Zuckerberg exposes censorship, media pens love letter to Emhoff: 4 Stories You Need to Know Today

1. O Emhoff, Emhoff, wherefore art thou Emhoff?

Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell — a very impartial writer, I’m sure — is coming clean about her immense infatuation with Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, publicly fawning over the so-called “Progressive Sex Symbol.” Emhoff’s first marriage may have ended because he, ahem, impregnated the baby sitter, but the Second Gentleman of the United States nevertheless embodies the “modern female fantasy,” says Rampell.

“Move over, Ryan Gosling,” she gushes. “What. A. Hunk.”

Rampell compliments Emhoff with names like “sexy sobriquet,” “alpha,” “the ideal beau,” “‘wife guy’ fantasy,’” and “dreamboat.”

Obsessed much?

This is what modern American “journalism” has produced, namely, tabloid trash magazines masquerading as elite newspapers (remember, this is The Washington Post we’re talking about — not some teen girl’s diary about Glen Powell). For anyone who actually values politics as a serious exercise in the will of an informed electorate, the American media’s obsessive “fangirling” does not bode well for the upcoming election. “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” WaPo proudly declares. Maybe so. But I’m not sure literal love letters to federal politicians help much, either.

2. War heats up in Israel, Ukraine

With so much to talk about on the homefront lately, focus has shifted from foreign to domestic affairs. But that doesn’t mean all is well overseas. Far from it.

On Sunday, Israel intercepted hundreds of rockets and drones fired into the country by the Iranian proxy Hezbollah. According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Hezbollah may have been prepared to launch as many as 6,000 projectiles; however, the IDF acted swiftly to eliminate the threat, striking more than 40 launch areas in southern Lebanon. 

“This morning we identified Hezbollah preparations to attack Israel,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “In consensus with the defense minister and the IDF chief of staff, we directed the IDF to initiate action to eliminate the threat.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, Ukraine suffered what President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned as “one of the largest strikes” in the history of its war with Russia: a barrage of over 200 missiles and drones. Following a recent, unprecedented Ukrainian incursion into Russia, Monday’s counter-attack reportedly damaged Ukraine’s power grid, resulting in significant blackouts across the country.

3. Trump honors fallen soldiers on tragic anniversary

Monday marked the third anniversary of the devastating terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan. Former President Donald Trump commemorated the anniversary by participating in a wreath-laying service in honor of the heroes at Arlington National Cemetary. He praised the fallen heroes as “great, great people who passed away, who were killed in the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country: Afghanistan.”

Steve Nikoui, the father of Kareem Nikoui, one of the 13 soldiers who tragically lost their lives in the attack, expressed his gratitude for the ceremony, noting that it was the first time “anybody high up in the executive branch… ever paid any respects to our kids.”

4. Zuckerberg rats out federal government censorship

In a potentially groundbreaking letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, Meta President Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that his social media platforms have, at times, succumbed to government pressure to censor free speech.

“In 2021,” he wrote, “senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree. Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that… we wouldn’t make today…. I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

At Convention of States, we’ve been covering instances of Facebook and other Meta companies censoring dissenting voices at the behest of the federal government for years. It’s both unexpected and shocking to see a key figure involved in this long-standing censorship machination now expose the inner workings between the White House and Big Tech.

“Zuckerberg redemption arc?” wondered COS endorser Charlie Kirk.