Below is my column in Fox.com on renewed attacks on free speech and the apologists for this anti-free speech movement, including most recently comedian Jon Stewart. From moves to amend the First Amendment to mocking those being targeted, the left is pushing back at polls and efforts to restore free speech values.
Here is the column:
“The First Amendment Is Out of Control.” That headline in a recent column in the New York Times warned Americans of a menace lurking around them and threatening their livelihoods and very lives. That menace is free speech and the media and academia are ramping up attacks on a right that once defined us as a people.
In my new book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how we are living in the most dangerous anti-free speech period in our history. An alliance of the government, corporations, academia, and media have assembled to create an unprecedented system of censorship, blacklisting, and speech regulation. This movement is expanding and accelerating in its effort to curtail the right that Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called “indispensable” to our constitutional system.
It is, of course, no easy task to convince a free people to give up a core part of identity and liberty. You have to make them afraid. Very afraid.
The current anti-free speech movement in the United States has its origins in higher education, where faculty have long argued that free speech is harmful. Starting in secondary schools, we have raised a generation of speech phobics who believe that opposing views are triggering and dangerous.
Anti-free speech books have been heralded in the media. University of Michigan Law Professor and MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade has written how dangerous free speech is for the nation. Her book, “Attack from Within,” describes how free speech is what she calls the “Achilles Heel” of America, portraying this right not as the value that defines this nation but the threat that lurks within it.
McQuade and many on the left are working to convince people that “disinformation” is a threat to them and that free speech is the vehicle that makes them vulnerable.
It is a clarion’s call that has been pushed by President Joe Biden who claims that companies refusing to censor citizens are “killing people.” The Biden administration has sought to use disinformation to justify an unprecedented system of censorship.
As I have laid out in testimony before Congress, Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, extended her agency’s mandate over “critical infrastructure” to include “our cognitive infrastructure.” The resulting censorship efforts included combating “malinformation” – described as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” So, you can cite true facts but still be censored for misleading others.
The media has been running an unrelenting line of anti-free speech columns. Recently, the New York Times ran a column by former Biden official and Columbia University law professor Tim Wu describing how the First Amendment was “out of control” in protecting too much speech.
Wu insists that the First Amendment is now “beginning to threaten many of the essential jobs of the state, such as protecting national security and the safety and privacy of its citizens.” He bizarrely claims that the First Amendment “now mostly protects corporate interests.”
So free speech not only threatens your life, your job, and your privacy, but serves corporate masters. Ready to sign your rights away?
Wait, there is more.
There is a movement afoot to rewrite the First Amendment through an amendment. George Washington University Law School Professor Mary Anne Franks believes that the First Amendment is “aggressively individualistic” and needs to be rewritten to “redo” the work of the Framers.
Her new amendment suggestion replaces the clear statement in favor of a convoluted, ambiguous statement of free speech that will be “subject to responsibility for abuses.” It then adds that “all conflicts of such rights shall be resolved in accordance with the principle of equality and dignity of all persons.”
Franks has also dismissed objections to the censorship on social media and insisted that “the Internet model of free speech is little more than cacophony, where the loudest, most provocative, or most unlikeable voice dominates . . . If we want to protect free speech, we should not only resist the attempt to remake college campuses in the image of the Internet but consider the benefits of remaking the Internet in the image of the university.”
Franks is certainly correct that those “unlikeable voices” are rarely heard in academia today. As discussed in my book, faculties have largely purged conservative, Republican, libertarian, and dissenting professors. The discussion on most campuses now runs from the left to far left without that pesky “cacophony” of opposing viewpoints.
Experts at leading universities were fired or stripped of positions for questioning COVID claims. Conservative faculty have been hounded from schools and conservative sites have been targeted by government-funded programs. Thousands have been banned from social media.
What is particularly maddening for many in the free speech community is how the left has responded to opposition to censorship and blacklisting. Some are claiming to be victims by those who criticize their work to target individuals and groups as disinformation.
Others, like comedian Jon Stewart mock those who object to the erosion of free speech by noting that conservatives are making these objections on television or online. So, according to Stewart, how can there be a problem if you are able to still object? The suggestion is that there can be no threat to free speech unless people are completely silenced.
Stewart insists that “we are surrounded by and inundated with more speech than has ever existed in the history of communication.” In other words, because people can still speak, the well-documented systems of censorship and blacklisting must not be so bad.
It is not clear what Stewart would accept as sufficient censorship. In universities, polls show both faculty and students afraid to speak openly. The government has funded a host of programs to pressure the source of revenue of conservative sites and to target dissenting voices. Yet, because we are raising objections to these trends, Stewart laughs at the very notion that free speech is under fire. After all, he is doing just fine.
What appears to be a punchline to Stewart is a bit more serious for others who have their livelihoods threatened by the anti-free speech movement.
Stewart has the benefit of being a liberal comedian on a liberal network. Try being a conservative comedian today getting air time on most cable outlets or college campuses. Like so many academics, everything seems just fine to them. With the purging of opposition viewpoints, those who remain have little to complain about.
