Below is my column in The Hill on the move of the European Union to force Elon Musk to censor X users, including political speech leading up to the 2024 election. The column discusses this Rockwell painting, which we often use in discussing free speech controversies.
Here is the column:
Eighty years ago, the U.S. government launched a war bond campaign featuring a painting by artist Norman Rockwell in the struggle against the authoritarian threat from Europe. The picture they chose was Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech depicting a man rising to speak his mind at a local council meeting in Vermont. The image rallied the nation around what Louis Brandeis called our “indispensable right.”
Now, that very right is again under attack from another European government, which is claiming the right to censor what Americans are allowed to say about politics, science and other subjects. Indeed, the threat from the European Union may succeed in curtailing American freedom to an extent that the Axis powers could not have imagined. They may win, and our leaders have not said a thing yet about it.
In my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss the inspiration for Rockwell’s painting: a young selectman in Vermont named James “Buddy” Edgerton. The descendent of a Revolutionary War hero, Edgerton stood up as the lone dissenter to a plan to build a new schoolhouse over the lack of funding for such construction.
For Rockwell, the scene was a riveting example of how one man in this country can stand alone and be heard despite overwhelming opposition to his views. It was, for Rockwell (and for many of us), the quintessential American moment.
In the 1940s, people like Edgerton had to travel to small board meetings or public spaces to speak their mind. Today, the vast majority of political speech occurs over the Internet and specifically social media. That is why the internet is the single greatest advancement for free speech since the printing press.
It is also the reason governments have spent decades seeking to control speech over the internet, to regulate what people can say or read.
One of the greatest threats to free speech today is the European Digital Services Act. The act bars speech that is viewed as “disinformation” or “incitement.” European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager celebrated its passage by declaring that it is “not a slogan anymore, that what is illegal offline should also be seen and dealt with as illegal online. Now it is a real thing. Democracy’s back.”
In Europe, free speech is in free fall. Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other countries have eviscerated free speech by criminalizing speech deemed inciteful or degrading to individuals or groups. The result had made little difference to the neo-Nazi movement in countries like Germany, which is reaching record numbers. It has, however, silenced the rest of society.
According to polling, only 18 percent of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. Fifty-nine percent of Germans do not even feel free expressing themselves in private among friends. Only 17 percent feel free to express themselves on the internet.
They have silenced the wrong people, but there is now a massive censorship bureaucracy in Europe and the desire to silence opposing voices has become insatiable.
Some in this country have the same taste for speech-regulation. After Elon Musk bought Twitter and dismantled most of the company’s censorship program, many on the left went bonkers. That fury only increased when Musk released the “Twitter files,” confirming the long-denied coordination and support by the government in targeting and suppressing speech.
In response, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic figures turned to Europe and called upon them to use their Digital Services Act to force censorship against Americans.
The EU immediately responded by threatening Musk with confiscatory penalties against not just his company but himself. He would have to resume massive censorship or else face ruin.
It was a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. The anti-free speech movement had finally found the one man who could not be bullied, coerced or threatened into submission.
Musk’s defiance has only magnified the unrelenting attacks against him in the media, academia and government. If Musk can be broken, these figures will once again exercise effective control over a large swath of speech globally.
This campaign recently came to a head when Musk had the audacity to interview former president Donald Trump. In anticipation of the interview, one of the most notorious anti-free speech figures in the world went ballistic.
European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services Thierry Breton issued a threatening message to Musk, “We are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political — or societal — events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.”
While offering a passing nod to the freedom of speech, he warned Musk that “all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events.” In other words, be afraid, be very afraid.
Musk responded with “Bonjour!” and then suggested that Breton perform a physically challenging sexual act.
To recap, the EU is now moving to force censorship upon American citizens to meet its own demands of what is false, demeaning or inciting. And that includes censorship even of our leading political candidates for the presidency.
The response from the Biden administration was not a presidential statement warning any foreign government from seeking to limit our rights or even Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling the EU ambassador to his office for an expression of displeasure.
