This afternoon, I will testify before the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability. The hearing at 2:00 pm is entitled “Censorship Laundering: How the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Enables the Silencing of Dissent.” It will be held in 310 Cannon House Office Building.
I will be testifying on the legal and constitutional implications of the latest disclosures on government-supported censorship, including the work of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at Homeland Security. My testimony is below.
Here is the witness list:
WITNESSES:
Ben Weingarten
Investigative Journalist and Columnist
Martin Kulldorff, PhD
Epidemiologist and Biostatistician
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, PhD
Professor, School of Public Affairs and School of Education Founding Director, Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, American University
Jonathan Turley
Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, The George Washington University
Written Statement → Turley.Testimony.CISA. FINAL
I count ring myself to read it a “agents of the state” was enough for e. Yo and what are govt powers? Dramatic will never be trunp! That is dramatic is a series of acts is fixing on single handedly destroying Florida’s economy and he has non trupters support you can’t have a rubric of contractors who can legally work ten pull the rug Florida economy will die in october as he’s required new roofs to get insurance and kicks all his roofing labor out .only aristocrats will be able to afford Florida.
Something Bad is going to happen soon.
If you have a place to go, get there and stock up.
The SHTF is about to go Nuclear.
Anonymous, a real reset is coming.
Independent Bob – YES
Just getting in from work so I am just seeing this.
I hope its not too late to wish you Godspeed.
Mr. Turley, during your testimony please do not treat Democrats with respect, they deserve none. I know realize this is a big ask, but, it’s not that big really. elected Democrats, nearly to the individual, continue to support, including covering up corruption, and series wrong-doing, the crazy people in the White House.
Jonathan: Did you see the CNN 70 minute town hall forum featuring Donald Trump last night? It was a bizarre performance by the Trumpster who kept repeating his lies about almost everything. He repeated the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. He even demeaned the CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins for asking him pointed Qs. Trump called Kaitlan “nasty”. He still falsely claims he was entitled to keep all those top secret docs he took to Mar-a-Lago–claiming they belonged to him because, well, he “declassified” them. Jack Smith has a different opinion.
Trump then mocked the jury verdict finding him guilty of sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll. He condoned sexual abuse and again smeared Carroll. Carroll’s attorney probably watched the CNN interview and may be preparing a new defamation suit against the Trumpster. In the interview Trump also said, if elected again next year, he will pardon many of those convicted of crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection. Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio?
There was something in the interview that appeals to all the MAGA supporters. Trump knows his audience and is providing them with red meat. The Trumpers live in an alternate universe. Whatever Trump says they soak it up like a sponge.
Dennis, Trump wants to default on our debts and cut-off Ukraine; exactly as Putin wants.
In a real town hall meeting the audience would be allowed to ask questions. It would be about the audience not a hostile interviewer trying to control the narrative.
You better check WHO that audience was, CNN admitted it was Trump supporters. They were told to clap and no booing.
Yes, the hardcore Trumpies are looking for an “outlaw warrior” as their leader, someone who flouts the rules.
In their derangement, they think there will be a culture war with guns and of course, their side will win. But they don’t understand the perspectives of military and law enforcement leaders, who will break in the direction of the center against the radical right fringe. Their fate will be that of the J6th defendants, or worse.
“You claimed to have read the book “
No! Upstate said,
“read about the graphic “
You really are dumb.
“Secondly, pornography does not necessarily refer to sex. It can refer to other things that cause a rapid emotional reaction.” – S. Meyer
Perhaps you could refer us to the dictionary that you’re using, S. Meyer.”
My response was refused by WordPress, making it very likely Bug wrote the above.
I didn’t use a dictionary so you can check my definition with the online dictionary or Merriam-Webster The word pornography can be used with other things than sexual matters and the four-letter words you are infamous for.
Jonathan: I won’t say the panel you are on is stacked. But just look at the list of panel members who are testifying before the GOP controlled House Subcommittee on Oversight:
Ben Weingarten–a right-wing contributor to the Federalist who has appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s show, the Ingraham Angle and the Ben Shapiro show. Weingarten heads “Change Up Media” that is “helping conservative individuals and institutions amplify compelling content…”. He shares your views, brothers in arms, who falsely complain that HS, the FBI and other government agencies are involved in a vast scheme to “censor” conservatives. Weingarten supports lawsuits to “hold the Biden censorship regime accountable”.