The effort to assure citizens that “there is nothing to see here” is belied by a massive censorship system described by one federal court as “Orwellian.” Conservatives face cancel campaigns and blacklisting in academic and media forums.
As I discussed in my new book, conservative North Carolina professor Dr. Mike Adams faced calls for termination for years with investigations and cancel campaigns. He repeatedly had to go to court to defend his right to continue to teach. He was then again targeted after an inflammatory tweet. He was done. Under pressure from the university, he agreed to resign with a settlement. Four years ago this month, Adams went home just days before his final day as a professor. He then committed suicide.
Many others have resigned or retired. For them, the anti-speech movement takes away everything that brings meaning to an intellectual life from publications to associations to even employment. It is a chilling message to others not to join the “cacophony of … unlikeable voices.”
Some citizens seem sufficiently afraid or angry to surrender their free speech rights. They have lost faith in free speech. For the rest of us, their crisis of faith cannot be allowed to become a contagion. We must have a reawakening in this country that, despite our many divisions, we remain united by this indispensable human right.
Thank you – my local newspaper editor just told me I only get one letter every 14 days, even though he allows other contributors on a first-come basis. In past he’s questioned the content of my letters, asking for sources (usually articles from his own paper), meanwhile printing some pretty outrageous claims from other writers, with no substantiation. But I won’t quit pushing – free speech is one of those things – if you don’t use it, you lose it. Thanks again Mr. Turley
If “free speech” is conceived so expansively as to include intentional deceptions (e.g., Blinken, Morell and the 51 “spies that lie”), then we the People deserve rapid-response investigatory powers to immediately confront and defang such propaganda campaigns. I’m talking about being able to file a public frauds lawsuit within 24 hours of the launch of a “whopper” pushed out for political gain. This would then open up discovery (subpoenas, depositions under oath), exposing the liars to unwanted scrutiny. Most corrupt political actors would then self-restrain about using PsyOps to manipulate public opinion.
This public frauds approach does NOT preemptively block speech, it just saddles it with the same level of responsibility that currently attaches to defamation — you take the risk of being forced into Court, a place where lies and liars get found out and discredited.
What is dangerous to a free society are wide-open avenues for propaganda campaigns that can work in the short-term to nudge public opinion at a time when knowing the truth matters the most. So, it’s not a matter of the truth eventually emerging to correct misinformation — if the truth comes out too late to matter, the public loses…the deceitful infowarrior has won. This battle over free speech is about taking away the lead-time and first-strike advantages of the activist infowarrior.
That, then, permits the widest expression of divergent thinking on the part of citizens of virtue. It discourages only the taking up of surreptitious, militant infowarfare tactics intending to manipulate rather than accurately inform.
The consent of the governed was always assumed to be informed consent, with officeholders given positions of trust (meaning they don’t get to lie to We the People). The same standard of trustworthiness applies to candidates and campaigns seeking office. This principle is now put to the test, since some journalists and media no longer stand with the People, but take sides politically and shill for their candidate.
I wouldn’t call what passes for the national dialog now “free speech”. I’d call it “free manipulation”.
This calls for careful thought about how to improve the trustworthiness of public discourse, without making things even worse in the process.
The Lancet reports 180,000 Gazans will be murdered by Israel, Prof Mearsheimer says a quarter million, 250,000 .
Let’s see if Israel has met their tradtional 20 to 1 murder deaTH KILL RATIO OF ETHNIC CLEANSING.
We’ll take the mid number, 215,000 divided by the 600 attributed to Hamas in the military raid, the other 600 murdered by Israel with the Hannibal doctrine, as we all saw, and Haaretz and other jewish news admits and is not denied by Netanyahu or israel proper.
215,000 / 600 = 358 to 1 ethnic cleansing genocide ratio.
Congratulations Meyers, you’ve exceeded the 20 to 1 goal by buckets of blood and genocide.
RELEASE THE GODDAM HOSTAGES.
TERRORISM HAS CONSEQUENCES.
GRAVE CONSEQUENCES??
IS THERE ANOTHER KIND?
Since Shakdi is a racist, a white trash song outta get him stoked.
To Hamas:
FAFO
Best,
Israel
🎶 I had a red Ryder gun when I was three
So I don’t run or hide from anything
B****, I’m a red, white, and blue-collar boy from the South
Hey, you can f*** around and find out
See upcoming rap shows
Get tickets for your favorite artists
You might also like
[Chorus]
Love my country, love my freedom
f*** a welfare, no, I don’t need ‘em
Shotgun raised from the woods to the plate
Ain’t never went hungry, ain’t ever too late
To come around here son running your mouth
You can f*** around and find out
You can f*** around and find out 🎶
[Biden] Once a Grifter, always a Grifter.
Thursday’s Press Conference was a Grand Grift, to persuade People to not look at his career of graft (10%)
and embezzlement of government funds via swank deals made with Ukraine and Chine via his Family.
Vote for me – not Convict me
Free Speech. Op Ed. President Biden you know, and your wife know if your cognitively impaired or you are just frail and mentally sound and fulfilling the job requirements. Not the press conferences and debates or entertaining foreign dignitaries. The essence of the job is making decisions all else is mostly rituals. If the truth is you’ve been mentally impaired for years I think your wife will be remembered as a monster.