That’s because Biden and Harris are not displeased with but supportive of letting the EU do what they are barred from doing under our Constitution. This administration is arguably the most anti-free speech government since John Adams signed the Sedition Act. They have supported a massive system of censorship, blacklisting and targeting of opposing voices. Democratic members have given full-throated support for censorship, including pushing social media companies to expand in areas ranging from climate control to gender identity.
So, after only 80 years, our leaders are silent as a European government threatens to reduce our political speech to the lowest common denominator, which they will set according to their own values. Not a shot will be fired as Biden and Harris simply yield our rights to a global governing system.
But we do not have to go quietly into this night. Free speech remains a human right that is part of our DNA as Americans. We can fight back and protect millions of Edgertons who want to express their views regardless of the judgment of the majority.
I previously called for legislation to get the U.S. government out of the censorship business domestically. We also need new legislation to keep other countries from regulating the speech of our own citizens and companies. While this country has long threatened retaliation in combatting market barriers in other countries, we need to do the same thing for free speech. We need a federal law that opposes the intrusion of the Digital Services Act into the U.S.
If free speech is truly the “indispensable right” of all Americans, we need to treat this threat as an attack on our very existence. It is not only the rawest form of foreign intervention into an election, but a foreign attack on our very freedoms. This is why we must pass a Digital Freedom Act.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).
You dastardly treasonable milquetoast bleeding-heart liberals allowed Karl Marx and “Crazy Abe” to takeover the country.
Now, 150 years on, you same perfidious backstabbers are allowing the communists to takeover the world.
The American Founders understood that constitutional rights, freedoms, privileges, and immunities were natural and God-given.
Nature and God are universal.
The EU is in the universe.
The EU must be “fundamentally transformed” to be under the dominion of Nature, God, and the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the American Founders.
Perhaps their Hearts and Minds will follow after they are removed from the cover of the “Umbrella” and the prosperity of the American economy.
It’s the Art of the Deal.
The last 3 plus years we’ve had Demented Joe as our leaders, but for the last few weeks it changed to Cackling Harris an avowed Socialist or maybe better said a Pure Communist from the mold of Lenin, Stalin or Mao, take your pick. The leadership of the Democratic Party of 2024 reminds me of Vietnam’s history post war, where the Cong An controlled all elements of daily life, (censorship of the Arts, Religion, language, basic survival goods) as just a few examples. The Proletariat marked anyone making negative comments reprobates with various consequences from harassment by authorities, expulsion to imprisonment. Most anyone can look at the past 3 plus years and understand the democrats’ desires to control all elements of Society is damming a safe and prosperous future for America, where Natural Rights are limited or totally disposed of for the sake of an imaginative controlled Heavenly Nirvana.
A word about the election, I think most VOTING citizens would like to see what the Political Parties are proposing besides “We da Best” nonsense. Of course, it’s also foolish to suppose a party would be willing to divulge the specific and consequential positives and negatives, and the anticipated time for action of the proposal(s). We had a small sample when Musk interviewed President Trump and they were pilloried by the leftist media: (the smallest minded blinded fools of their Heavenly Nirvana). These media fools are no different than those ignorant European minor leaders thinking they are Oh So Powerful to dictate to the United States in general and Mr. Musk in specific what is appropriate and not. As Mr. Musk said, put it where the sun don’t shine!
I think the American people want to vote for the person that makes up silly names to call people.
It is certainly the #1 priority on my voting list.
You mean like Aninny The Anonymouse?
It’s not #1 on my priority list but it is higher than making up retarded economic theories to bankrupt working class citizens.
You mean like Nazi, Fascist, racist, misogynist, homophobe, transphobe ?
And what about those that make up silliy names for themselves ? Like Momala ? or Xer, or any of the other 28,000 and growing genders ?
You gotta love those conservatives for trump
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-luttig-kamala-harris-trump_n_66c37265e4b0972f8acdf84f
Oops, sorry about that, another Republican swears off of the trump felon party.
Why does it bother you that people are going to vote for Trump?
