When the Framers drafted the First Amendment, they did so in absolutist terms to allow no abridgment of the freedom of expression. The language was unprecedented and unqualified. While the courts have read various exceptions into that language, it was a recognition that censorship and speech criminalization have always been an impulse of those in power. Moreover, it can create an insatiable appetite where limiting speech in one area leads to demands in other areas. Democratic leaders have shown that tendency in recent years with an expanding anti-free speech agenda, but no one more embodies this danger than Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Continue reading “Pritzker’s Truth Police: How the Illinois Governor Made the Case Against the Trump Indictment”
Category: Politics
“The Bidens are the best at doing exactly what Chairman wants.” That WhatsApp message to a Chinese business associate was the perfect epitaph for the entire Biden corruption scandal. Part of the brilliance of the Biden influence peddling operation was to invest the media in the denial of any scandal. That is no more evident than the much discussed 2015 dinner of President Joe Biden with his son’s foreign associates. The alleged dinner demolished Joe Biden’s long denials of any knowledge of his son’s dealings. Accordingly, the Biden campaign denied he ever attended and the media happily dismissed the account. Well, the dinner meeting reportedly occurred, he attended, and, as usual, most of the media has not fully informed their readers or viewers. Indeed, even though Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates was central to this denial, most of the media cannot be bothered with such trivialities. Continue reading “Remember that Biden Dinner That Joe Biden Never Attended? Well, he did.”
Below is my column in the Daily Beast on the second federal indictment of former president Donald Trump. I remain deeply concerned over the implications of free speech from this prosecution. Indeed, the general dismissal of these concerns by legal experts shows how our current rage politics can blind us to dangers even to our own fundamental rights.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Yielding to Temptation: Jack Smith’s Indictment Seeks to Bag Donald Trump at any Cost”
President Joe Biden has been a regular recipient of “Pinocchios” by the Washington Post for his false statements on subjects ranging from election laws to abortion protections to deficit reduction. Biden is undeterred and regularly repeats false stories from his life that have ranged from an invented arrest with Nelson Mandela to a zombie-like train conductor. Undeterred, this week he continued with the false claim about the “Joey, Baby” conductor. Now, the President has a fresh set of “Four Pinocchios,” but the false claim is far more serious than inventing a conductor or rewriting the history of the Second Amendment. The Post is admitting that Biden has been lying about how his son Hunter never made money from China. It is the latest indication that the protective media wall surrounding Biden is beginning to crumble under the weight of new evidence in the corruption scandal. Continue reading ““Four Pinocchios”: The Washington Post Admits Biden Lied About Hunter Not Accepting Money from China”
The Bidens don’t gamble. That was the message from Hunter Biden in new emails released this week. As Hunter explained in an email to Devon Archer (who supplied damaging evidence this week to the House on the Biden influence peddling efforts): “I dont believe in lottery tickets anymore, but I do believe in the super chairman.” Continue reading “The Biden Lottery: New Evidence Shows Why Hunter Switched from Powerball to Influence Peddling”
For her entire life, Navy Joan Roberts has been “she who must not be named.” There is no evidence that her father has ever visited her, let alone held her. Her grandparents repeatedly denied her existence and said that they had only “four granddaughters.” They even gave their dogs stockings at Christmas rather than Navy, who never even bit one let alone a score of Secret Service agents. As even Democrats began to voice their own shock at the cruelty of the First Couple shunning this child, the Bidens finally relented and recognized her existence, but only barely so. They now admit that they have seven grandchildren and five (not four) granddaughters.
