Free speech is in a free fall as millions embrace censorship as a political cause, including some now running for federal office on a pledge to silence others. One of the most alarming aspects of this period has been the emergence of a type of triumvirate of censorship, an alliance of government, academic, and media corporations. Together they have established the most comprehensive censorship system in the history of this country.
That system is being forced out into the public by the investigation of House committees. This week the House Judiciary Committee released a 103-page staff report on the academic prong of the triumvirate. What is most chilling about this report is that it adds yet another layer of government-supported speech controls. It also reflects a conscious and coordinated effort to carry out censorship through allies in a labyrinth of academic and public interest groups.
Earlier this year, I testified at the first hearing by the special committee investigating the censorship system. I warned that there was ample evidence of a system based on “censorship by surrogate” where government agencies used academic and media allies to silence those with opposing views.
The latest report reveals details of the critical role played by government officials in “switchboarding” the censorship system by channeling demands for removal or bans from state and local officials. In addition to the direct targeting of individuals by federal agencies, switchboarding allowed the agencies to operate as a control tower in this sprawling system.
This switchboarding system was confirmed by Brian Scully of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the Department of Homeland Security. CISA has emerged as one of the critical control centers in this system.
CISA head Jen Easterly declared that her agency’s mandate over critical infrastructure would be extended to include “our cognitive infrastructure.” That includes not just “disinformation” and “misinformation,”
but combating “malinformation” – described as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
Despite the determined opposition by Democratic members and the Biden Administration, the investigation has revealed a wide array of grants to academic and third party organizations to create blacklists or to pressure advertisers to withdraw support for conservative sites. The subjects for censorship ranged from election fraud to social justice to climate change.
The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) was created in partnership with Stanford University “at the request of DHS/CISA.” It is described as a “consortium of ‘disinformation’ academics led by Stanford University’s Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO).
EIP supplied a “centralized reporting system” to process what were known as “Jira tickets” targeting unacceptable views. It would include not only politicians but commentators and pundits as well as the satirical site The Babylon Bee.
Some of us have previously criticized Stanford for its effort to systematize and expand censorship. Stanford’s Virality Project pushed to censor even true facts since “true stories … could fuel hesitancy” over taking the vaccine or other measures.
In newly released emails, the secret coordination with federal agencies was made public, including a July 31, 2020 email from the director at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, an EIP partner.
Graham Brookie, the lab’s senior director, confirmed that her group “just set up an election integrity partnership at the request of DHS/CISA and are in weekly comms to debrief about disinfo.”
During this time many of us in the free speech community were raising the alarm over the evidence of a government-supported censorship system, including the use of surrogates in academia. As noted in emails in May 2020, government officials were privately saying that they need to avoid any move that would “openly endorse” censorship while funding these groups and switchboarding the system.
As officials served as the conduit, it continued to attach a standard disclaimer that CISA “neither has nor seeks the ability to remove what information is made available on social media platforms.”
Notably, EIP worked not only with CISA, but with the Global Engagement Center, a multi-agency entity housed within the State Department. It was the Global Engagement Center that contracted with the Atlantic Council, which sent suggested blacklists to Twitter. It got to be so reckless that Yoel Roth, then Twitter’s head of trust and safety, responded “omg” and “what a total crock.”
This system rests on grants coming from Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the State Department, and other agencies. That system included scoring groups through a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to the British-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI). The index targeted ten conservative and libertarian sites as the most dangerous sources of disinformation, including sites like Reason which publishes conservative legal analysis. Conversely, some of the most liberal sites were ranked as the most trustworthy for advertisers.
The report on switchboarding is most chilling when placed within this larger context. The Biden Administration has funded a global effort to score, target, and ban opposing views through an ever-increasing array of allied groups in academia and corporations. A federal court recently enjoined aspects of that system after finding that it is an unprecedented censorship system that effectively created a type of “Orwellian Ministry of Truth.”
The solution is as obvious as the danger itself. Congress must bar any funding — directly or indirectly — for censorship systems. Calling opposing views “disinformation” does not alter the fact that there is a comprehensive censorship system using groups allied with the government. Federal agencies are always able to respond to claims that they deem are untrue about their own policies and programs. However, we need to get the government out of the business of speech controls, including shutting down the censorship switchboard.
Jonathan: I see a pattern here. When you don’t want to discuss the really important news you trot out the old saw that the Biden administration has turned into an “Orwellian Ministry of Truth”. It has been one of your frequent themes lately.
But in a real sense “truth” is at the center of what the administration is trying to do. Countering the misinformation and disinformation about Covid-19–the conspiracy theories and disinformation the DJT administration and its supporters were spreading. You were part of the right-wing disinformation campaign in many of your columns–falsely claiming face masks didn’t work and supporting university professors who refused to get vaccinated. You falsely claimed pandemic restrictions were a violation of “free speech rights”.
During the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic the American people deserved up to date and accurate information. Instead, what we heard from DJT were quack remedies. DJT fought with Dr. Fauci, the expert on infectious diseases, and silenced him. That led to attacks on Fauci by Fox, your employer, and other right-wing media.
What the Biden administration is trying to do is to make sure that in the next pandemic Americans will get timely and scientifically based information and recommendations. Not the disinformation and distortions of the facts by those on the right. That means making sure media platforms don’t amplify the disinformation that is bound to come. You can call it “censorship”. I call it TRUTH telling!
Countering the misinformation and disinformation about Covid-19–the conspiracy theories and disinformation the DJT administration and its supporters were spreading
You’re such a retard you don’t even know those conspiracies and disinformation all turned out to be true.
Masks don’t work. . . masks have never worked against a virus. The CDC knowing lied. The biggest LIE is there exists a vaccine. 97% of Americans are refusing to take the covid jab. Because it does not prevent being infected, nor does it prevent you from passing it on.
Idiots Abound. Idiots Afield.
Masks, good ones, fitted properly, worn continuously in public–not including restaurants when you remove them while eating–work. Millions more would be dead without the vaccines. Vaccines don’t prevent you from contracting the virus or from passing it on, you idiot. They reduce fatalities.
How many lives would have been saved if the BLM and ANTIFA rioters weren’t wearing masks?
Daddy’s little girl would have her face all over the news and Daddy would have to defund his little darling.
ferris, There has never been any scientific study show efficacy of masks against a virus.
This is one of those debates that ended almost 200 years ago.
