Payment processing companies are increasingly discriminating based on the political views of their customers; fair treatment must be enforced with legislation; cryptocurrency is an important potential alternative

Image from BigStockPhoto.

Various online fundraising platforms have recently blacklisted and ceased the availability of outstanding payments for the activist Robert Spencer who runs the website Jihad Watch, due to Establishment organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center falsely labeling him as a “hate group.”

Robert Spencer is an anti-Islamization activist whose name is often confused with Richard Spencer who is a neo-Nazi, although that was not the reason for the blacklisting.

An online financial payment service called “GoFundMe” has notified Robert Spencer that they are not going to reimburse him for over $3000 that he has raised on that platform.  The company told him: “It seems you’re using WePay for one or more of the activities prohibited by our Terms of Service.  Unfortunately, you can’t use WePay to accept additional payments.  Any pending payments will be canceled and you won’t be able to withdraw funds at this time.”

The actual terms in question are: “WePay is unable to process payments related to Hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism, the financial exploitation of a crime, or items or activities that encourage, promote, facilitate, or instruct others regarding the same.”

Spencer explains, “GoFundMe, like Patreon and MasterCard, allow no appeal, no discussion, no questioning of the SPLC’s fiat  …  [And it] isn’t just the SPLC; it is now taken for granted by large segments of the American population, and by innumerable people elsewhere, that to oppose jihad mass murder of innocent civilians and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others is ‘hate’.”

“I’m going to be doing what I can to challenge GoFundMe’s uncritical acceptance of the SPLC’s smear of me, and the likely same uncritical acceptance by MasterCard/Patreon.  But the SPLC has hundreds of millions of dollars and I don’t.  And many who don’t realize how vulnerable they are will applaud what is happening to me because they don’t realize or believe how easily the same tactics can and will be turned on them.  But they will be.”

A MasterCard spokesman wrote in an email to Spencer: “As part of our normal process, we share information about websites that may have illegal content with the acquirer – or merchant’s bank – that connects them to our network to accept card payments.  The acquirer would then review the site for compliance with legal requirements and our standards.  They would then determine what action to take.  In this case, the acquirer advised us that they decided to terminate acceptance.’”

.. To which Spencer laments: So to what ‘illegal content’ is MasterCard referring?  It is not (yet) illegal in the United States to criticize Islam and oppose jihad mass murder and the Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others.  It is, however, illegal to do so under Sharia.  Is MasterCard operating according to Sharia blasphemy laws now?”

SPLC spokesman Heidi Beirich said about the situation, “We want PayPal, we want Mastercard, we want all of them to stop servicing hate groups,” and she said that it was actually a group called “Color of Change” who was the driving force behind Spencer’s blacklisting.

“Color of Change” is a leftist Establishment organization that was founded by CNN’s “Van Jones.”  The same Breitbart article linked to in the previous paragraph explains that Color of Change attempted to associate Robert Spencer with white supremacists in a statement which also announced that they pushed MasterCard to “take proactive steps to stop processing payments for white supremacist groups.”  (Note— I couldn’t find that statement online, but I did find a link on their website entitled “Stop corporate funders of hate groups,” which contains only a single image of a credit card being held in front of a neo-Nazi website.  It’s interesting that the Color of Change organization is closely aligned with the “Black Lives Matter” organization, which is itself a hate group.)

 

Issues with a “Daily Beast” smear article about Robert Spencer

A leftist website called “The Daily Beast” ran a smear article gloating about the situation of Spencer being kicked off of the Patreon platform, claiming that he is a white supremacist.  Following are excepts from Spencer’s reply to the allegations:

On what aspects of my work do you base this false and libelous implication?  Can you produce even one statement from me, from 18 books, thousands of articles, and 50,000 blog posts, that gives even a hint of support for white supremacy?  Or are you just taking the SPLC’s word for it?

