Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee this weekend went on MSNBC’s “Last Word” and called for the arrest of Elon Musk for “undermining” the federal government by sharing his opinions on X.
McNamee is the latest denizen of the global elite to call for criminalizing speech to silence those with opposing views.McNamee is the founding partner of Elevation Partners and has a colorful history as a band member, a volunteer for Eugene McCarthy and a protester against Vietnam.
As discussed in my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage”, he is like many liberal baby boomers now joining the anti-free speech movement. They have decided that free speech, once the defining right for the left, is now an existential threat.
McNamee’s rationale for criminalizing speech is chillingly shallow and irrational. He declared that somehow Musk’s political views made him a danger as the head of companies of major importance to the United States. It does not bother him when CEOs adopt far left views, just Musk opposing some of those views:
“You have somebody who runs a really strategic defense and aerospace projects for the federal government who’s actively undermining the government that’s paying him. And somewhere in that is a legal case that needs to be prosecuted.”
Perish the thought that a CEO might undermine the government.
McNamee is using the government contracts with SpaceX as a reason to censor Musk’s political and social views.
“The critical element in thinking about Elon Musk is that, like any American, he has a right to his own opinion, and he has a right to express his opinion. However, that right is not unlimited. He is under some special limitations that would not apply to normal people because his company, specifically Starlink and SpaceX are government contractors and, as such, he has obligations to the government that would, for any normal person, and should for him, require him to moderate his speech in the interest of national security.”
So, according to McNamee, if your company makes something that the government wants (including rescuing the currently stranded astronauts in space), he must give up his right to express political views, including against censorship.
McNamee embraces the power of the government to dictate viewpoints or at least silence certain views as a matter of national security. It is no accident that the overriding objective is to “get Musk.” Musk has proven the single greatest barrier to the global anti-free speech movement.
As with the effort in Brazil to block X entirely for refusing to censor political opponents of the government, McNamee’s call for state-driven 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.
What is most striking about these efforts is that they occurred after the failure of Plan A: to get Americans to embrace censorship. Facebook even ran a creepy campaign to try to get young people to accept censorship, or “content moderation.”
The commercials show people like “Joshan” who says that he “grew up with the internet.” Joshan mocks how much computers have changed and then objects how privacy and censorship have not evolved as much as our technology. As Joshan calls for “the blending of the real world and the internet world,” content moderation is presented as part of this not-so-brave new world.
Joshan and his equally eager colleagues Chava and Adam were presented by Facebook as the shiny happy faces of young people longing to be content modified. They were all born in 1996 — the sweet spot for censors who saw young people as allies to reduce free speech.
It did not work. Despite some erosion of free speech among young people, it takes a great deal to get a free people to give up their freedoms. Plan B is now to accomplish this objective of speech controls through national and global regulation. Figures like McNamee and Bill Gates are ready to support this brave new world of speech regulation by global censors.
While claiming unprecedented threats from “disinformation,” these are the same voices and rationales discussed in my book that have been used for centuries to limit the speech of others. They are selling the same defective product with the promise that less freedom will lead to a better life.
For global elites like McNamee, free speech is not just dispensable but distracting. Only fools would listen to these voices in trading away our indispensable right.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Boy, Even the Men in the Democrat Party Are Women. https://shorturl.at/uCU8Z
Roger McNamee raises a more important issue.
How much money is being paid to companies by the Federal Government to spy on its citizens.
Does Roger McNamee mean that these companies are not telling the American citizens about what they are doing for the good of the government, because “government knows best”?
Wouldn’t you like to know how much the government pays companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Verizon, Comcast, Amazon etc., and what they do for that money?
As the founding partner of Elevation Partners, which prior to co-founding the firm, McNamee co-founded private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and headed the T. Rowe Price Science and Technology Fund.
I’d say it’s entirely possible he’s in business competition with Musk. Follow the money.
Bono, who is the Former Managing Director of Elevation Partners, is also a cofounder of The Rise Fund, a global social impact fund established in 2016 which invests in seven sectors aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Can you say “Globalist Elitists!”
Yes, the government contractors
Government may not pay a third party to do what it is not allowed to do itself.