Martin Kulldorff–was the author of the “Great Barrington Declaration” that you pushed in many of your columns. The GBD attacked the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions–face masks, school closures, vaccinations, etc. claiming they were all unnecessary. Kulldorff falsely claimed people infected would actually create “herd immunity”. The GBD was largely debunked by the scientific community and denounced by the WHO as “pseudoscience”. Kulldorf even bizarrely claimed the influenza was more dangerous than Covid-19.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss–apparently the token witness the Dems were allowed to have appear on the panel. She is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University. Miller-Idriss regularly testifies before congress on trends in domestic violent extremism.
So there you have it. A stacked deck of panelists pushing the conspiracy theory that the HS, FBI and other government agencies are involved in a vast scheme to silence conservatives. The GOP didn’t even bother at the pretense of bipartisanship. The title of hearing is “Censorship, Laundering [?]: How the US Department of Homeland Security Enables the Silencing of Dissent”. A dead give away about where the House GOP is headed. It has already made up its mind and only wanted panelists to provide an echo chamber. No actual facts or evidence. Not even a conservative witness who might claim he/she was actually “censored” on orders by HS. And the sad part is that you joined that cabal!
DHS Wants You to Snitch on Pro-Life Moms and ‘Anti-Government’ Neighbors
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/05/dhs-wants-you-to-snitch-on-pro-life-moms-and-anti-government-neighbors
For eventual leftist control free speech has got to go.
From End PC’s Article:
Is Ann blowing things up or flying planes into buildings? No, “audiences watch Ann’s activities from the perspective of her preacher, her longtime friend, and her hairdresser. In one scenario, Ann utters the phrase ‘baby killer’ at a public ribbon-cutting event at a local bakery.
………………………………
The article presents Ann as an everyday, suburban mom. But how many sane women are yelling ‘baby killer’ at ribbon-cutting ceremonies?
Dear Prof Turley,
They say youth is wasted on the young, not unlike eloquent testimony on the boundaries of government’s constitutional authority before a congressional DHS oversight committee. .. it’s like an oxymoron.
Ranking member: Prof Turley, if you did not write the constitution, or work for Twitter, what makes you think you’re an ‘expert’ on either?
They wheeled Di Fi back in today. Sen. Feinstein was chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee investigating CIA torture/blacksites, back in the day, but nothing came of it.
(note. president Biden has recently declared victory in the global war on terror – and is concentrating, pivoting, on containing Russia and China aggression.)
As long as they’re swearing people in:
1. Do you know where the laptop is, or not?
2. Does the Oversight committee consider the letter by 51 top intelligence officials a form of ‘mis, dis or mal’ information?
*you can lead a DHS Oversight Committee to water .. . but you can’t make them drink.
1. It’s rather ironic [1] that this “DHS Censorship Hearing” takes place on the day “Title 42” ends.
2. To get an overview of this 19 pages I searched for “FBI briefing” (you know, 9/23/20 Senate Majority Report “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns”) 0 entries, “laptop” (no explanation needed) 9 entries & “election” (17 entries with this important result:
” […] the corporate censorship of companies like Twitter and Facebook clearly had an impact [on our elections] by suppressing certain stories and viewpoints in our public discourse. It was the response to alleged disinformation, not the disinformation itself, that manipulated the debate and issues for voters.” (p 4)
3. The wording “suppressing certain stories and viewpoints” is merely a masquerade for our host’s desire to show us a “Potemkin Village” instead of asking this common sense question: “Why did the many LLCs transfer all $$$ ifrom foreign sources in smaller amounts that often to the gang of 9”?
4. After the $$$ was mainly wired between 2014 and 2017 and the “big players” are well known for years [2]: Why didn’t the committees ask the grandchildren long ago about their work, which brought them the windfall? It is quite possible that they did not know about all this, because they were only used as straw men.
5. Why do so many people suffer from CSDS (Common Sense Deficiency Syndrome)?
[1] Those of you enjoy razor sharp humor, here are some of the latest A.F. Branco cartoons: https://www.creators.com/features/a.f.-branco
[2] https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/RHJ%20CEG%20letters%2010_21.pdf
There is a difference between govt.-orchestrated censorship, and govt-promulgated deceitful infowarfare. In the matter of the Hunter Biden laptop response, censorship (“You cannot publish that”) was not judged the best option, but rather fabricating a deceitful counter-narrative and pushing that out to “explain” the laptop contents as a Russian hoax. Two salient points about this strategy need to be recognized:
Infowarfare (PsyOps) is more effective than censorship. Intelligence experts have known from antiquity that censorship (“You cannot publish that”) leaves a vacuum of explanatory information that leaves questions dangling open. By comparison, a well-crafted false-narrative with a slight bit of plausibility does a much better job of quelling curiosity and dissent. It fills the infosphere with a means of answering relevant questions during the timeframe of desired deception.