You claim that in my “2017 memoir that [I’m] fine with being ‘the right kind of Islamophobe.’”  Are you aware that the book in question was not actually a memoir?  Are you aware of the context of the statement, which was that I noted that any opposition to jihad terror and Sharia oppression was labeled “Islamophobic,” and stated that everyone should actually oppose jihad terror, Islamic anti-Semitism, stonings, amputations, the brutalization of women, etc., and thus become that kind of “Islamophobe”?  Surely you oppose such things yourself, don’t you?

Spencer also notes about the article’s author:  “Remember: the Nazis operated in exactly this way, first barring those they hated from holding various professions and making it impossible for them to make a living.  Sommer and his ilk are quintessential neo-fascists.”

 

ALL ONLINE CREDIT CARD PAYMENT COMPANIES DISCRIMINATE BASED ON THE POLITICAL VIEWS OF THEIR CUSTOMERS

A Breitbart article written by Allum Bokhari explains the current situation of all online credit card payment companies discriminating against activists for their political views.

Following are issues that are mentioned in the article:

Issues with fundraising platforms

— The fundraising platform Patreon doesn’t allow groups that it accuses of being associated with “hate speech,” although it has a double standard of discriminating against conservatives who don’t actually engage in hate speech while it continues to allow fundraising for leftist hate groups such as ANTIFA who even engage in violence.

— The fundraising platform Kickstarter banned the project of a Swedish academic Ann Heberlein who was raising funds to study the correlation between immigration and rape in Sweden since the government has ceased to keep records about that.

— The fundraising platform GoFundMe deleted the fundraising campaign for a Christian bakery in Oregon which was facing a $135,000 fine for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, and it also deleted campaigns for a Jamie Glazov anti-Sharia law tour, a campaign to expose Hillary Clinton’s anti-Israel sentiments, and a campaign to raise funds to protect the family of an organizer of a “Draw Muhammad” contest.

— The crowdfunding site IndieGoGo bans any campaign that “promotes hate” or “promotes hate symbols and/or hate terms on their website, as defined by the Anti-defamation league,” and it bans any gun rights related crowdfunding.  (The Anti-defamation league blames “Trump supporters” for increasing anti-Semitism.)

 

Issues with the online payment processors “PayPal” and “Stripe”

— “In order to build a fundraising platform, you need a payments processor.  And the market for payments processors is dominated by just two companies: PayPal and Stripe.  And they’re just as intolerant as the fundraising platforms.”

— The conservative activist Lauren Southern was banned from Patreon, so she set up her own fundraising platform which made use of the “Stripe” payment processor.  But after she was banned from the U.K. for distributing leaflets satirizing Islam, Stripe withdrew their service from her.

— “Stripe has also withdrawn services from FreeStartr, an alternative to Patreon and GoFundMe set up by free speech maximalist Chuck Johnson.  Johnson says the platform has also been banned by PayPal.”

— Stripe withdrew their service from FreeStartr because it had a legal defense fund for the white supremacist Richard Spencer.  Johnson says, “Everyone will think like, ‘oh it’s Richard Spencer, he can go f*** himself’ — but they shut down my entire business over his account.”  Johnson explains that his goal was to build an open, neutral platform, and not to personally endorse the people who use it.

— Johnson further explains, “My position on this is simple, it’s the same position the ACLU had in Skokie. .. Everyone has certain rights … If they need a legal defense, and people donate to it, and all the money’s legal, then I don’t see an issue with it.  People have a right to donate to controversial causes.”

— “Johnson says the platform has also been banned by PayPal.  Already notorious for freezing WikiLeaks’ account in 2011, PayPal also withdrew services from nationalist YouTuber Faith Goldy earlier this week.”

— An organization called “MakerSupport” is another alternative to Patreon that promised to allow creators to raise funds regardless of their political affiliations, but Stripe has also withdrawn their services from that platform.

— It would be nearly impossible for a conservative company to be created to compete with Stripe or Paypal because of the regulatory hurdles and the massive resources that would be needed to create such an organization.

