Reaction & Commentary
We here at the epic times we had a chance to interview arizona’s former secretary of state who is also the audit liaison and he told us that the audit might take a little longer than expected although he says that they have a contingency plan meanwhile four days ago the canadian health
Minister said that canada supports the idea of a vaccine passport and so it looks like in the very near future if you would like to visit canada you will need to show proof of vaccination and lastly earlier today the facebook oversight board has upheld the permanent banning of president trump
However it looks like president trump has launched his own social media platform let’s go through these stories together this is your daily fax matter update and i’m your host roman from the epic times now let’s start today’s discussion over in arizona and actually just before we do is on a
Quick aside at the very top of the description box there is a link to epic tv it’s our awesome brand new no censorship platform where you can find all of the epic times programming like the larry elder show crossroads with joshua phillip american thought leaders life and times as well as facts matter
And on there we will be posting exclusive episodes that you can only find on epic tv this week likely on saturday we’ll be posting an exclusive episode there so i hope you click on that link i hope you subscribe and now let’s really talk about arizona
Now the audit of the 2020 election over in maricopa county has been underway for close to two weeks now and that audit as we’ve discussed in several other episodes is being conducted by the arizona state senate and it includes recounting by hand 2.1 million ballots checking for any i.t breaches that might
Have occurred as well as forensically examining almost 400 tabulation machines now the venue where this audit is taking place is the arizona veterans memorial coliseum over in phoenix and it was booked by the arizona state senate until may 14th and previously ken binet who is both the former arizona secretary of state
As well as the liaison for the audit he told media that he was confident that the audit would be completed by may 14th by that deadline however two days ago we here at the epic times we got a chance to interview him and he told us that it could actually
Run longer here’s what he said there’s no deadline for the audit the goal is not speed the goal is accuracy and completeness furthermore he told us that while the analysis of the equipment that was used in the 2020 election was actually completed over the weekend the review of the ballots as well as
Other paper materials might actually need to be extended by a little bit however if that’s the case the audit will have to take a brief pause that’s because the coliseum over in phoenix has actually been booked by another group starting on may 15th starting on may 15th the coliseum over
In phoenix is set to host around 17 or 18 different high school graduations here’s what the audit official told us we knew when we came in the building that beginning the 15th for five days there were 17 or 18 high school graduations to be held over a five-day period
And if we have to step aside and let that happen and then come back we have as much time as we need and he further told us that if the scenario were to occur then the election materials the ones that have yet to be audited would be kept on site meaning at the
Phoenix coliseum but just in a different place although he said that this place would be totally secure as with the audit itself he said that they can set up a live 24 hour surveillance that people can actually watch online now as of the time of our interview with
Him which was about two days ago he said that somewhere between 150 000 and 175 000 of the ballots have been counted and so we’ll just have to wait and see how this all ultimately proceeds in regards to the legal challenges from the cyber ninjas the ones that we
Discussed in a previous episode where in the arizona court the maricopa county court released security information to the public well no developments on that front have been made thus far perhaps in the next few days we’ll know what is happening on that front and as always if you would like to watch
The audit for yourself the arizona state senate set up a website called azaddite.org where you can watch the audit in real time from nine different camera angles the link to both azauda.org as well as our interview with this audit official will be in the description box below
This video for you to check out and by the way that is that same little description box that is right below that like button that i hope you take a quick moment to smash because you already know that videos that are like this talking honestly about what is happening in this world
Are routinely censored throttled or outright removed by big tech giants like youtube and in fact when i was doing research for the story i recognized that almost all the news coverage of this arizona audit are negative they are discrediting the audit before it’s even completed however when you talk about it honestly
A lot of times you are suppressed however if you smash that like button below this video you are forcing the youtube algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people letting the truth be known far and wide and now let’s move on over to iowa
As we discussed in a previous episode the watchdog group called judicial watch they recently uncovered documents which revealed that california government officials might have coordinated with big tech companies like facebook twitter and google in order to censor the social media posts of its users and now judicial watch released new
Documents which make it seem like a similar situation actually played out over in iowa as well according to 624 pages of records that they were able to obtain from the iowa secretary of state after they sued for them judicial watch said that they showed that last year
State officials in iowa worked with big tech companies in order to censor posts about the 2020 election now tom fitton who is the president of judicial watch said that these documents reveal to us another example of state officials who conspired with big tech companies in order to deny americans their first amendment rights
Here’s how he summarized the findings in a statement these records further show that big tech censorship is a government scandal iowa government officials worked with facebook to remove posts they didn’t like and facebook bowed to this political pressure immediately it should be disturbing to all americans that government officials are working to
Censor speech they disagree with and that these behemoth companies often seem willing to roll over and censor free speech now let’s go through an example of how this social media censorship actually works in practice on february 3rd of last year of 2020 kevin hall who is the communications
Director for the iowa secretary of state he sent an email to a facebook official named rachel holland and in that email kevin asked this facebook official for help with removing a post that judicial watch made on social media on facebook which they deemed was false
And again just to be clear when i say they deemed it means this person in the office of the iowa secretary of state he said that this was false and within an hour rachel holland the facebook official she responded to kevin and said that facebook had quote applied a filter over the content