Vote for that moron Kamala if you want, and stfu. Do you somehow fantasize that anyone cares how you think they should vote.
Or are you just a 4 year old, pitching a tantrum?
Or are you just a 4 year old, pitching a tantrum?
Says the 3 year old pitching a tantrum
There are reasons to question whether you should vote for Trump.
There is no reason for anyone that can fog glass to vote for Kamala.
Huffing and Puffington Post – Sanity
Is the story true or not?
Here you go, a link your cult leader will let you click on.
https://thehill.com/elections/4834928-j-michael-luttig-endorses-kamala-harris/
Here ya go, take a deep look into my brown eye and tell me if you see any concern for your idiotic opinion.
It bugs you that much that someone has a different opinion?
This is one of the nitwits who pushed the 14th Amendment ballot-cleansing scheme to keep Trump from running. He said his argument was indisputable. Didn’t go too well. Maybe he could form a new group that you could join: “Nitwits for Harris.”
Kama La La
*SENATOR KEELEY
The 1st contains reserved freedoms: religion (for principles), speech and writing (listening and reading), peaceful assembly, and a redress of grievances (remedy).
Professor Turley has provided a place to assemble and speech, writing, listening and reading, you bring your principles with you.
The grievance today is censorship by the DDSand EU. Professor Turley suggests the remedy is a digital freedom act (DFA).
The remedy is to enforce the 1st amendment and express to the EU the United States is not a part of the DDS and if American speech is scrambled appropriate measures will be taken.
Behind the digital curtain…
See below as Dennis McIncrier the Demented Draft Dodger and slave owner, opines for a day when Kamala can sign legislation abridging free speech, without approval of the Senate.
Jonathan: Despite all your hyperbole there is no question the EU’s DSA will have an impact on Elon Musk’s business model of pushing right-wing conspiracy theories and disinformation. Hate speech and neo-fascist propaganda have spread like wildfire on X since he took over former Twitter–and eliminated all content moderation. In fact, X has the highest ratio of disinformation of any of any major media platform. But you bizarrely label all that just “free speech”.
So now Musk is faced with DSA rules and that means rehiring or hiring a whole bunch of people to handle content moderation. And Musk doesn’t like that because he is already losing a lot of money and adding employees will cause more red ink. So what is Musk’s threatening to do? Make X unavailable in the EU. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. X has about 106 million subscribers in the EU and that is a decline from 111.4 million users just a year ago. So it appears Europeans don’t like the right-wing content on X and are finding other social media platforms.
Nevertheless, 106 million users is still a big number and Musk would be shooting himself in the foot should he pull out of the EU market. Musk has one safe harbor–here in the US where content moderation is minimal. But even here Musk is losing market share and there are calls for legislation similar to the EU’s DSA. That would be a serious threat to Musk’s business model for X in the US. That’s the principal reason he is financially backing DJT because Musk knows DJT would veto any legislation that put any restraints on X. If Harris wins the election Musk knows she would probably sign legislation similar to that in the EU. So Musk has put all his chips down and is betting on DJT. It may turn out to be a losing hand!
* any such domestic legislation you refer to would be unconstitutional.
The principles that define us are of no concern to Dennis the school marm. To anyone who loves this country, he’s beneath contempt.
“If Harris wins the election Musk knows she would probably sign legislation similar to that in the EU.”
Here we see why Dennis McIncrier ahould not be allowed anywhere near a voting booth.
In his full color fantasy, he imagines a scenario whereby his unconstitutional pipe dream would somehow pass cloture in the Senate.
It is somewhat wearisome to have to teach civics to an 80 year old.
Teaching civics to Dennis would be like showing a pig a wristwatch.
Denis, taken from late 2023 “Here’s what our research says about news audiences on Twitter, the platform now known as X”
“Twitter users are more likely to be men than users of other social media platforms. Users also tend to be more well-off and well-educated, as well as more interested in news and politics. But the platform’s users are no more partisan than users of other platforms (or more partisan in markets like the US than the population we survey). ”
“There is some evidence that people form partisan, like-minded communities clustered around some political topics on Twitter. However, research also indicates that users are likely to be exposed to more diverse news and perspectives as a result of using the platform….While misinformation does circulate on Twitter and there are legitimate concerns about this, past research indicates that the prevalence and reach of false information has been more limited than assumed.”