Even banks discriminate based on political views

— “Citi, the fourth-largest bank in America, announced in March that it would withdraw its services from weapons and ammunition stores that refuse to accept a range of progressive gun control demands, none of which are mandated by U.S. law.  These included prohibitions on the sale of bump stocks and ‘high-capacity magazines.’”

Some activists are still able to make use of those services

— The dissident Canadian academic Jordan Peterson is still able to be supported by over 9,500 small donors on Patreon.

— Memories Pizza, the Indiana-based pizza parlor which was forced to close its doors after it was publicly attacked by the Establishment media for refusing to cater to gay weddings, was able to reopen after its supporters raised over $800,000 via GoFundMe.

 

LEGISLATION REQUIRING EQUAL TREATMENT BY FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANIES BASED ON POLITICAL VIEWS IS NECESSARY

The Brietbart article that was summarized in the previous section of this article explains why it would be almost impossible for a payment processor company that supports free thinking to be able to be created to compete with Stripe or Paypal:

Can a conservative competitor to Stripe or PayPal be created?  Almost certainly not.  The regulatory hurdles of setting up a payments processor, the difficulty of forging relationships with major banks, and the complexity of the technology and scarcity of talented programmers with experience in the field mean the operating and start-up costs are high.  A payments processor targeted at the niche market of former Patreon users who have since been banned from the platform will not turn a profit.  Anyone willing to set one up would have to be willing to burn a lot of money.  Much like competing with Google or Apple, it’s easier said than done.”

Moreover, a PayPal or Stripe competitor would still be dependent on business relationships with banks and credit card providers, none of which have any incentive to be first amendment friendly.  MasterCard proved that back in 2011 when they joined a financial services boycott against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.  In order to fully guarantee a politically neutral service, you would need more than your own version of PayPal: you’d need your own bank and your own credit card business.”

Clearly such companies are monopolies and they are also “finite resources,” and as such the government should step in to implement First Amendment protections for the people who make use of those services.

Currently those companies formulate their policies based on the agendas of corrupt Establishment organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

 

CRYPTOCURRENCY IS AN IMPORTANT POTENTIAL FUNDING ALTERNATIVE FOR ACTIVISTS

Cryptocurrency is digital money such as “BitCoin” or “Eherium” which is used as a medium of exchange over the internet similar to how credit cards are used.  The currency is made up of computer code which is distributed on the internet in a decentralized peer-to-peer encrypted “blockchain” that keeps track of the existence of the currency without any government oversight.

Following are many of the benefits of cryptocurrency: 

— Cryptocurrency minimizes fraud due to it not being possible to counterfeit or reverse engineer that system.

— Cryptocurrency transactions are immediate and automatic without the involvement of other people, and they involve little or no fees unlike traditional money transfers.

— Cryptocurrency does not use your identity, unlike a credit card which draws information from a centralized database which is maintained by the credit card company.

— Anyone anywhere with an internet connection can make transactions using cryptocurrency, which makes it available to be used by people in the developing world.

— The process of cryptocurrency is completely decentralized.  A network of computers all over the world keeps track of the transactions, with the owners of the computers receiving a small commission for every transaction.

—Since cryptocurrencies are decentralized, they operate without a single potential point of failure as traditional currency systems do.

— As long as you store your cryptocurrency properly, it is not possible for it to be “revoked” by a centralized power such as a government.

The ownership of your currency is determined by you owning your cryptographic “keys” for it.  The cryptographic keys are only long garbled strings of text which you need to keep track of and protect.  Your identity is not attached to those keys.

— Cryptocurrency transactions happen whenever you need them, they aren’t limited by the time, day of the week, or holidays.

— There is no other type of electronic cash system where  your account isn’t owned by someone else.

— Cryptocurrencies aren’t linked to the laws, rules or regulations of any government, corporation or bank.