I’m afraid “speaking up” was silenced way before the censorship campaigns on mis or dis information theories/attepts. “Fear of retailiation” has been baked into the cake for decades now. Yet today lawyers and doctors are chilled – for fear of their govt enforced credentials. Yet we are chilled e beyond of the cuff and conversations with peer professionals too. Even professionals who have the right in their contracts and settings – don’t speak up via available due process opportunity to speak – for fear of retaliation. See wetumpka herald … teachers fear retaliation. If teachers fear their bosses will retaliate against them . .. I wonder what the students and their “domestic terror-list” parents fear? The “system” – jail or juvi’ -the system of qualified immunity that has swallowed the constitution? Not just the 1st amd.
” “Fear of retaliation” has been baked into the cake for decades now.” (No – It’s a Lifetime)
Starts at the beginning with: “Children should be seen, not heard.” and grows-up into be the Chilling Effect (on speech via Marshall Law & Order) of the deep embedded psychological Repression of Speech.
There is a huge difference between parents (and their delegates) instilling self-control over spontaneous outbursts in a child, and institutionalizing fear of expressing opinions on important issues impacting individual liberties and the structure of society as an adult.
Obama promised to fundamentally transform America. He has done just that. The first thing all dictators do is punish the opposition. They choose what is acceptable speech. So the left has truly become the fascist party. Free speech is the cornerstone of a free society.
‘Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive,’
Disinformation is a threat if people do not or can not recognize it for what it is. Can disinformation effectively countered with truth if truth is suppressed or the sophistry is particularly effective?
‘Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice Law to deceive,’
I teach a class at Seniors College at UNC Asheville where we discuss all of the recent controversial Supreme Court decisions. I am pleased to report that we have lively discussions on all aspects of these cases from many different legal and political perspectives. No one is cancelled for their views – particularly me, which often is different from those of the class participants. Moreover, I receive absolutely zero push back from the administration. In fact, the administration encouraged me to expand the class by having both in person and zoom participation which I have done. Of course, most of the class participants are baby boomers who grew up with free speech as a given in our society. Not sure this would hold up well in undergraduate school.
This is fun! From ZeroHedge article:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1811755897737334992
“Some citizens seem sufficiently afraid or angry to surrender their free speech rights. They have lost faith in free speech. For the rest of us, their crisis of faith cannot be allowed to become a contagion. We must have a reawakening in this country that, despite our many divisions, we remain united by this indispensable human right.”
**************************************
The call to unity is noble and the dogged quest to keep it is even more sanguine as Lincoln tried to do throughout the Civil War. The problem is there is little compromise when the antagonists are directly opposing values as opposed to views. The free speech oppressors will never be convinced that the principles of the Constitution and free expression trump their jaded world view. Quite frankly, they hate us and the Country precisely for its freedom because freedom means intrinsicly the supremacy of the individual. And these oppressors are collectivists setting policy for everyone and demanding obedience and not consensus. The greatest threat to tyranny is free criticism of it and hence the collectivist mob seeks only conformity and silence. It is as unAmerican as it gets but the reality is there are millions of unAmericans among us. So while calls for unity are both principled and unplifting they fall on the deaf ears of the anti-principled and societal deconstructionists. In one of the most prescient thoughts ever uttered by an oppressor, Mao said “all political power grows out of the barrell of a gun.” The ironic thing is that freedom derives from the same source as political power as the Great Unifier, Abraham Lincoln, learned that fateful night at Ford’s Theater. He was eventually vindicated but not until after decades of bloodshed. We have to learn that like nations at war there are winners and losers in the battle of ideas, and sadly there are casualties as well.
“The First Amendment Is Out of Control.”
********************
Out of control? That’s exactly how freedom should be. If it isn’t, is it really freedom?
Coughing is a side effect of the drug donepezil
Looks like they switched him off of the rivastigmine that was causing the freezing episodes.
“Stewart has the benefit of being a liberal comedian on a liberal network.” Comedian? Now that’s a fine jape.
I always get a kick out of Biden telling everyone to pay their fair share. Let’s see what those family offshore accounts turn up if they exist as reported. Joe, did you tell Hunter to pay his fair share before or after giving you 10%? Is it time to re-mortgage your houses again yet?
“Joe Biden is too old to lead.” A classic disinformation tactic.
We need to prepare the American people for this classic false narrative.
Barbara McQuade
1st amendment, free speech, hurrah hurray. I bet Rudy Giuliani is so pleased tried to get off the hook for his defamation. Another trump sycophant pays the price.
“Rudy Giuliani is no longer entitled to bankruptcy protection, a judge decided Friday, making it possible for creditors to immediately pursue his assets within days.”
Stop trying to frame it between left and right. Stop trolling. Stop lying.
Its not about Rudy Guilliani or your inane partisan cue card media spoon fed talking points.
Its about either you support free speech, or you don’t.
And you don’t.