Warning users before they click to see that the content has been rated false by independent fact checkers then a couple of hours later kevin contacts rachel again saying that they meaning judicial watch have new posts up doubling down on the false claims rachel then responded by saying that facebook had quote
A full team with eyes on this now and are applying the false filter to similar articles as well now according to these recently released documents kevin did not only reach out to facebook he also filed a report with twitter to try to censor the same pose by judicial watch
However after twitter declined to do so a woman named maria benson who is the director of communications at the national association of secretaries of state she’s also essentially a government official she joined this effort and she urged kevin kane who is a twitter official to take the post down
However kevin this twitter official he declined the request once again saying that the post is quote not in violation of our election integrity policy as it does not suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when where or how to vote however this did not deter these government officials that’s because maria benson
She then emailed a man by the name of brian scully who is an official over at the department of homeland security and she asked them to report the same issue to twitter just from a different angle brian scully agreed and responded by saying this sorry been out of pocket a bit
We’ll reach out to twitter let me know if you get something now that post on twitter was ultimately not taken down but these documents do shed an amazing light on what happens behind the scenes when these posts are censored and it in fact also raises a very big
Question because when posts like these do get censored a lot of people a lot of americans defend social media companies by saying that they are private actors they are private businesses and so if they censor people that is not a violation of these people’s first amendment rights because
It is not the government that is censoring them however here’s the question what if behind the scenes the government the american government either at the federal or state level is pressuring these social media companies to take down the posts of americans what if it’s the government pushing for the censorship does that violate
Americans first amendment rights well now that these documents have officially been made public that question will ultimately have to be decided by the courts now we hear the epic times we actually reached out to the iowa secretary of state’s office we reached out to the department of
Homeland security and we reached out to the national association for secretaries of state for comment on this whole matter but none of them have gotten back to us if you would like to comb through these documents for yourself the link to them will be in the description box below this video for you
To check out and also i would love to hear your thoughts on this matter if what these documents reveal is true is this actually a violation of americans first amendment rights i’d love to know your thoughts please leave a comment below and i will read through them tonight
And now before we move on over and talk about big tech censorship as it relates to president donald trump i would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today’s episode and i will do so from the sound booth the sponsor of today’s episode
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It’s filled with a lot of really good thought-provoking articles and then the third benefit and what people consider the best is that they actually fight for conservative values on capitol hill basically they’re fighting against what they’re calling the socialist storm that’s brewing in america and so if you are interested it doesn’t cost
That much it’s only about 16 per year um check out amac the link will be in the description box below this video or you can go on over to amac dot u s forward slash facts matter again that’s a mac dot us forward slash facts matter and amac thank you so much for
Sponsoring this episode and that roman in the studio back to you and now while we’re discussing the topic of big tech censorship let’s talk a bit about president trump’s social media to start with earlier this morning facebook’s oversight board upheld a decision to permanently ban president trump from the platform from facebook
Now in case you don’t remember the facebook oversight board was established last year and it has fairly broad powers they can even overrule facebook’s decisions they are essentially set up as a social media court and this morning this court ruled in favor of president trump being permanently banned from the platform
In a statement they explained their reasoning as follows trump’s posts during the capital riot severely violated facebook’s rules and encouraged and legitimized violence the posts violated facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence now after this ruling democrats in the federal government have largely been supportive of this move
As just one example congressman roe khanna he is a democrat from california and he actually represents the district that silicon valley is in he said this in a statement i support the facebook oversight board’s nuanced decision to uphold the suspension which is consistent with the principles i have articulated to balance ethical
Community standards with user speech now on the flip side republicans in the house judiciary committee called the board’s decision pathetic and furthermore the president of the internet accountability project which is a conservative non-profit he said this in a statement facebook is essentially acting as prosecutor defender judge jury appellate court and executioner
No one company should have the power to effectively block a president from communicating with the american people now of course facebook is not the only platform in question here as twitter also permanently banned president trump as well which actually might or might not be the reason that they just missed
Their target on acquiring new users which then led to their stock price taking a 13 hit regardless as a response to all of this just yesterday president trump launched a new communications platform if you go on over to his website right now which is donald j trump.com
And click on the desk tab you will be taken to the new platform at the moment it does not allow people to post comments or other feedback and so right now it’s essentially a blog but it does include the option to share president trump’s messages to twitter and facebook
Right now it’s not exactly clear whether this website will be further developed into a full-fledged social media platform and as it’s currently set up it’s not possible to either create user accounts or to reply to president trump’s post president trump right now is currently the only one posting there
Now if you’d like to check out this new website for yourself the link to it will be in the description box below this video for you to check out and now let’s move on over to florida the governor of florida ron desantis he has just taken two actions he has
Just signed a bill which bans vaccine passports and he has also announced an executive order which will suspend all pandemic emergency mandates in the state effective july the 1st now in regards to that executive order here’s what the governor had to say i’m going to sign the bill it’s effective july 1st
I’ll also sign an executive order pursuant to that bill invalidating all remaining local emergency covet orders effective on july 1st but then to bridge the gap between then and now i’m going to suspend under my executive power the local emergency orders as it relates to covid during that speech he then described his
