Facebook removes pro-Trump ad aimed at Joe Biden, claiming false information

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/facebook-removes-pro-trump-ad-false-information-claim

A pro-Trump ad was removed from Facebook after claims that it contained false information, Fox News has learned.

America First Action PAC on Tuesday told Fox News that Facebook removed one of its ads, titled “On Hold,” which was placed in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on July 24. The ad was flagged by Politifact on July 29, according to the PAC.

“Facebook’s decision to take down this ad shows its anti-conservative bias,” America First Communications Director Kelly Sadler told Fox News. “America First Action has logged an appeal, but the threat of anti-conservative bias, targeting, and censorship remains ahead of Election Day in November and we must be vigilant in holding big tech, like Facebook accountable.”

TWITTER EXEC IN CHARGE OF FACT-CHECKING MOCKED TRUMP SUPPORTERS, CALLED MCCONNELL ‘BAG OF FARTS’

Sadler, during an interview on Fox Business on Tuesday, added that this “is just more bias from these social media companies.”

“We’re going to file an appeal, but there’s really little we can do about it,” she told host Stuart Varney. “These social media giants are monopolies, and ultimately they make the decision of what runs on their platform.”

Facebook confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday that the ad had, in fact, been fact-checked. A Facebook spokesperson told Fox News that ads that are fact-checked and found to contain false information are not eligible to run as a paid ad on the social media platform.

The spokesman added that the videos can, instead, run as original content on the group’s page.

America First Action, though, said certain versions of the ad were removed in particular states, but the Facebook spokesman said that once the ad was fact-checked as false, all versions would be removed from the platform.

The Facebook spokesperson said that if any version of the ad was still running on the platform, it would be due to a lag in Facebook’s fact-checking system.

The ad in question was titled “On Hold,” and shows a woman calling 9-1-1 and being put on hold. The ad moves to show Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden saying “yes,” with a “defund the police?” banner.

The ad is currently marked on Facebook with a label saying: “False Information. Checked by independent fact-checkers.”

Facebook’s fact-checking comes as members of the Trump administration and prominent Republicans have claimed that social media platforms have censored right-leaning viewpoints.

Attorney General William Barr told Fox News in June that social media platforms are “engaged in censorship” and are acting more like “publishers.”

“They originally held themselves out as open forums where people, where the third parties could come and express their views and they built up a tremendous network of eyeballs,” Barr said on “Special Report” in June.

“They had a lot of market power based on that presentation,” the attorney general added. “And now they are acting much more like publishers because they’re censoring particular viewpoints and putting their own content in there to diminish the impact of various people’s views.”

Twitter, earlier this summer, slapped a warning label on one of President Trump’s tweets for the first time, cautioning readers that despite the president’s claims, “fact checkers” say there is “no evidence” that expanded, nationwide mail-in voting would increase fraud risks — and that “experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.”

Within minutes, Trump accused Twitter of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,” that the platform “is completely stifling FREE SPEECH” and vowing: “I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”

Two days later, the president signed an executive order that interprets Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 as not providing statutory liability protections for tech companies that engage in censorship and political conduct. It also cuts federal funding for social media platforms that censor users’ political views.

The presidential election is < 90 days away and the Facebook “fact checkers” have decided that some facts on this publication is FALSE

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

this past week I used this graphic as a comment in a threat on Facebook… I have been using this graphic on a semi-regular basis since 2015.  Apparently FB has changed it “community standards” and I got a notice that the particular post had been pulled because it violated their community standards.

Apparently in the current environment of “cancel culture”… FB has hired some “snowflakes” to write and enforce their community standards.  This time … they stated that they were going to graciously only give me a warning… BECAUSE everyone makes mistakes.. but they “keep score for ONE YEAR” and that if I violate their community standards again I would be put in ‘FB jail” for 24 hrs.  Apparently they are of the opinion that those who post a lot on FB are so “addicted” to using their website that just the threat of being put into FB withdrawal is sufficient to make many people to be compliant.