Even the left demanded free speech back in the 60’s.
No this is not about “truth”
The answer to that stupid calim – for centuries has been “who decides ?”
We have seen what happens when those like YOU get to decide – the ACTUAL truth gets supressed.
You seem to think that we should trust the government to supress things that are allegedly not TRUE.
Yet the Government WHOLELY empbraced what it KNEW was a hoax – the Clinnton Sources collusion delusion.
Our Government, Democrats, the media., social media, left wing nuts all sold that too us as TRUE.
But for the incredible efforts of a very small number of people – nearly all of which YOU have repeated called “far right”
racist., extremist, nazis – the ludcrously stupid claim that the 2016 election was decided by Russia would STILL be viewed as True.
Nor is that close to the only or the most egregious example.
Please tell me WHAT it is that government got right about Covid ? Anything ?
And again – Government the media, social media, democrats, the left ALL conspired to silence anyone that disagreed.
Nor are we talking about just one Error compined with censorship.
Just about every single thing that our government “experts” told us regarding Covid has either proven completely wrong, or at the very least demonstrated as unlikely to be true.
Recent scientific studies are demonstrating that the claim that asymptomatic people could transmit covid was FALSE.
While unlike masks, and the origins of Covid, and the effectiveness of vaccines – this does not APPER to be something government public health officials KNOWINGLY lied about. Atleast so far they do not appear to have lied.
But they appear to have been wrong, and that is actually a huge deal. Masks do not work. There is litterally no credible study in the 21st century and possibly none at all that found any consequential impact on the long term spread of any viral disease from masks. This was KNOWN by government public health experts who then LIED to us.
But quarantining the sick DOES WORK. It is possibly the most effective means we actually have of thwarting contageous diseases.
In fact it is HIGHLY effective – over 95% as compared to an N95 mask which is 77% effective for a SINGLE exposure.
While Quarantine is 95% effective OVERALL. There is a legitimate question as to whether Quarantie would have worked against covid.
The necescary effectiveness to have a consequential effect on a contageous disease increase exponentially with the transmission rate of the disease. It is possible that a 95% effective quarantine would not have been enough to stop Covid.
Of course if that is the case – NOTHING would be effective enough.
Regardless the more important point is that those you wish to give the decision as to what is true, and what is false and can be supressed are DEMONSTRABLY bad at precisely that task.
I would not trust the people who have proven to be near 100% right about covid or other issues to decide what should and should not be censored. I cetainly would not trust YOU or your ilk who are far worse than random chance at determning what is true and what is not.
If we have decided what was true by flipping a coin over Covid issues we would have been right about 10 times more frequently than Government. the media, social media, YOU. Democrats, the left.
Forgot to login
That was me.
“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
that was me
What the Biden administration is doing is trying to give all the more power to people with a track record of being wrong about nearly everything.
If the Pandemic is supposed to be our yardstick then the very people you are empowering to decide what is true, have a track record that is bad beyond comprehension. Beyond random chance.
What was Fauxi right about ? Can you name ONE thing ?
If being wrong was a crime – Fauxi would be serving life.
If people were allowed to file tort claims against Government officials for the harm they caused – Fauxi would be trillions of dollars in debt.
Never before in human history have highly educated arrogant people with power proved so abysmally wrong about everything.
Covid has become endemic. It will likely be with us forever. The spanish flu came, and went never to return. Swine Flu came and went never to return. Myriads of past epidemics have come and gone never to return. That is the norm.
Public health measures that do not succeed in stopping the spread of an epidemic, risk making the disease endemic – with us always.
This is NOT an opinion – it is a FACT, one that can be demonstrated mathematically.
The shorter lived immunity to a disease is the more likely slowing the spread of that disease without stopping it will lead to that disease becoming endemic.
It is POSSIBLE that covid would have become endemic regardless. It has a high rate of mutation, and a short duration of vaccine and possible natural immunity. But if we were to have a chance to avoid covid becoming endemic, we needed to almost the opposite of what the “experts” told us.
I have put “experts” in quotes – because there were LOTS of actual experts telling us that the policies we were following were wrong and would not work.
These are precisely the people YOU seek to silence.
“Covid has become endemic. It will likely be with us forever. The spanish flu came, and went never to return.”
I thought the so-called Spanish flu was an H1N1 virus, which is with us still. It came in waves for a few years, very like Covid-19, and is still circulating like Covid-19.
Do you see over 100M people dying from the Flu ? The specific virus that was the Spanish flu did not return.
You would know if it did. It was nearly as contageous as Covid, and much more deadly.
Worse still unlike Covid whid has an extremely pronounced agen/mortality curve, the spanish flu was most lethal for young healthy adults.
There were possibly as many as 100M deaths at a time when the global population was a fraction what it is today.
Flu viruses pretty universally originate in nature, usually coming from china. Usually where birds, livestock, and humans live in close proximity.
While Each years flu is related to past flu’s they are not the same. To my knowledge every flu virus that there has ever been enters the human population from animals. Lasts for 9m to 3yrs, and they fades away because:
about 2/3 of the population has some form of immunity – either from past infection of a strong immune system.
Once that flu fades it disappears permanently. At this time we will not see the spanish flu again unless nature magically recreates the exact same firus, or it is released from a lab. I beleive the spanish flu has been fully genetically sequenced and can be produced in a lab.
To be clear this is not true of ALL viruses.
There are many factors that determine whether a virus becomes endemic. One of which is can it remain in circulation lang enough for infection of vaccine based immunity to weaken.
Like Fauci, you’re rejecting the possibility of the Covid-19 pandemic originating from a leak from a lab doing gain-of-function research (on bat viruses).
Single-strand RNA viruses mutate like crazy because they lack the redundancy of dual-strand DNA. Just as Covid-19 mutated into countless variants, so it was with the Spanish flu. No one today is catching the original Covid-19 that people died of in the Wuhan hospital in 2019. All those who died a hundred years ago weren’t infected with the same identical virus. The Spanish flu virus is still circulating as H1N1 just as dinosaurs are still living in the form of birds.
Single-strand RNA viruses mutate like crazy because they lack the redundancy of dual-strand DNA
RNA viruses (ss and ds) have high rates of error because they lack repair mechanisms unlike DNA.