As a separate matter – with extremely rare exceptions – everything that is done ACTUALLY privately – is private – Government has no right to spy on companies or individuals or demand or even buy information from them. Conversely with very few exceptions almost everything government does MUST be transparent – open to the public. Government has powers NOT rights. Government has no right to privacy.
Well said, John
The litmus test for free speech is Trump, who’s verbal diarrhea of lies has drenched every nook and cranny of American life and if he loses, he is calling for the arrest and imprisonment of anyone prominently involved in election activities he deems goes against him.
I guess if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. I have never had any discussions about my sons business dealings. CoVID came from a wet market.
If you take the mRNA vaccine you will not catch or convey COVID 19 virus. Kamala wants to build the wall. There are more than two genders.
Go to your room and think on your sins.
Trump tells more lies in 5 minutes than other politicians do in 4 years. You may not think you’re an idiot but everyone knows you are.
Talk about verbal diarrhea of lies! The Russia hoax was just one example of that, but because the Communist, (formally the Democratic party) were the ones spewing it, it is somehow ok. I guess when Republicans speak the truth, it must be silenced quickly, and it must be censored!
Russian interference in the election was not a hoax. Trump claimed exoneration when McConnell killed the investigation in the senate. The only people who believe it was a hoax are Trumptards.
The litmus test for free speech is Trump, who’s verbal diarrhea of lies has drenched every nook and cranny of American life
I see you attempting to win with your hand of BBBBUUUTTTT…. MUH TRUMP!!!, and raise you the 12 years of Obama, Biden, Clinton, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, Shytty Schiff and every single Soviet Democrat spewing so much lying shyte about Trump out of their mouths that their anuses looked upward in admiration and jealousy.
Let’s start with the now FIVE YEARS of “Russia Dossier” lies – the illegally created and paid for Soviet Democrat insurrection file meant to first steal an election, and then bring down a presidency when it failed to prevent Trump winning.
Then we can move on to other genius moves like the Biden Bribery Laptop being “just Russian election disinformation”.
All the way back to ALL of them pushing Obamacare, long before Trump ever ran for office: “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” – and the average American family will save $2,500 a year.
he is calling for the arrest and imprisonment of anyone prominently involved in Democrat election fraud activities
How DARE Trump insist that already existing laws concerning illegal voting by Illegal Aliens or anybody else must be enforced!
If Anonymous commies don’t engage in illegal voting or act as an accessory to those illegally voting, they have nothing to worry about.
Moronic comeback. Trump said this weekend that kids go to school and return home in the afternoon with a sex change, ad wonder “what happened!” Not only is that a brazen lie it’s something someone with dementia would say.
While no one trusts YOU – especially with respect to claims regarding Trump, you have been caught lying so many times.
Regardless, Trump can call for the arrest of anyone for any reason. What he can NOT do is as president violate the constitution in ACTUALLY investigating and arresting and prosecuting people.
As a prior candidate for president – he called for lots of arrests and censorship. As the 45th president he did NOT investigate, arrest or prosecute anyone without a proper constitutional basis to do so.
The same can not be said for the 44th and 46th presidents of the United states.
If you beleive you heard Trump say that he would do something unconstitutional – do not vote for him.
That is your right.
But Trump is as free to say both the things you think he said as well as those he actually said.
In fact he is free to say things far worse.
ProHamas protestors are calling for genocide. They are free advocate for genocide. They are not free to Actually commit genocidal acts.
Trump is not the litmus test for Free speech – actual Nazi’s are, ProHamas protestors are, People burning flags are. People who say unbeleivably offensive things are.
The CRITICAL right to free speech REQUIRES that they be allowed to do so.
I know this is hard for left wing nuts to grasp but Free speech is a requirement for a free society and a free society is a requirement for rising standard of living.
Grab them by the pussy.
Grab them by the pussy.
Vote for the man with two pervert, drug addict children, particularly the female child who wrote about nightly Daddy-Daughter Inappropriate Incest Showers
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
John Stuart Mill.
“You have not converted a man because you have silenced him”
The only people subject to changing their minds are people who engage in thought when they get new information. Which explains the inverse: Trump supporters who ignore his ridiculous statements which sound like someone who’s mentally ill.
We had a chance to get Nikki in there. She just wasn’t ‘tard enough for the base.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Don’t worry. Trump won’t win. He’s a convicted felon. He’ll be in prison by 2026.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
* so what’s your point?