Apparently their algorithm that they use must have come to that conclusion about me because of the number of posts and content of my posts that I would be submissive to their edits and censorship.  If this is the case, would suggest that their algorithm has some serious flaws.

They gave me the option to “agree” or “contest” their decision, and so I contested their determination… and was not given the opportunity to give my reasons as to why I did not agree with their decision and it took them a WHOLE SIX MINUTES for them to send me a notification that they had reviewed their decision and that they AGREED with their decision.

It was announced on TV today that FB had censored a post of President Trump .. something about his opinion concerning kids and catching/spreading COVID-19 …

Our First Amendment to guarantee “freedom of speech” only applies to the government/bureaucracy… FB is a private corporation… so they can legally control what appear on their webpage.  Of course, there is some law that regulates media that they must publish the truth, but all of these FB type website claims that they are exempt from such laws because they don’t publish anything… they are just a medium for other to publish on…  Since they are now censuring what others are posting… based on some “obscure” community standards… they may end up having to decide what they really are… especially if they continue to censor Trump… since he is the “good friends” with the USA Attorney General.

First of all, I have my own domain… www.pharmaciststeve.ccom … which I own and there is no overlord trying to censor what I post, secondly there is a new competitor to FB https://www.parler.com and I have created a pharmaciststeve account on there and will start using in place of FB. https://www.parler.com is suppose to be more friendly to conservative mindset and doesn’t have snowflakes being censors.

Filed under: General Problems | 9 Comments »

I can assure everyone that  before this is all over… some of the things that are now being stated as FALSE will at some time will turn out to be TRUE and some of the things that are now being stated as TRUE will as some time will turn out to be FALSE.

Just look back to March when many were saying that President Trump was not right to close our borders from people from China, Europe and other countries and now a few months later many of those same people are saying that Trump has done too little … too late…

Dr Fauci seems to only want to work with a med that has proven effective in a double blind placebo study… who is going to volunteer to participate for such a study when they have tested positive for COVID-19 and might end up getting a PLACEBO (sugar pill)…  I wonder if such a clinical trial is even ethical.

It would appear that HCQ, Zithromax and Zn was fairly effective when given early after being infected or those with with mild/moderate symptoms.  At first, it was taking abt two weeks before a person demonstrated symptoms after being infected and then they got tested and had to wait another 5-7 days before they got treated – if they tested positive..  The virus had abt a 3 week head start and the combo of meds appeared to be less effective.

It has been reported that hospitals had a financial incentive to diagnose everyone coming thru the door with COVID-19 and an additional financial incentive to put pts on vents… which 80%-90% never came off the vent alive.

The COVID-19 was believed to be a new/novel virus and no one had protocols on how it was to be treated… everything that was done … was GUESS WORK…

No matter what you are told or you hear someone else state…  everyone needs to look for the political and/or financial agenda behind what they are saying.

We are told that since March that we are suppose to shelter in place, no go to church, beauty/barber shop, gym or other close gathering … unless you are protesting in the street or you are going to the funeral of a deceased member of the House of Representatives.

We live in Indiana but all our TV stations come out of Louisville, KY and they have been filling the streets every night for at least a couple of months.. protesting over Breonna Taylor’s death from Louisville police serving a no knock warrant and they went to the wrong house.  There seems to be no end in sight… and they even have a petition with 10 million signatures https://www.whas11.com/article/news/investigations/breonna-taylor-case/justice-for-breonna-taylor-petition-receives-more-than-10-million-signatures/417-d2c9953a-3ff1-4f45-aa09-4f4fa9712da2   to bad that the chronic pain community could not find such a motivation for unity.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