Due to all of these reasons it’s easy to see why cryptocurrency is an ideal monetary system to be used by people who speak about topics that the political establishment wants to censor.

If the current situation with the financial service companies continues as it is, it’s likely that cryptocurrency will become much more widely adopted.

A Fordham University professor dismissed the killing of Mollie Tibbetts on MSNBC, complaining that “Fox News is talking about a girl In Iowa”

A Fordham University professor Christina Greer speaking on MSNBC yesterday dismissed the media coverage about Mollie Tibbets who was found murdered by a Mexican illegal immigrant after being missing for five weeks.   Greer complained that Fox New is talking about “a girl in Iowa” instead of continuing to focus on the ongoing trails of Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort.  Greer is also an author of pro-immigration books.

Due to an outrage caused by Greer’s statements, she released an apology but in doing so she continued to advocate for her corrupt views: “Yesterday I said something flippant the was unintended.  Mollie Tibbets was a promising young woman who lost her life.  My hope is that her family will find peace and justice and that her murderer is not used to justify a discriminatory immigration policy.”

The body of Mollie Tibbets was found on August 21, five weeks after she was reported missing.  She was allegedly abducted and killed by a Mexican illegal immigrant Cristhian Rivera who attacked her while she was jogging and then dumped her body in a cornfield.

Almost 60 people have been shot over the weekend in Chicago, with six dying from their injuries

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson

NBC News Chicago reports that nearly 60 people have been shot in Chicago over the weekend, with six of them dying from their injuries.  Four of the fatalities were teenagers.

In a video on the page, Chicago’s police Superintendent Eddie Johnson explains that it is usually the same small group of people who are responsible for most of the shootings.  He said they have three people of interest in custody who have been potentially involved with the shootings, and 83 illegally owned guns have been taken.

18 people were shot on Friday evening, 17 people were shot on Saturday, and another 18 were shot on Sunday.

In a statement Johnson said, “As long as we fail to create repercussions for carrying and using guns, or more importantly holding violent offenders accountable for their actions, we’re simply going to continue to have these discussions on Monday morning. … There is a small subset of people who [get] a slap on the wrist despite legislation we had passed last year for being a repeat gun offender and breaking the law.  … These shootings are not random, they are fueled by gang conflicts.  .. We continue to send the message that it is okay to commit these crimes.

Almost 1,900 people have been shot in Chicago so far since the beginning of the year.

Many residents of an upscale Kansas neighborhood are upset about the zoning of an inexpensive “tiny home” development next to theirs

Hundreds of residents of an upscale community in Wichita, Kansas have signed a petition being opposed to the zoning of 15 acres adjacent to theirs which will contain 90 “tiny homes” which range in price from $75,000 to $100,000.

Residents are concerned about their properly values falling due to the addition of the development, and they are upset that the local zoning laws didn’t require the developers to notify them or require a hearing about what is being built due to the tiny homes already technically fitting the zoning specifications for the area.

Many of the residents are worried about what would happen if the development becomes a “failed concept” with it turning into cheap rental homes that would damage their property values.

The owners of the “MicroMansions” development has said that the neighborhood would have a homeowners association and covenants though.

The controversy has caused the Wichita County Commission to approve some building code changes related to tiny homes.

Editors Note: (updated March 8, 2020)—

I think the neighborhood would work fine being alongside the other ones as long as the homeowners association and covenants that the developers mentioned are very strict about the exterior appearances of the houses and yards.

It would be important for the owners of the houses in the new neighborhood to be required to sign agreements saying that they would not put anything in their yards such as above ground pools or swing sets, otherwise the neighborhood would take on an unsightly appearance that would be unfair to the residents of the original adjacent neighborhoods.  Perhaps the neighborhood could also have uniform natural landscaping throughout the development.

I don’t think such rules are important for all neighborhoods though of course, but I think it would work best in that case.

