We have previously discussed the anti-free speech views of Clinton’s former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, who has tried to sell citizens on the perfectly Orwellian view that more freedom means tyranny when it comes to the freedom of expression. He also demanded that former president Donald Trump be banned from ballots as a “traitor” — all in the name of protecting democracy from itself. Last week, Reich wrote a column declaring Elon Musk “out of control” in his refusal to censor citizens and appeared to call for his arrest.
Reich has long been a prominent voice in the anti-free speech movement discussed in my recent book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage. Indeed, he has given a voice to the rage in calling for others to be silenced or arrested.
Elon Musk has long been the primary target of Reich and his allies after dismantling the censorship system at Twitter, now X. Reich called Musk’s purchase of Twitter with a pledge to reduce censorship to be “dangerous nonsense.”
Notably, Reich’s friend, Hillary Clinton, was one of the first to call for a crackdown on Musk after his purchase of Twitter. Hillary Clinton and other Democratic figures turned to Europe and called upon them to use their Digital Services Act to force censorship against Americans.
Reich has always shown a chilling fluidity in how free speech is protected and argued that public interest should be able to trump the right of any citizens in espousing views that he believes are dangerous.
In denouncing Musk, Reich encouraged a campaign to counter his efforts to resist censorship. He wrote that Musk “may be the richest man in the world. He may own one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. But that doesn’t mean we’re powerless to stop him.”
Like Hillary Clinton, Reich is calling on foreign governments and censors to silence American citizens including Musk: “Regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest if he doesn’t stop disseminating lies and hate on X.”
He even appears willing to undermine national security programs to stop unfettered free speech. He called for the U.S. government to cut off contracts with his companies despite their critical role in various national security efforts, including the possible rescue of the stranded two astronauts currently in space.
None of that matters to Reich who appears to view free speech as a greater threat to our nation: “Why is the US government allowing Musk’s satellites and rocket launchers to become crucial to the nation’s security when he’s shown utter disregard for the public interest? Why give Musk more economic power when he repeatedly abuses it and demonstrates contempt for the public good?”
Reich’s call to regulate speech in the public interest is the Siren’s Call of every authoritarian regime in history. He will presumably tell us what speech is no longer tolerable for public policy reasons. Our “Indispensable Right” will, according to Reich, be safely in the hands of the European censors who can protect us from errant and dangerous thoughts.
As he explained earlier, “the kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.” In this way, speech regulations can keep us “moving towards how we recommend content and … how we direct people’s attention is leading to a healthy public conversation that is most participatory.”
The “healthy public conversation” with Robert Reich increasingly appears to be his talking and the rest of us listening.
Jonathan Turley is a Fox News Media contributor and 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, June 18, 2024).
Sounds like little Robert Reich fell out of his high chair and bumped his little head rendering him more delusional than usual. He has always been a wacky far left clueless a$$wipe.
Can’t believe there are still rational people that listen to him.
When he bumped his widdle head he lost his marbles; they all spilled out.
But Mom, everybody’s doing it…
Hong Kong journalists found guilty of sedition in landmark case
By Associated Press
Published Aug. 29, 2024, 11:02 a.m. ET
“Prosecutors said some promoted “illegal ideologies,” or smeared the security law and law enforcement officers. Judge Kwok ruled that 11 carried seditious intent, including commentaries written by activist Nathan Law and esteemed journalists Allan Au and Chan Pui-man.”
https://nypost.com/2024/08/29/world-news/hong-kong-journalists-found-guilty-of-sedition-in-landmark-case/
This sounds like the THIRD Reich to me.
* would the global people be using censorship if they were correct, had true values, had anything people actually wanted?
They don’t so they’re doomed. They’re just killing and grabbing money.
Prayer is speech, too. Be sure you’re prayers match truth.
OT
Letter to Benjamin Netanyahu
Make a deal with the devil. Do whatever he wants. Promise him everything. Get all the hostages back. Then kill the devil and all of his minions. That’s how you deal with the devil. It sounds impossible because it is impossible to deal with the devil without dealing like the devil.
Absolutely Correct! Why would a sane person expect Hamas to honor ANY treaty or cease fire…?
I was thinking he should have done that months ago.
No American who is not treasonous through antipathy and rejection of the Constitution of the United States should tolerate the Reichs of the world, the globalist “new world order.” We can only affirm this: Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis advised, in his famous Whitney v. California opinion in 1927, “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
Whenever I see a Third Reich on X, I think he should be arrested.