Government censorship is widely understood to be prohibited under the Constitution. However, there is no Constitutional prohibition on govt. pushing out public frauds, the only deterrence being getting caught and then voted out of office. But, since the head-fake only has to work during the decision-influence-timeframe, electoral punishment may be far enough off to consider a worthwhile risk.
It frightens me that very smart people committed to “free speech” are framing what happened with Hunter’s laptop as “censorship”. It was much more sophisticated, much more effective, and worst of all — legal. You have to understand threats as they are, and use the proper framing and verbiage to characterize them.
I suggest “deceitful infowarfare”, “political PsyOps”, or “a Public Fraud campaign” to describe the threat we now have to counter. And, the government will be happy-as-a-clam to refrain from censorship if we continue permitting them to push out Public Frauds covered by some perversely-expansive interpretation of freedom-of-expression.
Interesting note. Sort of expands the field on how we should deal with this in law and governance. Of course we should be not be surprised . “Truth is the first casualty of war”. And apparently everything else in government.
This would need action on multiple fronts. The first would be term limits since there are entirely too many fortunes made in Washington D.C. in “Public Service” and then build in conflicts of interest, corruption, influence peddling and with specific law enforcement to deal with them. Someway to remove political fingers on the scale in law enforcement. It would entail some interesting discussion and action.
ETHICS might help but that is almost extinct in so many fields these days.
One approach, a Public Frauds Deterrence Act, would expand the “defamation” cutout to free speech, so that the public could sue any party that attempts to defraud the public (for political gain). All parties could be sued – candidates, campaigns, print & TV media, tech platforms, government officials, PACs, billionaires, “disinformation institutes”, even foreign actors. There would be a rapid-response Public Frauds Court, who could do fast fact-finding, so that deceitful infowarriors could be quickly confronted and officially discredited before important decisions are impacted by lies. Juries would decide questions of fact.
Yesterday’s gun violence:
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/last-72-hours
Last entry is a gun theft.
And another 193 opioid-overdose deaths yesterday – largely thanks to the open border under the control of Mexican cartels, per JB’s policies.
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00/20230201/115264/HHRG-118-JU00-20230201-SD020.pdf
86.3% of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers in US were US citizens, 10x greater than convictions of illegal immigrants.
The problem is much more complicated than an “open border” and has little to do with immigration policy.
Despite your claims of a STEM education that I believe, you need to learn about statistics, percentages and selection.
the opioid related deaths are tragic. However those bringing it into the country do so because they have a captive audience. Back in the 1980s, Colombia was blamed for exporting cocaine into Miami which worked its way across America. Cocaine cartel kings stated they exported coke because Americans sought it.
The opioid crisis is yet another indicator, as if we needed one, of the moral collapse of Americans. The Founding Fathers argued that religion provided a moral foundation to a nation. While Madeline Maureen OHare apoplectically drove a stake into the religious soul of America, as crafted by the Founding Fathers, she was successful, much like the Cocaine and Opioid cartels, because Americans desired it.
The chances of Americans suddenly bending a knee with a heavy heart towards God, while striking their breasts with a solemn mea culpa, are slim to none. Conversion never happens when people are complacent, and when it happens it occurs on an individual basis. Like the Jews of the Old Testament, Americans have exercised their free will (e.g. obesity, demise of the family as an institution, looking to politicians to take care of them) to choose to make a golden calf (e.g. Woke vs Conservative) without God and do it their way. That is how we got to the demise of America just like St Augustine characterized the fall of the Roman Empire in his classic “City of God” magnum opus. So it follows that the imminent destruction of our country will not turn around, but continue full throttle be it via opioids, Woke, “conservative” ideologies, the collapse of the American legal system (e.g. DOJ ignoring Biden family criminal syndicate), with the birth rate falling to a trickle, or any number of items on a horrendously long list of indictments against Americans. You can not push against the river.