Typical deceitful tactics used by leftist candidates

I was looking at the campaign website of Gretchen Whitmer, who recently won the Democratic candidacy for the governor of Michigan, and I noticed some deceitful tactics that she used when she spoke about “women’s issues.”

First of all, her website is making totally  false claims about the supposed “wage gap” issue.  It says “.. Women still struggle with inequity in Michigan’s economy, earning just 74 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn for the same work.”

Wait.. for the same work?!

Here is what an online “fact sheet” says about the wage gap.. “In Michigan, median annual pay for a woman who holds a full-time, year-round job is $37,486 while median annual pay for a man who holds a full-time, year-round job is $50,479.  This means that women in Michigan are paid 74 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to an annual wage gap of $12,993.”

.. But how is that for the same work though?  It’s not!

She then fear mongers that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is going to overturn Roe vs. Wade and she outlines what she would do if that happens, however Kavanaugh is certainly not going to do that.  (A lot of online articles from leftist publications try to paint Kavanaugh as some sort of a pro-life zealot because of a controversy of him not allowing an undocumented immigrant who was being held in a federal shelter to get an abortion, but him doing that definitely doesn’t mean that he will overturn Roe vs. Wade.)

Whitmer came to my attention because she won the candidacy for governor over Abdul el-Sayed, who is one of the “Democratic Socialist” candidates that Ocasio-Cortez endorsed.  I think perhaps Cortez knew that el-Sayed was projected to lose and she endorsed him knowing it would happen in a high profile manner, as a continuation of a potential agenda of giving false reassurance to opponents of extreme leftist agendas.

Whitmer seems to be rather extreme herself, and her site doesn’t even mention her stances on most of the controversial issues.  She is another one of those “Emily’s list” candidates.

A mob of mostly white anti-Semitic pro-Palestinian bicyclists descended on UK’s “Speaker’s Corner” to chant anti-Jewish slogans

On Sunday a mob of about 100 mostly white bicyclists who were all wearing the same cycling outfits descended on UK’s “Speakers Corner” to chant anti-Semitic slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”— which is essentially a genocidal term saying that the people of Israel should be “eliminated” from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea.

A Jewish man found himself surrounded by the group and he recorded the above video.  This JihadWatch article contains an interview of him explaining what he experienced.

YouTube is adding “fact check” text blurbs underneath videos that expose global warming deceit

YouTube is now adding “fact check” text blurbs below videos that expose Establishment deceit about global warming issues.

YouTube is adding text that says “Global warming, also referred to as climate change, is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system and its related effects.  Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming.” underneath the videos, with a link to a Wikipedia article which talks about global warming issues.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki had mentioned the agenda at SXSW 2018, however YouTube has not released official information about what they have done, and they have not informed users who have uploaded videos that are affected by the new policy.

Issues with tech company censorship and how to most effectively circumvent it

I remember a joke about two women who are at a restaurant, where one of them says, “The food here is so terrible!” and the other one says, “Yes, and the portions are so small..”

The problem

Starting this morning, YouTube, Apple, Facebook, and other companies have all at the same time banned hosting content that has been created by Infowars.com, claiming it to be “hate speech,” which has caused almost universal condemnation of those companies by activists who are opposed to Establishment corruption.

What those companies have done has made a martyr out of Infowars.  However, those companies will also increasingly censor smaller independent organizations that criticize corrupt Establishment agendas, such as media outlets that communicate about problems associated with Islam, for example.  As evidenced with what they’ve done to Infowars, such companies will certainly ban anti-Establishment communication even if it’s not “hate speech”— it only needs to be information that the Establishment doesn’t want people to become informed about.  I certainly agree that people should be screaming about how those companies are behaving.

What to do about it

As a result of what has been happening, Infowars has been essentially demanding that the government step in and start regulating who those companies serve, arguing that those companies are “public utilities” and “monopolies,” but I think in doing so Infowars is creating an impression that effective alternatives to those companies don’t exist.

