Jim Edwards’ LinkedIn profile says he was previously a columnist with CBS News. He has since gone on to Business Insider “Editor-in-Chief (BI UK and International)” and “Editor In Chief (News) INSIDER.” He’s not a lightweight. His prior report on the CIA merits some context before framing it in a fashion that CBS News filed under the category of “MONEYWATCH.”

Note to new and returning readers, all of the sources shown below are from mainstream media, official transcripts, and similarly sound sources vs. some crank or conspiracy theory site or sources.

That said, additional context and insights about the subject and each of the sources are warranted, and will be provided as the information in this report is developed. This report with limited analysis will cover years of information in a reasonably condensed fashion from sources across the left-center-right. Even those who may think they know about some of this are bound to learn more.

“We are the Nation’s first line of defense,” says the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Facebook page.  “We accomplish what others cannot accomplish and go where others cannot go. Welcome to the Central Intelligence Agency’s official Facebook page. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an independent US government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers.”

CBS News’ Edwards ran a report several years ago under this headline: “Social Media Is a Tool of the CIA. Seriously”

“You don’t need to wear a tinfoil hat to believe that the CIA is using Facebook, Twitter, Google (GOOG) and other social media to spy on people. That’s because the CIA publishes a helpful list of press releases on all the social media ventures it sponsors, via its technology investment arm In-Q-Tel,” said CBS in that JULY 11, 2011 report that occurred nearly a decade ago. That is relevant, as what follows should reveal.

The world’s largest database on individuals

“One of the main threats to privacy comes from advertisers,” said CBS in that report, which continued: “who want to track everything consumers do on the web and scrape their online accounts for personal information. It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, to learn that the CIA and the world’s largest ad agency network, WPP (WPPGY), have been in bed together on a social media data-mining venture since at least January 2009. WPP currently claims to own the world’s largest database of unique individual profiles — including demographic, financial, purchase and geographic histories. WPP’s Visible Technologies unit took an investment from In-Q-Tel in fall of 2009. Visible Technologies develops tools that can scan social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.”

Since then, Peter Schweitzer and others have spotlighted the abilities of Facebook and Google to influence and move the minds of voters in their acclaimed “The Creepy Line” documentary video. The full Creepy Line documentary is posted further below.

 

 

Self-described Democratic voter Robert Epstein, Ph.D., has testified on his evidence-based concerns of how social media has been used to tilt voting in favor Democrats and specific political agendas that fit corporate interests.

 

 

But there is much more which will be examined from other sources, before leaving this CBS item.

CBS News’ Jim Edwards continued by saying that: “ Google and CIA: old friends…”

Wrote Edwards, “Are you seeing a trend yet? Google (GOOG) has been a partner with the CIA since 2004 when the company bought Keyhole, a mapping technology business that eventually became Google Earth. In 2010, Google and In-Q-Tel made a joint investment on a company called Recorded Future, which has the Minority Report-style goal of creating a “temporal analytics engine” that scours the web and creates curves that predict where events may head.

Google is already helping the government write, and rewrite, history. Here, from its transparency report, are some stats on the amount of information it has either given to the government or wiped from the web based on requests by U.S. agencies:

• 4,601 requests from U.S. government agencies for “user data”
• Google complied with government requests for user data 94% of the time.
• 1,421 requests for “content removal”
• Google complied with content removal requests 87% of the time.
• 15 requests were from “executive, police etc.”
• 1 was a national security request.”

 

The EMA found a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and ‘unusual blood clots’ and wants a warning attached https://t.co/4cfFtCYdn1 via @businessinsider

— Jim Edwards (@Jim_Edwards) April 20, 2021

 

With the above in mind, Quartz reported in 2017 that: “Google’s true origin partly lies in CIA and NSA research grants for mass surveillance.”

“Two decades ago, the US intelligence community worked closely with Silicon Valley in an effort to track citizens in cyberspace. And Google is at the heart of that origin story. Some of the research that led to Google’s ambitious creation was funded and coordinated by a research group established by the intelligence community to find ways to track individuals and groups online,” said Jeff Nesbit for Quartz. Quartz’ bio in brief says that Nesbit is the “Former director of legislative and public affairs, National Science Foundation.”

“The intelligence community hoped that the nation’s leading computer scientists could take non-classified information and user data, combine it with what would become known as the internet, and begin to create for-profit, commercial enterprises to suit the needs of both the intelligence community and the public.”