There is no redundancy in the genome, ds DNA or RNA. Coding DNA/RNA is about 1% of the genome. The rest regulates the 1%
It would be helpful if folks refrained from commenting on topics for which they lack formal education, training or at a minimum have both read evidenced based data and keep up to date on paradigm shifts in genetics. News sources are not reliable.
Start with the ENCODE Project which opened our eyes to how wrong we were regarding “junk DNA”.
ENCODE Project Consortium. An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome. Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):57-74. doi: 10.1038/nature11247.
It is dated but a good foundational start
For a basic yet thorough text on viruses, the two volume Virology text by Flint is quite good.
Principles of Virology, Multi-Volume, 5th Edition
Jane Flint, Vincent R. Racaniello, Glenn F. Rall, Theodora Hatziioannou, Anna Marie Skalka
ISBN: 978-1-683-67032-2 November 2020 ASM Press 1136 Pages
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Principles+of+Virology%2C+Multi+Volume%2C+5th+Edition-p-9781683670322
Reading recently published (less than 3 years old) scientific papers is the best way to keep up to date. if you cant do that, its best to keep silent or show restraint.
“RNA viruses (ss and ds) have high rates of error because they lack repair mechanisms unlike DNA.”
All right, thanks for that.
“It would be helpful if folks refrained from commenting on topics for which they lack formal education, training or at a minimum have both read evidenced based data and keep up to date…”
Care to weigh in on whether Spanish flu is extinct and if so, why (in contrast) the Covid-19 flu is now endemic?
It is precisely the things that you advocate for that were to a large extent done during Covid that have done REAL HARM.
The covid story is WORSE than just government experts were wrong – and censored those who were right.
The very things you are advocating are why trust in govenrment, trust in science, trust in experts are abysmal.
The vaccine is a perfect example. I supported the development of the vaccine. I still do. More than supported – I wanted to see biolabs and biohackers unleashed and allow the free market to deal with covid and vaccines unfettered.
In April 2020, Bio Hackers claimed to have a functional vaccine against covid – that people could buy for about $25000 for enough to vaccinate about 100 people.
They were unable to go forward with this – because government would not allow people to voluntarily make risky choices about their own lives.
Ultimately the Covid vaccine has been a failure. That does not surprise me. As I have said repeatedly before – success is uncommon failure is common. The big deal about free markets is that most failures ultimately lead to success after many tries.
While the Covid vaccine has proven to be a failure, it is entirely possible that A covid vaccine that works was and may still be possible.
several people have identified a serious design flaw int he Covid vaccine – that we continue through today.
The vaccine works by en mass replicating the spike protein. There are SOME reasons that is a good idea, there are SOME that it is a very bad idea.
The spike protein is in and of itself harmful. The Vaccines work by “infecting” your body with a real virus that produces massive amounts of spike protein. The hope and expectation is that you will generate anti-bodies that will block the spike protein.
There are TWO problems – again – the spike protein all by itself is harmful – and not just a little harmful.
If it likely that the exponentially larger than normal rates of adverse results are due to the mass replication of the spike protein.
The other problem is that the spike protein is a portion of the virus that has mutated rapidly. And tht renders the antibodies the vaccine produced ineffective.
My point is that our best chance at sucess was not 3-4 global drug companies all trying very minor variations of the same approach,
But hundreds of different efforts trying many different approaches.
It is possible – maybe even likely that we could have (and maybe still can) develop an effective covid vaccine. But doing so especially doing so quickly requires hundreds possibly thousands of attempts to find the one that works best.
The lesson fo socialism, communism, the USSR, the 20th century is that central planning ALWAYS falls short of free markets – by a long short.
The lesson of Covid is that those like you have not learned the lesson that central planning falls short.
And the results of YOUR bad central planned approach, YOU censorship was to destroy the credibility of science and experts as a whole.
You want to silence the voices telling you that you are wrong.
You do not seem to grasp that silencing them does not change the fact that you were and in the future are likely to be wrong.
While some of your error is ideologically rooted – leftism is at odds with the real world.
Some of it is rooted in the fact that getting things right is HARD. It usually takes multiple tries. It REQUIRES lots of people telling you how you are wrong to actually eventually get it right.
Dennis – lets be clear – MASKS DID NOT WORK. The “experts” that told you they did were WRONG and KNEW they were wrong at the time.
The SCIENCE on ths was settled before the pandemic.
Cloth masks are worse than useless.
N95 masks can slow the spread of Covid by fall WAY WAY WAY short of being able to stop it.
This is actually basic Math. The laboratory effectiveness of N95 masks against Covid as orriginally calculated – was 77%. I suspect that is high. Further it is laboratory effectiveness real world effectiveness is lower.
The agregegate effectiveness needed to stop a disease with an R0 of 2.5 is very close to 99%. N95 masks in conjunction with other highly effective measures MIGHT have worked. The problem is there ARE NO other highly effective measures. (except possibly quarantine).
The only “conspiracy theory” – was that pushed by government, the media, democrats, and social media that those disagreing with them were WRONG.
While I hoped I was wrong – I KNEW the vaccine was not going to work when the drug companies reported it was 95% effective and had a half life of 8 months in october of 2020. That is NOT even close to good enough.
It is unclear today whether the benefits of the Vaccine outweight the risks for ANYONE. We have not yet analyszed enough data on that.
It is absolutely certain today that the risks associated with the vaccine outweigh the benefits for everyone in good health under 50.
There is no debating that. The data is showing a greater death rate in the vaccinated than the death rate from covid.
It is still possible that the benefits were worth the risks for high risk people. But even that may not be true.
Nor is that the end of it. The data is increasingly strong that no one ever should have done more than get the vaccine and the first booster.
We are seeing significant increases in deaths and other health problems proportionate to the number of times people have been vaccinated.
The benefits of the vaccine go down with each booster. the rate of adverse reactions increases – which should have been expected, the effect on the immune system is more negative with each booster. And the effectiveness against covid declines.
Medical communism always preceeds actual communism.
You “can’t” do that. You “must” do this. You must do it “our way.” This is “the treatment.” Period.
You will not question “authority.”
That’s medical communism. It’s total quackery.
Real science will stand up to questioning.
It doesn’t have to be “mandated.”
It doesn’t have to be “enforced.”
We must allow people who have a valid counter argument to step up and make their case.
Not be smeared and defamed by the corrupt despicable Tony Fauci’s of the world.