Oh I support free speech. And when you say crazy stuff, as Giuliani did, you pay the price.
So you really support persecution for free speech. My hope is that when Trump wins, his team can disclose to the American people on an open and transparent platform what truly happened in the 2020 steal. That would overturn everything they have persecuted the people brave enough to stand up against these idiots.
So you support free speech as long as it is speech you agree with. That is not support of free speech but instead is a support of censorship or punishment for non-favored speech.
Sorry not playing the troll game so stop trying to frame the issue of free speech between left and right.
Its not about left and right and it’s definitely not about the loonatick-4-hire you keep crying about.
Its about free speech, and its not a left or right issue, its an issue that either you support or you don’t.
Guilliani did not say crazy stuff that he is allegedly paying the price for.
He had a sham trial with Corrupt Judge Beryl Howell,
Where his constitutional rights were violated and he was barred from presenting several proper defenses.
The jury found statements made as part of legal proceedings – which have absolute protections from defamation claims, that were True to be defamatory. The people allegedly defamed were election workers and the defamation was showing video and expressing a protected oppinion in the context of a law suit of what was on the video tapes.
They case is just another example of the lawlessness of lefties.
The case never should have gone to trial
But Judge Howell aparently did not bother to read NYT vs. Sullivan. Government actors have little or no protection from defamation with respect to their jobs.
I’m pretty sure trump paid the price for his free speech rights when he defamed a woman he sexually abused, to the tune of, what was it again? Oh yea $83 million. Free speech has a cost when you use it to defame people and tell lies.
Get some help
It will take several years, but the case will be tossed.
Did I say anything about left/right? What in the post is a lie?
They want this forum to be a “safe space” for conservatives. The irony…
What does that even mean ? This is a internet blog comments section – not a School Yard.
Of course this forum is a “safe space” – for conservatives and left wing nuts.
No one is going to break your legs, or kill you.
The worst that could happen is your feelings might be hurt.
Enjoy the freedom of speech and don’t abuse it.
What in the world happened to Giuliani’s discernment?
If you expect that to hold up – your nuts. The judge can sanction Guiliani for false statements to the court.
Bankruptcy is a statutory civil right – a Judge can not make it go away.
Further as a practical matter Guilliani does not have the assets to pay a judgement that with certainty will be either reduced to thrown out.
The judge is just playing games that will come back and bite him in the ass.
“KNOW THE ENEMY”
_________________________
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
_____________________________
“The First Amendment is Out of Control”: Academic and Media Figures Rally Against Free Speech”
– Professor Turley
_____________________
“Academic and Media Figures” are direct and mortal ENEMIES of the American Thesis – Freedom and Self-Reliance – the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, actual Americans and America.
The dam has burst, and Democrats surge in demanding President Joe Biden withdraw from his reelection campaign.
What burst that dam? Was it their sudden realization of Joe Biden’s cognitive infirmity. No. It was the realization that Joe Biden was losing in all the polls against Donald Trump. Democrat politicians, activists, journalists, news pundits, and actors have all come out acknowledging that they were well aware of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, and that they denied it in order to oppose Trump’s reelection campaign. Politicians have admitted that they had hoped Joe Biden could just hold it together until November.
This was a collusion to deceive American voters, in order to get a mentally incompetent candidate reelected to the White House, to defeat a Republican candidate.
This was absolutely massive election interference, denying absolutely critical information from US voters.
The goal was to get Biden reelected, knowing full well he was incapable of actually serving in the role of president. This speaks not only to Democrats’ full acceptance of an unelected oligarchy running the country behind a failing Manchurian candidate, but their total disinterest in the risk this poses to the country, and the world.
Adversaries of the US were not in any denial as to Joe Biden’s failing cognitive abilities, and took full advantage of his weakness. As soon as Joe Biden was elected, they took action. The Taliban retook control in Afghanistan after the total rout of American military. Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas engaged a terror campaign of rape and murder in Israel, kidnapping Israelis and American citizens, China has made preparations to conquer Taiwan, and Haiti fell apart. As President Biden’s mental faculties reach free fall, one can expect the pace of terror and aggression abroad to intensify. Interfering in the election in an attempt to get a dementia patient in the White House could spark WWIII.
None of that matters to the Democrat Party, whose priorities seem to be limited to its own power.
C’est évident! It is obvious! Bob is the uncle!
You want to talk about denying critical information from voters? THAT’s what the NY criminal case against Trump was about–his falsification of business records to cover up his payoffs to a porn actress and nude model after the Access Hollywood tape came out and multiple Republicans called for him to drop out of the race. Trump lies about not knowing anything about The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 –Republicans KNOW that the proposals for the Trump imperial presidency are massively unpopular–so the chronic, habitual liar keeps on lying, pretending he doesn’t know that the multiple former members of his administration who drafted the document. Trump has addressed and praised The Heritage Foundation. Joe Biden does NOT have “cognitive infirmity”–and all of the harping about it does not make it true. OTOH, Trump has integrity infirmities–and these are incurable. He is a malignant narcissist, chronic liar, thief, misogynist, convicted criminal and adjudicated fraudster. And, he did a lousy job pretending to be president.