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/heres-what-our-research-says-about-news-audiences-twitter-platform-now-known-x
‘Dennis’,
How many of your ‘predictions’ have come true? Zero?
How many times have you admitted you were wrong? Zero?
Dennis – you really do not understand how badly you and the left have burned your own crediblity.
You say X has the highest ration of misinformation ?
1). I do not care – nor does anyone who gives a schiff about free speech.
2). super majorities of people DO NOT BELEIVE YOU, and DO NOT BELEIVE your sources.
You have learned nothing from the boy who cried wolf or from the emporers new cloths.
Simple lessons of ancient fairy tales – it takes time – but people eventually figure out who the ACTUAL liars are.
3). If left wing sources say X is a source of disinformation – that is practically the good housekeeping seal of approval.
I was ging to list some of the things that you and yours have lied about.
But on second though – WHAT EXACTLY have you EVER told the truth about.
Kamala was anointed the Democratic candidate after a successfull Coup against the demented old man you were propping up until you could not do so with a straight face anymore.
After that you spent weeks telling us all that Harris was obliterating Trump in the polls. It has been 3 weeks, Harris’s rise apears to have stalled and she may already be on decline before the DNC convention – Rassmussen thinks she has been 4pts behind Trump for over a week. And they are the only daily, and the most accurate polls in the past 26 years.
Regardless, despite your claims over 3 weeks ago (and many times since) that Harris was leading by 5-10pts RCP has her FINALLY after 3 weeks up by 1.5 – over 1% for the first time since being appointed. 1.5 is not 5 points, and it is certainly not ten.
And all or nearly all the polls with her leading are old and RV not LV polls.
And she is still losing battle grounds – she is only ahead in Michigan – and BARELY in Wisconsin. She MUST win WI, MI and PA or she is toast.
If Trump wins ONE of those – the election is over.
You rant jubilantly that Trump and republicans are sweating and desparate – yet there is no evidence of any such thing.
Republicans are attacking Harris and Walz’s character – and there is so much there to go after, and Harris despite being cloistered off from the media is still her own worst enemy.
You keep repeatedly claiming that Trump said this or said that and it will cost him the election.
Dennis not only do you lie about these things – but they do not matter.
There will be a debate shortly. Trump can blow the debate. So long as he does not stare blankly into space as Biden did, Trump does not need to do well in the debate.
Harris must have a great night just to hope to stay wherever she is. Every single thing Harris does – every time she opens her mouth is a chance to screw up.
Dem,ocrats have a choice – Harris wedded tot he Biden regime record – a massive loser.
Or Harris striking off on her own – which is even worse. First there is nothing she can say or do that does not cost her votes on one flank.
And second because what little track record she has is BAD – she was a left wing nut as senator – Gabbard shredded her actual history as a DA and AG in California, She F#$Ked up everything she touched such as the border within the Biden administration.
One of the problems that you have in this election is as Biden has dropped out – Trump is now the incumbent. He is the “safe choice”.
He is the known quantity. We know what 4 years of Trump would be like – we have had them. We know what 5 years of Biden would be like – pretty Bad. So Who is Kamala ? Is she Biden ? Is she Obama ? – BTW Trump beat Obama’s apointed heir who was running slightly to the right of Obama – the Obama years do NOT have the same positive nostalgia as the Trump years, though they were not as bad as the Biden years.
Harris is a giant unknown. Except that no one think she is going to govern to the right of Obama. That has ZERO credibility.
People want an end to the insanity the want a return to normalicy and what those of you on the left do not grasp is that your attacks on Trump as weird, as not normal as … have all backfired – it has established YOU as the weird, the danagerous, the not normal.
The disinformation of the past decade has come from the left Can you name something important Trump was wrong about ?
