In the 1999 cult classic The Blair Witch Project, one character tells his friends “I could help you, but I’d rather stand here and record.” For free speech advocates, we often feel that other citizens have become passive observers as an anti-free speech movement grows around us, threatening our “indispensable right.”
One of the most infamous figures in this movement has been former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long been the smiling face of censorship. As the head of the Labour Party, Blair pushed through some of the early crackdowns on free speech in the United Kingdom. He is now calling for global censorship to expand these efforts.
In an interview on LBC Radio, Blair declared:
“The world is going to have to come together and agree on some rules around social media platforms. It’s not just how people can provoke hostility and hatred but I think… the impact on young people particularly when they’ve got access to mobile phones very young and they are reading a whole lot of stuff and receiving a whole lot of stuff that I think is really messing with their minds in a big way.”
We recently discussed how the UK is already using recent rioting to crackdown further on those with opposing or “toxic” views.
For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.
A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”
Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:
“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”
Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and “there was no evidence of disseminating to others,” he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.
After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because he “showed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation….We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”
Blair’s views have been echoed by Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle who declared:
“Misinformation is dangerous. Social media is good but its also bad when people are using it in a way that could cause a riot, threat, intimidation, suggesting that we should attack somebody, it’s not acceptable. What we’ve got to do is factually correct what’s up there, if not I think the government has to think long and hard about what they are going to do about social media and what are they going to put through parliament as a bill.
“I believe it should be across, it doesn’t matter what country you are in, the fact is that misinformation is dangerous and no misinformation, or threats, or intimidation should be allowed to be carried out on social media platforms.”
As with the effort in Brazil to block X entirely for refusing to censor political opponents of the government, Blair’s call for global censorship is where the movement is going next.
Notably, after Musk purchased Twitter, Hillary Clinton called upon European officials to force him to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). Recently, Democratic leaders like Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison praised Brazil for its action to prevent citizens from having access to unfettered news sources.
Interviews like the one with Tony Blair are not just jump scares meant to intimidate or scare others. They reflect a comprehensive campaign from our political elite to enforce censorship on a national and transnational scale. If you think that this latest Blair Witch Project is just another scary production, you have not been paying attention.
One of the great things about this nation is that neither the Spaniards nor the British got to impose their style of governance on us.
Or the French, after they sold us half the future country with the Louisiana purchase.
nor the British got to impose their style of governance on us.
We are not all that different. Elections determine who has a majority of elected politicians to make law and policy.
The British government oppressing the American colonialists and eventually making war on them was a government run by the party that had won the majority of seats in free and fair elections (certainly more fair than our latest elections), voted into their term in office by the Colonists’ fellow British citizens.
King George, like every monarch after the the English Glorious Revolution a century earlier, had nothing to do with it other than signing the tax bills, etc that the majority government put on his desk to sign. Like today’s UK and monarch, he had no authority to make war, make peace, make treaties, order the seizure of arms owned by British citizens or order the seizure and destruction of their printing presses. The fact that there was a monarch had nothing to do with what an elected majority government chose to do to the American colonialists.
The same English Bill of Rights constitutional document that is in force today, not only guaranteed the English a right to bear arms, but also a right to freedom of speech:
That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament
The framers, essentially the great grandchildren of those who wrote the English Bill of Rights recognized that constitutional document was imperfect (hadn’t protected them from their elected majority government!) and better articulated those and other rights.
But the very important point is that the Colonists had constitutional rights to both arms and freedom of speech – and a majority government elected by their fellow citizens back in England ignored those rights right up to the point of making war on them. The freely elected UK government of today is increasingly making the EBR a dead letter in the areas it chooses to do so. And the Official Opposition can not stop them from doing that (if they wanted to) – and their supreme court will NOT stop them from doing it.
We are different in that we are a republic versus a democracy. But we are similar in that we have a party here in America who if it can win a large enough of a majority will happily confiscate firearms, pass censorship laws, “hate speech” laws, etc.
We should consider that the UK of today as the canary in the coal mine, not as some completely different type of government with no relationship to our own.
The UK’s citizens lost their right to bear arms just a century ago, around the time of the end of WWI – without any amendments to the English Bill of Rights that supposedly guaranteed that right. And now they’re increasingly losing not only their free speech rights but their other right to petition the government, also without any amendments to the EBR.
The same way of majority governments attempting and somewhat succeeding in removing constitutional rights has been coming here for years. As in England, it will only get worse if not decisively crushed.
“We should consider that the UK of today as the canary in the coal mine, not as some completely different type of government with no relationship to our own.”
In the past, I have considered many of your posts to be “off the deep” end, but this was excellent in every way. Thank you!
In the past, I have considered many of your posts to be “off the deep” end, but this was excellent in every way. Thank you!
And I am always open to anyone posting a dissent, pointing out where they believe I am wrong and explaining why. I seldom get that; most of the feedback is attacks which get responded to in the exact same flavor as they were addressed to me.
I have gotten dissenting opinions here in the past where they have been convincing and I have changed my opinion or opinion. Others where I didn’t change but we had a discussion where I hope both of us left better informed than before.