When you suppress people’s right to speak, you create a lot of suspicion.
As it should.
Real science will stand up to questioning.
The Covid “vaccines” have failed the test. So has Fauci.
There is NO demonstrable benefit to this very dangerous covid “vaccine.” It is ALL risk. Do not take another shot. The authorities are uninformed and lying.
OT– today’s news is reporting that the FBI has seized Mayor Adams’ cell phones. I am sure it is purely coincidental but as I recall, the public announcement of the investigation of the Mayor’s fund raiser was announced not too long after the Mayor strongly criticized President Biden because of the immigration crisis that has severely impacted New York City. What a Banana Republic the Democrats have given us!
Honest, as I said to Olly, they are now eating their own. How did that work out in the French Revolution?
As Mollie Hemingway tweeted in response to the news that DOJ is charging three men with running brothels near DC, and elswhere, that hosted politicians, etc, (ie BLACKMAIL!) —>
“Is it bad I assume all 70 GOP who voted to reward FBI with brand new HQ are also clients of this brothel? Also, good work on DOJ for announcing this on the day the HQ was up for a vote. Exactly what you’d expect from an agency whose HQ is literally named after J. Edgar Hoover.”
BINGO!
You shall not question Dear Leader (aka Big Guy)…you shall not question our elections….you shall not question anything! Or else…..you WILL be visited by the Stasi…..you will face the wrath of Biden’s Gestapo….you WILL not step out of line…..Heil Biden!
#Biden’s Banana Republic
Anyone who thinks this comment is an exageration, YOU are not paying attention.
Well done
It is important to remember that in 7th century Mecca, modern day Saudi Arabia, the Founder of Islam, Muhammad, and his successors, e.g. Rashidun Caliphate, launched his religion by jihad. From Saudi Arabia they launched to neighboring land masses, invading, conquering and annihilating the inhabitants of the lands these settlers had in their sights, including the Byzantine Empire where Christians were their primary victims, e.g. Spain, Sicily, Constantinople (Hagia Sophia was an Eastern Orthodox Church before Muslims desecrated it and proclaimed it a mosque)
There never was a Palestinian genotype (unique ethnic group). Today there is no genocide by Israel but rather a “kill or be killed” strategy. One would think Arabs would appreciate Israel for doing what their predecessors did to Christian lands centuries earlier
Eva 🍀
@EvaBen98935258
https://twitter.com/EvaBen98935258/status/1718021459715539274
A crash course on history of PALESTINIAN STATE:
1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state
2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.
4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid Arab-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.
5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Frankish and Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.
6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.
7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine empire, not a Palestinian state.
8. Before the Byzantine Empire, there were the Sassanids, not a Palestinian state.
9. Before the Sassanid Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
10. Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.
12. Before the Hasmonean state, there was the Seleucid, not a Palestinian state.
13. Before the Seleucid empire, there was the empire of Alexander the Great, not a Palestinian state.
14. Before the empire of Alexander the Great, there was the Persian empire, not a Palestinian state.
15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.
16. Before the Babylonian Empire, there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, not a Palestinian state.
17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
18. Before the kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.
20. Actually, in this piece of land there has been everything, EXCEPT A PALESTINIAN STATE.
Estovir, quite good except that Mohammad didn’t ‘launch jihad’. That was later Arabs who misunderstood the Koran. And they didn’t ‘annihilate’ the inhabitants of conquered lands, rather subjugated them.
You think that Arabs misunderstood the sword verses of the Quran, and that you, a non Arab, understand the Hadith better? Are you unaware that Mohammad was a warrior, who enslaved, conquered, or put to the sword those who refused to convert? Have you no notion on the global caliphate? Sahih Muslim?
Judge a religion by its fruits. How are the human rights and religious tolerance in any Muslim majority country? What is the public policy on Jews in any Muslim country?
Moderate Muslims simply ignore the sword verses, though the Quran is represented as the direct word of Allah, not filtered through any prophet. Mohammad simply revealed Allah’s exact words.
Karen S —- Read
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_Verse
As for Jews, they were tolerated in, for example, Moorish Spain, only being exiled by Ferdinand & Isabella in 1492 after the Reconquest. There is currently a Jewish population in Tunisia who choose not to ‘return’ to Israel, having been in Tunisia since ca. 70 CE. Etc.
You are correct, Karen. Benson, as usual, does not follow the facts.
According to Biography according to the Islamic tradition, per Britannica, Jews were slaughtered, women and children enslaved. Muhammad disregarded Jewish precepts while impersonating a religion that was supposedly built on Judaism. Muhammad claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Gabriel, together with the Jewish patriarchs and Jesus Christ. Yet, he specifically targeted these religions to grow his empire of jihadists. Muhammad’s religion was no outgrowth of Judaism and Christianity. He decimated both of these religions because Muhammad was a warrior first and foremost, and likely had a Messiah complex, pun intended
Since the following is a biography “according to Islamic tradition”, per Britannica, you know the details of Muhammad are presented in the most favorable light. He was an assassin, and his followers after his death perfected their assassin roles where ever Jews and Christians were found. Muhammad and his jihadist didn’t arrive in Medina, Damascus, and Jerusalem peacefully, nor did successive Muslim jihads to Constantinople, Sicily and Spain/Portugal (Iberia); they did not travel to these lands to learn from the people there. They raped women for their carnal appetites, and slaughtered their husbands, while using their children as slaves. I am Cuban, descendant of Spaniards, southern region, and I am often confused for being Middle Eastern. Thank the Moors for injecting their genes which are dominant over Caucasian genes.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad
At Medina, Muhammad has a house built that simultaneously serves as a prayer venue for his followers. He also drafts a covenant that joins together “the Believers and Submitters [or Muslims] of Quraysh and of Yathrib” as well as some of Medina’s Jewish tribes into a community (ummah) recognizing Muhammad as the “Messenger of God.” However, relations with the Jews of Medina steadily worsen. Eighteen months after the emigration, a revelation bids the Muslims to pray in the direction of the Meccan Kaʿbah, rather than to continue facing toward Jerusalem as is Jewish practice. At about the same time, the Medinan Muslims begin raiding Meccan caravans. When, during one of these raids, they are surprised by a Meccan relief force at Badr in 624, the Muslims, aided by angels, score a surprising victory. In response, the Meccans try to capture Medina, once in 625 in the Battle of Uḥud and again in 627 in the so-called Battle of the Trench; both attempts to dislodge Muhammad are ultimately unsuccessful. After each of the three major military encounters with the Meccans, Muhammad and his followers manage to oust another of the three main Jewish tribes of Medina. In the case of the last Jewish tribe to be displaced, the Qurayẓah, all adult males are executed, and the women and children are enslaved.