As COVID-19 cases began to overwhelm hospitals in the United States, state and local governments enacted public health orders in order to slow the rate of infection. These measures have ranged from stay-at-home orders and mask mandates to business closures and bans on large gatherings. All in all, 42 states issued stay-at-home orders for their residents.¹ Yet despite the broad public support for such public health orders, businesses and religious groups have brought multiple lawsuits in response.² Most of these challenges have either contended that the regulating body does not have authority to issue the order, that the order was discriminatory, or that the order constituted a regulatory taking. Moreover, these challenges largely have been partisan in nature rather than in the interest of public health. The legal validity of these orders is also supported by a long history of precedent showing that policing powers reside with the state, with courts consistently ruling that these powers include instituting protections during public health emergencies, learn more about COVID legal battles in Texas.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over.³ In fact, as states have begun to lift public health orders, rates of coronavirus cases have started to rise.⁴ As a result, many local and state leaders have begun reinstituting some public health orders, likely increasing the number of legal challenges that will be filed in the courts.⁵ In order to ensure the safety of Americans, it is critical that courts follow the law and not succumb to partisan political arguments that are at odds with case law and scientific reality. However, it is also important for courts to be attentive to the potential for states to abuse their broad emergency authorities—especially with an election looming.

Supreme Court precedent regarding states’ police powers

The U.S. Supreme Court has given states wide latitude in terms of their police powers, which provide state and local governments the authority to take action against impending threats to the safety of the public.⁶ Generally, the government must first declare an emergency.⁷ Once an emergency is declared, state and local governments have the ability to issue orders to protect public health and the power to restrain certain liberties.⁸

The 1824 Supreme Court case Gibbons v. Ogden distinguished between the authority given to the federal government and the authority of the state, holding that police powers largely belong to the state.⁹ Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Marshall stated that these powers included the ability to impose isolation and quarantine orders.¹⁰ Almost a century later, in 1905, the court weighed in on the state’s authority to impose public health orders in the case Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which concerned a law mandating smallpox vaccinations.¹¹ The question for the court in this case was whether the state had the authority to issue such a mandate under the 14th Amendment.¹² The court stated that it did, finding that a “community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”¹³

Jacobson remains the principal case setting the legal standard for states’ police powers and has been cited to uphold public health orders in many of the cases described later in this issue brief. However, the ruling does not give states carte blanche when enacting public health orders, as they are not allowed to exercise their power in an “arbitrary” or “unreasonable manner.”¹⁴

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

While Stephen Hahn says the FDA is not in a position to “regulate the practice of medicine,” a group of researchers oppose doctors prescribing the anti-malarial drug for COVID.

The Hill: FDA Chief: Hydroxychloroquine Use A Decision Between Doctor And Patient 
Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on Thursday declined to take a definitive stance on whether people should take hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus,

instead saying that decision should be made between a doctor and a patient.

“We had data that when this drug was combined with others, there was some risk associated with that. But the question you’re asking me is a decision between a doctor and a patient,” Hahn said on NBC’s “Today” show. (Axelrod, 7/30)

CNN: Hydroxychloroquine: Researchers Publish Scathing Critique Of Henry Ford Study Touted By The White House 
Researchers on Wednesday published scathing critiques of a study President Trump repeatedly touted on Twitter. That study, published earlier this month in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, claimed to show that hydroxychloroquine saved lives. President Trump tweeted about it enthusiastically. (Cohen, 7/31)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Don’t Fall For This Video: Hydroxychloroquine Is Not A COVID-19 Cure 
Millions of people, including the president of the United States, have seen or shared a video in which a doctor falsely claims there is a cure for the coronavirus, and it’s a medley starring hydroxychloroquine. The video shows several doctors in white coats giving a press conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. It persists on social media despite bans from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and it was published by Breitbart, a conservative news site. (Funke, 7/31)

Also —

The Hill: Ohio Pharmacy Board Backtracks, Withdraws Rule Barring Use Of Hydroxychloroquine To Treat Coronavirus
The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy on Thursday withdrew a rule that would have barred pharmacists, licensed distributors of drugs and medical institutions from prescribing the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent the novel coronavirus after Gov. Mike DeWine (R) voiced concerns. The state pharmacy board said in a memo on Wednesday that the rule would, in general, prohibit the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19… But the rule quickly met with pushback from DeWine (R), who urged the state board to reconsider the decision the day it went into effect. (Wise, 7/30)

If the FDA does not have the authority to regulate the practice of medicine… DOES THE DEA LACK THAT SAME AUTHORITY ?