Very, very well written and agree completely. Hence a written constitution AND federal republic. The greatest threat to your freedom is your own government.
As the pendulum swings there will be quid pro quo for all these people. As these Socialist Marxists lose their grip on power, they themselves will lose their ability to shield themselves.
If young men understood how much they’re being lied to and lied about by the Democrat Party, all this gaslighting would stop very quickly.
I think they’re figuring it out, but I doubt it’s happening fast enough.
Diogenes,
I think that is what they fear. Just look at the Joe Biden is mentally “sharp as a tack!” scandal. All the truth that has come out about COVID. The collusion of the Biden WH admin to pressure SM sites like Facebook into censorship. The truth is coming out and they are scared.
The Powers That Be aren’t scared.
That’s ridiculous. Look beyond the surface.
The truth is coming out and they are scared.
I disagree. Obama’s Third Term known as the Biden Administration think of it like Communist China’s government does: the road to becoming an unopposable hegemony will take a while, there will be a few obstacles and setbacks on that road, but those are only setbacks on the road to the final goal.
They aren’t terrified of Trump while they whip up fear he will destroy the country for election purposes. Should he win, they will be waiting for the mid-terms in two years, knowing he cannot deliver on his promises in two short years and the economic situation will not have changed much. They expect they will have a good chance of taking either the House or Senate campaigning on the economic “failure” – and they’ll promptly neuter the last two years of his presidency much the way they crippled his first four years.
They aren’t going away without a deep, thorough cleansing of Soviet Democrat deep state bureaucrats and administration apparatchiks that are deeply embedded in government. Like Lisa Monaco, straight from being one of Obama’s henchmen to now Biden’s Deputy Attorney General… the one who probably picked Jack Smith to be Special Counsel after he and her successfully took out Governor Bob McDonnell as a candidate to run against Obama/Biden in 2012.
They’re scared Trump could be a large bump in the road… but they aren’t scared to the point that they’ll stop continuing to do what they’ve been increasingly doing since Obama.
Yup.
Well it is at times like these that I thank god for our constitution and our Federal Republic. These are bulwarks, to a degree, against the spread of censorship and fascism.
We now know that communism, socialism and fascism are basically one and the same. The only difference is what economic model each practitioner uses. What matters is what is happening at the top. If you are a good little fascist you get to work and make your profits and go home and keep your mouth shut and provide a favor to the state from time to time (ala Godfather). If you’re a socialist you have to share your profits whether you want to or not and go home and keep your mouth shut. And maybe that will happen in the UK where you make your living and go home and keep your mouth shut and don’t put up any posters. And here for all these years I thought the UK gave us “A man’s home is his castle”.
But let’s face the real facts. The censors are not worried about misinformation, they are worried about truth. Maybe it’s because we now know that the mainstream media have been dispatching lies and untruths for decades, if not longer. Truth is the Destroyer of sand castles and money schemes.
With the internet available, the public has caught up with the professionals and maybe even passed them.
Used to be an unpleasant reporter or paper could just be cut off from the White House or other centers of government and would basically emasculated. Not anymore.
Literally anyone can be a news reporter or maker. All it takes is a server and some electricity and some time and a well placed source. You can do it for free but that limits your scope unless your are truly well off. And then there is X.
Amazing how X and Elon Musk has terrified the governmental powers and their tidy little money making schemes . Seems like the cries for censorship over the past year have gone up to Banshee like levels.
GEB,
Well said.
I think part of the truth that scares the government is how it is exposing their lies along with the MSM lies, but also how precarious various aspects of our governmental institutions are. From being poorly managed, to fraud, waste and abuse or financial ruin. A recent report by the Old-Age, Survivors, Disability Insurance (OASDI) showed Social Security is facing $63 trillion in long-term unfunded liabilities.
If people are betting on SS for their retirement, they might be in for a shock.
I find their calls for censorship to be threatening, intimidation, and hateful.
We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.
Oh, the irony of that statement. Everything about these globalists is rooted in the most toxic of ideologies. They are not a “potential threat”. They are actually doing real world harm to public safety and security.
Quentin Tarantino is a perfect example of how the globalist’s toxic ideology is poisoning the public understanding of the role of government and individual rights.
The Redcoats are coming Jonathan !!!!
The problem is no one is stopping them, yet. Our young have been given the green light to disrupt and shout down opposing views. They’ve been told this is a form of free speech rather than an act of violating one’s free speech. Because no one’s resisted their taking it to criminalizing speech which opposes their views. They want you walking on eggs to a point you’ll agree to anything and everything they say and demand. For now it’s working.
Dear Prof Turley,
Dang nation, they act like the own the internet. .. and free speech.
Missing in your analysis of recent nation-state assaults on speech is prime suspect #1 Julian Assange. The guy has more blockbusters (Prize winners) to his credit than the NYT and the Guardian put together and has never had to print a retraction. Look what they did to him! [special note. I hope Assange is home now, somewhere, licking his wounds.]
In my new book, ‘2001-24 An American Space Odyssey’, I begin with U.S. VP Dick Cheney taking ‘the gloves off’ and declaring a ‘global war on terror’ — a Blair Witch Project on steroids, so to speak.
