Important: Amazon Reverses Some Book Bans

From the Christian Post via FR--Amazon reverses ban on book helping parents rescue kids from transgenderism after pushback:

The online retail giant blocked the book Desist, Detrans, & Detox: Getting Your Child Out of the Gender Cult by Maria Keffler, the co-founder of the recently-formed Partners for Ethical Care, from being sold on its platform six days after its publication.

The book's removal comes on the heels of a similar move earlier this year when Amazon scrubbed scholar Ryan Anderson's book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, which had until recently been allowed on the platform since its initial publication in 2018. Last summer, Amazon also prohibited the publisher of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by journalist Abigail Shrier from purchasing ads to promote the book.

Keffler told The Christian Post in a phone interview on Wednesday that she wasn't surprised Amazon blocked her book, though she had hoped it would last longer than six days.

"We fully expected it to happen. We knew it was going to. We decided to launch it on multiple platforms because we expected it to be canceled. And so that's why we also put it on Smashwords as well as Lulu, a print platform," Keffler said.

Shortly after CP's interview with Keffler Wednesday, the author said that the online retailer sent her an email, which she shared with CP, explaining that the scrubbing of the book was an "error." The Kindle version went live and the paperback version should be reactivated soon. Amazon had previously told her that the book had violated their terms of service, which she challenged.

In a subsequent email to CP, Keffler said it was possible that "a calling and emailing onslaught may have affected the outcome" as "lots and lots of people were contacting Amazon to complain."

I checked at Amazon. When Harry Became Sally isn't available, but the other two are. There's more at the link.

The importance of this is a reminder to avoid defeatism. 

We Will Crush You

If one thing has become clear during these early days of the Zhou Baiden regime, it's that the new regime is determined to crush all dissenting voices that might oppose the regime's agenda. Not surprisingly, that effort is starting on Capitol Hill, guarded now by the New Army of the Potomac--the National Guard units that are the regime's occupying force in the Imperial City on the Potomac. There can be little doubt that Nancy Pelosi's January Sixth Commission will be targeting GOP legislators, given that Pelosi's hand picked witchhunt leader has openly called for the likes of Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz to be "run out of DC" for their alleged role.

But all the forces at the regime's command are being marshalled to solidify power and control. Most chillingly, perhaps, is How the Biden Administration is Politicizing the Military. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made it absolutely clear that the U.S. military’s top priority is not facing external threats, ...  Instead, Austin sees the main threat as coming from within the U.S. military. In his confirmation hearings, Austin said that he would make it his priority to combat racism and extremism in the United States military. ...

 

Can you say "purge"? Any pretense that the national defense will be a bipartisan endeavor has been cast aside:

The Face Of America To The World?

Imagine if Trump, after his election, had allowed giant corporate mega supporters of his campaign to basically declare war on a foreign ally. Do you think we'd be hearing about it from the Dems?

And yet that's pretty much what has happened. Facebook has declared war on our Five Eye ally Australia. That actually happened after days of digital saber rattling from Google, as well. Big Tech is outraged because the government of Oz want to require them to pay local Aussie publishers for using their content. Via Zerohedge:

Furious Aussies React To "Zero Warning" Facebook Ban On News Content

The pushback and reaction to Facebook's drastic 'retaliation' on the Australian government has been fierce from both officials and the broader public in the hours following the Wednesday decision of the US-based social media platform to block all news sharing on the continent. Australian officials are warning that Facebook's actions are severely damaging the ability to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Facebook announcement came a day after on Tuesday the current session of parliament vowed to implement the so-called "News Media Bargaining Code" by end of next week. The controversial legislation will force major US-based internet companies to begin paying local Australian publishers for use of their content. Aussies are now barred from posting, sharing or even viewing news content on Facebook whatsoever in a move that Google had previously threatened with its search engine. 

Where is the Zhou Baiden regime on this? Is this the Face(book) of America to the world--the face of a bully nation that's run by rapacious Deep State connected corporate giants? For better or worse--very much worse, in my view--that's the reality. Not a good look, for the supposedly most powerful democracy in the world--it's not as if other countries aren't watching and taking note of it all. Of course, they're all probably wondering who to talk to, since Zhou himself is, apparently, snoozing in front of the OO fireplace with his dogs.

Who's running this clown show in the Imperial City on the Potomac?

Briefly Noted: When Corporations Are Big Brother

Michael Snyder has a nice piece that's been republished at Zerohedge:  When Corporations Become More Powerful Than The Government, Our Definition Of "Big Brother" Needs To Change. He's working off a op-ed at Newsweek by Orin Hatch, Reining in the Techno-Oligarchy. Both are worth looking at, if only to solidify your perspective on the state of the public square. While neither Snyder nor Hatch quite explicitly state that Big Business is pushing a specific ideology, it's implicit in the singling out of conservative voices for canceling. Thus, when Big Business becomes Big Brother what happens is that they acquire the power to advance a well defined ideological agenda, but without the nuisance of having to be elected.

The problem is that most politicians see no incentive to rein in our corporate overlords. On the Left, politicians and big business are ideological allies. On the right, in order to get elected it's easier to scramble for crumbs under the corporate table than to spend most waking hours grubbing for small donor contributions. The politicians are owned by big business and, for most, it's a relationship that works. For them--not for America, and not for We The People with opinions, in particular.