Said Nesbit, “But this isn’t just the origin story of Google: It’s the origin story of the mass-surveillance state, and the government money that funded it.” He goes on to tell the “Backstory: The intelligence community and Silicon Valley…”

“Intelligence-gathering may have been their world, but the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) had come to realize that their future was likely to be profoundly shaped outside the government. It was at a time when military and intelligence budgets within the Clinton administration were in jeopardy, and the private sector had vast resources at their disposal. If the intelligence community wanted to conduct mass surveillance for national security purposes, it would require cooperation between the government and the emerging supercomputing companies.”

Nesbit then de facto reveals his ties to this narrative: “In fact, the internet itself was created because of an intelligence effort: In the 1970s, the agency responsible for developing emerging technologies for military, intelligence, and national security purposes—the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)—linked four supercomputers to handle massive data transfers. It handed the operations off to the National Science Foundation (NSF) a decade or so later, which proliferated the network across thousands of universities and, eventually, the public, thus creating the architecture and scaffolding of the World Wide Web.”

Nesbit, it will be recalled per Quartz was the “Former director of legislative and public affairs, National Science Foundation.”

Nesbit explains the “The Massive Digital Data Systems (MDDS) project” development.

“MDDS was introduced to several dozen leading computer scientists at Stanford, CalTech, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and others in a white paper that described what the CIA, NSA, DARPA, and other agencies hoped to achieve. The research would largely be funded and managed by unclassified science agencies like NSF, which would allow the architecture to be scaled up in the private sector if it managed to achieve what the intelligence community hoped for,” per Nesbit, who was in a position to know.

“The MDDS research effort has never been part of Google’s origin story, even though the principal investigator for the MDDS grant specifically named Google as directly resulting from their research,” said Nesbit. He went on to say explain in the context of “The intelligence community’s enduring legacy within Silicon Valley” that “Digital privacy concerns over the intersection between the intelligence community and commercial technology giants have grown in recent years. But most people still don’t understand the degree to which the intelligence community relies on the world’s biggest science and tech companies for its counter-terrorism and national-security work.”

Per the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects.”

“When asked, the biggest technology and communications companies—from Verizon and AT&T to Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—say that they never deliberately and proactively offer up their vast databases on their customers to federal security and law enforcement agencies,” wrote Nesbit. It is worth noting that Bill Gates’ Microsoft and Warren Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway have clear, long-term ties. He said that “between 2016 and 2017, local, state and federal government authorities seeking information related to national security, counter-terrorism or criminal concerns issued more than 260,000 subpoenas, court orders, warrants, and other legal requests to Verizon, more than 250,000 such requests to AT&T, and nearly 24,000 subpoenas, search warrants, or court orders to Google.”

“When national security agencies need to identify and track people and groups, they know where to turn – and do so frequently. That was the goal in the beginning. It has succeeded perhaps more than anyone could have imagined at the time,” concluded Nesbit.

Forbes said on July 20, 2018 that “Facebook As The Ultimate Government Surveillance.”  While some deny it, there are those who assert that Facebook was similarly sponsored in part by CIA and spy agency dollars. Forbes contributor Kalev Leetaru’s bio says that he is one of “Foreign Policy Magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers,” a “Google Developer Expert,” and “a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber & Homeland Security.” ”From 2014-2015 I was a Council Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. My work has appeared in the presses of over 100 nations.”

Note his Davos – World Economic Forum (WEF) – connections.

Said Leetaru, “The public availability of Facebook’s targeting tools means intelligence agencies need no court orders to leverage them, foreign intelligence services can use them to track and surveil on foreign soil and even local law enforcement agencies can use them with few restrictions.”

The same Forbes column stated that:

• “The global availability of Facebook’s advertising platform offers a particularly powerful and inviting tool for intelligence agencies…”
• “Facebook’s unyielding all-watching Eye of Sauron is not easily fooled and will likely eventually assign them a marketing label indicating its belief of their sexual preference based on the most nuanced patterns invisible to the human eye.” Note that this discernment capability is not limited to sexual preferences. Dr. Robert Epstein made it clear in his research and testimony that Facebook, or other tech giants, could use such AI or automated intelligence tools to identify political or other preferences too.
• Facebook admits that “In response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) [they will provide information] if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so.” Recall the hundreds of thousands of such requests formally acknowledged in federal records cited above by Nesbit in his outline of Silicon Valley and spy agency linkage.
• In commentary on that, Leetaru said that Facebook’s admission “…demonstrates just how clearly the central role Facebook is increasingly playing as a tool for law enforcement, intelligence agencies and repressive regimes to crack down on legitimate dissent or internationally recognized human rights.”
• “Welcome to a world even [George] Orwell [author of 1984] could not have imagined.”
• “Putting this all together, instead of bringing the world together, social media is increasingly helping to elevate the voices tearing it apart, while its international reach, massive centralized data warehouse and algorithms that can divine the most sensitive and intimate elements of our lives are likely to increasingly become a go-to one-stop shop for the world’s intelligence agencies to spy on and influence the world while governments themselves increasingly leverage their legal powers to force Facebook to help them hunt down dissent and those different from themselves,” said expert Leetaru.

