An FBI agent and Twitter lawyer who previously worked to censor election-related free speech has now joined a national election task force—just in time for the 2024 presidential election. Former FBI agent Jim Baker, whose bio appears on the National Task Force for Election Crises, might be engaging in more election interference. The National Task Force for Election Crises claims to work on securing elections and preventing fraud, including by rapid censorship of supposed disinformation. Baker’s tie to the group is particularly concerning because Baker previously helped coordinate the censorship industrial complex built up between federal government agencies and Big Tech companies like Twitter. Baker’s Task Force bio brags about his career, including roles as the FBI’s general counsel and the Justice Department’s senior staffer and associate deputy attorney general. During his time at the FBI, Baker helped initiatethe bureau’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s supposed ties with Russia. What the profile does not mention is Baker’s role at Twitter, where he was allegedly complicitin election interfering censorship. Before being fired by Twitter (now X) owner Elon Musk, Baker was still reviewing the Twitter Files and even complicated the release of information on how Twitter censored the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop scandal. In a 2023 congressional hearing on the Twitter Files, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) grilled Baker about Twitter’s actions. Donalds challenged Baker on how Twitter essentially contributed to the Biden campaign by censoring the Hunter Biden scandal under FBI pressure, but Baker, despite his own apparent complicity in Twitter’s censorship policy, repeatedly and evasively replied, “I don’t know.” At the time, MRC President Brent Bozell argued, “Twitter did everything they could to deliver the 2020 election to Joe Biden.” According to a 2020 MRC poll, 9.4 percent of Biden voters indicated they would not have voted for him had they known about the censored scandal, giving Trump an election victory. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

Leftists appear conflicted about Western history. On the one hand, they have endeavored to sever ties with it, tearing down statues, renaming places and species, and digging up graves. Yet, they also appear keen to transmogrify Western history — to rewrite it and reimagine it in order to bolster their contemporary worldview, advance their agenda, or to accommodate the sensitivities of their peers. This latter impulse to transmogrify history appears to dominate in the United Kingdom where there is a burgeoning genre of revisionist agitprop aimed at either distorting facts to paint Caucasians uniquely as history's villains or to erase Caucasians from the isles' history. The British Broadcasting Corporation has contributed to this genre for years and has shown no signs of stopping. The Telegraph recently revealed that a forthcoming BBC historical drama series about the Battle of Hastings — between Anglo-Saxons and Norman-French forces for control of England in 1066 — will be played by a "diverse cast." "King and Conqueror," a CBS Studios coproduction picked up by the BBC, will apparently feature non-white actors as Anglo-Saxon characters. "Adding diversity to a high medieval period setting follows the BBC’s 'colour-blind' casting of non-white stars as Tudor courtiers in another upcoming historical drama, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light," reported the Telegraph. For instance, Elander Moore, an actor of Trinidadian decent, will play Morcar, son of Ælfgā, the earl of Mercia, and himself an earl of Northumbria, who fought against Viking and Norman invaders. Jason Forbes, a black English actor from Bristol, will reportedly play a fictional Anglo-Saxon aristocrat named Thane Thomas. 'A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse.' In the BBC's original announcement of the show, Lindsey Martin, senior vice president of international development and coproductions at CBS Studios — formerly of Netflix — indicated the show would be a "bold and fresh take on a story that has endured for nearly 1,000 years" with themes "as contemporary and relevant as ever." Historian Zareer Masani told the Telegraph, "Some of us, including people of color, grew up thinking actors ought to look like characters they played." Masani noted further that it was "absolutely crazy that they've applied this color-blindness to a period when Britain was at its least multicultural, before even the Norman Conquest," stressing further that this approach was "hugely confusing and downright misleading." David Abulafia, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge, noted, "Since the whole series will undoubtedly bear little relation to historical fact, I think we shall have to put up with the bizarre notion that there were black earls in Anglo-Saxon England." "All the more so, since we are no longer supposed to talk about 'Anglo-Saxons,'" continued Abulafia, alluding to the recent name change of University of Cambridge's historical journal Anglo-Saxon England to Early Medieval England and Its Neighbours. "If they didn't exist, we can do what we like," added Abulafia. British journalist Michael Deacon noted that, "A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse — which means that, if you object to mass immigration in the 21st century, you're not just racist, but historically ignorant." Deacon suggested, however, that it is premature to judge the show having not yet seen it but joked about the potential of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king, being scripted in the show to dismiss the threat of a Norman invasion as "alarmist nonsense," and stating, "I don't want to hear any more of these far-Right conspiracy theories. In any case, it's vital that we remain open to the world. As any historian worth his, her or their salt will tell you, Britain has always been vibrantly multicultural — ever since the Windrush arrived, in 1948BC.” 