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Aug. 3, 2021 - Epoch Times

26:17

Audit Company gets REPLACED; Number of Tables Nearly Doubles | Facts Matter

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	Good evening.
	Two days ago, over in Florida, the governor signed a new bill into law which would allow people to file lawsuits against social media companies that engage in censorship.
	And actually, speaking of censorship, Project Veritas has just released a new set of leaked documents, which came from two separate whistleblowers, and these documents show how Facebook censors people who are hesitant about the vaccine.
	Meanwhile, over in Arizona, the hand recount is once again underway.
	However, there has been a bit of a shake-up as the firm leading the hand recount has left and a new firm has taken their place.
	And lastly, over in Michigan, the governor over there, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, she's under fire after a photograph surfaced which appears to show her breaking her own COVID rules while at a restaurant.
	However, that is just the tip of the iceberg.
	Let's go through these stories together.
	This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
	Now let's begin today's discussion out in Arizona.
	And actually, just before we do, as a quick aside, right there at the very top of the description box is a link to Epoch TV, our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the Epoch Times' awesome programs like The Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Life and Times, as well as our show, Facts Matter, and And on there you will find exclusive episodes that you will not find here on YouTube.
	In fact, just a few days ago we published an exclusive episode on there talking about the looming Georgia election audit as well as some problems that local elections out in Pennsylvania experienced.
	And those are things that I do not feel comfortable discussing here on YouTube.
	Again, that link will be right there to Epic TV. Hope you click on it.
	Hope you subscribe.
	And now let's really head on over to Arizona.
	The hand recount portion of the election audit that's happening over in Maricopa County has now officially restarted.
	As we mentioned in a previous episode, they took about a week-long break due to scheduling conflicts.
	However, they are now back in the Memorial Coliseum, and as we mentioned previously, it looks like they have more tables now than they did before.
	We here at the Epoch Times, we actually got a chance to speak to Ken Bennett, who is the audit liaison, and here is how he described the new situation.
	We have a lot more tables and people that they trained during the one week off, and so we think the throughput is going to pick up significantly.
	Now, yesterday, there was a new development into who was actually leading the hand recount.
	For your reference, prior to the break, Wake Technology, which is a Pennsylvania-based company, they were the ones leading the hand recount.
	However, their contract with the Arizona State Senate, it actually ended on May 14th, and they decided not to renew.
	Here's what Andy Pullen, who is a spokesperson for the audit, said about the situation.
	They were done.
	They did not want to come back.
	Although, in his statement, he did not elaborate further and provide reasoning as to why they made that decision.
	However, he did announce during that statement who will be the new firm taking over the hand recount.
	He said that Stratec Solutions, which is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company, they will be the ones leading the hand recount now that they have restarted.
	They now have up until June 30th, so a little over a month from now, to finish auditing the remaining 1.6 million ballots.
	And as to whether they'll actually be able to finish on time, well, here's what Ken Bennett told us here at the Epoch Times.
	We have the Coliseum this last week of May and all of June, so we're confident that we can get it done during that time.
	Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to both Stratech Solutions as well as Wake Tech for comment, but we have yet to hear back.
	Regardless, I'd like to mention something.
	As I was doing research around this new development, around this new change in leadership over the hand recount, I found that critics of this audit, of this Arizona audit, say that the whole thing is unnecessary.
	Their argument is that, earlier this year, Maricopa County actually hired several firms to conduct a machine audit already, and, secondly, that county workers already reviewed a sampling of ballots as a part of the state recount back in November.
	And according to county officials, neither this earlier audit or this earlier hand recount uncovered any problems.
	However, when you dive into those claims, they might not be as concrete as they look on the surface.
	That's because according to Doug Logan, who is the CEO of the Cyber Ninjas, who is the firm who is leading the entire audit, he says that the previous audit, which was conducted by Maricopa County, primarily focused on making sure that the version of the software that was supposed to be running on the election machines was in fact the one being used.