Fast forward, Dick Cheney & his daughter Liz have recently announced their support for Harris/Walz.. . because Trump is the “most dangerous person ever to hold office”.
*another feather in Kamala’s cap.
dgsnowden: ” In my new book, ‘2001-24 An American Space Odyssey’, I begin with U.S. VP Dick Cheney taking ‘the gloves off’ and declaring a ‘global war on terror’ — a Blair Witch Project on steroids, so to speak.
Does it include a chapter in our involvement in that other Blair Witch Project on steroids? Biden/Harris and the Soviet Democrats “Two State Solution” demands they’re attempting to force on Israel, coercing them by putting obstacles in the path of wiping out the genocidal anti-Semitic hajji Arab terrorists of Hamas?
Here’s a fine book on the subject of that massive “Two State Solution” fraud that every single Democrat from Clinton through to Harris today have been instrumental in that you would probably enjoy:
One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
https://www.amazon.com/One-Jewish-State-Israeli-Palestinian-Conflict/dp/1630062944
Sir Tony Blair now has zero influence in the UK, and I suspect not a great deal more across the globe. He is a busted flush, the man who went from the hero of the centre-left in 1997, to the man who embarked on numerous foreign wars, failed to find WMD, and alienated his centre-left fan club by ending up George W’s bezzer… Just another pretentious radio interview with a man living in the past, and a cheap controversy for the radio station. About as meaningful as NPR interviewing Dan Quayle.
And of course Turley keeps on pounding the same silly stories, such as the “leprechaun” incident (the chap concerned was found guilty of threatening to beat up his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, not of calling him a leprechaun), and the chap arrested in the “Kung Fu Fighting” incident was initially arrested, then released without charge, because of the way the incident in the bar escalated, with allegations of racially motivated threats, not because of the song being played. So in both cases, nothing to do with free speech, everything to do with threats of physical violence, in one case upheld in court, in the other very quickly dropped by police after investigation as to what happened in the bar. Of course, such silliness and confrontations never have to be resolved in US bars by police, do they? Nobody ever gets arrested and then released without charge during such incidents?
Bates v. UK Postoffice
Oliver Reeder, you flubbed on that one. Stop complaining. Turley’s near-meaningless examples show how bad things are in Britain, not how good. When you try to make these things disappear, you show how deep the free speech issue is for Britain. Bates provides excellent insight into the deep problems of the British State.
No I did not. You are so fixated on thinking the Horizon scandal has anything to do with free speech. It was entirely to do with the suppression of evidence. Yet you desperately try to present that as some sort of free speech issue; in US cases, if there is a massive failure of disclosure, does anyone label that a freedom of speech issue? No, they do not. Cases are thrown out and lawyers sanctioned for basic procedural and ethical failures, not for infringing the First Amendment. You are truly pathetic if you cannot discern the difference.
“No I did not.”
You did not, what?
I provided one example of British Bureaucracy that extends into all Britain’s lives, including free speech and the judiciary system. You flubbed on that one and can’t resurrect yourself.
“It was entirely to do with the suppression of evidence. “
Suppression of evidence extending into the realm of a failure of a judicial system where a massive number of people were deprived of what many consider their rights as free people along with their right to state the truth is what happened.
That as a British subject, you cannot recognize and admit this deprivation of rights shows how British failures have inculcated fascist rhetoric into their citizenry.
“if there is a massive failure of disclosure, does anyone label that a freedom of speech issue?”
If freedom of speech weren’t impaired, the information would have come out years earlier, and many would have been saved from ruin, while others would still be alive.
The Horizon scandal is the subject of a major judicial inquiry. A dedicated law has already been passed to exonerate those wrongly convicted. It could not be taken more seriously, even by the establishment which has finally woken up to the appalling situation that was allowed to unfold.
If the USA is so great, how is it that in a few weeks time you are going to elect to the highest office either a deranged narcissist, or a vacuous, incoherent and hopelessly woke economic idiot? As the Lord said, first remove the beam from your own eye…
@Oliver Reeder: How many decades did this abuse go on? The fascist mind above keeps trying to minimize what was one of the most horrible abuses of any democratic, law-abiding society.
Admittedly, the US has problems with the left and a public that wants to be ignorant. However, your comment about Trump is nuts. He is a narcissist, and so was Churchill, who was one of many great leaders. That is frequently their nature. While in office, Trump never committed a crime, something perpetuated in Britain for how many decades? Instead, he turned America around.
When the evidence first came out, it was swept under the rug, and the abuses continued for years. Then, the evidence was prevented from being disclosed, and people were threatened if they told the truth.
Is fascism in your blood? Is it in the blood of the British people? Don’t get me wrong, I like the British and most of what they did up to recent times. For Britain, things went south, and you are going along with it.
Burnt to the ground ointment aisle 9!
🙂
Yup, can’t hide the homeless and starving.
Oliver Reeder:
If the USA is so great, how is it that in a few weeks time you are going to elect to the highest office either a deranged narcissist…
Back Obama, “The Smartest Guy In The Room”, he of the upraised finger in front of his class of American citizens intoning that this was a “teachable moment” is not on the ballot, Oliver. Why do you believe he is?