In 628 Muhammad makes the bold move of setting out to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Meccans are determined to prevent the Muslims from entering the city, and Muhammad halts at Al-Ḥudaybiyyah, on the edge of the sacred territory of Mecca. A treaty is concluded between the two parties: hostilities are to cease, and the Muslims are given permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca in 629. Two months later Muhammad leads his forces against the Jewish oasis of Khaybar, north of Medina. After a siege, it submits, but the Jews are allowed to remain on condition of sending half of their date harvest to Medina.
Muslims desecrated it and proclaimed it a mosque)
Estovir, quite good except you neglected to put a period at the end of this sentence. 🙄
REGARDING ABOVE:
Here Estovir (Thinkthrough, James, Upstate Farmer, Hullbobby, Iowa 2 and countless others) is telling us that the people we know as ‘Palestinians’ don’t exist.
So don’t worry if you read about Palestinians being homeless refugees from an enclave in which they were refugees. Their hardships are irrelevant to this war.
Why doesn’t OLLY get mentioned?
The @ 5:21 PM troll believes Hamas takes gays by the hand to the top of a building to show them the throngs of Muslims below cheering for them. He really should travel there to see the sights and so that Hamas can hand him his brain on a rainbow platter
🥷🏼
Anonymous:
There has never been a Palestinian country, ever. You should be able to verify this yourself. The Romans called the region of Judea “Palestine” to punish the Jews who rebelled against Roman imperialism. They chose Palestine to refer to the Philistines, who were an extinct seafaring people on the coast, related to the Greeks.
Israel is the third Jewish state to exist in Judea. Jews can trace their genetic and cultural heritage to Judea, where Judaism developed, to the Bronze Age. They are indigenous, not colonizers. Antisemitism is foundational to Islam, and public policy in Muslim nations.
There has never been a Palestinian language, culture, religion, or dress. They are Arabs. Under the Ottoman Empire, Muslims of Judea referred to themselves as Arabs, or Ottoman Arabs. Arabs did not refer to themselves as Palestinians until Yasser Arafat began the practice, with the goal of claiming a unique Arab homeland.
The plight of the Palestinians is the fault of murderous antisemitism, and the refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist.
The Ottoman Empire fought on the wrong side of WWI, and its land was broken up. Redefining boundaries and nations has also been common practice in Europe. You don’t travel to Prussia or the Holy Roman Empire, today, do you?
The British Mandate proposed Israel as a solution to the global persecution and diaspora of Jews. Since studies prophetically indicated that Arabs refused to live in peace with Jews in a Jewish country, 90% of what was supposed to be Israel was given to the Arabs to appease them, to form Jordan, and part of Syria and Lebanon. Jordan attacked Israel anyway. Israel was left the size of New Jersey, and absurdly small sliver of land in the enormous, Arab Middle East. To the antisemites, one square foot of Jewish country is too much. Though Israel is so tiny that giving up any land makes it more vulnerable to missiles, it has still offered land for peace many times, but been rebuffed every single time. It withdrew from Gaza to try to appease the Palestinians, who simply voted in terrorist organization Hamas to use it as a base to kill Jews.
Billions of dollars in aid has poured into Gaza, to build a state of the art water, power, and infrastructure. Hamas leaders kept much of the money, sold supplies on the black market, and used the rest to build missiles, bunkers, and kill as many Jews as possible. While Palestinians live in poverty in Gaza, Hamas leaders are literal billionaires, living the high life in Qatar. They direct Hamas to use Palestinians as human shields, ordering them to stay when Israel warns them to evacuate strike zones. Dead Palestinians gins up Jew hatred, and rakes in more cash donations. Hamas goal is genocide of the Jews.
The reason why Gazans have poor living conditions is because they keep electing officials who steal or misappropriate billions of dollars in aid. Any further money or supplies that pour in will go straight to Hamas.
Israel didn’t occupy anything. Israel was legally formed, under international law, with land from an empire that lost in WWI. Every offer of peace with the antisemitic Arabs has been refused. How is Israel supposed to negotiate with terrorists who only want them dead, and with Palestinians who would rather keep voting for those terrorists in government, than to thrive?
What does Gaza have to show for the billions of dollars and euros in aid that it has received? Israel, the target of genocide, is just supposed to keep giving more, to make it easier for Hamas to kill them? The Palestinians welcomed Hamas home like heroes, after they gang raped women to death, beheaded babies, chopped body parts off of children, and killed every Jew they could find. Hamas is indistinguishable from Nazis.
Your siding with them is disturbing.
Jen Easterly, dept. of Homeland Security “cognitive infrastructure”?
hmmm!
Trump’s judge received a judicial complaint citing he prejudiced potential jurors against the former President through deliberate statements condemning the man. This could be the beginning of the radical reforms we need so desperately.
Lawyers, selected by their state’s U.S. senators. appoint lawyers to committees that then nominate lawyers for positions on the bench to those very same senators. The son of such a senator, Shanin Specter, and his law partner Tom Kline, eagerly selected Juan R. Sanchez as such a candidate to Arlen, and as chair of the senate judiciary committee, he pushed him straight through the confirmation process. Juan was a local judge with little if any distinction, except his devotion to the Republican Party. Since 2004 Juan has ruled most favorably for Shanin and his law partner,
They consistently win the largest settlements worth billions. Billions.
Jonathan, where art thou, dear brother?
Jonathan Turley, don’t be so silly. The censorship imposed by the Pope, Curia an the Inquisition was far more severe. For example, Galileo was able to survive under only house arrest after he recanted; Bruno was burnt at the stake:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno
The censorship imposed by the Pope, Curia an the Inquisition was far more severe.
Benson, so your defense of the Regimes censorship efforts is that no one has been burned at the stake…yet? Using your ahem logic, the time to defend the 2nd amendment is once everyone is disarmed. The time to defend the 4th amendment is after all your property has been seized. The time to defend the 5th amendment is when you’re sent to the gulag.
