August 4th, 2019

8chan is among the more than 19 million Internet properties that use Cloudflare's service. We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The rationale is simple: they have proven themselves to be lawless and that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths. Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in violating its spirit...

I have little doubt we'll see the same happen with 8chan. While removing 8chan from our network takes heat off of us, it does nothing to address why hateful sites fester online. It does nothing to address why mass shootings occur. It does nothing to address why portions of the population feel so disenchanted they turn to hate. In taking this action we've solved our own problem, but we haven't solved the Internet's.

8Chans response:

All our domains have been removed from cloudflare, so we will be moving to another service asap. Please excuse any downtime as we migrate to the new service.

— Ron (@CodeMonkeyZ) August 5, 2019

"The FBI says they're 'going dark.' Well yeah, because they've been staring at the sun."

Proposals from interested vendors are due later this month...

The inquiry centers on two political action committees founded by Saikat Chakrabarti, the top aide who quit along with Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent, the sources said. Trent left to join the congresswoman’s 2020 re-election campaign... The two PACs being probed, Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, were both set up by Chakrabarti to support progressive candidates across the country. But they funneled more than $1 million in political donations into two private companies that Chakrabarti also incorporated and controlled, according to Federal Election Commission filings...

The number of people employed in the United States hit a record 157,288,000 in July, according to the employment report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That was up 283,000 from the 157,005,000 employed in June...

A shooting with multiple fatalities and several people wounded has occurred at or near Ned Peppers Bar on East Fifth Street in the city of Dayton’s Oregon District... the hospital has received victims from the shooting, but they have no information on numbers or patient conditions yet... at least 10 people dead and an unknown number of wounded. We’re working to confirm some eyewitness accounts that a person who was denied entry into the bar opened fire.

#OregonDistrict #update Lt. Col. Carper: at 1:22am active shooter situation began in oregon district. The shooter is deceased. There are 9 others also deceased. At least 16 others went to area hospitals with injuries.

— Dayton Police Dept. (@DaytonPolice) August 4, 2019

Heart completely broken! #daytonoh #daytonshooting #oregondistrict pic.twitter.com/AVSmBJZn0u

— King \|/JAY\|/ (@Jay_so_fly01) August 4, 2019

I was out with my brother driving around in Dayton and not even a fucking MILE AWAY from us there was an active shooting. It’s completely different seeing it on the news compared to it happening in your own city. something NEEDS TO CHANGE AND IT NEEDS TO CHANGE FAST pic.twitter.com/2V4T7otDH0

— Connor (@Concorn802) August 4, 2019

This is the Shooter:

Notice the patches on his vest, it's from a satanist clothing line called Black Craft Cult.

As usual, this had heads exploding among democrats who rushed to defend Cummings and claim that the President was “lying” again. Unfortunately for them, at least a few media outlets did their homework and went to fact check the numbers. CBS in Baltimore did the required digging and was forced to concede the unpleasant truth. The President was right.

The article ends with two simple words. CLAIM: TRUE....

E-cigarette giant Juul Labs gave nearly $100,000 to members of Congress during the first half of 2019 as the company faced the bulk of the blame for a surge of underage vaping and calls for tighter government regulation of the industry... The boost in contributions is the latest sign of the company's expanding influence operation in Washington and around the country. An explosion of underage vaping has put Juul in the crosshairs of a number of Democrats, who have accused the company's early advertising and marketing of leading to the current wave of vaping by American teens. Juul is ramping up its political giving as Congress considers legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase all tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21.

In recent months, 8chan has become a go-to resource for violent extremists. At least three mass shootings this year... Mr. Brennan started the online message board as a free speech utopia. But now, 8chan is known as something else: a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists.
[...]
“Anonymity should not be taken away from everyone just because of a few bad apples,” he told Ars Technica, the technology website, in a 2015 interview. But more recently, Mr. Brennan, who has begun attending a Baptist church, has tried to persuade Mr. Watkins to shut down the site. He and Mr. Watkins live near each other in the Philippines... Mr. Brennan is hopeful that sustained pressure on Mr. Watkins and his son will get them to change their minds eventually, and take down 8chan for good. “How long are they just going to allow this to go on?” he asked...

Despite The FBI having not publicly released the names or nationalities of the 20 people killed Saturday at a shopping complex in El Paso, Mexican officials have claimed that nine Mexicans were wounded in the shooting, prompting Mexico’s ambassador to Washington, Martha Bárcena, to tweet:

The intentionality of the attack against the Mexicans and the Latino community in El Paso is frightening. NO to hate speech. NO to xenophobic discourse. @ADL

— Martha Bárcena. (@Martha_Barcena) August 4, 2019

This was followed by Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador commenting that the number of Mexicans killed in the shooting in the border city of El Paso, Texas, has risen to seven, proclaiming that says that:

...the events in Texas reaffirm his conviction that "social problems shouldn't be confronted with the use of force and by inciting hate."

If they are really concerned, something surely can be arranged to send them all back to safety in Mexico...

...the president ignored shouted questions about whether the El Paso shooter's anti-immigrant manifesto shared similarities with his rhetoric and said the shootings are part of “a mental illness problem.”... He added that "perhaps" more needs to be done with respect to gun control...

In March, the Food and Drug Administration approved esketamine, a drug that produces psychedelic effects, to treat depression—the first psychedelic ever to clear that bar. Meanwhile the FDA has granted "breakthrough therapy" status—a designation that enables fast-tracked research—to study MDMA (also called "ecstasy") as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin as a treatment for major depression.

While these and other psychedelic drugs show promise as treatments for specific illnesses, FDA approval means doctors could also prescribe them for other, "off-label" purposes—including enhancing the quality of life of people who do not suffer from any disorder.
[...]
Similarly, while psilocybin has shown potential as a treatment for depression and anxiety, physicians could also prescribe the drug to promote the well-being of healthy individuals...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that the employment level for black Americans, age 16 and over, seasonally adjusted, was at a record level in July of 19,481,000 employed.

That is the highest number recorded by the BLS since it started tallying the data in 1972...

Even though this video comes from VOX, it's still a good explainer of the situation in Hong Kong.