Nor is the other deranged narcissist AND hopelessly woke economic idiot, (although you’ve never bothered to make that assessment of him over the last three years; distracted by his hopelessly woke version of Commander In Chief, perhaps?).
Biden may be deranged now, but the lying narcissist that told the world he graduated with two degrees, at the top of his class with a full pull scholarship, turned down a scholarship to play football at the Navy Academy beside Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Roger Stauback, etc was completely in charge of his faculty’s as he was when he got caught cribbing a speech made by one of your notable English communists. Biden the deranged narcissist pathological liar and hopelessly woke economic idiot is gone. Try to keep up before delivering a lecture from across the pond, please.
Obama he IS still delivering Obama’s Third Term through Biden recycling many of the Obama cabal through his administration i.e. recently departed Susan Rice, Lisa Monaco as Deputy Attorney General et al.
Unless of course, as a socialist Brit you believe that Biden has actually been making all the decisions and all the policy of the last three years right up to your post today all by himself.
Thank God for Susan Rice, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, etc, straight from the Obama administration, back right after Trump took office, taking the Trump handcuffs off Iranian state sponsored global terrorism and enriching them once again to advance more hajji global terrorism by removing sanctions. And allowing another invasion of Ukraine and renewed ChiCom military aggression after Trump was gone.
And of course, replacing the Trump economy with the stunning success of Bidenomics.
On topic, that would also include Biden’s decisions to broaden Obama’s police state fascism, including censorship. Censorship that has now broadened to include censorship by proxy after the 2020 election.
The remnants of Obama’s police state fascism i.e. the creation of the “Russia Dossier” – illegally written with the help of one of your failed British spies is still with us under his current figurehead Biden. And is still being pushed by Harris to this day. We have just seen the beginnings of the FBI beginning Russia Dossier v4.37 for this election cycle.
As the Lord said, first remove the beam from your own eye…
Would that be an Obama-style “teachable moment” lecture for Americans to look at their economics and the world situation before comparing it to the economics of the UK and the world over the last 3 1/2 years of UK governments?
You certainly wouldn’t want Americans to compare America and the world security situation under Trump’s four years to the UK during those four years – or the UK and the world over the last four years.
Y’know Oliver, Obama, Biden, Harris… they all seem like they would be a much, much better fit over in the UK where neo-communism and the idea of repression of freedom and liberty are much more welcome. There are far, far more Marxist Useful Idiots as a percentage of the country than here in America.
Again – no one cares about procedural failures that do not infringe on peoples rights .
The US has a lot of problems high among them is that with respect to individual liberty powerful forces are trying to convert the US into the UK or the EU.
You touch on economics. The FACT is that from a standard of living Higher than the US, the UK and EU have slowly managed to drag themselves to a standard of living about 30% lower than the US.
That is because economics and liberty are intrinsically connected.
“If freedom of speech weren’t impaired, the information would have come out years earlier, and many would have been saved from ruin, while others would still be alive.”
They did speak out, and people, including some very good MPs not only listened but pursued the issue through Parliament. The problem was the Post Office concealing evidence and lying to Ministers and MPs. When US convictions, including some Death Row cases, are eventually overturned as miscarriages of justice, it is because the lies and deceit by police and prosecutors are uncovered, not because the wrongly convicted have enjoyed their First Amendment rights.
Stop trying to make everything about free speech. That is Turley’s huge mistake – confusing direct threats of violence with freedom of speech. Confusing arrests with actual conviction. Confusing tabloid headlines with reality….
@Oliver Reader: “They did speak out, and people, including some very good MPs not only listened but pursued the issue through Parliament.”
That doesn’t mean freedom of speech wasn’t impaired. It means freedom of speech was gradually permitted once significant political power came to the forefront. That took years. From the start, the people were prevented from speaking, and the courts aided the felons and the liars. Even the good MPs (for quite a while, it was only one MP) didn’t have a voice. When the truth came out, it was hard to stop, but I don’t think the British government, even today, has named all those involved and prosecuted anyone providing severe penalties. ( I haven’t kept up to date)
Take note of how you deny the British problem and change the subject. I haven’t denied any American problems and have been quite outspoken in promoting the case of a constitutional society where free speech is promoted. You, on the other hand, don’t face the ever-growing problems in Britain, your homeland.
“Stop trying to make everything about free speech.”
That is fascism within you that is talking. You have Turley wrong. He objects to violence and doesn’t consider that free speech. Are you saying that anything an MP thinks could promote violence from others is speech that should be silenced? You are giving in to the terrorists and the fascists.
” Confusing arrests with actual conviction.”
We arrested blacks in this country for virtually no reason but to prevent their free rights. You wish the elites of Britain to treat the British people like blacks were treated in the earlier years in my country.
Whether in the US or the UK procedural failures of government ALWAYS are about infringing on individual liberty.
While every government abuse is not about Free Speech – they ALL are about infringements on individual liberty, and nearly all have infringements on free speech as atleast part of the problem.