🤔 No f’ing thank you. I’m with Turley. I recommend we be silly.
OLLY, I object to ‘Orwellian’, not to the rest.
I object to ‘Orwellian’, not to the rest.
Benson, at least you’re consistent. It sounds as though you object to JT headlining is post Orwellian, when everything he wrote in his post (you don’t object to) is describing Totalitarianism. In other words, he is accurately describing the essence of Totalitarianism, but not literally Orwellian. So your message to JT is he’s being silly, things are not that bad…yet.
https://youtu.be/oe64p-QzhNE
OLLY, I could have stated it better. But no, it is not ‘the essence of Totalitarianism’. For that, talk to anybody who lived in Eastern Europe before 1991; I have.
But no, it is not ‘the essence of Totalitarianism’. For that, talk to anybody who lived in Eastern Europe before 1991;
Not like I need to. But perhaps this one time political prisoner in the former Soviet Union, Natan Sharansky, might know a thing or two about where we’re headed.
Three decades after the Soviet Union fell, embers of the kind of totalitarian thinking that spawned the Communist Revolution are inflaming Western debate—and inciting Americans. Anyone born into Soviet oppression, and who resisted it, knows how important America’s freewheeling culture of free speech and free thought was to citizens trapped in fear societies. Whatever its flaws, America remains the leader of the free world.
That is why it is so alarming to watch this new ideological totalitarianism curtailing America’s collective conversation—even as its constitutionally protected freedoms remain legally secure.
https://www.newsweek.com/three-warning-signs-ideological-totalitarianism-opinion-1529824
Benson, you can live your life behind textbook definitions, but the time to define totalitarianism in America is absolutely not after the Regime locks you up for having that aha! moment.
OLLY,
Well said.
I have the feeling David Benson was being sarcastic…
So as long as you don’t burn people at the stake (with or without the bag of gunpowder around the neck), then any government censorship is tickety-boo. Got it.
I’m sure that’s exactly how the founding fathers saw it.
Straw men would burn particularly well at the stake. Just not here.
Get Democrats out of national government and this censorship will stop. Get Democrats out of Congress, out of the White House, and out of the Supreme Court as well.
“Get [the communist agenda of] Democrats out of national government and this censorship will stop.”
– Aninny
___________
Hello! The Constitution did that a very long time ago.
The singular American failure has been and continues to be the Supreme Court against which impeachment and conviction, or a reasonable and efficacious facsimile, must be exercised vigorously and with extreme prejudice.
The entire communistic American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, HHS, HUD, EPA, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax ONLY for “…general (all, the whole) Welfare…,” omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor or charity. The same article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the value of money, the “flow” of commerce among nations, States and Indian tribes, and land and naval Forces. Additionally, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and providing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
________________________
“[Private property is] that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
– James Madison
So when Hillary Clinton and her campaign paid to have a foreign agent fabricate a Russian dossier to take out her political opponent for President of the United States, she was protected by the Regime’s FBI/CIA/DOJ and celebrated by Democrats and the state media. And still is today. But when Douglass Mackey shares a parody meme on Twitter in 2016 telling people they can text a vote for Clinton, 4 years later, he gets a 7am wakeup call by the FBI, is arrested for allegedly conspiring to defraud voters…in 2016 and is convicted. He now faces up to 10 years in prison. The FBI could find no voters that were defrauded and their case rested on what they alleged was his “intent.” The FBI produced 1 “witness” that Mackey had never met or communicated with who said he had a “silent agreement” with Mackey to do what alleged.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1722752303843700828
No, not a Police State. Right. And right on cue, The Babylon Bee has figured out how you too can qualify to be in the Regime’s FBI:
https://babylonbee.com/news/want-to-be-an-fbi-agent-here-are-the-top-9-qualifications
The DNC’s prized MSM joined Hamas on Oct 7 to record the brutal slaughter of Jews.
Apparently being a Nazi is honorable when the DNC / MSM crowd do it
Hopefully Jews in America will remember on election day how the DNC / MSM enabled then covered for the worst atrocity against Jews since Hitler
Reuters, AP, CNN and NYT photojournalists arrived at border alongside Hamas terrorists, documenting murder of Israeli civilians, lynching of soldier and kidnappings to Gaza
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byf1woyma
Yeah, I saw that Estovir. Pretty sad when we have to “hope” anyone, let alone Jews will remember.
When are the overly tacit republicans going to realize that when they did not stand up and state that any and all “hate speech” legislation was unconstitutional they opened the door for this. Please have someone initiate a law suit that will wind its way to SCOTUS and have these unconstitutional laws declared as such and put an end to all this nonsense. I blame the lily-livered republicans of the Romney/McConnell ilk for this situation.
Hamas is not Islamic as they violate the Koran’s explicit admonition, stated more than 100 times, to “argue gently wsith the People of the Book.”
Perhaps the definition of “islamic” needs to be amended. You know that the reason that we call Marines leathernecks is from the leather collars they wore fighting against the islamic Barbary pirates who would always attempt to behead them. Since when has islam never been a thuggish conquering band of militants masquerading as a religion? Flying planes into buildings and putting command centers under hospitals would tend to eliminate islam from the other religions of peace and if these imams cannot control this desire to conquer in the name of allah, then they should find another line of work.
W. Mama —- The Moors of Spain were tolerant of the Jews, and also the Christians. But after the Reconquest of Spain the Jews were expelled by the Most Catholic Majesties. Similarly in Persia and South Asia, also what is now Indonesia.
David – that’s highly simplistic. The way Muslims understand the Koran is more complicated than that. You can’t just quote one verse as a proof-text for an entire argument. You should read (or listen to) the book:
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Hamas’s founder’s son (Nabeel Qureshi)
He has a pretty in-depth explanation of how certain aspects of the Koran become overruled by later Koranic writings.
Kansas Elder, nope. There is another book, the name escapes me just now, which was written later. It is not considered to be “the Word Of God” enunciated to/by Mohammed. That Muslims fail now to follow the Koran doesn’t change *What Is Written*.
I’ve read a translation of the entire Koran: “argue gently with the People Of The Book”, repeatedly.
That Muslims fail now to follow the Koran doesn’t change *What Is Written*
That’s the whole point. “What is written” is not always binding, particularly if it has been superseded. It can be in the Koran and be superseded. I commend you for reading the whole Koran, but that alone is insufficient if you don’t know Islam’s method of interpreting and applying it.