	Here's what he told the Senate during a hearing.
	At no point in any of those audits did they actually take a look at actual ballots and run those ballots through the system or do actual counting of it to validate the results.
	Furthermore, he said that the earlier hand recount only took a look at a very small sample of ballots, only around 200 ballots of the entire 2.1 million.
	And so this new audit, according to both Mr.
	Logan as well as Ken Bennett, is much, much more comprehensive.
	Instead of taking a look at a small sampling of ballots or just examining the software on the machines, they appear to be comprehensively looking at the entire election, at all of the components that made up the 2020 election, and making sure that the results are what they should have been.
	Here's how Ken Bennett described this new audit.
	The new audit is being done at the request and direction of the Senate, so that people can have confidence that the election was done correctly.
	It has nothing to do with trying to change the results from November of 2020.
	Now, if you've been following the story over the past month, the story of the Arizona audit, you know that it's facing a lot of challenges.
	For instance, the top officials in Maricopa County have condemned the audit and called for it to end.
	Those same officials have refused to comply with legally binding subpoenas and are withholding routers as well as router images.
	Dominion Voting Systems, which is the company that makes the election machines, they also post the audit, and they have declined to provide the passwords which would grant top-level access to the election machines and allow them to be audited.
	And the legacy news outlets in this country are also discrediting this audit, such as CNN, who even in their headlines refer to it as a bogus audit.
	It's not very objective.
	Now, regardless, in a statement, Ken Bennett said that he is not exactly clear on why there has been such a strong opposition to this audit, and he added this.
	I'm not sure, but it makes you think that the more they resist, the more important it is that we do it.
	If you would like to read about any of the developments that we've discussed with the Arizona audit, all those links will be in the description box below this video, including a link to azaudit.org, which is the website that was set up by the Arizona Senate, which allows you to watch the audit in real time from nine different camera angles.
	That link will also be in the description box as well.
	And all I ask in return is that you smash that like button!
	Because it goes without saying that videos that are like this, talking honestly about things that are happening in this world without following some kind of preordained official narrative, are routinely censored by big tech giants like YouTube.
	However, when you smash that like button, you are forcing the algorithm And now let's talk a bit about Trump rallies.
	Specifically about the fact that they are about to start up again.
	In a recent interview with One American News, President Trump said that he is planning to restart holding his rallies.
	Where exactly?
	Well, here's what he told the interviewer.
	We'll be doing one in Florida.
	We're going to do one in Ohio.
	We're going to do one in Georgia.
	We're going to do one in North Carolina.
	We'll be announcing them very soon, over the next week or two.
	I think we'll probably start in Florida and Ohio and we'll be announcing the rallies very shortly.
	As a bit of background, as I'm sure you already know, President Trump started holding these types of rallies soon after he announced his candidacy back in 2015, and they typically attract very large crowds, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands.
	However, since leaving office back in January, he has not held any rallies.
	And people were wondering whether they will start up again, and if so, when.
	Now, Jason Miller, who is a Trump advisor, he told media in the past that rallies were likely to start as soon as late spring or early summer.
	And now, with this official statement from President Trump, that does seem to be the case.
	Now, in lieu of the rallies over the last several weeks, President Trump has been giving select interviews as well as releasing statements mostly focused on either criticizing Joe Biden or criticizing Republicans who he feels are not properly fighting back against Democratic proposals.
	Now, if you want to read any of his statements for yourself, those can all be found over on President Trump's website, which is 45office.com.
	And then once you're there, you click on the News tab over there on the top, and then you can read all of his statements.
	Now, although the moment is unclear when the next rally will be held, we do know that President Trump is slated to speak in early June at the North Carolina Republican Party's state convention.
	That is taking place on June 5th, which is not this Saturday, but the next Saturday.
	However, if the past is any indicator of the future, it's not likely that you'll be able to watch his speech on social media platforms.