Can you name anything important that Democrats, the left have been right about ? Anything ?
Most people are not stupid – a Trump presidency will have the left ranting nonsense. It will have reporters and social media attacking constantly. And outside the left people will ignore it – Because Trump can be trusted to run the country well – no one needs to pay attention to anything he says.
But YOU can’t.
Dennis – I would suggest that you start paying attention to Turley.
He sees this as americans 2nd Free speech election. I do not know if that will be what people use to decide how to vote.
I do know that YOUR concept of speech is NOT popular in this country at all.
Free speech is ONE of the things that we fought a revolution over.
I do not actually beleive we are going to have to resort to violence – to force to restore the right to free speech.
But I will assure you that violence and force WILL be used to restore it – if that becomes necescary.
You MAY NOT USE FORCE – aka Government to control the speech of americans.
Dennis – in what world would anyone trust you to analyze business ?
You are constantly telling us all that Trump is getting poorer – as he gets richer and richer.
BTWYes Trump would veto legistlation that restricted Twitter – so would the supreme court – likely 9-0 and so would any federal judge that had read the conmstitution or the US history on free speech.
But more important – no such legislation is coming from Congress. The censorship we have seen done by the Obama and Biden administration has been done WITHOUT statutory authority.
None of your idiotic ideas regading censorship are getting through congress, much less the president of courts.
What is actually important regarding Trump is he will tell the EU how much it will hurt if they try to censor americans.
Congress will not do that and the supreme court mostly can’t.
Sir, I agree with your excellent column. However, I have one concern. Why do we need another law, committee, or mechanism to fight for free speech when we have the First Amendment?
The Bill of Rights added to the Constitution as amendments are beautifully written, simple, and powerful in their scope. Adding anything else to them fractures its intent and opens the door to interpretation not intended by the writers. The simple nature of the negatives aimed at the State, “shall make no law” and “or abridging the freedom of speech,” as an example, means NO period.
Look at what we allowed to happen with the Second Amendment. Exceptions were made over the decades. We allowed these exceptions because we compromised thinking that would stop the gun grabbers. Softening the Second Admendment was believed would satisfy the control freaks. It doesn’t. They know no limits.
We must allow the elegance and the simple
but powerful words of the Amendments to be the structure of our freedoms.
What America needs is an impartial, ethical, and incorruptible judicial branch and Supreme Court.
Justices and judges must fulfill their sworn-oath duty to support the literal Constitution and Bill of Rights of the American Founders and Framers.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
Price, wage, rent controls, etc., are not and were never constitutional.
Abortion was never a federal right or freedom.
Social Security and Medicare were never general Welfare or constitutional.
Secession is not and was never prohibited by the Constitution.
And so on, and so on.
_________________________
“…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
Unfortunately, the only way people remain incorruptible is through rigid enforcement of law including strict penalties. The very people that are responsible for the law are those that enforce laws. Who regulates the regulators?
Have you seen the movie Bee Keeper? True parallelism in many ways of the Biden crimes family with some unrealistic Hollyweird special effects. The concept is a good one.
True
“THE DEMS ARE DELIGHTED. BUT A COUP IS STILL A COUP.”
– Maureen Dowd, New York Times
_______________________________________
“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day”
– Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
___________________________________
THE OBAMA COUP D’ETAT IN AMERICA CONTINUES TO ITS FINAL CONQUEST OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
KARL MARX IS SMILING DOWN ON OBAMA, THE COMMUNISTS AND THEIR TREASONABLE AMERICAN ALLIES
THE AMERICAN FOUNDERS ROLL OVER IN THEIR GRAVES
________________________________________________________________
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
– Barack Obama
___________________
“We will stop him.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI paramour Lisa Page
_____________________________________________
“[Obama] wants to know everything we’re doing.”
– Lisa Page to FBI paramour Peter Strzok
_____________________________________________
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI parmour Lisa Page
____________________________________________
“People on the 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this [Trump] server.”
