Month: August 2018

by Kyle Perisic   President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, blasted big tech companies’ censorship of conservatives in an op-ed Thursday, saying the censorship must stop before the internet becomes “Big Brother.” “Big Tech’s anti-conservative bias is positively institutional. Facebook, Google (YouTube), and Twitter all work with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left organization with a proven track record of anti-conservative bias, to decide what is and isn’t ‘hate speech,’” Parscale wrote in the Washington Examiner op-ed. Parscale pointed to the many examples of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube’s recent bans on outspoken conservative pundits. The few examples he lists are: Republican congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng, whose ad was banned on Facebook, and controversial commentator Alex Jones and his website Infowars, who was de-platformed on Facebook and YouTube. Additionally, Parscale called out Twitter hypocrisy for temporarily banning Candace Owens, but not Sarah Jeong. Owens is the Media Director of Turning Point USA — a college student organization. She parodied tweets written by Jeong, The New York Times’ new editorial board member, who has a history of racist anti-white tweets. Owens restated Jeong’s tweets, except made them anti-Semetic.Twitter later said it was “an error.” The censorship, Parscale alludes to, is borderline illegal under the Communications Decency…

Now that plastic straws may be headed for extinction, could Americans’ love of balloons be deflated? The joyous celebration of releasing balloons into the air has long bothered environmentalists, who say the pieces that fall back to earth can be deadly to seabirds and turtles that eat them. So as companies vow to banish plastic straws, there are signs balloons will be among the products to get more scrutiny, even though they’re a very small part of environmental pollution. This year, college football powerhouse Clemson University is ending its tradition of releasing 10,000 balloons into the air before games, a move that’s part of its sustainability efforts. In Virginia, a campaign that urges alternatives to balloon releases at weddings is expanding. And a town in Rhode Island outright banned the sale of all balloons earlier this year, citing the harm to marine life. “There are all kinds of alternatives to balloons, a lot of ways to express yourself,” says Kenneth Lacoste, first warden of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, who cites posters, pinatas and decorated paper. Following efforts to limit plastic bags, the push by environmentalists against straws has gained traction in recent months, partly because they’re seen as unnecessary for…