	That's because, if you remember, when President Trump gave a speech over at CPAC, that speech was later taken down by YouTube, because he brought up the topic of the election.
	Furthermore, last month, Facebook removed a video interview with President Trump that was conducted by his daughter-in-law, Laura Trump, citing their new policy that any content in the voice of Donald Trump would be scrubbed from their platform.
	And actually, this discussion of big tech censorship perfectly brings us to the next story that I wanted to discuss with you, and it happened over in Florida.
	Two days ago, the governor of Florida, who is Ron DeSantis, he signed into law a new bill, which is actually the first of its kind in America, which now allows Floridians to file lawsuits against big tech platforms.
	Now, the way that this bill is structured makes it fairly broad.
	Because when you go through the text of the new bill, it says that the courts may award up to $100,000 in damages to any individual, as long as, of course, they live in Florida, if that individual was censored by a social media platform, if his or her content was shadowbanned, if he or she was deplatformed, or if the social media platform did not apply censorship standards in a consistent manner.
	Now during the press conference where he actually signed the bill, here's what Governor DeSantis had to say about it.
	We will be the first state to hold big tech accountable.
	SB 7072, which is the official name of this bill, is a bold first step to reining in big tech tyranny by defending the rights of all Floridians in the digital space.
	Over the years, these platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provide Americans with the freedoms to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives.
	Now, as a great example of what he meant by preferred narratives, the governor mentioned that people were actually deplatformed for discussing the theory that the virus leaked out of a lab in Wuhan, which was a theory supported by solid evidence.
	In fact, I have a personal story about that.
	Last year, we here at the Epoch Times, we produced an awesome documentary where we worked to actually track down the origin of the virus.
	Now, in that documentary, we did not make any definitive claims, but we did uncover and present evidence that suggested that the virus might have leaked out of the Wuhan lab, the Wuhan Virology Lab.
	That was based on our investigative research.
	And on Facebook alone, that documentary had 70 million views.
	However, that was when Facebook's independent fact-checkers decided to label our documentary as being false.
	They said that it was fake news, and they buried the documentary, essentially killing it.
	The distribution for our documentary was just kneecapped, and now it was almost impossible to find.
	Can you imagine that?
	What can be more important than having that discussion, than having the discussion about where this virus really came from?
	And of course, now that the official narrative has shifted, with even Dr.
	Fauci saying that the virus might have leaked from the lab, suddenly you're allowed to discuss it.
	But how is it that some group of tech oligarchs get to decide what is and isn't allowed to be discussed by American citizens on supposedly a free platform?
	Because the way that it seems to work, if you've noticed, is that the legacy media outlets in this country, they decide upon some collective official narrative, and then big tech giants, along with their teams of independent fact-checkers, work in total lockstep to enforce those same narratives, making it so that literally you cannot talk about anything else.
	Because if you do, you're shadowbanned, you're censored, you're deplatformed, or you're ridiculed.
	Even outside of this origin of the virus story, there was another phenomenal example of the censorship taking place, which was just exposed two days ago.
	That was when Project Veritas released new documents as well as video interviews with two Facebook whistleblowers who alleged that Facebook's algorithm assigned something that they call a vaccine hesitancy score to users on their platform, of course, without telling them.
	Here's a clip from an interview from those whistleblowers.
	He uses classifiers in their algorithms to determine certain contents to be what they call vaccine hesitant, what they call vaccine hesitancy, and without the user's knowledge, they assign a score to these comments that's called a VH score, the vaccine hesitancy score.
	And based on that score, we'll demote or leave the comment alone, depending on the content within the comment.
	Our first Facebook Insider is a data center technician who leaked us multiple internal documents detailing an algorithm test being run on 1.5% of Facebook and Instagram's nearly 3.8 billion users worldwide.
	The goal?
	To, quote, drastically reduce user exposure to vaccine hesitancy in comments.