I know you are a MAGAt, but, come on–there’s an “unelecdted oligarchy” really running America? WHO are these people? WHAT MAGA media outlet fed you this lie, Karen S? Joe Biden spoke last night and was eloquent. He made a flub, but he has ALWAYS made flubs. Biden is respected by our allies and adversaries alike. The weakness that our “adversaries” took advantage of is the fat fop that they know falls for flattery, and who is clueless about world politics, macro economics and even American government–the “master dealmaker” who pulled down our troops in Afghanistan from 14,000 to 2,500, turned loose 5,000 Taliban, didn’t get people out first and didn’t arrange for an air or land base, who weakened our ability to get people out and is lying by trying to blame Joe Biden. They laugh at his self-anointed title of “master dealmaker”. They know he’s an idiot with a big ego who wants the absolute power of murderers like Putin and Kim Jong Un and will do anything to get it–aided and abetted by MAGA media. Putin invaded Ukraine BECAUSE of Trump and his stupidity-Trump trash-talked NATO, Putin’s biggest obstacle to reacquiring the former USSR, and Putin thought he could just steam-roll his way into Ukraine and take Kiev in a week’s time. Putin thought that no one could mend relations between US and NATO and EU allies and pull together united support for Ukraine–but he was wrong–Biden did it, and Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Ukraine is on a path to join as well. Russia’s eastern border will all be NATO. Putin’s dreams will go up in smoke. Look for Trump to receive more help from Russian hackers and Russian disinformation. Putin wants an weak egomaniac he can control in the White House.
Biden had nothing to do with Hamas attacking Israel. I’d like you to quote someone, anyone, who isn’t fat, orange and named “Trump” who says that Biden is the cause for Hamas’s attack of Israel and to explain just HOW and WHY Biden should be blamed. WHAT, exactly, is Biden’s “weakness” in foreign policy? Name something that Trump could do that Biden can’t. Trump’s bluster and bloviating about being powerful and being “feared” is just that–bluster and bloviating. He is an international joke. The only thing our allies fear is Trump once again destroying our economy like he did the first time around with his stupid tariffs. 16 Nobel Laureate economists say that Trump’s economic plan would kill our economy. America’s economy is the envy of the world, and that’s due to Biden. The sad thing is that there are people like you out there, Karen S., who believe Republican lies.
Where the hell do you get off claiming you know what Democrats ‘know” about Joe Biden? You are such a dupe.
Was Joe Biden denying that the Hunter Biden laptop was real, or that he ever discussed his son’s business matters, also worthy of felonies?
If Joe Biden did not enter each and every expense he incurred denying the Hunter laptop’s veracity as a campaign expense to himself, he should also be charged with felonies.
The law has NEVER been applied to anyone else the way it has against Trump. No one has been charged with a felony for not entering an NDA as a business expense, or for denying an alleged affair in public.
And that “international joke” as you called Trump, was actually so feared abroad that there were no new wars during his term in office. Contrast that to Joe Biden’s term, in which adversaries to the US immediately took action. Biden oversaw our total rout in Afghanistan, the Taliban immediately seized power and began subjugating Afghan women again, he did nothing as the Taliban murdered Americans and those who helped Americans during the past 20 years. Russia invaded Ukraine. China is making preparations to conquer Taiwan. Hamas engaged in a mass murdering, gang raping attack on Jews in Israel, and kidnapped over 200 Israelis and Americans.
You keep telling me how much the world respects Joe Biden. World events say otherwise.
Nobody cares about the laptop. Republicans have tried for years to make the case against Joe Biden but keep failing because there’s no evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong. What MAGA media came up with the lame argument that Joe Biden’s denials about the laptop somehow equate to the actual crimes Trump was convicted of?
MAGA media is lying to you about no others being charged and convicted of falsifying business records in NY state.
You have nothing but the rhetoric of a malignant narcissist to support your absurd argument that the world “fears “ the fat slob you adore. Trump’s stupidity is the cause for the messy withdrawal from Afghanistan— he drew down our troops, turned loose 5,000 Taliban and failed to get people out first. That’s one of the messes he left for Biden. It’s hard to fight the Taliban with only 2,500 troops and no air or land base to work from.
There’s no “cause and effect “ between Biden being in office and Hamas attacking Israel or Putin attacking Ukraine. No world leader respects Trump because they see him for the weak narcissist he is—someone who lives for attention and adulation, someone who has to cheat to get into office, someone who insults allies and praises murderous dictators, someone who has been convicted of 34 felonies and brags about sexually assaulting women, someone who steals classified documents and lies about returning them and who just can’t stop lying. Do you think that world leaders respect someone like him— who decimated our economy and who started an insurrection because he’s not man enough to accept the fact that he lost? If they’re afraid of anything it’s that he’ll get into office and screw up the economy again. America’s economy is the envy of the world and if we go down so will our trading partners. Economists predict that if Trump gets into office, his policies will drive up inflation.
I previously asked you what policies of Biden’s you blamed the Hamas and Putin attacks on— you never responded.