OR = procedural failures – such as supression of evidence are ALWAYS about infringements on civil rights.
No one cares if a government supresses evidence – unless that supression of evidence is intrinsically either an infringement on liberty or a coverup of an inftingement on liberty.
Isn’t the UK owned by China now?
OR you do not seem to grasp that people do not beleive you.
The first problem that you have – is exemplified by Turley’s example of the alleged far right guy in his own home.
It is clear from this incident and many others that The UK punishes people for their VIEWS not their acts.
Sometimes bad views and bad acts go together. In those instances we punish the ACTS.
I will defend the right of prohamas protestors to defend Terrorism. I will also verbally shred them for their vile and stupid beleifs.
But I will only subject them to legal sanctions for bad ACTS.
I would note that Americans did not “invent” free speech or individual liberty – it vastly predates this country,
For many centuries Britian was the leading edge of individual liberty – the Magna Carte is British.
The Epic defense of free speech is that of John Stuart Mill – On Liberty
But the US is the best so far instantiation of those critical principles.
“. . . has zero influence in the UK . . .”
Why is that always your pat response, every time there’s a story about a censor in the UK?
@Sam
Because they are a troll. They’ve appeared before over the past couple of years under different ‘British’ names saying the same thing, verbatim; ‘Oliver’ is the most recent. No, they aren’t Oliver Twist, but yes, they will absolutely attempt to hijack this thread today. Cor, blimey! 😂🤷🏽♂️
You poor deluded fool. I am not a troll, I am British, and you can wail as much as you like, it does not alter the fact that what I post is accurate. Go on, rebut the account of the “leprechaun”. Rebut the account of the “Kung Fu Fighting” incident.
You cannot, so all you have left is silly little insults to throw around, just because I have dared to point out that Professor Turley, learned though he be regarding the US Constitution, relies on silly and misleading tabloid headlines for his picture of Britain. The Professor has rightly held to account US lawyers who have tried to substitute media articles for facts and the law in some of high profile US cases; shame he (or more likely his intern ghosting this blog) does not observe the same critical standards…
You cannot, so all you have left is silly little insults to throw around
Silly little insults like referring to our Democrat presidents Obama and Biden as “a deranged narcissist”
Every president and vice president you referred to when you chose to dip wick in personalities has at least a record of four years of working out of the White House. Whether you want to drill down to economics, global security, or censorship and police state fascism.
You would think that British neo-communists, socialists (whatever) could come up with specific reasons for why they are criticizing our politicians by offering opinions on their policies and the results of those policies.
Rather than throwing around silly little insults like “deranged narcissist”.
Oliver, clearly you suffer from what you claim others suffer from: that’s all you have left.
“like referring to our Democrat presidents Obama and Biden as “a deranged narcissist””
As well you know. that was a reference to the GOP presidential candidate in 2024.
“vacuous, incoherent and hopelessly woke economic idiot” was of course a reference to the Democrat presidential candidate.
Neither is fit for the office they seek, and the whole world knows it. The fact that they are the binary choice for you lot in less than two months’ does not reflect well on your great country.
“Neither is fit for the office they seek, and the whole world knows it. “
@Oliver Reeder: You are correct that Harris is not fit for office, reasons that were mentioned many times on this blog. Trump is fit for the office, as proven in 2016, though you don’t seem to know it. Maybe you have an excuse and don’t have access to the data from .gov and elsewhere. I will forgive you for ignoring what Trump did in 2016, but let us deal with the present.
Provide precise reasons why you think Trump is unfit for the Presidency in 2024. So far, he has been our best president in this century.
S. Meyer — Political scientists place Trump among the worst presidents ever.
David, you are reading the wrong political scientists. Do they have Alzheimer’s? Leftists toot their horns and cannot be trusted for the truth. Start by deciding whether you agree with Milton Friedman. He was an economist who believed in free markets; our society’s success has proven to be the best-known way to go. Compare Trump to Biden using facts essential to the US government and people. Then, come back and let us discuss this.
David B. Benson: S. Meyer — Political scientists place Trump among the worst presidents ever.
David, Can you imagine the amazement of nobody that those political scientists are overwhelmingly your fellow neo-communists who have been supporting the Soviet Democrats like Obama and Biden?
The ones who have conferred near God status on Obama and his disasters, and say nothing as The Party tells the world first, that Biden is sharp as a tack during three years of babbling dementia, and then mere days before kicking him to the curb that he’s the greatest American president ever.
The political science experts who are your fellow Soviet Democrats in the hallowed halls of the colleges and universities that now the home of your fellow Soviet Democrats who have formed The New Hitler Youth Movement.
The vile little neo-Nazi anti-Semitics who are not just their students but also many of the political science professors endorsing genocide. Must give a warm fuzzy feeling thinking that your fellow faculty are anti-Semitic culls who have been endorsing students and movements with the declared purpose of destroying Israel long before October 7th.
They’re your fellow Soviet Democrat anti-Semitic pro-Hamas political scientist experts and students David. You own them.
@Oliver Reeder: You are correct that Harris is not fit for office, reasons that were mentioned many times on this blog.