The pro-free-speech side is way too defensive, it needs to go on the offensive. Specifically by demanding the censorship of people like Robert Bernard Reich (criminals should be addressed by three names), for the blatant falsehoods he has promulgated in the past. His accuracy rating is atrocious; if anyone has earned censorship it is sociopaths like him.
If Musk is given any role in the Trump administration it should include diplomatic status so he will be protected from arrest by totalitarian governments like those in Brazil, France and England.
I posted this on FB and and it was blocked as spam:
Robert Reich democrap enemy of the 1st amendment and Freedom in general! https://jonathanturley.org/2024/09/02/robert-reich-calls-for-the-arrest-of-elon-musk-for-resisting-censorship/
Didn’t this guy sometime back suggest “re-education camps”?
I think that was Rahm Emanuel and/or Cass Sunstein, Samantha Powers husband.
Robert “Third” Reich, thanks for that.
Robert Reich, Kamala, Nancy and Gavin. All far-left Berkeley/San Fran marxists who destroyed California and now want to turn the rest of the country into a cesspool of rampant criminality, homelessness, drug addiction, illegal immigration and and exorbitant taxes.
Jonathan: Looks like everyone is ganging up against your friend Elon Musk–even Robert Reich. I’d say Musk’s problems are mostly self-inflicted.
As I posted in a previous comment (8/31/24@9:23am) Brazil’s Justice Alexandre de Moreas suspended X in that country because Musk refused to abide by the country’s law that requires appointment of a legal representative to do business. It’s a loser for Musk but he seems to think the law should not apply to him. When Moreas dropped the hammer on Musk last week the latter tried the DJT approach. He condemned Moreas claiming the Justice was acting as a “dictator” and he should be “impeached”. Today, a 5-member panel of Brazil’s SC agreed with Moreas. This undercuts all of Musk’s spurious claims. The Q is why Musk would pick a fight with Moreas over what is required of every other business in Brazil? It’s a head scratcher.
In other news Musk was forced to reveal the names of X’s investors in connection with his ongoing legal battles with former employees who claim they were cheated out of pay and other compensation. Musk’s court filing shows the major investors were people like hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, Silicon investors like Larry Ellison, Marc Andreessen and Bill Ackerman. But among the investors were also Denis Aven and Jack Moskowicz. They are the sons of Petr Aven and Jack Moskowicz. Both have close political and economic ties to Putin. So it appears Putin’s henchmen helped Musk acquire Twitter and pretty much explains why Musk supports Putin’s war in Ukraine as does DJT. I say follow the money and you will find out why prominent figures take the positions they do.
And there is more bad news for Musk. The WP is reporting today that “Elon Musk’s Twitter investors have lost billions in value”. The biggest investor is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud. He has lost a whooping $1.4 billion! Larry Ellison has lost $720 million. Musk’s partners have lost a total of $24 billion in value–partly because advertisers won’t touch X with a 10 foot pole! Musk blames that all on Media Matters instead of his personal choices to act as a echo chamber for neo-Nazi propaganda. So a small news outlet is having an outsize influence over X and why Musk is trying to sue them into non-existence. It’s Charles Handy’s book “The Flea and the Elephant” played out in real time!
Dennis McIntyre, apparently you missed the news that Moreas threatened to arrest any legal representative that Musk appointed. But I’m not surprised you are not familiar with Catch 22, based on the ill-informed nature of your comment.
“As I posted in a previous” lie, and now repeat here . . .
Now your comment is accurate.
What’s frightening is that you are a pathological liar. And that lying is no natural to you.
Jonathan, your very best close personal friend Dennis McIntyre is really letting his police state fascist totalitarian flags fly wild today now that his love affair with Musk, EVs, and Twitter has gone sour. Remember when Dennis “Baghdad Bob” McIntyre was praising Musk and then-Twitter when they were part of the Soviet Democrat police state fascist hiding of Biden White House Crime LLC during the 2020 election campaign?
In other news your best personal friend Dennis McIntyre is trying to hide from you regarding court filings that would make Dennis ashamed if he wasn’t a Cheap Fake American:
New IRS whistleblowers provide evidence that Biden criminal conduct was swept under the rug by DoJ prosecutors under Merrick Garland.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/irs-whistleblower-claim-evidence-hunter-biden-swept-under-rug
Jonathan, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but your dear friend Dennis McIntyre is a pathological liar who’s trying to take advantage of you.