I’ll predict you’ll again say “nope,” but your “nope” will carry more weight after you read Qureshi’s book.
Kansas Elder, What is considered to be The Word Of God *ought* to be binding on the faithful. It *cannot* be superseded.
For instance, which of the 10 commandments are ‘superceeded’?
I’m certainly not going to bother with a Hamas apologist’s scribblings.
I’m certainly not going to bother with a Hamas apologist’s scribblings
He’s not a Hamas apologist. I would have thought that was obvious from his book’s title, “Seeking Allah, finding Jesus” – but perhaps you didn’t bother to actually read what I said before responding to it.
And his book is not “scribblings” – I note you denigrated it as such without reading it. Stay classy. If you actually read it (which I doubt you will) you’ll find out he knows 100x more about the Koran and how Muslims interpret it than you do.
For instance, which of the 10 commandments are ‘superceeded’?
Most Christians say the Fourth Commandment: it is superseded in the sense that it the sabbath day has been moved from the last day of the week to the first day, because that’s the day the Christian Lord rose from the dead. Only the Seventh Day Adventists and Messianic Jewish congregations stick with the last day of the week.
Fun fact: the 10 Commandments are in the Hebrew Bible, not the Koran.
Finally, your whole argument is ridiculous. The idea that if people who say they are Muslims don’t obey every single command in the Koran, then they are “not Muslims” is like saying a person is not a Christian unless he faithfully obeys every single command in the Bible, which would mean pretty much nobody can ever be a Christian.
Kansas Elder, I conceed.
Re: the Sabbath – most Christians believe the command to do no work has been superseded, in addition to having moved the day from Saturday to Sunday. One hardly ever hears of a Christian today that insists that no work should be done on the Sabbath.
The Fourth Commandment reads in full: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
Now tell me with a straight face that the “seventh day” and “you shall do no work” parts of the Fourth Commandment has not been superseded.
“Hamas is not Islamic . . .”
The no true Scotsman fallacy rears its ugly head.
Hamas’ leadership pledges allegiance to Islam. Hamas is Iran, long a Muslim theocracy. This attempt to whitewash Islam would have us believe that Hamas’s leadership, and the Mullahs in Iran (experts on the Koran) don’t understand the Koran.
“argue gently wsith [sic] the People of the Book.”
Apparently, you felt like ignoring this passage (and countless other barbaric ones):
“And when the forbidden months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them and take them prisoners, and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush.”
The Peope of the Book are not idolaters. The Hebrews had their own disapproval of the idolaters of the golden calf.
There is no want for death threats against Jews by Hamas supporters on university campuses and online but Douglass Mackey was sentenced to prison by an Obama appointed Federal Judge for a meme.
Obama did this to America and Democrats are at war against Americans
“Douglass Mackey speaks out on prison sentence for meme disparaging Hillary Clinton, details dawn FBI raid 7 days after Biden inauguration”
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-douglass-mackey-speaks-out-prison-sentence-for-meme-disparaging-hillary-clinton-details-dawn-fbi-raid-7-days-after-biden-inauguration
It’s only going to get worse. With AI and its onboarding to nearly every social media platform the need to throttle back comments and opinions – even words I dare say – will be argued by Turley’s triumvirate or some equivalent other.
The world has always suffered from fake news and propaganda.
What’s different now is access, and how humankind will ultimately handle it.
Obama figured it out. The only way our system of government works to secure the rights of the people is to have people in it that want it to work to secure the rights of the people. The only way you get people in it that want it to work that way is by having citizens that understand how it is supposed to work and vote in people that make it work and vote out people that don’t. What Obama figured out is citizens don’t really care how it works as long as it’s working for them. That kind of ignorance and apathy is fertile ground for totalitarians. All the totalitarian needs to do is convince enough people that the enemy of their “rights” and happiness is anyone that opposes the totalitarian. And when the totalitarian has populated the necessary agencies like the DOJ and FBI with allies, this regime is now fully protected. This is where we are today. As long as the downside of these totalitarian actions is a rebuke from the courts, then they will continue until they find a way the court doesn’t stop them. Even when someone in the regime is “held accountable”, they might be forced to retire and then go work for the regime in the “private” sector.
We are so *ucked.
Our fore fathers gave us 4 boxes, the soap box, the jury box, the ballot box and the ammo box. The first three are gone and now we realize the significance of the 2nd amendment. That is all that we have left if we cannot gain control of the other 3 boxes.
Whimsicalmama,
I have had more than a few Jewish friends and their friends ask me about firearms as of late.
Read an article about FL Jewish communities buying guns and getting training.
That is all that we have left if we cannot gain control of the other 3 boxes.
Tragically, that is true whimsicalmam. Don’t forget that oatmeal brains in the White House warned that we’d need nukes to take on the government.
Olly, you are correct. But the pettiness of the left will ultimately consume itself. We won’t return to what it was, but these monsters are starting to eat their own, so eventually, the decline will stop. At that point, which is nearing, our future will depend on our choices. Will we choose those who appear perfect and are imperfect or those who can do the job?
At that point, which is nearing, our future will depend on our choices.
SM, Totalitarian regimes rise on the backs of those useful idiots. Notice that as they begin eating their own, the Regime is unaffected. This Regime was built slowly, demoralizing generations so as to withstand forces that oppose them. Trump proved to be a speed bump for them. Realistically, the Regime has wargamed the 2024 election and they are executing their strategy to never have a 2016 again. If I’m wrong, we may have a chance.
Olly,
the court issue is easily solved by the totalitarians. You just appoint the judges that will protect the regime. Yes we are so f’ed
the court issue is easily solved by the totalitarians.
That’s right Jim. One of things I learned from watching the Tucker interview with Douglass Mackey regarding his Twitter meme prosecution, was that alleged crimes conducted through social media can be prosecuted in any state. He lives in Vermont, but was prosecuted in Brooklyn, NY. There were no victims. So all the Regime needs to do is bring the case in the jurisdiction most favorable for a guilty verdict. Of course he will appeal, but the damage has been done. It will silence dissent further, as no one will want to risk going through that nightmare.
The vast majority of government censors don’t seem to know or even understand what their Oath of Office actually means.
If an official isn’t loyal to their Oath of Office, they aren’t qualified to censor anything.