	So basically, when they write this algorithm, it goes through Facebook content, and it looks for certain keywords, That are related to vaccination or, you know, not getting a vaccine and stuff like that.
	And it gives it a score, and the VA score means vaccine to vaccine hesitancy, which is defined as Being hesitant to get a vaccine, but not just like, well, I don't know, it's even, well, I saw a study that said that someone died that got the vaccine.
	That's vaccine hesitancy.
	Now, in terms of what types of comments could negatively impact your VH score, here's an example from the documents.
	This is another example of tier two indirect discouragement.
	Why don't you tell us why this would be indirect discouragement according to Facebook?
	So this would be considered vacuum hesitant because they don't want people to see Someone had a bad effect.
	They're not saying don't get the vaccine, but they're saying look at all this negative stuff that happened after I got the vaccine.
	So they're reporting facts, but truth doesn't matter.
	No, because it doesn't match the narrative.
	And the narrative being, get the vaccine.
	The vaccine is good for you.
	Everyone should get it.
	And if you don't, you will be singled out.
	Right.
	As an enemy of society.
	Can you imagine?
	That is the type of post that might lower your VH score on Facebook and bring you one step closer to getting either censored or banned.
	Now, just as an aside, if there's any young kid right now who's working for YouTube and reviewing our episode of Facts Matter over in Silicon Valley, I would like to make something clear.
	I'm not commenting on anything related to the vaccines themselves.
	I'm only suggesting that people should be allowed to have that discussion.
	The fact that several big tech giants, which hold a near monopoly on all of our public discourse, while at the same time, by the way, purporting to be a neutral platform under Section 230...
	They should not be allowed to play these kinds of algorithmic games with our First Amendment.
	I mean, I don't think that's even a very controversial position to take.
	Which, by the way, brings us full circle to that new law out in Florida.
	Upon signing this new bill into law, here's what Governor Ron DeSantis had to say.
	Florida is the first state to hold big tech accountable by empowering each and every Floridian silenced by arbitrary corporate censorship to fight back.
	This is a groundbreaking bill that protects Floridians from Silicon Valley's power grab.
	Now, besides allowing Floridians to sue these platforms, according to Governor DeSantis, this new bill will also require social media companies to be transparent about their content moderation practices and give users proper notice to any changes of those policies.
	Now, the big question is whether this new law will actually be able to stand legal scrutiny.
	For instance, this article here, from Verge, has a quote from a group called the Chamber of Progress, which says that the law is clearly unconstitutional.
	Their reasoning, although in the article it doesn't actually make clear whether that's the reasoning of this group or the reporter's own words, regardless, here's what it says.
	As a state law, the measure could be overturned if courts find it conflicts with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which broadly immunizes platforms from liability for good-faith moderation activity.
	However, Florida state officials disagree.
	They say that this new law will likely be able to withstand legal challenges as it contains language that explains how big tech companies are different from other corporations and that Section 230 requires companies to act in good faith.
	Something that, at least according to Governor Ron DeSantis, they don't always do.
	Now besides skeptics calling this new law unconstitutional, other skeptics are questioning the motives behind it.
	For instance, at a press conference, the one where he signed the bill, one of the journalists asked Governor Ron DeSantis whether this new bill was made specifically for President Trump, who of course is now a resident of Florida.
	To that, here's what Governor Ron DeSantis responded with.
	The bill is for everyday Floridians.
	This is what we said.
	And it would allow any Floridian to be able to provide what they're doing.
	But I do think that's another issue that has been brought to bear.
	When you de-platform the President of the United States, but you let Ayatollah Khomeini talk about killing Jews, that is wrong.
	And so, we'll just have to wait and see what happens with this new law once Florida citizens begin to actually use it and file lawsuits against social media companies.
	Now, if you would like to read the full text of that bill or to read the story behind it, all those links will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	Also, in that description box, I'll throw a link to that Project Veritas story which exposed this new type of censorship happening over on YouTube.