@S. Meyer: Reeder might quite possibly be capable of rational thought and debate on many issues. Trump is not one of those issues he is capable of discussing rationally.
The major tell is when those with TDS like Reeder has here on public display (again), never once provide a set of facts to go along with their emotional pronouncements.
Emotional declarations are one thing, but facts don’t care about your feelings. Reeder has no facts to go along with his emotional pain about Trump that he expresses here.
Imagine for a moment Reeder making a coherent argument that the world was a safer place before Trump when Obama/Biden were empowering Iran and enriching them while lifting sanctions and allowing them to resume nuclear weapon developkment – while Iran was still providing IED technology and training to hajjis killing American and UK troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Or Reeder making a coherent argument that that the world is now safer now that Trump is gone and the cage he put Iran’s Mad Mullahs in has been removed by Biden serving Obama’s Third Term. Iran once again enriched with cash to fund global Islamic terrorism, freshly purchased advanced weapons systems, flowing millions to terrorist groups in the Middle East and once again resuming completion of having nuclear weapons.
Reeder can’t do that. All he’s left with is “Trump is not fit for office” – while Trump’s record in comparison to Obama, Biden, and the UK Prime Ministers says otherwise.
Closing thought: Does Oliver Reeder wake up from nightmares each night about the Trump Operation Fast And Furious vaccine coursing through his veins for the rest of his life screaming “It burns, IT BURNS… GET IT OUT!”
Oliver Reeder has been polite, as have you to him, though you tell him his failures to his face. It is time for Oliver to respond and prove us wrong.
Oliver, “Provide precise reasons why you think Trump is unfit for the Presidency in 2024. So far, he has been our best president in this century.”
Oliver Reeder: As well you know. that was a reference to the GOP presidential candidate in 2024.
Yes Oliver, I know you were putting your Trump Derangement Syndrome on display. I also know you have NEVER once referred to either Obama or Biden as narcissist as you do Trump – despite both clearly being just that. Whether by the airs of the faux constitutional professor with his “teachable moments” he affected to the world. Or the serial lies of the other, proclaiming his scholastic brilliance and athletic magnificence to the world.
Trump may well be narcissistic, but certainly no different than the other two narcissists, particularly Obama who is the GOAT when it comes to narcissists. Only one of those narcissists can point to being a self made billionaire – the others became millionaires by grifting their political positions, never once running a business. Or at least a legitimate business.
Neither is fit for the office they seek, and the whole world knows it.
It does? Who elected you to speak on behalf of the world – or the world’s socialists for that matter? It looks like you emotionally appointed yourself the spokesman.
The most dangerous tyrannical nations in the world act like they believe the opposite. Facts don’t care about your emotional crisis over Trump.
Oliver your pronouncement Trump isn’t fit is the vacuous emotional hand wringing fake pronouncement of a Marxist Useful Idiot on display. One who claims to be fit to make such a determination while also determined to ignore the record of each of the three and compare them while they were in the White House.
One thing “you lot” from the neo-communist socialist side of the isle on either side of the pond never provide while posting your emotional socialist windging and whining about Trump is facts to go along with your tears. Emotion by itself is not enough.
You NEVER provide facts as to why you believe Trump’s presidency was a failure and which of his policies you believe were wrong. National and global security under Trump versus Obama and Biden, as one example.
I’s a fair guess to say you were of the crowd shrieking Trump would start a nuclear WWIII when president – but no wars started under him. Quite the opposite in fact.
With Trump in power Putin put a pause on invading Ukraine as he had done under Obama – with the UK government joining them in cowardice, also willingly reneging on having promised to come to Ukraine’s defense in exchange for surrendering their nukes. Terrified that Ukraine would have nukes… too terrified to stand against Putin in Ukraine’s defense as they promised.
That is, Putin paused until Trump was gone. And then with Biden and Obama’s policies back and their fellow cowards in the UK to consider, he invaded Ukraine a second time while Biden let him do it again. And the UK government, once again the Democrats fellow cowards, also reneged on their promise to come to Ukraine’s defense in a meaningful way a second time.
Now under Biden and the UK government, we have Putin not only invading again, but now threatening to use nukes as you believed Trump was a threat to do in office. Trump stopped that – you socialist lot here in America and the UK got it wrong both before and after Trump.
Iran’s Mad Mullahs were let out of their cage and enriched by eight years of Obama/Biden with the UK obediently going along with the program while both allowed Iran to continue terrorism and work towards nuclear weapons. Trump put them back in their cage and left without enough money to keep what weaponry they had functional instead of rusting,
Islamic global terrorism didn’t resume until Biden serving Obama’s Third Term let Iran out of the cage Trump put them in and lifted sanctions to allow others to sell them advanced weaponry and enrich themselves selling oil. Now we have the war in Israel and the Houthis screwing up the worlds’ shipping – while you socialist lot across the pond and here in America handcuff Israel and stand in their way of rooting out and exterminating the hajji Arab terrorists who vow to exterminate them.
Trump got it right. Obama, Biden, and your equally anti-Semitic lot across the pond got it wrong before Trump and you’re getting it wrong again after Trump.