Gigi, by “nobody cares about the laptop”, are you trying to say that the laptop proves Joe Biden was part of a decades-long corruption scheme that enriched himself, and his family, off of selling his political favors to foreign entities, including the infamous Ukraine quid pro quo, and also proved President Biden lied when he claimed he had nothing to do with his son’s business dealings, and thus it materially damages your position and you would really rather that no one cared about it?
You claim there is no cause and effect between Biden taking office, and worldwide violence by entities hostile to the West.
Why do you think Russia did NOT invade Ukraine and Hamas did NOT perpetrate Oct 7 during Trump’s term in office? After all, you’ve repeatedly said on this blog that Putin is chummy with Trump and really frightened by Biden. You asked what “policies” of Biden’s caused worldwide unrest. I have told you repeatedly that entities hostile to the US and the West did not buy into Democrat denials on Joe Biden’s failing mental health. They perceived his weakness as an opportunity. Biden’s policies that have encouraged worldwide violence include:
-Slow walking military aid to Ukraine, which allowed Russia to gain a strong foothold in the country, rather than providing decisive support that may have actually stopped Russia’s invasion at the start
-Actively interfering with Israel’s fight against Hamas has encouraged Hamas to keep fighting. This includes anti-Israel rhetoric, demands that Israel not go into Rafa to rescue the last of the hostages, including Americans, and crush the last stronghold of Hamas, ludicrous claims that Israel has committed war crimes when no other country goes to such lengths to prevent civilian deaths, even when many of those civilians actively support terrorists, threats to withhold military aid to Israel including Iron Dome missiles, as well as errors such as identifying innocent Israelis, complete with their addresses, as sanctions based on a mistake with names.
If questioning election results is an insurrection, then virtually all Democrats are insurrectionists. A protest that turned into a small riot at the Capitol building was not an attempt to overthrow the entire country.
Now, the massive, nation-wide Democrat riots, which included looting, arson, burning police precincts, and seizing entire city blocks in autonomous zones, certainly held much of the nation in a grip of terror.
WHAT “corruption scheme”–Republicans have tried since they took over the House to prove the existence of such a thing-but have failed, over and over. WHAT specific “political favors” were sold–to WHOM? WHERE is the proof? There wasn’t any “quid- pro-quo” –Trump tried to leverage aid for Ukraine that Congress had approved in exchange for ginning up lies about this–and that was the grounds for one of his two impeachments. If there was actual evidence of what you claim–where is it? Hannity’s rhetoric isn’t evidence.
WHY did Hamas attack Israel–here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
“Hamas said its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, rising Israeli settler violence, and recent escalations.[49][50][51]” Now if it was the alleged “weakness” of Biden–Hamas would say so. October 7 was chosen because it is a religious holiday in Israel. The UN has condemned Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its relentless bombing of Gaza, including deliberately bombing hospitals and residential buildings, refusal to allow in humanitarian aid, food, medicine and allow sick children and civilians to leave to get help, all of which amounts to genocide. It’s not anti-Israel to condemn Israel’s conduct, or to call for cease-fire, especially as to areas where there are civilians. Joe Biden does not have “failing mental health”. He has always had a stutter and sometimes makes flubs– and so does Trump–but he is respected and has done a wonderful job reversing all of the damge done by Trump. Our economy is the envy of the world, but it is at risk beca;use of Trump.
Biden didn’t “slow walk” aid to Ukraine–REPUBLICANS did, deliberately, because Trump is indebted to Putin and Trump is trying to help Putin defeat Ukraine. Just this past week, Trump had Viktor Orbhan, a strong Putin ally, come to MAL instead of attending NATO meetings–WHY? You should be alarmed about this. A strong NATO on Russia’s eastern border is the best way to keep Putin in check and prevent WW III. Putin murders his critics and has pledged to retake the former USSR countries. He would love nothing more than to control the US President and get him to back out of NATO commitments–something previously unthinkable. That would be the start of war in Europe. Putin wouldn’t stop at Ukraine, and eventually the US would be drawn in pursuant to our treaty agreements–that is, unless Trump gets into office, which is what Putin is counting on. It’s Trump’s “weakness” that emboldens dangerous people like Putin and Kim Jong Un–they know he’s someone who relies on flattery and attention, that he’s ignorant of world politics and economics, that he’s no patriot–he even insults our military members==that he lies, brags and boasts and has no moral compass.
OMG, will you ever stop trying to downplay the Big Lie, the well-planned insurrection, with reconnaissance trips and meetings at the Willard Hotel, and the fake electors who falsified Electoral College documents? Will you ever stop trying to equate the insurrections with protests over the murder of George Floyd–that is ancient history, and the protests were not orchestrated by the Democrat party or based on a lie or the ego of someone who is a sore loser. January 6th was not innocent “questioning” of election results. Trump started spreading the Big Lie even before all of the votes were counted.
should be “western border”
“Nobody cares about the laptop.”
Pretty sure the Jury in the Hunter Biden case cared a great deal.
Voters do not care about all your claims regarding Trump.
The Jury of american voters aquitted Trump of all the things that Manhattan Juries convicted for.