In many ways, Infowars’ response has been anti-libertarian in nature and I think it almost serves to “deify” the companies that have banned it.  For example I don’t understand the logic of demanding that the government starts intervening to enforce equal access to Facebook of all companies, since Facebook has always been a CIA front that exists for the purpose of spying on people!

In fact, all of those companies in question are essentially corrupt organizations that are aligned with the political Establishment.  However, none of them are actually “monopolies” because online alternatives do exist for all of them.  The definition of a “monopoly” is “exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action”— which is a definition that doesn’t really apply to any of those companies.  All that anybody needs to do is to enter a URL of a preferable alternative company into their web browser, and no more “monopoly”!

I think people should instead be focusing on ramping up communicating about the serious issues associated with the companies in question and boycotting them while also endorsing preferable companies, rather than pushing to have the government enforce everyone having equal access to those companies.

But what about “net neutrality”?

I think internet “content hosting” companies such as Google and Facebook should in many ways technically have the right to do what they want to do as long as they don’t actually harm people, however I feel differently about companies that consist of the actual physical infrastructure of the internet itself.  I believe broadband ISP companies definitely should be regulated as utilities via “net neutrality” legislation because they are a “finite” resource, unlike the content companies that merely exist on the internet which can be thought of as “infinite” resources.

I’ve explained more about issues with content hosting company censorship and net neutrality at this link, this link, and this link.

The Hebrew Immigration Aid Society and other “religious contractors” are responsible for much of the importation of frequently anti-Semitic migrants from overseas

The Hebrew Immigration Aid Society is an Establishment organization that facilitates importing often extremely anti-Semitic Muslims into Europe and the U.S., despite the fact that it is a Jewish organization.

Over the past few years there has been large increases in anti-Semitic violence happening in Europe and elsewhere, mostly due to the increases in Islamic immigration that has been occurring.

This 2016 AFP News Agency broadcast explains that many Jewish people in France are facing persecution due to frequently increasing anti-Semitism, requiring them to relocate elsewhere.

Also this 2016 Guardian Video explains that large rises in anti-Semitic attacks mostly by Islamic migrants has been happening in London and Manchester.

The Hebrew Immigration Aid Society is one of nine taxpayer subsidized “religious contractors” in the United States that advocate for increased importation of  Muslim migrants from overseas, and they also coordinate signing up the migrants to receive social services once they arrive.  This Refugee Resettlement Watch article explains those organizations.

Also see a News of Interest.TV article that summarizes issues with the refugee resettlement program.

The Trump / LeBron James controversy is Establishment calculated divisiveness

Many people are labeling Trump’s recent statement which insults the intelligence of LeBron James and Don Lemon as being “racist,” but really that isn’t actually the case because Trump never mentioned their race.  However, James is a hero to many African Americans so obviously Trump’s statement has been calculated to be off-putting to people in that demographic.

But the situation goes deeper than that.  It starts with recent statements that James made saying Trump is “using sports to divide the nation.”  It is true that Trump has made “divisive” statements about Colin Kirkpatrick’s behavior of kneeling during the national anthem in the past, and Kirkpatrick’s behavior has been divisive itself.

Like most major sports celebrities, apparently both Colin Kirkpatrick (link, link) and LeBron James are associated with the Illuminati establishment.  And like all Presidents, Trump is also apparently a member of the Illuminati as well.  None of those people would be allowed to be in those positions if the political Establishment didn’t have a large degree of control over them.

In other words, when it comes to this controversy, the people involved are apparently being stage managed by the political Establishment to reinforce divisiveness in order to ensure that Trump’s base doesn’t expand beyond its current demographics.

The Establishment has been doing whatever it can to ensure that minority groups don’t identify with Trump, because they want such people to remain on the Democratic “reservation,” continuing to vote as they’ve been manipulated into doing and being kept dependent on the government’s assistance as a means of controlling them.