– Bill Priestap
________________
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history. The co-conspirators are:
Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic, Sally Yates,
James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell, Sir Richard Dearlove,
Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper,
Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power,
Lynch, Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,
Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg, Emmet Sullivan, Gen. Milley, George Soros, John McCain,
Marc Elias, Igor Danchenko, Fiona Hill, Charles H. Dolan, Jake Sullivan, Strobe Talbot,
Cody Shear, Victoria Nuland, Ray “Red Hat” Epps, Don Berlin, Kathy Ruemmler, Rodney Joffe,
Paul Vixie, L. Jean Camp, Andrew Whitney, Lisa O. Monaco, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg,
Matthew Colangelo, Merrick Garland, Juan Merchan, George Clooney, Nancy Pelosi,
Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, David Axelrod et al.
Open letter to the EU and to Thierry Breton:
.
You need to get over it. We won our independence in 1783 at the conclusion of our American Revolution. And we bailed out Europe in WWI and WWII, and defended Europe throughout the “Cold War”.
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The EU has no standing against US Corporations incorporated in the United States. The EU has become an albatross around the necks of all member countries and will likely be dissolved by it’s member citizens by the end of the decade. The citizens of the European countries did not cede their human rights to a “trade organization”.
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If you would like, I am sure the United States could prepare a bill to the EU member countries for all the US aid provided since WWII.
.
At the rate and direction you are going, you will be indistinguishable from the Warsaw Pact.
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You cannot abridge our Constitutional rights to freedom of speech! You do not get to censor us or our companies!
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“Don’t Tread On Me”!
..EXCELLENT.. EXCEPTIONAL.. OUTSTANDING PRESENTATION, PROF. TURLEY…!!! THANK YOU. SPOT ON.. and BRAVO to ELON MUSK.. INTEGRITY & COURAGE at its Finest. A Big Hug & Handshake from those who have paved the way.. Winston Churchill… Nothing to discuss here.. No shades of grey. This is simply and obviously Black and White… Evil trying to crowd out The Space where Good can also flourish… May all the Protective Forces of the Universe back Both You and Elon Musk.
“If free speech is truly the “indispensable right” of all Americans, we need to treat this threat as an attack on our very existence. It is not only the rawest form of foreign intervention into an election, but a foreign attack on our very freedoms.”
Well, at least it isn’t the Russians this time.
Hmmm, mandatory forced buy back will mean that Walz will have to turn his shotgun over to the socialist government. Some will tell you that it will only be semi automatic weapons but when all of the semi automatic weapons have been confiscated people will be killing each other with sawed off pump shotguns. Will they then turn to buying back all semi automatic hand guns as well. The weapon of choice in the Philippines was the Colt 45 semiautomatic pistol. Where will they stop? They’ll just replace on devil weapon for another to further stoke your outrage all while 187 Americans will die today from the use of Fentanyl coming across the border. Shootings in schools are of course a tragedy but in comparison to the deaths related to drugs in America they’re just a drop in the bucket. It doesn’t matter. They will use anything at their disposal to get elected.
Just for the uninitiated the shotgun that Walz is hunting with holds seven rounds and can take out more than one person per round in a crowded area. Fake concern should turn your stomach.
Socrates was killed, Cicero was killed, the Nazis killed millions, Mao killed millions, Stalin killed millions and yet some people think it can never happen here.
When they pass law that mandates a gun bye back (confiscation) people claim that it can’t happen because they will fight back. This is not true. When the police, army, FBI or whoever comes to your house armed with five guys in bullet proof vests you will give them your guns because if you fight back you will either be dead or in jail. Everyone talks tough, but it will all be over and it will happen fast.
Dems get the WH and the Congress, dump the filibuster, pack the Court, add two new states and then watch as the new Court says Heller is overturned. Wait until the new Court says that misinformation isn’t covered under the 1st A, then what. That will be the new “Constitutional” rule. What can you do at that point? It is over.
Right on, hullbobby!!
States leave the Union at that point…..