Under Trump, there were the Abrahamic Accords between Israel and formerly adversarial states. First Middle East peace treaty in about 40 years. That was flourishing until Trump was gone. With Iran and their global terrorism, Trump got it right getting peace treaties between Israel and Muslim Arabic states that were isolating Iran’s Mad Mullahs. And now we have you socialist morons across the pond and here, caving to anti-Semitism and genocidal Muslim terrorists thinking you can get 7th century religious savages and terrorists to act like a civilized people. You’re getting it wrong – again.
The Chicoms paused their military aggression and expansion. And the DPRK paused their development of nuclear weapons – and ballistic missiles to deliver them. Now after Trump, both are back.
Once again Trump got it right. And you vacuous, emotionally driven socialist lot across the pond in the UK and at home here in America got it wrong.
Given your extensive, nay, brilliant, military career, rather than continually telling us Trump makes your emotions hurt… tell Americans how Trump got Putin, Iran and their global Islamic terrorism, the Chicoms, and the DPRK wrong. Tell us how at least you in the UK successfully dealt with it better working beside your partners Obama/Biden here in the USA either before or after Trump.
Waiting…
Excellent!
Can you upload a photo of your teeth to prove that you truly are British?
Yeah baby yeah!
Is ewvery report of infringements of individual liberty in the UK correct – certainly not.
I do not know whether the incidents you address are or are not – and you are not trustworthy so I can not rely on you.
That does not change the fact that the UJ has lost its way with respect to individual liberty and freedom of speech.
It does not change the fact that the greatest defender of individual liberty – Brit John Stuart Mill would be terrified by what you have done.
” they will absolutely attempt to hijack this thread today.”
And they will succeed, because several other, nominally sensible, commenters here completely lack the self-discipline to ignore such obvious attempts, and will contribute mightily to the disruption by attempting point-by-point rebuttals, no matter how long those might become, discounting the near certainty that the original troll will just sleazily adapt its talking points in order to continue the disruption thinly disguised as debate. The troll is truly an a$$, but its debaters, who have zero justification for not acknowledging the situation, and acting like they know better, are just as culpable in the disruption as it is.
The troll is truly an a$$, but its debaters, who have zero justification for not acknowledging the situation, and acting like they know better, are just as culpable in the disruption as it is.
Cowardly Anonymous trolls are either so bereft of intelligence that they can’t figure out what the button on their keyboard is for while scrolling through comments to move past those they don’t want to read.
Or they’re just one more of the other cowardly Anonymous trolls who hope they can post whatever outrageous comments and lies they want in hopes of others reading and hoping they have a point – and nobody will act on that sentiment “silence is consent”.
Maybe, it’s more than a binary choice for these Anonymous cowards… but there’s at least two options
Bezzer? I’m not familiar with that one. Could you define it for us (safely on a family site)?
“Could you define it for us ”
Loosely, “butt buddy”…
Best mate. Nothing sexual about it, despite Captain Anonymous’ sordid imagination below. A military and northern English term.
Why don’t they go after “far left wing extremism “?
Mr Brock was sentenced to prison for being a “right-wing extremist.” Meanwhile, his government is funding and arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine, and aiding a genocide by fanatical right-wing extremists in Israel. The ruling class never includes itself in its moralistic judgments.
Strange Nazi’s. A nation with no racial ideology led by a Jew with no extraterritorial ambitions with a military made up of Christians, Muslims and even Jews, Very strange indeed.
and aiding a genocide by fanatical right-wing extremists in Israel.
Ooohhhh…. there it is! The code word: ‘fanatical’… never once saw that posted describing Hamas terrorists, even in news media last October 7th. So strange… is it a dog whistle for specific people?
Israel is far, far more socialist than America, even during our terms under our powerful neo-communist Soviet Democrats Obama and Biden (weird how we never see them or their rage filled street thugs in Antifa and Black Liars & Marxists called “fanatical left-wing extremists”). The current governing coalition in Israel, going after the fanatical left-wing neo-Nazi anti-Semitic genocidal Arab terrorists of Hamas is made up of “fanatical left-wing Arab party extremists” as well as “fanatical right-wing party extremists”.
Maybe the presence of those “fanatical left-wing Arab party extremists” is what is handcuffing Israelis and making them the WORST genocidal nation in history.
Not because those genocidal Israelis instead, of ruthlessly slaughtering Arabs within their borders since 1948, grant those Arabs, citizenship, elect them to their governments, serving as judges and police officers, etc.
No, WORST genocidal nation ever because those incompetent genocidal Israelis, instead of systematically wiping out those Gaza Arabs (sometimes fictionally called ‘Palestinians’) from the safety of the air with aircraft and artillery, instead unnecessarily lose Pure Blood Jews, fighting house to house and building to building to kill them. In fact they have Arab field grade officers leading troops, including Arab troops, fighting and dying on the ground on Gaza in that genocide of their fellow Arabs. Why would they trust Arabs to efficiently carry out a genocide of Arabs?
The genocidal dummies even spare the Arabs in those buildings and houses who aren’t holding weapons. It’s genocide: they don’t know they should kill them instead?