'It must not be an up-ended seesaw.' The casting for "King and Conqueror" is par for the course at the BBC, whose program "Horrible Histories" released a song in 2021 called "Been Here from the Start," which suggested Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the Aurelian Moors, and the early Britons were black. The second season of the BBC series "Wolf Hall," an adaptation of the Hilary Mantel novel of the same name about the court of Henry VIII, will reportedly have Edward VI's grandmother Lady Seymour played by an actress of Bahamian heritage. Thomas Wyatt, a Yorkshire man who was the first person to write sonnets in English, will be played by an Egyptian actor. British author Petronella Wyatt, who claims Thomas Wyatt as a distant ancestor, suggested that "diverse casting, if it is to work at all, must have a logical grounding, particularly in an adaptation of a novel that prides itself on historical authenticity." "It must also work both ways. It must not be an up-ended seesaw. If the logic of modern casting was followed across the board then white actors should also be given roles on the basis of colour-blindness," wrote Wyatt. "But in our cowardly new world there is no equity or freedom from moral indignation, no all-embracing tolerance, only snorts and objurgations. We have become incapable of imagining honourable intentions in those with whom we disagree." The genre of revisionist agitprop is not limited to film. In August 2023, the publisher British Bloomsbury released a children's book entitled, "Brilliant Black British History," which erroneously stated, "Britain was a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came, and during that time the most famous British monument was built, Stonehenge." The book was promoted in the U.K. by a government-funded group. Leftists have also not limited their revisionism to matters of race. Last year, the North Hertfordshire Museum decided to retroactively make Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "transgender" and assign him female pronouns. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Tractor Supply Co. is a farming supplies retailer headquartered in Tennessee, and it's just gone where no large modern company has gone before. The company is dropping the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals that it had previously set for itself. In addition, DEI roles will be eliminated, carbon emissions goals will be withdrawn, and the company will stop sending data to the Human Rights Campaign. Tractor Supply made the move after information began circulating that the company was deeply involved in DEI and ESG initiatives, and its stock price took a nosedive. “We work hard living up to our mission and our values every day, and represent the values of the communities and customers we serve,” the company wrote in a statement. “We’ve heard from our customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.” The backlash began when conservative Robby Starbuck highlighted the company's actions on X, which included DEI hiring practices, in-office Pride Month decorations, climate change activism, and “funding sex changes.” “He decimated them,” Glenn Beck says. “Just took them apart with everything that they have.” Stu Burguiere is impressed by the company's response. “It’s very rare,” Burguiere tells Glenn. “Even Bud Light, who seemingly overtly changed directions, right? Like you could tell by their actions. They never came out and said, ‘And just so you know, we’re totally off the bandwagon.’ They just kind of did it and hoped you noticed.” Glenn, however, remains skeptical. “I’d like to see if this is just, you know, another customer service kind of thing and a campaign ad,” he says. Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The week of July 1, 2024: Degrowth, still growing, the administrative state, France, labor, antitrust, and much, much more.

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It Begins: Wealthy and Productive French Citizens Eyeing Escapes to Switzerland, Italy

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One of the most intriguing product announcements of 2024 is Daylight Computer's DC-1 tablet. When it was revealed in May, Daylight described DC-1 as “a new kind of computer designed for deep focus and wellbeing.” The company will achieve this by offering a 60fps paper-like display (which the company calls Live Paper) and eliminating blue light. I am hoping to get my hands on a review unit in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, I spent some time speaking with Daylight Computer Co. CEO Anjan Katta about the launch of the tablet, what Live Paper really is, and how he uses the tablet on a daily basis. DC-1's successful launch Since I spoke with Anjan Katta last week, the company has sold out of all five batches of DC-1 Founder's Edition tablets set to ship this year. The first three batches sold out within the first 24 hours, and batch 4 sold out on May 29. Most of batch 5 was gone by the time I talked to Katta, so I asked about how the response compared to the company's expectations. https://twitter.com/daylightco/status/1810396904146219388 "I think I was hoping, given how high the price is, I was hoping we'd sell 1,000 or 2,000 units," Katta told me. "So the fact that we're almost entirely sold out is pretty cool, because something that's really expensive, it takes time, people need word of mouth, you need credibility, you need reviews, you need to hear about it over again, you need to see famous people using it. To have such a large number of people [spending their money on this], I think speaks to how badly the world wants this, how badly the world wants a different take on computing." Price-performance ratio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovF3w8neDUw At $729, Daylight's DC-1 is more expensive than virtually every other E Ink tablet on the market. Amazon sells the basic Kindle for $99, Kobo charges $149 for one of the first color e-readers in existence, and even most of Boox's premium tablets clock in at under $500. With that in mind, why is Daylight asking over $700 for a moderately-powered Android tablet? "We make almost no money on it," Katta said. "We were originally doing preorders at $1,200, so we wanted to try to get it at that price. It's kind of [like] Tesla's Roadster. If you want to introduce new technology as a society, and you don't have the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars—budgets of Apple or Samsung—the bezels are going to be bigger, the thing is going to be thicker, the price is going to be higher. And those are intrinsic qualities, they're just all about the scale, just about not having any leverage with suppliers. No one wants to work with a new small company, especially in consumer electronics. It's all set up for scale." DC-1 specifications. Image