Actions as being the evidence-based thing to do now it’s worth noting that this order which suspends local emergency mandates throughout the state only affects the government not businesses here’s how ron desantis described it in terms of what a supermarket or some of them choose to do
A disney theme park this does not deal with that one way or another now on the vaccine passport side this new bill not only bans them all together but it also levies a five thousand dollar fine per violation although it’s not exactly clear how that will work yet now ron de santos himself
Has been a pretty vocal opponent of these so-called vaccine passports saying that they would create essentially a two-tiered society with different rights and privileges for the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated here’s how he described it on monday you have a right to participate in society go to a restaurant a movie a ball game
All these things without having to divulge this type of information now what’s interesting to note here is that while florida as well as several other states like texas are banning these kinds of passports our neighbor to the north canada is taking a very different approach in fact just four days ago
The canadian health minister told reporters that her government actually supports the idea of a vaccine passports and that they are actively working to come up with some form of vaccine certification for international travel and what that seems to mean is that in the very near future
If you would like to visit canada you will likely need to show proof of vaccination here’s what you told reporters from our perspective we have a bit of a head start in terms of entry into canada in that we have arrivedcan the app that allows for digital proof of testing
For example now in a variety of other documents that people have to submit to enter canada and so while states like florida and texas have banned vaccine passports and even the biden administration itself has stated that there will be no national level passport at least in america
It looks like in the very near future if things continue down this trajectory in order to travel internationally we will need to show some kind of proof of vaccination now if you’d like to read more about these new regulations out in florida or about this new announcement
Over in canada those links will be in the description box below this video for you to check out and now let’s talk a little bit about bill gates as i’m sure you’ve already heard after 27 years of marriage bill and melinda gates have announced that they are divorcing
Here’s what part of a tweet that bill gates released two days ago said after a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship we have made the decision to end our marriage over the last 27 years we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all
Over the world to enable all people to lead healthy productive lives we continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives
We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life now besides that statement they did not provide any other details for the split now given the fact that bill gates is currently the fourth richest person in the entire world this divorce is said to have fairly
Large stakes at least it has a lot of wealth hanging in the balance and what’s interesting to note here is that this divorce announcement actually came two years after jeff bezos who is currently the world’s richest man in the world announced his divorce with his longtime wife
Mackenzie scott now as to whether this has any deeper implications or meaning thus far it’s not clear nothing has really been made public besides what’s known from that statement if you would like to read that statement for yourself it’ll be in the description box below this video for you to check out
And now let’s head on over to pennsylvania a district attorney out in pennsylvania he said that two women are slated to face voter fraud charges in two separate incidents now although these incidents are separate both of these women allegedly tried to cast ballots on behalf of their deceased
Mothers according to authorities over in bucks county which is in pennsylvania these two women filled out mail-in ballots with the names of their dead mothers during the 2020 election now both of these two women will be charged with violating provisions relating to mail-in ballots which in pennsylvania is a misdemeanor
Of the third degree now the local district attorney told news outlets that these two incidents are isolated and added that there was no evidence of widespread or systematic election fraud here in bucks county in each of these cases the system called the fraud first as it was designed to do
Now this is not the first such case over in pennsylvania in fact just last week a man over in delaware county which is also in pennsylvania was sentenced to five years of probation after he admitted to casting an illegal ballot during the 2020 election that man also cast a ballot for his dead
Mother just seems to be the thing to do over in pennsylvania now if you would like to read more about these cases the links to them will be in the description box below this video for you to check out and now lastly as we already mentioned in several other episodes
On the very same day that joe biden was sworn into office youtube they made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program we can now no longer run any ads before during or after our episodes and the super chat feature has just been disabled they are essentially snuffing our independent journalism through demonetization and
It would be interesting to start combing through these documents by judicial watch and to see whether there’s any connection between the federal government state governments and big tech giants like youtube i’m not saying there is but it’d be interesting to at least examine the possibility now regardless we here
At the epic times have launched something very very cool it’s called epic tv it’s our brand new no censorship platform where you can find all of our shows including the larry elder show crossroads with joshua phillip american thought leaders life and times counterpunch with trevor louden china in focus with tiffany meyer as
Well as facts matter with me myself roman balmakov and actually in the very near future we’ll be uploading exclusive episodes that you can only find on epic tv again that link will be in the description box below this video and i hope that you check it out because right
Now in my opinion at least there is nothing more important than honest independent journalism that does not just push the established narratives because if you don’t know what’s happening in this world and if you cannot get honest coverage on youtube and platforms like youtube because people need to self-censor
In order to have their content available on here then how can you make the decisions that are vitally important to you your family as well as the future of this country and so again that link will be in the description box below this video i hope you click on it i hope you
Subscribe and i hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition and now if you haven’t already smash that like button for the youtube algorithm subscribe to this youtube channel in order to get honest news content
Delivered directly into your youtube feed while you still can and until next time i’m your host roman from the epic times stay informed and stay free you