Below is my column in The Messenger on what I called Biden’s “break-the-glass” option after the disaster in Delaware. After the column ran, Fox News asked White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre about the possibility of a pardon. Jean-Pierre cut him off and responded unequivocally “no.” I hope that proves to be true but it would have been more assuring to come from someone who did not clearly misrepresent the President’s earlier denial just a day earlier and change his long-standing position. The President previously denied a series of facts that have been proven, including the fact that his son did make money in China and President Biden did have knowledge of (and interact with) his son’s business dealings. The real question is whether the fix in this case will fail and leave the President with the pardon option behind the glass.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Biden’s Break-The-Glass Option: Pardon Hunter and Withdraw from the 2024 Election”
I have previously written columns about the rising generation of censors in our country. After years of being told that free speech is harmful and dangerous, many young people are virtual speech phobics — demanding that opposing views be silenced as “triggering” or even forms of violence. Now a Pew poll shows just how much ground we have lost, including the emergence of the Democratic Party as a virulent anti-free speech party. Pew found that “Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are much more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to support the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online (70% vs. 39%).” Continue reading “Pew: Seventy Percent of Democrats and Democratic-Leaning Independents Support Speech Limits”
Hunter Biden‘s lawyers were accused last night of an ethical violation in misrepresenting their representation in the case. Jessica Bengels of Latham & Watkins, the head of the firm’s litigation group, is accused of lying to the court clerk in seeking to remove an amicus (or “friend of the court”) brief from access to the public. The clerk insisted that Bengels stated that she was representing the amicus, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, who filed the details on recent evidence showing a “sweetheart deal” behind the plea bargain. Continue reading ““Friends” with Benefits? Hunter Biden’s Team Accused of Ethical Violation Before Plea Hearing”
We previously discussed the controversy over President Biden’s prior German shepherd, Major, biting people at the White House. Now it appears that Major’s replacement, Commander, has continued to nosh on Secret Service agents. The question is not the responsibility of Commander but his master in this pattern of dog attacks. Continue reading “Master and Commander: What is the Liability for President Biden in the Latest Dog Attacks”
I suppose this represents progress in Washington. On “CNN News Central,” co-host John Berman actually asked a Democratic House member about the allegations against President Joe Biden. The response from Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.) captured the increasingly incomprehensible position of members as the evidence of corruption has mounted and implicated the President. Dean admitted that there are legitimate questions that should be answered but stressed that she does not have any herself. In other words, the public has a right to know, but I will not help them find out. Continue reading “Rep. Dean: There are Questions That Need to be Asked on the Biden Scandal But “I Don’t Have Any””
Below is my column in the New York Post on the last ditch effort of the members of Congress and the media to get the public to just “move on” from the Biden corruption scandal. The message has been clear and amplified, as former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) insisted on MSNBC, “Everybody needs to back off!” As evidence and public interest increase, it is a bit late for spin or shiny objects. This week, the scandal is likely to be even more serious for the Bidens and the country. The media is increasingly taking on the appearance of Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun yelling that there is “nothing to see here” in front of a virtual apocalyptic scene of fire and destruction.
Here is the column: Continue reading ““Nothing to See Here”: Members and the Media Panic as the Biden Scandal Mounts”
We have often discussed the embrace of censorship by the left and many Democratic politicians, including President Joe Biden. However, the most distressing aspect of this trend has been the support of many in the media. That erosion of support for free speech was on display this week in a tweet from a New York Times’ reporter. Sheryl Gay Stolberg said that this week’s effort by Democrats to censor Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “raised thorny questions” about whether misinformation is protected speech. The statement shows a breathtaking lack of understanding of the First Amendment as well as a lack of fealty for free speech values. There are no “thorny questions” over the censorship of this speech, because misinformation is unquestionably protected under the First Amendment.
When IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley and agent Joe Ziegler, testified this week, most honest observers were impressed by how they stuck to the details and the facts of their investigation. Even in friendly questioning, they refused to make judgments about motivations or conclusions. They were two of the most credible witnesses that I have seen on the hill. They were also the prototypical whistleblowers, civil servants who tried to raise concerns over special treatment and political interference internally and only came to Congress after all such efforts failed. They were then both allegedly retaliated against by the Biden Administration. Yet, in its coverage, NBC referred to the men as “so called whistleblowers.” That was not the disparaging description given other such witnesses, including figures in the Trump impeachment. They were just “whistleblowers” or “respected public servants.”
Rhode Island state senator was ordered to pay restitution after he keyed a SUV with an anti-Biden sticker and then lied to police. While the sentence is fairly standard, it seems a tad light in this particular case. Sen. Joshua Miller lied to police and holds a position of public trust. The expungement of the crime is particularly unfortunate given the role of a leading politician in politically motivated property destruction.