“I previously asked you what policies of Biden’s you blamed the Hamas and Putin attacks on— you never responded.”
I have explained that in excrutiatingly painful detail many times.
Just addressing a few policies.
Biden’s energy polices increased the leverage Putin had over the EU, leading him to beleive that the EU would not intervene.
Biden’s reckless talk of Ukraine joining NATO crossed a red line that Putin had not only laid out long ago, but had already gone to war over several times.
Biden’s relaxing sanctions and containment of Iran enabled Iran to not only provide HAMAS the funds needed to stage the start of this war, but Iran also funded Hezbolla an the Huthi’s in Yemen from those funds.
There are many other polices of Biden that lead to these and other disasters – but these are self evident.
Gigi – your desperation is showing. No one believes there was anything wrong with the bookeeping entries. Even in New York, this nonsense will be rejected by a higher court.
She’s usually about 4 years behind on false narratives. For example, she pushed the Russia Hoax for years after it was disproven, finally, quietly, dropping the subject without ever admitting she was wrong.
She’ll keep denying Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, that it has been progressing the past 4 years, and that his advisors and Democrats knew it, until Joe Biden either gets removed from office via the 25th Amendment, or his family makes an announcement that he has dementia. Then she will just stop bringing up the subject.
Karen S: do you have reading comprehension issues? A REPUBLICAN Senate Intelligence Committee investigation found that Russian hackers did help Trump cheat. I’ve posted a link to the report numerous times. The only “hoax” is people like you who not only refuse to believe the truth, but the additional lie that Russian hackers helping Trump cheat was disproven. Trump did cheat to get into office— there’s no reasonable doubt about it.
Joe Biden has slowed down but his cognitive abilities are fine. He has been one of the most successful presidents in history. He has accomplished more than most presidents in recent history.
Did you see the news conference last night? Biden was fine.
If you don’t understand that the allegations that Trump won the election with Russia’s help, then not only are you an “election denier” and “insurrectionist” (which is what you call anyone who doubts the 2020 election results), but you also do not appear to have actually read and understood Turley’s detailed posts on the matter.
I suggest you spend more time reading the blog posts than contributing misinformation and disinformation in the comments section.
Here’s a small excerpt from “Wikipedia” on the subject:
“The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee submitted the first part of its five-volume report in July 2019 in which it concluded that the January 2017 intelligence community assessment alleging Russian interference was “coherent and well-constructed”. The first volume also concluded that the assessment was “proper”, learning from analysts that there was “no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions”. The final and fifth volume, which was the result of three years of investigations, was released on August 18, 2020,[6] ending one of the United States “highest-profile congressional inquiries.”[7][8] The Committee report found that the Russian government had engaged in an “extensive campaign” to sabotage the election in favor of Donald Trump, which included assistance from some of Trump’s own advisers.[7]
Like the Mueller report that preceded it, the report does not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, but it does go further than the Mueller report in detailing the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies. In particular, it describes Paul Manafort as “a grave counterintelligence threat”. According to the report, “some evidence suggests” that Konstantin Kilimnik, to whom Manafort provided polling data, was directly connected to the Russian theft of Clinton-campaign emails.[9][10] In addition, while Trump’s written testimony in the Mueller report stated that he did not recall speaking with Roger Stone about WikiLeaks, the Senate report concludes that “Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his Campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions”.[11]”
Karen S: YOU are the one who needs to spend time educating yourself on FACTS. Hillary Clinton received more votes than Trump, but he won the Electoral College with the help of Russian hackers who “engaged in an extensive campaign to sabotage the election in favor of Donald Trump”. REPUBLICANS found this to be true–there’s no “Russia hoax”.
You asked “Where the hell do you get off claiming you know what Democrats ‘know’ about Joe Biden?”
Well, from the mouths of Democrats themselves, who have publicly admitted they have known for a while that Joe Biden was in serious cognitive decline. While you’re still furiously denying Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, as you have since 2020, most of the Democrat Party are now admitting it.
George Clooney: “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Sources to CNN on the scripted Cabinet meetings, in which questions have to be submitted in advance so Biden can bring printed responses: “The entire display is kind of an act,” one source told CNN. “They would come and say, ‘Hey, the president is going to call on you about 25 minutes in, and ask this question. What are the bullet points you’ll respond with?’”
Another source described the meetings as infrequent, “not free-wheeling and pretty well-orchestrated.” The report added that meetings were not structured in a “pre-scripted” way during the Obama administration.
Privately, Democratic sources and officials close to Biden’s advisers remarked that the president’s team is aware of his weakness and purposefully limits meetings and events.”
NBC News:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/democrats-say-bidens-debate-performance-wasnt-anomaly-rcna160151
“Far from a one-off, the debate revealed the same worrying traits — memory lapses, incoherence, a vacant look — these officials say they’ve noticed in Biden’s company throughout his term.
“The country saw [at the debate] what those of us who have had personal interactions with him have all known for the last 2½ years,” a senator said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Biden’s fitness.”
There is an article behind a paywall in New Yorker titled “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden.”