Censors should read General Mark Miley’s 2023 retirement speech on the actual meaning of their Oath of Office employment contract – it prohibits infringing on legal First Amendment speech and association.
Bottom Line: no American official has the authority to censor most speech – they have no such authority. If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything!
This article concentrates on the “voluntary” side of censorship where federal agencies and government-funded NGOs “suggest” to media what “might” be censorsed. We should not forget the more emphatic side of the censorship regime: actual or threatended criminal prosecution of people who persist in trying to express “wrong” views: Donald Trump, obviously; the J6 protesters, obviously; not so obvioulsy, Matt Taibi, the “so-called journalist”, who gets a home visit from the IRS on the day he helps expose the censorship machine in Congressional testimony. Democrats – – are you proud of the destruction you have wrought?
“Switchboarding.” Love it. What an incredibly effective and smart choice of words to precisely pinpoint this political tactic intent on nebulizing direct involvement into a harder-to-trace nebulous vapor/fog.
Lin, exactly. CISA was initially excluded from the 5th Circuit injunction in Missouri v Biden because it served merely as a “switchboard.” On rehearing the court recognised it had been fooled and included CISA.
The real danger of government driven “censorship” is that officials only have to censor the thought leaders (like the great commenters on this website).
Not sure judges and the U.S. Supreme Court understand this, simply censoring 10% of social media speakers harms the other 90% of Americans not participating in the democratic process.
What’s the harm? America has 330 million vantage points, which is better at solving problems than a fascist or communist model of government where 10 elite people group think amongst themselves to solve problems for 1.3 billion people.
It’s no secret what makes America great, 330 million people analyze every issue from every angle and the First Amendment “restrains” any American official from infringing on that speech or association. China, North Korea and Russia don’t have that.
Somehow we have become a police state in all but name. Only the thin Republican majority in the House prevents the trap of censorship from snapping shut. If a Republican President is elected in 2024, he/she must establish a public commission composed of non-politicians to establish a public record of the Democratic censorship regime. Prosecutions of those most responsible, under a theory of denial of Constitutional rights, should follow.
It’s wrong for either party to censor legal First Amendment speech (or deputize a private company to censor on behalf of the government), but both parties do it.
Government officials, from both parties, swear an Oath of Office to not violate the First Amendment as a condition of holding governing authority.
I wholeheartedly agree, except there’s a big problem. The thin Republican majority in the House is important, but without a Republican majority in the Senate, and a Republican in the White House, all the investigations and the sunshine they shed on these issues are moot. At the rate Republicans are going, I don’t foresee any substantive change happening as today’s Republicans simply don’t know how, or maybe even have the will to win. As Barack Millhouse Benito Obama so eloquently put it, “Elections have consequences.”
Shout out to the 1984 ish bizarre dark comedy of your actually even imagining that you can be a spokesman for free speech and anti censorship when your blog is a literal shrine to censorship and shadow banning, Turley…
However, you do seem to have attracted a core base of the gullible who will completely buy your words on free speech while ignoring your actual actions, so there’s that.
But when actions are concerned, your track record of behavior tells us everything we need to know.
If you can’t recognize the difference between private discrimination and government directed censorship you are beyond hope and have nothing of value to contribute.
I recognize your comment for its sheer idiocy, which is, of course, valuable in its way. So thanks, idiot.
–how ironic that we “gullibles” openly identify ourselves and are free to articulate our opinions (anathemas to you)
-while you hide behind “anonymous” markers/avatars. Quite amusing, from a free speech standpoint.
Lin,
Well said.
Good Morning, Upstate. I was thinking of you (and your urging others to ditch MSM for more “this is the whole story” sources) when I came across this earlier this a.m.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rnc-announces-it-is-ditching-the-establishment-media-for-4th-primary-debate/ar-AA1jFE71?cvid=e4dda59f678644a69bebddc67b574ec0&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&ei=4
Glad we’ve arrived at a consensus regarding your gullibility. The other to look at it is that you’re a believer in censorship, which is generally where the right is on the topic.
while you hide behind “anonymous” markers/avatars. Quite amusing, from a free speech standpoint..
It could be symptomatic of a prion disease. Given that the Left Wing DNC paid trolls never articulate an intelligent argument, and always bloviate, it would not be surprising if they had tiny holes in their brains (aka spongiform encephalopathies) which might explain their loss of identity and vacuous stupidities.
Instead of having variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (mad cow disease), perhaps they are carriers of a new SE disease, mad troll disease.
🐮😜
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases, are a group of rare degenerative brain disorders characterized by tiny holes that give the brain a “spongy” appearance. These holes can be seen when brain tissue is viewed under a microscope.
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/transmissible-spongiform-encephalopathies
Awesome bloviation.
Lin, that is the best takedown of our Anonymous trolls. Thanks.
Says a Monday troll. While trolling.^^
Is that all you have to say, troll? You are empty of anything worthwhile and hide behind that emptiness.
Actually I meant to say ‘mondo’ troll rather than Monday troll. Either way, the point is completely lost on you. As always, thank you for your next level cretinistic commentary.
You couldn’t even get your own words right. I’ll just sit here and laugh.
Yeah spell check on phones is pretty unforgiving, as is your unmitigated idiocy. Glad I could provide a giggle fit for you though as that is one way the deeply moronic entertain themselves.
The focus of the reply might have been your spelling, but the laughter is to the idiocy that accompanies it.
Nah, my observation is accurate. And you know it.
We find proof in what I say based on what I write and that I affix a name and unique icon to what I write. By hiding under an anonymous name you admit your idiocy and incompetence.
LOL.
The proof in what you say proves that you’re a troll, Allan. And I love your hypocrisy with your straw man ‘Anonymous’ b.s. when you so often you comment anonymously. You’re a clown.
If what you say is true, you can point it out, but you can’t, yet everyone can see how empty your replies are and what a Stupid Anonymous you are.
SM
The proof is in this thread, Allan. But I also know you’re incapable of letting this go since you’re terrified of appearing to be as clueless as you are. Let’s just add that to the list of what we can’t fix, shall we?
There is nothing you say to let go of. You can take any of my responses to normal people and try and prove your case. To date you failed but that is your life a failure, an anonymous failure.
SM
The ultimate goal is to make free thought and free speech only achievable by in-person, live, real time communication. No mass media, including and especially, social networks. To be followed by restriction of freedom to assemble.