrive software, the default persists. To file a document on your own computer, you must override OneDrive each and every time, and any attempt to add that same document in a second file defaults back to OneDrive.
OneDrive constantly searches your computer and any external storage devices. Proof of that is demonstrated by its overzealous “Memories of this day” self-promotion. OneDrive collects your personal photographs and randomly drops a few images into a formatted layout. Not only is this an egregious violation of one’s privacy, it is dangerous. Personal photographs are kept personal for reasons known only to the owner.
Microsoft is not protecting your pictures by only sending them to you. Often their “Memories of the day” includes people and photographs that are not in your storage files. Maybe some pervert somewhere is “enjoying” a photograph of your wife as you read this. Microsoft is promoting Microsoft using your photographs and the photographs of your neighbors or those of some Iranian. Who knows?
Let’s consider the obvious. Lots of people have been married more than once. As a consequence, there may be photo files of the ex-wife with children, so do we really want Microsoft constantly sending your spouse photographs of the ex-spouse? Do we want to take a tour of our neighbor’s private pictures courtesy of Microsoft? There may be a photograph in your file taken when you were more than 50 pounds overweight. You keep it as a reminder. Do you need it flashed across the world by a software company?
Another example of the one world controlled by Microsoft is the constant parade of pop-up boxes. A recent pop-up said it tracked the user and found its involuntary inquiries were not used. So it asked if it should be deleted. We are all happy to eliminate computer clutter, but why does Microsoft record and analyze every keystroke on every computer it controls in the world?
The most often heard rebuttal of this and other invasions of privacy is “I’ve got nothing to hide,” and that works until suddenly you do have something to hide, or at a minimum, not promote. That is when you realize you have no choice. It is up to Microsoft … or the government. Microsoft, Google and others have designed a system for their benefit, not yours.
The spectacle of Congress berating TikTok and the Communist Party of China while we allow American companies to steal the same information at will, is offensive. But the legal precedent is important. First control TikTok.
Before we go all self-righteous over TikTok and propaganda aimed at children, let’s look at the propaganda we routinely allow.
After the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, there was a dramatic shift in television advertising content. Suddenly, it seemed 90% of the actors hired to perform in advertising were black. Homosexual couples in sexual embrace were common, and obese women were preening and bouncing about enthusiastically. The only time a white male actor lands an advertising gig, it is to play the idiot to the ever-suffering, eye-rolling woman in his life. She, of course, will be laboring over a hot computer while he stands before her, spatula in hand, awaiting her dinner order.
There it is. The entire Democrat Party social agenda paraded every 10 minutes on every channel as the epitome of American life. Demur and you are evil, wicked, bad and nasty.
So Congress is going to save us from China’s TikTok – but who is going to save us from the Advertising Council? Republican Speaker Mike Johnson was all in to pass the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
OK. But America is drowning in propaganda of its own making.
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Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