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”
When government fails to secure our rights. When it loses our Trust, it is our right to alter or abolish it.
The purpose of elections is to obtain the consent of the governed – without that – government is not legitimate.
Elections are conducted lawfully – because otherwise they do not bestow the consent of the governed and government is not legitimate.
While 2020 was not conducted lawfully, lawfully alone is NOT sufficient.
The left jumps up and down and demands that elections are easy, convenient, impose no burden on the electorate.
But efforts to accomplish that that undermine the trust of the people – whether accomplished lawfully or not, mean that the election does NOT convey the consent of the governed – and the government is not legitimate.
In 2020 polls have between 45% and 66% of people beleiving that there was serious election misconduct in some form.
While again – election laws were not followed, it is worse than that. What is most important is that the election did not assure the consent and trust of the people.
Myriads of people NOT part of government lied about the Hunter Biden Laptop to get Biden elected. That is legal, but it also undermines the trust of the people in the election and in government. Therefore the government is not legitimate.
Those of you on the left do not seem to grasp the importance of truth in what you do.
You have ranted and ranted about Trump’s lies – but the FACT is that the overwhelming majority of people TRUST trump.
That does NOT mean they agree with him. It just means they know he will do most of what he says in some form. he may make inaccurate predictions, he may exagerate – but he does NOT outright lie.
But those of you on the left LIE all the time. As a result few trust you. Without trust you are not fit to govern. Withoput trust – even if you win an election you have NOT secured the consent of the governed.
The declaration of independence is significant because it is THE moral argument for VIOLENCE against government.
The declaration of independence is the moral and “law of nations” argument for using violence to overthrow government.
We are not there yet – though the left falsely believes Republicans reached that point on J6 – if that were true, if that were a “Right of the people to altrer and abolish it” moment – the J6 protestors would have come with tens of thousands of AR15’s and Trump would be president.
But they did not. There was no “insurrection” – claiming their was is ludicrously stupid left wing nut word games.
But there WAS a protest against an election that did not convey “the consent of the governed” and therefor Congress should NOT have certified that election.
“We are not there yet”
We will need to carefully reassess how near we are to that breaking point in the months following this election.
Very well stated John, it’s been going on far longer than the 2020 election cycle. Nothing will transpire until the masses directly suffer economic carnage.
“While 2020 was not conducted lawfully, lawfully alone is NOT sufficient.”
Because you are mentally ill, you should get help.
Hear, hear, John Say.
George has nothing on his mind this morning (less than usual at least), that he served up a long copy and paste that anybody other than Soviet Democrats and cowardly Anonymous Marxists is already well aware of.
It’s a magnificent document although our resident Democrats and Marxists disagree.
So what’s your point in how this relates to this column today?
Trump lied about the 2020 election then called for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
The traitors who support Trump need to be treated like communists in the 1950s.
Xi Van Fleet
@XVanFleet
On this day in 1976, Mao died, marking the end of the decade-long Chinese Cultural Revolution that destroyed China and its civilization.
Decades later, Maoism found a fertile soil in America and sparked a Woke Cultural Revolution in America threatening to destroy America and the western civilization!
We must defeat Communism and save our Republic!
https://x.com/XVanFleet/status/1833181118931038367
Interesting individual on many levels and full of contradictions. Protested Viet Nam at 12 but objects to Elon Musk having the same free speech, Ba from Yale in History and MBA from Dartmouth but pushes hard driving Anti Trust actions under Biden (would wonder if he even cared about anti – trust until he got very wealthy), Invested in Facebook yrs ago and then wants a monitor on them now to make sure, I suppose, that they don’t stray. Father an investment banker, and mother was a feminist in the 1960’s. Born, raised and indoctrinated in the northeast.
Too young to be an SDS militant like what I saw in the 1960’s. Many were smart and well off but crazy as loons. Some got better while others died of what they injected. I am not sure whether this guy has multiple talents or is just manic.
Taking political advice from this guy would be like asking for investment and business advice from a doctor.
Being a doctor myself I can tell you that doctors have been notoriously awful at making investment and business decisions by themselves. A few are very capable but I stress “very few”. The best hire a pro.