	That'll also be down in the description box.
	And now, before we move on over to Michigan and describe the controversy happening around their governor, 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 is AMAC. That's A-M-A-C, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
	Now, even though I consider myself a mature American citizen, I am about 20 years too young to join.
	But if you or someone in your family is 50 years old or older, You should consider joining AMAC. They are basically the conservative version of the AARP and they have basically three main benefits to joining.
	The first one is the money-saving benefit.
	If you're a member, they will give you a ton of discounts to places like retail shops, restaurants, on insurance plans, on vitamins.
	It's actually a pretty long list of discounts you'll get.
	I'll throw the link in the description box below this video.
	You can check out the full list.
	The second benefit is that they will send you a magazine directly to your doorstep.
	And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's pretty good.
	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.
	Check out AMAC. The link will be in the description box below this video.
	Or you can go on over to amac.us forward slash facts matter.
	Again, that's amac.us forward slash facts matter.
	And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring this episode.
	And now Roman in the studio, back to you.
	And now let's move on over to Michigan.
	Three days ago, the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, she issued an apology after a photograph surfaced which showed her at a restaurant breaking her own COVID rules.
	Here's the photograph right here.
	And as you can see, it shows Ms.
	Whitmer sitting inside a restaurant with neither her nor the other patrons wearing masks.
	The restaurant, by the way, is called The Land Shark and it is located in East Lansing.
	Now you might be thinking, so what?
	Sitting inside of a restaurant without wearing a mask is not really a big deal.
	Well, that might be the case.
	However, just earlier this month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order which stated that gatherings at restaurants are prohibited unless they are comprised of six or fewer people.
	Here's what part of that executive order said.
	Consumption of food or beverages is permitted only in a designated dining area where patrons are seated.
	Groups of patrons are separated by at least six feet.
	No more than six patrons are seated together at a table, booth, or group of fixed seats.
	And groups of patrons do not intermingle.
	However, as it clearly shows in this photograph, that is definitely more than six people there.
	In fact, I counted 12 people, and none of them are wearing a mask.
	Now, in defending herself, here's what Gretchen Whitmer issued as a part of her apology.
	Throughout the pandemic, I've been committed to following public health protocols.
	Yesterday, I went with friends to a local restaurant.
	As more people arrived, the tables were pushed together.
	Because we were all vaccinated, we didn't stop to think about it.
	In retrospect, I should have thought about it.
	I am human, I made a mistake, and I apologize.
	Now, it's unclear exactly how she knew that every one of those people were vaccinated, but that is what she said.
	However, to locals in Michigan who have been dealing with these COVID guidelines for over a year, well, some of them were not too happy.
	For instance, Marlena Pavlos Hackney, who owns a pizzeria in Michigan, and she was actually put in jail and fined for violating Gretchen Whitmer's restrictions, here's what she had to say about this photograph.
	If I have to face penalties which I went through, which was handcuffs, shackles, four nights in jail, and fine $15,000, I should think she should face the same penalties.
	We the people, we are all equal.
	It does not matter that because you're the governor, we need to forgive you.
	Treat us with dignity and respect, and equally.
	We are all equal.
	We the people.
	Now, furthermore, Tori Sachs, who is the executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund, she called on the governor to immediately end restrictions on restaurants in light of what happened.
	Here's what she wrote on Twitter: "Will Governor Whitmer and the Michigan HHS show us the signs that proves it's safe for Whitmer to drink at a bar with over six people at her table, but not safe or allowed for the rest of us?
	This is ridiculous.
	Whitmer must end the restrictions now.
	However, as it currently stands, people in Michigan have at least one more month of these mandatory mask mandates, as the most recent statement that the governor made on the subject was this.
	On July 1st, the broad mask rule will be lifted.
	But I want to be clear about the fact that businesses and workplaces are well within their rights to require masks as patrons go in.