Here's a brief excerpt from Snyder, which includes a quote from Hatch as well:

Installing totalitarianism with a convenient app

That's the come-on to an article at American Thinker this morning that everyone should read:

Crossing the Digital Rubicon

As you'll see, the article touches on themes we've been discussing with regard to Nicolle Wallaces's characterization of all who question Election 2020 and the Covid Regime as "domestic terrorists." As we noted this morning, by implication the Senate Dems are now applying that standard to Senators Hawley and Cruz. Wallace's, of course, is only one of many voices advancing these totalitarian notions for purging dissent from our public square. Who can imagine that's the end of it all, especially with what we've seen of the new ruthlessness of the Big Tech companies?

The digital Rubicon has, of course, already been crossed. The author, concentrating on the ubiquity of cell phones and especially of 'smart' phones, urges us to consider whether, in exchange for "handheld convenience", we have exchanged much of our personal lives, including "personal details, even intimate psychological profiles", for exploitation and coercion by our woke ruling Oligarchs.

Here's a brief excerpt to give you an idea of the scope of the issues:

It's Hard To Be Free

That's what the Silver Fox said to me this morning. We were discussing the calls for a permanent security fence around the US Capitol--the "People's House" as Pelosi likes to call it, except she doesn't want the people inside. Nor does she want members exercising constitutional rights inside. No word yet on whether Trump--a real expert on building security walls to keep people out--will be called in to help. And then there's the matter of what the Silver Fox calls the Standing Army of the Potomac--the same people who want We The People fenced out of the "People's House" also want a permanent presence of this new Army of the Potomac inside the Imperial City.

Nothing quite says "Unfree" like these types of very visual measures. As we discussed yesterday, it seems clear that the Globalist Left is gearing up to impose the Great Reset in America by Executive Order so far as possible, and efforts to ram other measures through Congress are only a matter of time. The bailout of bankrupt Blue jurisdictions--school districts, cities, possibly even some states--is certainly being contemplated. 'Plotted' may be the better word, since to ram this through Congress may well involve measures--as with Obamacare--that will shred what little remains of our constitutional order.

But of course there's more. The brazen censorship--for practical purposes--and increasingly the spectacle of people being fired for their ideas. Or even for their suspected ideas--did you read about the woman who was fired by a literary agency because ... she had accounts on Parler and Gab? Of course examples of this sort--going back years (think Brendan Eich, for starters)--could be multiplied. Many normals in America live underground existences, living in fear of retribution for their beliefs during their public time on the job or even just associating with anyone except their nearest and dearest. There's more than just a whiff of burning witches in the air.

Enabling this is Big Tech--most of us live in what amounts to a total surveillance state. Most Americans are spied--actually or at the least potentially--by the technology they have freely chosen to surround themselves. If you have a device with a microphone and/or camera and can be connected to the internet--it can be used against you. Your movements, of course, can be tracked--even ex-bartender AOC warned her followers not to bring phones to protests. But tracking your movements is, in many ways, the least of the surveillance. As we know so well. And yet this surveillance is largely self imposed. We've been lulled into it because it's just so convenient and, after all, isn't there a Constitution to protect us from any abuses of this Brave New Digital World? Haha! Joke's on you!

Democracy For Me But Not For Thee

That's the Dem's new coordinated ploy--Trump supporters are "endangering our Democracy." Of course, it's just another hoax--as several commenters here pointed out in the wake of the January 6 event at the Capitol. The same mantra of concern for the sacred space of the people and their reps only applied to non-Dem protestors. Among various incidents of excused Dem rioting in capitol buildings, the 2011 storming of the Wisconsin state capitol was particularly violent, but was widely and openly embraced by the Left. Why?Because at that time Scott Walker was the Republican governor of Wisconsin. Walker was a lightening rod for Dem hatred, especially because he was gaining a national following. That meant that anything would go.

Today at Fox News Yael Halon recalls the storming of the Wisconsin capitol. After noting the universal, mandatory condemnation of the January 6 event--the actual nature of which is, upon examination, becoming increasingly murky--Halon notes:

Ten years earlier, unionists stormed the Wisconsin State Capitol in an attempt to block a vote on collective bargaining reform. Thousands of demonstrators managed to enter the building by violently breaking down doors and shattering windows -- but the attack garnered much praise from Pelosi and other prominent Democrats at the time.

The occupiers were praised publically by Pelosi for their "impressive show of democracy in action." The House Speaker took to Twitter to express her "solidarity" with the activists as they attacked the Capitol, and sent senators into hiding until police managed to remove them from the building.  

Just to be sure that her views would be recorded unambiguously for posterity, Pelosi put them in writing, tweeting out:

People Are Noticing ...

And it's still early days. More signs of a rocky road--because people learn about this stuff. They don't trust the 'traditional' media and they know where to look for real news. Three very complementary views:

Irony so rich that you could serve it as dessert. https://t.co/R8eq3n9MtO

— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) January 23, 2021

I guess mail-in voting is no longer “safe and secure” now that it might be used to gore the ox of a left-wing Big Tech oligarch. https://t.co/dWtLREWhjk

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 23, 2021

But good enough to elect a president, because everyone knows at this point political power is subservient to Big Tech power. Also loooooooool. https://t.co/GEKuEsi4Tl

— Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) January 23, 2021

Stepman says it well. We know now who Rules America, and it isn't the people who are making believe. It's our Big Brother--Big Tech, with a little help from their friends in the Deep State. Problem is, the Rulers--being business guys looking to maximize their bucks no matter what their ideology--can't really hide what's going on. Wiping the WH web page and maintaining a military occupation of the Imperial City on the Potomac won't stop the subjects from figuring it all out. It's just not that complicated.