And people wonder how the left wing has moved so well into Business. I think you see an example right here.
We are in for a 7 weeks of news ‘diversions’, The Sky will be falling and We’re all gonna die. So hold on to your pantyhose Ladies
Hunter Biden wanted an Alford plea. What’s that?
“Seeing an Alford plea in the Central District is like finding the golden ticket: It rarely, if ever, happens,” said John Hanusz, a former deputy federal defender.
Hunter Biden showed up on the eve of his tax evasion trial Thursday morning and offered to enter an Alford plea, a rarely used mechanism that allows a defendant to acknowledge prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of the charges he faces, but also to deny any guilt.
By: David Houston, Editor-in-Chief – .DailyJournal.com ~ Sep. 9, 2024
Hunter Biden finally goes down for the guilty counts — but aborted trial still taints White House
No matter what the White House says, everyone believes Joe Biden will pardon his son Hunter and spare him significant jail time, after his guilty plea to felony tax crimes last week, on top of his felony gun conviction in June.
By: Miranda Devine ~ Sep. 8, 2024
https://nypost.com/2024/09/08/opinion/hunter-biden-finally-goes-down-for-the-guilty-counts-but-aborted-trial-still-taints-white-house/
Hunter Biden’s Air of Entitlement
Bowing to overwhelming evidence and political reality, Hunter Biden finally pleaded guilty to tax charges on the day his trial was to begin with jury selection in Los Angeles federal court.
Even now, already scheduled for sentencing for federal firearms felonies of which a Delaware jury found him guilty, the president’s 54-year-old son exhibited the haughty air of entitlement that has marked his adult life and disastrous choices.
By: The Editors – .National Review ~ September 6, 2024
[Link] nationalreview.com/2024/09/hunter-bidens-air-of-entitlement/
Link:
Hunter Biden wanted an Alford plea. What’s that?
By: David Houston, Editor-in-Chief – .DailyJournal.com ~ Sep. 9, 2024
https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/380857-hunter-biden-wanted-an-alford-plea-what-s-that
But there’s hope…
“Having Solved Climate Change, Greta Thunberg Turns Attention To Middle East Peace”
World · May 10, 2024 · BabylonBee.com
https://babylonbee.com/news/having-solved-climate-change-greta-thunberg-turns-attention-to-middle-east-peace
“the president’s 54-year-old son exhibited the haughty air of entitlement that has marked his adult life and disastrous choices.”
And why wouldn’t this smarm be be arrogant? It’s fully justified by reality, since there is ZERO chance that his father won’t pardon him on all charges before he leaves office (my guess is as soon as Election Day is over). His only fear would be that Dad croaks off in the meantime, and, in that event, Kamala Toe would probably do the deed anyway.
Another poster said the other day they appreciate the blog but wouldn’t be satisfied until we call the modern left what they are: fascists. I agree. This is absurd, and you’d better believe Musk was the darling of the left until he decided to go off-script.
I have posted it many times before, but something as seemingly stupid and trivial as Musk buying Twitter quite literally saved us. We would have been steamrolled by leftist fascism by now had he not. Do NOT underestimate the threat, or the depths to which the modern left will sink to to hold onto power when this is the reaction to a social media platform on which people are very simply, as granted by our Constitution without any caveats, allowed to speak freely. Somehow JFK dems have become the biggest threat to freedom our country has ever faced, because they are largely better off and don’t pay attention, and that is some serious irony. You all may have been rebels when you were a teenager and nothing regarding your personal well-being was actually on the line; now you are the biggest hypocrites the Western world has seen in quite some time. I respect our Constitution; I never respected the hippies, and now I see that was for good reason. You are a supremely ignorant and privileged lot, and the rest of us are not going to let you drag us into h*ll.
“…you’d better believe Musk was the darling of the left until he decided to go off-script.” Indeed. Just like when Trump was the darling of the left (and right) when he was donating his dollar$$ to their political campaign. Then, he had the nerve to run against them all and (gasp!) win. Oh, the humanity!
It seems that what we may be seeing is some sort of internecine warfare among the ultra-rich techno-elite. The following quote makes the point succinctly:
“The new de-facto shadow president that will be selected in 2024 is either old elite Mark Zuckerberg or new elite Elon Musk.” Wayne Lusvardi
It appears the McNamee/Bezos contingent is willing to say, do and spend what ever is necessary to get their chosen candidate elected, but seem to believe that Musk should not be allowed to do the same.