The POTUS should take cue from the late Leonard Nimoy, who, in his most famous of roles as Spock, retorts at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, upon hearing of orders to return the Enterprise NCC-1701A to Earth orbit, to prepare to be decommissioned, “If I were human…my response would be….GO TO HELL! If I were human…”
“The EU immediately responded by threatening Musk with confiscatory penalties . . .” (JT)
In the 15th century, Joan of Arc saved France. For her efforts, the French permitted the English to burn her at the stake.
In the 18th century, Antoine Lavoisier was arguably the father of chemistry. For his efforts, the French revolution guillotined him.
The Europeans have a habit of sacrificing their greatest benefactors.
Maybe St. Joan shouldn’t have turned some afflicted Frenchman into a newt…even if he got better.
The French. Not “The Europeans”.
“The French. Not “The Europeans”.”
Apparently, you missed this part of my comment:
“The EU immediately responded by threatening Musk with confiscatory penalties . . .” (JT)
If you want more historical examples of *Europeans* sacrificing their benefactors, consult a published essay or book — not a blog comment.
Others in the EU distanced themselves from Thierry’s remarks and he has apparently had a visit to the woodshed.
I guessed one of the reasons why they backed down from Musk and it may have been confirmed when I was watching video of yet another of Space X launches.
A note below the video said the EU signed a contract for Space X to launch its satellites. Musk is becoming the only truly successful game in space as a business. Someone in the EU must have wondered if Thierry’s threats might cost them more than they were willing to lose. No space toys for you EU!
Maybe someday Musk can just buy the EU and sort it out.
*SENATOR KEELEY
Digital services freedom act is redundant. It’s contained within the 1st amendment. Electricity and paper confuses some? What about skywriting?
Who would have ever thought that a guy from South Africa would become America’s 21st Century Buddy Edgerton? We need Congress to pass the Digital Freedom Act and a President with the anatomically correct parts to enforce it.
The best example of an (South) AFRICAN-American. Of course, the actress Charlize Theron is the HOTTEST.
*SENATOR KEELEY
You mean the International Digital Freedom Act, IDFA. The United States already has the 1st amendment.
Dear Mr. Turley, we are so weak when it comes to understanding how precious our Constitution and Bill of Rights are. There is nothing like it worldwide. We have been worn down by our Universities and the Left leaning media. This should be shouted from the rooftops and on every single media outlet. I hope that this country will wake up sooner rather than later and realize just what we have.
“. . . the European Union to force Elon Musk to censor X users . . .” (JT)
At a tremendous cost of money and lives, twice we saved their continent from tyrannical governments. Now they show their appreciation by threatening one of our most prominent citizens with a tyrannical edict. While simultaneously trying to dictate the results of *our* presidential election.
What’s worse is the Left’s response of deadly silence — which means to Leftists: We’re willing to sacrifice Musk. He won’t submit to our lust for power.
Remember that the next time the Left squeals about “threats to democracy” and “election interference.”
I say the USA should pull OUT of NATO, sell off it’s European facilities, and tell those UNGRATEFUL countries that they’d best train their young men to become “Panzerjagers”, to take out hordes of RUSSIAN tanks, just as the “Hitlerjugend” were pressed into front-line service to do in 1945. They DID knock out MANY…
*SENATOR KEELEY
It’s really personal with me. I don’t want to lose the European cultures nor the UK’s culture nor the American culture.
The Scandinavian cultures and Mr. Putin, there’s no more Russian DNA to waste.
“At a tremendous cost of money and lives, twice we saved their continent from tyrannical governments. ”
Our involvement in WWI was an absurd and stupid error in judgement, and sound arguments could be (and have been) made that we should have stayed out of the second in Europe, and let the Soviets and Nazis fight over who got to rule that continent with an iron boot. As far saving them from tyrannical governments goes, that was certainly never true of Eastern Europe – Stalin ran rampant there until 1953, and executed significantly more people for trying to assert their basic rights than did Hitler. Even in Western Europe, events since the Paris Treaties indicate that accomplish bore an extremely short expiry date.
“accomplishment bore”