This thought control guy, Robert Reich, should be arrested for attempting to invalidate the Second Amendment. But, I am sure Mr. Reich is relying on his Second Amendment rights enabling him to say whatever he wants. Go figure…
Reich is a malignant dwarf.
Das Giftzwerg.
Robert Reich should be subject to rules akin to theme park signs for height restrictions. i.e. “You must be THIS tall to be a political commentator”.
RIDICULOUS!
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
If you want your country back, you’re going to have to take it.
____________________________________________________________________
“It’s time to stop talkin’ and start chalkin’!”
– Chick Hearn, Lakers Sportscaster
_____________________________________
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– American Founders, Declaration of Independence, 1776
“That’s All, Folks!”
So now when a court doesn’t agree with you they are the problem and must be corrected. For many years liberal activist justices controlled the Supreme Court. Many questionable decisions were handed down. Strangely enough there were no screams by the media and the left to pack or restructure the court. Conservatives hated it but they also did not scream to pack the court. Now with a conservative majority you would think the world is coming to an end.
The only problem with the Supreme Court is when it practices judicial activism. Their job is to simply interpret laws in the manner they were intended and/or determine their constitutionality. I have to laugh when decisions that are well rooted in precedence are vilified as partisan. Yet when decisions like Roe v Wade are handed down which are clearly unconstitutional or extra constitutional they are cheered. I am pro choice within reasonable limits but the constitution never guaranteed the right to abortion and the vast majority of legitimate constitutional scholars agreed it was a dubious decision based on a bespoke interpretation of the constitution. Regardless of my feelings or yours about abortion, Hobbs got it right. If the constitution doesn’t explicitly enshrine a right it should be up to states and their populations to determine. It doesn’t have to be one size fits all.
So other than whiners not getting what they want in a decision, why not demonstrate the legal or constitutional reason the decision is flawed? Simple answer: because they can’t and that really pisses them off.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The judicial branch and Supreme Court must have struck down Lincoln’s wholly unconstitutional denial of not prohibited and fully constitutional secession. That was the American inflection point, which was permitted by the judicial branch and Supreme Court. The judicial branch and Supreme Court must have struck down the illegal immigration that took place on January 1, 1863, in complete violation of the Naturalization Act of 1802, which was in full force and effect. It has been all downhill ever since—a “Progression” to the full communism that exists now. American freedom persisted for a mere 71 years. That’s just for openers.
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, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, 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 for ONLY debt, defense, and “…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, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the 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 allowing 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.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The judicial branch and Supreme Court must have struck down Lincoln’s wholly unconstitutional denial of not prohibited and fully constitutional secession.
George The Constitutional Kluxxer Confederate will NEVER get over Americans electing – and then reelecting – Lincoln, who destroyed the Kluxxer Confederate states who fired the first shots in the Confederate War For Slavery.
The singular American failure is that so many American voters vote for racist Soviet Democrats and totalitarians. Whether their name is Obama, Clinton, or Biden.
The hard left truly hates the Constitution when it fails to deliver the desired political result to them. Regard Roe v Wade, even Ginsburg said (paraphrase) “that it was an incorrect decision, but decided for the ‘right’ reason.”
She also correctly said that Congress could pass a nationwide Abortion Law if it wished – but it never did. Having the issue devolve to the States was the correct answer.
The ironic part is that there have been more abortions since Hobbs than in the similar time frame before that decision, so people will have to explain to me how Hobbs restricted access.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– American Founders, Declaration of Independence, 1776
As one of the hundreds of thousands who have put on a uniform, picked up a rifle, and gone to war, I find it disgusting when base cowards like George advocate for revolution. Doing so not by picking up a rifle and saying “follow me” to lead the revolution they advocate for, but instead pimping for OTHER people to do the fighting and dying while they sit at home safe as Keyboard Warriors.
This is why George is just another Cheap Fake American.
Isn’t it amazing how many ‘experts’ are turning out to be stark raving mad…or evil…or both raving mad and evil?
1984, we are here!
Is there any truth to the rumor that Robert Reich’s middle name is “Third?”
I can’t remember, but I think it does rhyme with third…
Wow! I know he is a socialist, but until just now I hadn’t realized he is a National Socialist. Reich and Clinton calling on the EU to sanction an American citizen’s protected speech is un/anti-American.