	Now, besides this controversy with the restaurant, Governor Whitmer is also facing a serious complaint to the IRS regarding a trip that she took to Florida last month.
	What happened was that back in March, Governor Whitmer visited her father in Florida.
	However, she did not openly disclose this trip to the public, and it was only after local media out in Michigan covered it that her office reluctantly released details about it.
	And so it looks like what happened was that the governor secretly took a private charter plane down to Florida without telling the public.
	Now, in and of itself, a trip to Florida sounds like a nice and fine vacation.
	However, with Governor Gretchen Whitmer's trip, there were three serious problems.
	First of all, this trip came soon after the governor actually blamed people who traveled to Florida for the reason that Michigan had so many COVID cases.
	In fact, she suggested that people should not travel to Florida right before she herself flew down there to visit her father.
	Second of all, Michigan lawmakers were not thrilled about the fact that they had no idea that their governor was not in the state.
	Because again, this was an undisclosed trip to Florida.
	In fact, several lawmakers have now introduced a new bill which would actually require Governor Whitmer to notify them when she leaves the state.
	And you might think that the reason that she kept this trip so hush-hush was because she did not want to look hypocritical.
	But there could have been another reason, and that relates to point number three, which is the question of who actually paid for this trip.
	About two weeks ago, the governor's office disclosed the fact that Michigan Transition 2019, which is a non-profit corporation formed to pay for the governor's inauguration, this was the corporation that paid for the charter flight, which flew the governor to and from Florida.
	According to the records, the governor paid $855 out of her own pocket, while this non-profit corporation paid $27,521.
	That is a very expensive round-trip flight.
	And this is exactly why Governor Whitmer is facing a federal tax complaint.
	That's because a group called Michigan Rising Action, whose stated aim is to hold liberals accountable, they filed a complaint with the IRS, alleging that the personal trip is not within the exempt purpose of Michigan Transition 2019.
	Furthermore, in explaining their rationale, here's what this group released in a statement.
	Governor Whitmer's use of 401 funds for personal benefit is a clear violation of the law, and we've asked the IRS to launch a full investigation into the matter.
	From her blatant hypocrisy to the litany of ethical and legal violations, Governor Whitmer has spent the last two months misleading the people of Michigan about her trip to Florida.
	It's time for her to be held accountable.
	Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the governor's office for comment, but we have yet to hear back.
	Regardless, if you would like to read more about her maskless escapades or about this trip down to Florida, all those links will be down there in the description box for you to check out.
	And lastly, as we already mentioned, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube demonetized our program so that we can no longer run any ads before, during, or after episodes.
	However, we here at the Epoch Times have launched something very cool.
	It's called Epic TV.
	It's our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epoch Times content, such as the Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillips, American Thought Leaders, Life and Times, China in Focus, and our show, Facts Matter.
	And on there, you will find exclusive episodes that you will not find anywhere else, such as our exclusive episode on the upcoming Georgia audit and problems with the elections out in Pennsylvania.
	Here's a trailer for that episode.
	Hello?
	Yeah, Roman, it's me.
	I just wanted to make mention how awesome it feels to make episodes here on Epic TV. I didn't have to go through this mental process of wondering, hey, is this too sensitive to talk about on YouTube?
	Will I get censored?
	Earlier this week, during some local elections out in Pennsylvania, a number of ballots, mostly Republican ballots, were not able to be scanned properly, which naturally enough triggered another round of concerns about the integrity of our elections.
	The governor of Texas just announced that for the first time since March of last year, since March of 2020, Texas has reached zero COVID deaths.
	Despite getting very heavy criticism for lifting their mask mandate early, including from Joe Biden, who called their decision Neanderthal thinking, according to new data released from the CDC, over 1,100 people in the US have been hospitalized with COVID after being fully vaccinated.
	Making episodes on Epic TV feels like making episodes in America again.
	Let's go through these stories together.
	Let's go through these stories together.
	And lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm, subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of 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.

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