One must keep in mind that most of the political support of this group has gone to the left or Democratic candidates for numbers of years.

Wall Street on Parade said, “One of the most eyebrow-raising moments [in Senate questioning of Mark Zuckerberg] came when Senator Maria Cantwell opened her line of questioning by invoking the name “Palantir,” a data mining company which received early funding from the CIA and whose co-founder, billionaire Peter Thiel, has sat on the Facebook Board of Directors since April 2005.”

“In 2015, TechCrunch reported that “As of 2013, Palantir was used by at least 12 groups within the US Government including the CIA, DHS, NSA, FBI, the CDC, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, Special Operations Command, West Point, the Joint IED-defeat organization and Allies, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”

The CIA’s venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, was an early investor in Palantir, plunking down a cool $2 million alongside many more millions from Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook.”

So, while there are those in media that have denied that Facebook was funded by the CIA, Palantir was, and Peter Thiel, and early investor in Facebook, received money from “CIA’s venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel…”

Per the U.K. Guardian described Palantir’s headquarters as follows.

“It is all-powerful, yet no one knows it even exists. Palantir does not have an office, it has a ‘SCIF’ on a back street in Palo Alto, California. SCIF stands for ‘sensitive compartmentalised information facility’. Palantir says its building ‘must be built to be resistant to attempts to access the information within. The network must be ‘airgapped’ from the public internet to prevent information leakage.”

The U.S. Senate hearing at which Zuckerberg appeared was a joint session of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees. Zuckerberg wore a suit and tie rather than his standard attire – a t-shirt.

 

 

Possible Takeaways?

When social media is censoring or shadow-banning certain voices, which are often on the right, but may include critics from the left such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a common defense expressed by some is that private companies do not have to provide First Amendment rights. But the information above should at a minimum call into question how ‘private’ these firms are. If this is the public information, what is there that may be classified that shows a more direct ties between U.S. intelligence and these tech giants?

But there is more.

The data that is at the disposal of these firms is so vast that it clearly has the ability to form if not manipulate information. That is a common concern expressed by voices on the right and some on the left, but one not raised often enough in manufactured home industry circles.

For some years, Warren Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway held stock in IBM. More recently, investments have shifted to Apple. Additionally. Buffett’s deep ties to Bill Gates are undeniable.

Last for now, because one can go on and on in an analysis of these issues, is how these revelations pieced together sheds new light on voices such as attorney turned journalist, Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald helped break the Edward Snowden NSA whistleblowing story.

Each of these reports are found on mainstream sources and news sites, not on conspiracy theory sites.

 

 

See the related reports, before moving on to the left-right headline summary from CNN Business and Newsmax. Those and the market snapshots at today’s closing bell.

Related and Recent Reports

###

Note to regular readers. MHProNews is testing a new way to provide some tried-and-true features in our evening market report. It will include our time saving, insight generating left-right headline bullet summary, plus the same market snapshot graphics at today’s closing bell.  Feedback welcome.

Market Indicator Closing Summaries – Yahoo Finance Closing Tickers on MHProNews…

 

Headlines from left-of-center CNN Business

• Spring loaded
• Apple unveils a new iPad Pro, colorful iMacs, AirTag and more
• AirTag could give a nice bump to Apple’s growing lineup of smaller stuff
• See all the new iMac colors
• Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as vaccinations ramp up and rivals gain strength
• Oil prices went negative a year ago. Now the glut is gone
• Why copper and lithium could be ‘the new oil’
• Coal miners join climate activists to back Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan
• ‘Dire warning’ for the planet: Coal is powering the economic recovery
• General Motors CEO announces remote work plan for employees
• It’s 4/20. Cannabis stocks are smoking hot
• Dogecoin jumps 20% as crypto fans declare Doge Day
• Venmo just put crypto access in the palm of everyone’s hand
• Elizabeth Warren invites billionaire rival to testify on her wealth tax
• Taco Bell will start reusing hot sauce packets
• Social media platforms brace for the Chauvin trial verdict
• Homes in Black neighborhoods are undervalued by an average of $46,000
• Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Laker attends NIKE promotional event at Longjiang Stadium on July 17, 2011 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.
• Kobe Bryant’s estate ends nearly two-decade deal with Nike
• FAST FOOD WARS
• South Korean boy band BTS arrives for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, in Los Angeles.
• McDonald’s new BTS meal is coming, featuring new dipping sauce flavors
• Pizza Hut redesigns the drive-thru
• 7-Eleven is opening a taco drive-thru
• Taco Bell joins the chicken wars with a new taco
• Burger King is replacing its chicken sandwich
• A DOG’S LIFE
• Your pup could get $20,000 to be an official dog beer taster
• Pet owners pitch pups to be ‘Chief Tasting Officer’
• Bone appétit: Ben & Jerry’s is now making dog treats
• Martha Stewart launches CBD-infused dog treats
• Nestlé thinks your pet will eat insects and beans