Those genocidal dummies even take those fanatical left-wing extremist Arab Hamas terrorists prisoner when they surrender – rather than just shooting them out of hand on the spot. Just as the laws of warfare allow them to do. Now that’s some pretty poor genocide, right there. Especially when they know that inevitably fanatical left-wing extremist Arab terrorists will inevitably take Israelis hostage and demand they release those Arab terrorists to kill again if they want their Jewish hostages released alive.
You would think the genocidal Israelis should have learned something about genocide after surviving Hitler that our New Hitler Youth Movement in America embraces.
On the other hand, “Israeli genocide”, like “Israeli apartheid”, just might be dog whistle code words. They certainly are for the Soviet Democrats’ new identity politics groups, the New Hitler Youth Movement rampaging and rioting across American campuses, and assorted Israel/Jew hating American politicians like Ilhan Omar, Rashid Tlaib.
Probably code words for the odd anti-Semitic who dreams that Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran can finally wipe out the Jews after Hitler failed – just doesn’t want to be public about it and be associated with being one of the Soviet Democrats and their identity politics voters.
In short, we are in World War III, only its a civil war, and at the moment, it is also a cold one.
“ We recently discussed how the UK is already using recent rioting to crackdown further on those with opposing or “toxic” views.”
Those “toxic views” were inciting violence against immigrants and calling for the burning down of buildings. Thats not protected speech, even here. Turley always leaves out that particularly inconvenient fact. The rioting was being encouraged by racists and bigots using speech that is considered conduct in the UK. That’s their law. Not ours.
And the Nuremburg Laws were their laws, not ours…
Your argument is spurious
It really makes me furious
Your argument is specious
And you can eat my fecious.
You keep talking, Svelaz, but you can never provide data. Why not try answering basic questions instead of being the fool who, with his free speech rights, proves he is an idiot instead of leaving it open to question?
When the Ottoman Empire broke up, portions of the Middle East were divided into Mandates. Some of the major countries of the time each got a piece of land, which, under specific laws, was to be divided up to become nation-states. That is how many of the countries were created and the boundaries settled. Therefore, each country created worked under the same international rules.
What happened to the British Mandate?
S. Meyer, you’re deflecting. Is inciting violence protected speech, yes or no?
Svelaz, your question is stupid because you don’t realize that certain types of incitement are against the law and that free speech is protected in public places. You have the mind of an unintelligent 8-year-old.
Now, you can answer my question once again. You made many comments about this subject without demonstrating any knowledge. I don’t expect much knowledge from an unintelligent 8-year-old. Here is the question again.
When the Ottoman Empire broke up, portions of the Middle East were divided into Mandates. Some of the major countries of the time each got a piece of land, which, under specific laws, was to be divided up to become nation-states. That is how many of the countries were created and the boundaries settled. Therefore, each country created worked under the same international rules.
What happened to the British Mandate?
Those “toxic views” were inciting violence against immigrants and calling for the burning down of buildings.
Oh yeah… George is hoping that the ol’ George’s Memory Hole will work on everybody. The UK government reacts EXACTLY the same in enforcing laws against those he names as the victims when they’re at the core of violence, what they call “hate speech”, etc.
But still: touching that the same George who is enraged that third and fourth generation black American slaves weren’t “compassionately repatriated” after the Confederates lost their war to keep them as slaves, now has the same touching empathy for “immigrants of color”, many of whom are there the same way as our 30+ MILLION “undocumented immigrants of color” arrived here. 1.3 million of them in fact over the last two years.
There’s another one of those inconvenient facts that George ensures he leaves out, hoping that George’s Memory Hole will conceal that inconvenient fact from readers.
This is why George is a Cheap Fake Human.
The more important question is were these people always Communist or did they convert????????
“were these people always Communist or did they convert”
The enabling philosophy cited by such thugs is merely a convenient excuse for them, and a totally irrelevant diversion for the rest of us. The only important thing is to recognize their insatiable hunger for power over others, and their complete and total lack of moral and/or ethical scruples concerning what is required to gain that power.
A lot of people who want power are actually the opposite of what they claim.
* it’s coming to the point of —>who needs government when it’s factionalized.
The violence in the media is damaging. Television is rank blood and guts. Women are abused and children . Are those training films? Are movies and TV made for the depraved minds of criminals? Try some censorship in that schlock first.
The glass is 3/4 empty.
it is ABOUT THE MONEY
TAKE away the CENTRALIZED power of MONEY!
Localize government!
Reading your excellent book right now and have been a long time reader. You remain a voice of reason in an increasingly dangerous time. But I won’t be a hundred percent satisfied until I hear you call fascists “fascist.” They are and we need moderates to say so.
Tony Blair is part of the Globalist Elite, Davos, World Forum Economic Crowd who seek control and they Profit from their Elite status. Just look at his track record. Also, he shows up in conflict zones, Iraq, Ukraine etc. Now he is on the Globalist Elite/Davos/etc censorship drive?? and he will get $$$$$$$$$ for his work.
And the build in the United States is coming of the same actions against and for all citizens in the U.S. as what is occurring in Europe against their citizens.