source: Daylight Computer Profits aside, I was curious about the challenges of marketing a $729 device. After all, a brand new Galaxy Tab S9 retails for $799 and is currently on sale for $649. With its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the Tab S9 is going to be substantially more powerful than the Daylight Computer 1. But as Katta told me, his "healthy computer" is no slouch: "I mean, you can play Asphalt on our [tablet]," he said, presumably referring to the Android game Asphalt 9: Legends. "That's the way we tested it. It's powerful enough to do all the jobs you need to do, and in particular, we wanted to do iPad-level performance, even with a far less powerful chip. But it needed to be good enough that our software could do it, so the PDF performance on our thing, built around PDF renderer, is as good, if not better, than PDF Expert on an iPad. So, it kind of speaks to when you dedicate and focus—you can't do what Apple does or Samsung and do everything—but if you pick a couple areas, you can do a really good job." What is Daylight Computer's Live Paper? Writing on the Live Paper display of the DC-1. Image source: Daylight Computer First, DC-1's "paper-like display" is not made by E Ink. E Ink is a company that makes displays for popular e-readers like Kindle, Kobo, Boox, and PocketBook, as well as reMarkable. The DC-1 uses a reflective LCD display, and I'll let Katta explain why he chose this technology: I started trying to find ways to make E Ink go fast, starting June 2018 and so it's a long journey, and I came up with the idea of live paper in early 2019. I had my little first scientific prototype in late 2020, I had my first proof-of-concept working prototype in late 2021, and then it took from then until now to get it into production. There is a class of displays called electrophoretic displays that have been around since the '70s, and they were kind of never really good enough, even though they existed, and then a company called E Ink came along and solved enough of the problems of electrophoretic displays and decided to brand it E Ink. But the actual category that electrophoretic displays fall under is called ePaper. So, I believe we've done something similar, where there's a category of displays called transflective or memory or reflective LCDs that have been around for a long time. They've never been quite good enough, they're not paper-like, their viewing angle is not great, their reflectance is slow, and a ton of problems like that. So I put together a bunch of research—we have three patents—most of it is from a couple of Japanese professors' research, and basically what we did is we applied some internal science innovations across the entire stack to finally make what we think is good enough reflective LCD, which is a form of ePaper, so in 70% of circumstances it should look pretty similar to E Ink. They both reflect light, they both look paper-like, and so that's what we did, is we think we finally made it viable enough, and that's why we're calling it Live Paper. Yeah, some people are like, ah, they just got this display off the shelf, and we're like, not quite! If that was the case, somebody else would do it. That should answer some of the questions prospective buyers had about Live Paper. Who is the Daylight Computer for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9rBz4jpfE Earlier in our conversation, Katta mentioned that one of the product's biggest potential markets is actually parents. You can't run popular educational apps like Khan Academy on a Kindle or a Kobo, so most parents end up giving their kids iPads or Chromebooks. Those devices also give kids access to a virtually limitless collection of distractions. I asked if parents were top of mind when Daylight Computer was developing the tablet or if that was more of a happy accident after the announcement. "It was totally in consideration, but I guess the way we think about it is I just tried to make a computer for myself," Katta explained. "I have seasonal affective disorder. I spend all day on screens. My eyes would hurt. I'd lose my mental health. I'd just be so distracted. I'd be addicted. I'm like, 'What the heck? I'm the worst version of myself.' "This computing thing is God-like magic. Why can't they have God-like magic without crack dealers right beside it? So, I was like, I don't need too much of a computer—something that could read, something that could write, something that could think. Prioritizing mental and physical health is so important, and so I think because that was the crux of what we were doing, it turns out other people also have mental and physical difficulties with computers, whether that's parents or hedge fund managers or folks who have concussions." So, what do you do with it? Sol:OS running on DC-1. Image source: Daylight Computer Finally, I asked the CEO how the Daylight Computer fits into his life, and he told me that he uses it in three main ways on a day-to-day basis: Morning and nighttime computer: "I kind of stay away from my devices in the morning and just try to use this. If I want to listen to some music in the morning, I can play Spotify off of it. If I need to listen to a podcast, I can do that. If I need to quickly write a to-do into Todoist, I'm able to do it. But I'm away from Slack. I'm away from the million things. And same thing at nighttime. I find myself a lot calmer, a lot less stressed. I'm able to kind of wind down with it." Anti-procrastination computer: "Let's say there's something I need to read, a patent to review. I will load it onto the [DC-1], and then I'll go sit down with it and leave my phone behind. And then there's really nothing to do except whatever you've loaded onto it." reMarkable / Kindle on steroids: "It's like a better reMarkable for me. Or I use the Kindle app on it. Or the Google Play Books app." The first-generation Daylight Computer is currently sold out through 2024, but you can put down a $100 deposit if you want to secure a unit for early 2025. Don't Miss: Poco Pad review: A solid Android tablet at a reasonable price The post Daylight Computer Co. CEO Anjan Katta on building a healthier computer appeared first on BGR. 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Federal regulators banned a digital messaging platform from serving users under 18 for collecting data from kids without parental consent and exaggerating its ability to use artificial intelligence to curb cyberbullying.