Headlines from right-of-center Newsmax 

• Verdict Reached in George Floyd Murder Trial – ‘Guilty, Guilty, Guilty…’ all counts
• Derek Chauvin Trial
• Mayor: Floyd ‘Killed at the Hands of the Police’ No Matter the Verdict
• Maxine Waters Sought Police Escort Before Controversial Minnesota Visit
• Maxine Waters Dismisses Chauvin Trial Judge’s Criticism of Her Remarks
• Judge Overseeing Chauvin Trial Blasts Waters’ ‘Abhorrent’ Comments
• Kevin McCarthy Looks to Censure Waters for Her Incendiary Comments
• Dershowitz to Newsmax TV: Maxine Waters Putting Not Thumb but ‘Elbow on the Scales of Justice’ |
• Greene Vows to Introduce Resolution to Expel Rep. Waters
• The Biden Presidency
• Biden to Set ‘a Large Cap Soon’ for Refugees
• Biden: ‘Praying’ Jury Reaches ‘Right Verdict’ in Chauvin Trial
• Willie Nelson Asks Biden to Make Marijuana Holiday Official
• China’s Xi Gives Thinly Veiled Warning to US Against ‘Unilateralism’
• Angus King: Biden ‘Genuinely Wants’ Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
• Senate Republicans Planning Procedural Objections to Infrastructure Plan
• Democrats: ‘Climate Action,’ ‘Police Accountability’ Are ‘Infrastructure’
• Biden Administration Backs Bill to Make DC the 51st State
• US Ambassador in Moscow Heads Home for Consultations
• Newsfront
• General Says Afghan Withdrawal Makes Terror Fight Harder
• In a blunt assessment Tuesday, the top U.S. general for the Middle East told Congress it will be extremely difficult but not impossible for the U.S. to find, track and take out counterterrorism threats in Afghanistan…
• Democrats Vote Not to Censure Maxine Waters
• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says he believes he
• EU Will Restart Shipments of J&J Vaccine Despite Rare Clot Risk
• The European Union’s drug regulatory agency said Tuesday that it
• Related
• Connecticut Bill Ending Religious Vax Exemption Passes House, Heads to Senate
• Ted Nugent Announces He Has Coronavirus
• Rick Scott: ‘Woke’ Companies Will Feel Backlash From Georgia
• “Woke” companies that use their corporate identities
• Trump: ‘Beyond Seriously’ Considering 2024 White House Bid
• Former President Donald Trump is now saying he is “beyond seriously”
• Out-of-This-World ‘UAP’ Tech Could Pose Threat to US National Security
• Aliens, clandestine U.S. organizations, China, Russia, and even Elon
• Ohio Republicans Aim to Rename State Park for Donald Trump
• A GOP-backed bill in the Ohio state legislature would change the name
• China’s Xi Gives Thinly Veiled Warning to US Against ‘Unilateralism’
• Chinas President Xi Jinping is calling for a new world order taking
• Willie Nelson Asks Biden to Make Marijuana Holiday Official
• Willie Nelson is calling on President Joe Biden to declare a week
• DeSantis Quietly Signs Law Approving $1B Online Sales Tax
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week quietly signed a bill adding
• George W. Bush: Modern GOP Is ‘Isolationist, Protectionist, Nativist’
• The modern Republican party is “isolationist, protectionist, and to a
• Nevada Death-Row Inmate Wants Firing-Squad Option
• A convicted killer who is fighting a possible June execution date
• Walter Mondale, Carter’s Vice President, Dies at 93
• Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a liberal icon who lost the
• Apple Brings Social Media Platform Parler Back to App Store
• Apple Inc will bring social media app Parler, favored by U.S
• Marsha Blackburn to Newsmax TV: Voter ID Is Not Racist
• Marsha Blackburn R-Tenn. says that requiring a voter ID is
• Project Veritas Founder O’Keefe Sues Twitter Over Ban
• James O’Keefe, whose group, Project Veritas, has come under fire for
• Japan Should Consider Canceling Olympics, Ex-Minister Azumi Says
• Japan needs to consider scrapping the Tokyo Olympics and speeding up
• Iran: 60% Enrichment Meant to Show Nuclear Prowess
• Iran began enriching uranium to 60% purity in order to show its
• Doctors Denied Access to Jailed Putin Critic Navalny
• Alexei Navalny’s doctors were again denied access Tuesday to the
• Supreme Court Cheerleader Case Could Decide if Schools Can Consider Off-Campus Speech
• A Pennsylvania cheerleaders legal case against her removal from her
• Ted Cruz: House Should Censure Maxine Waters Over Comments
• The House of Representatives should “of course” censure Rep. Maxine
• White Liberals More Likely to Have Mental Health Problems, Study Shows
• White liberals are significantly more likely than other groups to
• Some Say States Should Set Pot Policy by Its Potency
• As marijuana legalization spreads across U.S. states, so does a
• Some Progress in Nuclear Talks, Interim Deal Possible: Iranian Officials
• Iran and world powers have made some progress on how to revive the
• Judge Overseeing Chauvin Trial Blasts Waters’ ‘Abhorrent’ Comments
• The judge overseeing Derek Chauvins trial for murder on Monday
• WH Walks Back Biden Reference to Immigration ‘Crisis’
• When President Joe Biden used the term “crisis” in discussing the
• US Says Russian Build-up on Ukraine Border Is Bigger Than in 2014
• Moscow’s military build-up on the border with Ukraine is even bigger
• Finance
• Apple Targets Remote Workers With New iPad Pro, Slim iMacs Using Own Chips
• Apple Inc announced a line of slim iMac computers and iPads with higher-quality video that use its own processors, as it speeds its migration away from Intel and caters to a work-from-home world. The company also launched…
• Venmo Letting Users Buy, Sell, Hold Cryptocurrencies
• J&J, Other Drugmakers Go on Trial Over US Opioid Crisis
• Lego Billionaires Plan New Investment Hitting Plastic Waste
• Boeing’s Max Gets Fresh Boost With Order From Leasing Firm
• Health
• Herd Immunity Against COVID-19 Unlikely, Say Experts
• Throughout the pandemic, experts have said we need to achieve herd immunity to tame COVID-19. While the percentages cited have varied,…
• Are You Eating Foods That Harm Your Microbiome?
• In Breast Cancer Survivors, Obesity Raises Odds for Cancer’s Return
• How to Naturally Prevent Prediabetes From Becoming Diabetes
• Beware of Adverse Reactions With Prescription Drugs