USA Today:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/07/07/biden-age-democrats-drop-out-election/74278327007/
You refer to un- named “sources” and “officials “ and George Clooney— is he an elected representative?
What you are hearing is fear that one poor performance by Biden could be leveraged into Trump getting back into power and destroying America— fear that the dire economic consequences predicted by economists if Trump gets back into power will come true—fear that the hard fought for battles over civil rights, education, and personal freedom like abortion, contraception and IVF will disappear. Project 2025 will allow discrimination against LGBTQ people. There’s fear that with the stunningly wrong SCOTUS opinion on presidential immunity and with no second term chance that the Trump will have no limits— he will carry out his threat to take vengeance against perceived enemies, abolish agencies like the Department of Education, politicize the FBI and DOJ, and otherwise become the dictator he aspires to be. His tariffs will drive up inflation. His tax cuts will drive up the national debt and result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare— after pushback, he denies that he will cut these programs, but he’s on tape on Squawkbox from 4 months ago saying otherwise and he is a pathological liar. America as we know it will no longer exist. Then there’s his support for Putin and Trump’s trash talk about NATO. If he pulls aid from Ukraine and Putin takes over, there’s a real threat of a world war. Yes, there’s a lot to fear about the prospect of Trump getting power and that’s what drives the discussion.
Gigi – I provided articles from NBC, CNN, and USA Today.
The NYT ran an article during the Trump administration entitled, “Face It, You Probably Got a Tax Cut”, in which it admitted that Trump’s tax cuts actually benefitted most people in the middle class, not just the wealthy.
We’ve already had a Trump administration. There was lower unemployment, no new wars, groceries, utilities, and fuel were all cheaper. The border was as secure as it could be without a wall, which was stymied by Democrats. (Even NYC Mayor has admitted that unfettered illegal immigration under Joe Biden has been disastrous to his city). You said, “America as we know it would no longer exist.” This is sad, Gigi. We’ve had 4 years under Trump. Life was better. Aren’t you embarrassed to write wild, hysterical misinformation like this? At least you finally dropped your oft-repeatedly lie that Trump called Neo Nazis “very fine people”, which even Snopes finally admitted was false.
Your claims that Trump is an existential threat are ludicrous. We’ve all lived through a Trump administration, and most of our lives were a lot better than today, when a few bags of groceries cost over $100.
Your claim that the SCOTS ruling was “stunningly wrong” also indicates that you did not read or understand Turley’s post on the subject. SCOTS just affirmed what has always been the case – presidents have immunity only for official acts. Otherwise, anti-war activists could have had Obama criminally charged for drone strikes.
Karen S,
Another epic take down of Natasha! Well done!
NO, Karen S: there was not “lower unemployment”–there IS now, thanks to Biden–unemployment is at a 50-year low. What there WAS under Trump: new daily COVID deaths and infections–the US fared much worse than other developed countries because of Trump’s lies and downplaying about the seriousnes sof COVID; hospitals with overflowing morgues hiring refrigerated trucks to hold corpses; restaurants, businesses, schools closed down, high enemployment, no leisure travel; low demand for fuel, so refineries cut back production and gas was cheat–no one could go on vacation and people who could, worked from home; no plan to vaccine distribution–like sourcing ultra-cold freezers, marshalling people to administer vaccines and PPE; shortages of computer chips and consumer goods because of Trump tariffs that he stupidly does not understand are passed along to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
Once Biden got into office, he got to work on getting vaccines distributed–COVID was brought under control. Schools, restaurants, businesses reopened. People got back to work, and new jobs were created, so demand for consumer goods and fuel went up but supply lagged behind because of Trump’s incompetence. Higher demand with lower supply means higher prices–that’s inflation–and Trump is to blame. Inflation is coming down because of Biden’s sound economic policies.
You keep harping about the Snopes piece–there’s an editorial comment pointing out that Trump said: “there are very fine people on both sides” and then he condemned “Neo Nazis”–which happened to be ONE of the 2 sides.
Turley is PAID to be pro-MAGA. Most legal experts I nave read disagree with him. The matter of “presidental immunity” was never an issue before now because we’ve never had someone so unfit for office commit the kinds of crimes Trump committed seeking to be POTUS before. Nixon resigned for the good of the country, so it wasn’t a big issue then, but the assumption always was that no one is above the law.
‘Gigi’, it’s as if Andy Kaufman is still alive!
You and your ‘Brainwashed Dem’ act.
For YEARS, it’s said. Practice makes… Perfect?
Plus bonus points for ‘liking’ your own post again.
“You want to talk about denying critical information from voters?”
A candidate is free to hide whatever they are able to from voters.
The GOVERNMENT is not free to assist any candidate in hiding things from voters.
Karen S,
Well said and spot on.
Putin endorsed Biden. Why? It benefits him, China, Iran, Hamas, the Houthis, the drug cartels.
Here is an interesting “free expression” video. For all the DNC shills here concerned about LGBTQ+ books being removed from school libraries.
I am not sure you understand what a “book” is?
Well, nobody said you were the sharpest troll in the drawer.