Hypocrites all. Pick your poison.
This is not dissimilar to the megalomaniacal, power-hungry, and criminally psychotic communists in Peking subjugating and impeding the goose that laid the golden egg, Hong Kong.
Counterproductive – Counterintuitive
When an ‘R’ is in power, many liberals have bumper stickers saying “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” and “Question authority.” When the Left is in power (like now), those bumper stickers suddenly disappear. I haven’t seen either bumper sticker since the 2020 election.
In the Vietnam War days, Roger McNamee’s favored apparatchiks were out of power, now they’re in power. That is the reason for his 180-degree turnaround on free speech. The phrase “nitwit cry-bully” comes to mind.
All’s fair in lust and abortion. Then everything makes sense of their nonsense.
Repeal the 19th Amendment.
This reminds me…
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.
-Herbert Hoover
Authoritarians subscribe to the Pro-Choice ethical religion: selective and opportunistic. They ride the democratic wave to reach its duality in dictatorship.
Roger is a fascist. Fortunately for him the US does not imprison people for anti-democratic thoughts.
I think it’s pathetic that a former Vietnam War protester would object to someone utilizing his right of free speech that is contrary to the government’s ideas.
Talk about a real turn-around!
The far left, Stalinists, New Left, and others use our freedoms to fracture the nation and its culture, but then, instead of supporting free speech, deny it to others when they are in power. That was their mechanism during the Vietnam War and is the same today.
Its not just Elon Musk but physicians – scientists – researchers also get targeted for offering differing opinions
The Scientific Establishment Is Turning ‘Science’ Into a Dogmatic Tool of Oppression
By Jay Bhattacharya & Bryce Nickels
Professor of Health Policy at Stanford Medical School; Professor of Genetics at Rutgers University
The COVID era has been difficult for scientists whose ideas run against the grain of powerful scientific and government bureaucracies. Even for university scientists with unblemished reputations in the before times, the price of speaking up has been vilification by social media companies, the media, and, unfortunately, even scientific journals and our fellow scientists. It is a wonder that any scientists dared to speak out, with only their commitment to the truth as a reason to do so.
https://www.newsweek.com/scientific-establishment-turning-science-dogmatic-tool-oppression-opinion-1949865
Add MacNamee to the list
For his work on strategic defense and aerospace projects, it is [not] the government that’s paying Elon Musk. It’s the American taxpayers. And he is not “undermining the government”, but instead doing what a wealthy and privileged Roger McNamee should be doing by holding it accountable to American taxpayers.
* Not everyone pays taxes. Do you mean voters? With or without principles? Which principles?
I of course mean taxpayers. Government has no money to pay anyone but for the money it forcibly extracts from productive people. What it doesn’t extract it borrows and what it doesn’t borrow it prints. The former puts economic hardship on future generations of Americans to repay, and the latter causes inflation that afflicts all Americans present and future.
Boom!
Those that don’t pay taxes are typically the recipients of benefits from those that do!
* boom, do they vote? Higher taxes? I get it…
The reason this sort of thing is happening more and more is because we have too many twits in this country who think, “Oh, that’s ok. No big deal.” These idiots have no idea what it’s like to actually be tyrannized by a corrupt (Biden crime family), decadent (men menstruate?), and inept state ($34 trillion in federal debt).
Murdering Elon Musk in prison is certainly thinkable with that level of voter incompetence. I hope I’m wrong, but I haven’t been wrong lately.
“I’m sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we’re Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
* Well, they got it all wrong. “They” the electorate was in the majority and the government represents that. The minority must accept their rulership. It’s twisted thinking. It’s without principles.
It’s like murder. Not everyone agrees murder is unprincipled. It’s all acceptable now. Murder is good if I benefit.
No one really “gets” it…
MacNamee would benefit from learning about what happened to the Old Bolsheviks in Stalin’s Great Purge. And to Lin Piao and hundreds of other veterans of the Long March when Mao initiated the Great Cultural Revolution. And Ernst Roehm in Hitler’s Night of the Long Knives.
He is quite expendable once the key forces consolidate power.