 

Manufactured Housing Industry Investments Connected Closing Equities Tickers

Some of these firms invest in manufactured housing, or are otherwise connected, but may do other forms of investing or business activities too.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • NOTE: The chart below includes the Canadian stock, ECN, which purchased Triad Financial Services, a manufactured home industry lender
                        • NOTE: Drew changed its name and trading symbol at the end of 2016 to Lippert (LCII).
                        • NOTE: Deer Valley was largely taken private, say company insiders in a message to MHProNews on 12.15.2020, but there are still some outstanding shares of  the stock from the days when it was a publicly traded firm.  Thus, there is still periodic activity on DVLY.

 

Spring 2021…

Berkshire Hathaway is the parent company to Clayton Homes, 21^st Mortgage, Vanderbilt Mortgage and other factory built housing industry suppliers.
· LCI Industries, Patrick, UFPI, and LP each are suppliers to the manufactured housing industry, among others.
· AMG, CG, and TAVFX have investments in manufactured housing related businesses. For insights from third-parties and clients about our publisher, click here.
Enjoy these ‘blast from the past’ comments.

MHProNews. MHProNews – previously a.k.a. MHMSM.com – has celebrated our 11th year of publishing, and is starting our 12the year of serving the industry as the runaway most-read trade media.

 

Sample Kudos over the years…

It is now 11+ years and counting…

 

Learn more about our evolutionary journey as the industry’s leading trade media, at the report linked below.

· For expert manufactured housing business development or other professional services, click here.
· To sign up in seconds for our industry leading emailed headline news updates, click here.

Disclosure. MHProNews holds no positions in the stocks in this report.

 

That’s a wrap on this installment of “News Through the Lens of Manufactured Homes and Factory-Built Housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, stock, investing, data, metrics, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)

By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing. For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.

LATonyKovach.