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

My blog – this blog – is now in its NINTH YEAR and trying to put things into perspective that is a similar time frame that I spent going thru HIGH SCHOOL and COLLEGE. Going from grade school to becoming a licensed Pharmacist  would suggest is a substantial amount of progress and advancement.

During a similar time frame I opened or expanded several successful businesses.

Generally, the best way for an individual or entity/group to reach/accomplish a goal is to have a dedicated organized plan  along with a adequate number of knowledgeable people who will work toward the goal on a consistent basis, or some will just either pray and figure that someone else will make it happen or just rely on “dumb luck”.

Since 2012 … there has been 5 different Congressional sessions and two different Presidents one from each party. The Republicans have had the majority in both the Senate and the House the majority of the time and only ONE SESSION where both the Senate and the House had the majority of both houses and was the same party as our President – first two years of Trump’s presidency.

In looking at what has happened in/around the chronic pain community during the same time frame.  Advocates have come and gone, the National Pain Report is now gone, one of the national non-profit advocate had some “issues” and the then president was booted out.

How many more FB pages devoted to something going on in/around pain have been created… but it would seem that the numbers have exploded.  I don’t think that any one could come up with a accurate number.  Has to be in the THOUSANDS.

The vast majority of those FB pages are “closed”, “private” or some other visibility restriction placed on them..   Meaning that NOTHING could go viral from a post in one of those FB pages.  Could that be part of the reason that seemingly the vast majority of the community have no idea what is going on in/around the community?

Most everyone recognizes that there is a substantial amount of infighting and disagreement.  This is not something that has happened overnight and it seems to only be getting worse.

There is claimed that there are 100 million chronic pain pts and some 25-35 million within that number are considered dealing with intractable chronic pain – needing some pain mitigating therapy 24/7.  Some want to readily blame President Trump for the current problems.  Yet what political party was in the majority when the decade of pain law expired in 2009 and there was no interest in renewing it ?  What political party was in the majority when the DEA cut opiate pharma production limits by about 50% over several years ?  What political party was in the majority when the CDC published their Opiate dosing guidelines in 2016 ? Has the presumed Democratic Presidential candidate came out and made a statement for or against chronic pain pts getting adequate therapy and/or the DEA continuing to raid prescribers’ offices and shutting them down over mostly fabricated or exaggerated facts ?

Imagine if early in 2019 had come together and got 1% of the community to donate $10/month to a non profit that would be hiring a law firm, PR firm, Lobbyist firm.  That would generate 10 million/month cash flow to a  “war chest”.  At this point in time those professional could be approaching the upper echelon of those two political campaigns with the facts that they represent 100 million chronic painers and that they are looking for a candidate who will support getting the DEA out of prescribers’ offices…

If Trump wanted those 100 million votes the community needs an executive order to put a muzzle on the DEA BEFORE NOV 3rd or those 100 million votes will be given to Biden.  Generally it only takes about 65 million total votes to win the presidency.  In reality, the community could determine who gets elected to just about any office at any level from city/county/state/nationally. Remember, abt 85% of Congress is up for re-election every two years and abt 98% will get re-elected regardless what they do or don’t do or promise to get done and never does or does just the opposite of what they promised.

But because of the on going infighting and disunity within the community … that boat has already sailed for this election year.

Do I believe that anything will change within the community ?  Not really, IMO, all too many are willing to compromise and unify as long as others are willing to compromise to their opinion(s) and unify under their “organizational umbrella “

Let’s hope that as the stronger advocates “thrown in the towel” and just walk away – out of frustration – the last advocate standing has the entire community’s best interest in mind

Filed under: General Problems | 3 Comments »