The best hope that God fearing people can have is to take care of their own, keep the Faith, help those who seek it, and witness America burn like Rome, since the enemies are not Muslims, immigrants, gays/lesbians, CCP, Russia, or any other foreign construct. The enemy has always been within our borders. Death leads to new life. That is a maxim in biology.
“You can not push against the river.”
Yet the prophets of old still did.
Nathan rebuked David.
While this example is still on an individual basis, his humility and leadership helped forestall disaster, I think.
The disinformation cabal has become a very lucrative industry funded with millions from private and government organizations. I was wondering why Senators were calling for more censorship. Now we know that many of their closest friends were making millions in the dis/misinformation industry. The spiders web is much larger than we knew. https://www.racket.news/p/report-on-the-censorship-industrial-74b. Thank you Professor Turley for exposing the homes of the black widow spiders before they can suck our freedom away. My link is a long read but it’s worth the time.
“These accounts are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.”
“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.”
“Hardly evidence of a massive influence campaign.”
“I think we need to just call this out on the bullshit it is.” Yoel Roth on Twitter.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro & his Russian military advisors are absolutely delighted with the Venezuelan migrant surge from Mexico into the U.S..
It’s a diversion. Russia has to stop the supply chain of weapons coming in from Poland to Ukraine. The question is, will it be by use of conventional weapons or tactical nuclear weapons?
Ok, now everybody, let’s play nice and not get too nasty. I know people with opposing views can get to us, but this is what free speech is really all about. I’m sure in my next posting I’ll ack more normal.
Independent Bob,
“I’m sure in my next posting I’ll ack more normal.”
Was that intentional?
Or a typo?
If intentional, funny!
The Federal Govt, the courts & most bureaucratic agencies by all accounts abrogated it’s responsibilities to the States & the Citizens.
Illegal Wars & such things as a complete Invasion of our borders by Black Hats inside the govt & NGOs/501, Pope-Catholic Charities, etc..
There was reported Yesterday that Another 11,000 Wet Backs were allowed to pass into the US’s Interior by the Obama/Biden’s usurp Govt. Also that more millions are being forced on us
Basically, now the US has been turned into another failed state.
******
USC Article 4, Section 4.
& there’s another in the USC but it slip my mind for the moment.
******
Sec. 7. GOVERNOR AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF MILITARY FORCES. He shall be Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the State, except when they are called into actual service of the United States. He shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CN/htm/CN.4.htm
**********
Southern Border Crisis
Reports and footage from the UN backed invasion at the US Southern Border
https://banned.video/channel/southern-border-crisis
Some people mat not be able to see that link. They should try MadMaxWorld.TV
Good luck professor!
Goodluck!
Fight for a Free America.
And Against Fascists Democrats
guyventner, please look up the original meaning of fascism.
What would you call dems deciding what appliances, vehicles, lightbulbs and toilets we are allowed to have or companies are allowed to make. The free market?
Jim22,
I would argue words change over time.
Once the word “gay” meant happy.
In England the word “faggot” used to mean a bundle.
Fascism used to be applied to right wing form of government.
That is no longer true, as you point out.
Here is one definition:
1
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2
: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism
When I read those, I would add gender identity after race, looks more and more like illiberal wokeism.
Just as we speak about the parallels of woke leftist to Mao’s cultural revolution.
Assolumatamente! But Mussolini’s Fascist party at its creation did not include a plank of anti-Semitism in its platform. About 1/3 of adult Jewish males in Italy were members of the Fascist party, including the Torino banker Ettore Ovazza who was a Fascist zealot. It wasn’t until the mid-1930s that the anti-Semitic voices around il Duce grew loud enough that he could no longer ignore them. At that time, the PNF used the media to turn (or attempt to turn–they failed for the most part) the Italian populace against the Jewish population. And so on…
What is the nationalist element of the current Democratic party?
The applicability of fascism to mainstream Democrats makes absolutely no sense. Both parties want to expand the size of the government, and that alone is not nationalism. For the fascist label to apply, there needs to be a rally-around-the-flag element to the movement. The only recent modern comparison would be MAGA, not the left.
Without the nationalist element, the label of fascist would be indistinguishable from statist.
Please tell us the original meaning of fascism? Not many people today know it or the history of fascism despite the word being slung around every day. Democrats in power in America are behaving in a dictatorial, authoritarian manner. If you want to split hairs, Fascism is the other side of the same coin as socialism, but with the nationalism thrown in.