Tag Archives: Free Speech

A President Keeps His Promises

By Rob Meyne

  • Jan. 26, 2025
  • 4- min read

As political commentators, reporters, and average people see President Trump taking quick action to turn the country around, their sense of astonishment and incredulity is palpable. Many talking heads could be seen literally speechless, their mouths hanging open, as they try to process the reality that President Trump is actually doing the things he said he would.

It does not say good things about our nation that people are surprised when politicians don’t lie. Usually, you can tell they are lying just by noting whether their lips are moving.

The corporate media, leftists, and anti-Trumpers have pushed some “Big Lies” for so long that many Americans take them as gospel. Among the accusations is that Donald Trump is somehow less honest than his predecessors and peers. It is crap. And it always has been.

Biden lied more before breakfast (which for him was about noon) than Trump does all day. The issue isn’t whether Trump ever prevaricates – he is human, and humans lie – but whether he does so regarding issues of greater import, or does so more often, than the presidents to whom we have become accustomed.

Perhaps even more importantly, the whole federal government has demonstrated, repeatedly, that you can’t believe them. If the government says something is true it doesn’t necessarily prove it isn’t, but it does move it to the top of the list of things you’d better verify for yourself.

Lying by government has become the raison d’etre of their existence. The priorities for today’s bureaucracies are, first, to preserve their jobs and expand their power. The second, concomitant justification for their existence is to promote the prevailing public narrative, as promoted by the top executive currently in power, to curry favor from them. If you agree you get pats on the head, raises, bigger budgets, and promotions. Virtually the entire federal government does not primarily exist to serve the people; it exists to protect their jobs.

When an EPA scientist or NOAA official looks at global warming/climate chance, what do you think they find? Of course! They say climate change is bad, it is getting worse, and we must give the government more of our money and our freedom. It is like asking a corrupt mechanic if you need your can repaired. You’ll be lucky if they say all you need is an oil change, and not a completely new transmission!

One of President Trump’s first Executive Orders was to stop the continuing, widespread government censorship of individuals and organizations in the guise of fighting disinformation. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the only accurate definition of disinformation is that it is information of which the government doesn’t approve. Disinformation is often true, but the folks in charge don’t like it. And government is the biggest source of disinformation, by far.

The CDC told us Ivermectin doesn’t help fight COVID, then later admitted it does. They laughed at people who endorsed it, calling it a horse dewormer (it is one of the most widely prescribed human drugs). How many lives might have been saved if they had told the truth? We’ll never know. But it is inarguable that there is human blood on the hands of the people who suppressed the truth, among them Biden and Anthony Fauci. No wonder Biden pardoned Fauci.

Governmental falsehoods about the effectiveness of masks or the safety of “vaccines” were also damaging. Lives have been lost because bureaucrats lied. The incidence of heart problems has grown dramatically among Americans because of the use of untested vaccines.

Note: none of the COVID vaccines have been fully tested and approved by the FDA. None. Not. One. They are approved only for emergency use.

We’ll be looking at some of President Trump’s most important Executive Orders in the weeks to come. For now, it strikes us that none may be more important than the effort to stop government censorship. Every autocratic, dictatorial, and fascist regime in world history depended on censorship to preserve its power. The U. S. government has itself gone too far down that road, and we hope and pray that the new Administration will be able to reverse that sad trend.

The American people deserve to hear the truth. And, yes, the truth shall make you free.

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America’s Stasi Must Go

By Rob Meyne

  • Dec. 20, 2024
  • 4-min read

We want an FBI that is accountable, not independent.

Kash Patel lives here (Las Vegas, NV), we have met him a couple of times (we’re even FB friends), we have friends in common, and he will be exactly what is needed as Director of the FBI.

If you’ve been following the decline of the once-admirable law enforcement agency, you realize that Chris Wray and his sycophants have turned it into a threat to the nation they are supposed to serve.

Wray has covered up and withheld information from the public and Congress. He has ignored crimes committed by leftist protestors, such as the assault on the White House where a ton of police were injured, or the illegal harassment of SCOTUS justices. Yet he has prosecuted about a thousand people for their activities January 6, a majority of whom hurt no one and damaged no property.

Yes, anyone who attacked a police officer or broke a window deserves to be prosecuted. Grandmothers who simply walked around the lawn do not.

The FBI also claims it doesn’t know who brought cocaine into the White House, who built the gallows that were on the Capitol lawn January 6, who placed pipe bombs, or who leaked the SCOTUS decision on abortion. This just in: they are lying, or, alternatively, incompetent. In either case, they need to go.

The FBI denied for four years that they had operatives in the crowd on January 6, 2021. Now, they admit they did. They had more than 20 “Confidential Human” sources there. They play word games and try to conceal the truth by saying they didn’t have undercover agents in the crowd. Who cares what they call them? They had FBI employees undercover. And it is likely the Capitol Police, CIA, Secret Service, NSA, Homeland Security, etc., had people there too.

THAT is what an unaccountable FBI looks like. It is a threat to our freedom and the republic itself. The Chris Wray FBI would fit in perfectly in Iran. Not in the U.S.

Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in July. They have released almost no information about the shooter. Why? Probably because it shows he cooperated with either foreign actors or domestic agencies. If he was a lone shooter, a nut, a whacko who just tried to shoot Trump, you would know all about him.

If he was a right-wing terrorist and racist you’d know everything from his blood type to what size shirt he wore. They even cremated the shooter’s body three days after the assassination attempt, thus destroying key evidence. The only reason to rush the cremation was to cover up something.

Most importantly, don’t buy the BS that the FBI is supposed to be an independent agency. That is simply untrue. People who say that are either uninformed or intentionally misleading.

ALL of government is intended to be accountable to elected officials and ultimately the voters. The FBI isn’t supposed to be free of accountability and influence from the voters any more than the Social Security Administration, the Pentagon, or the Senate staff. ALL of government is intended to be managed and controlled by elected officials who are themselves accountable to citizens.

Like the idea of an “independent” FBI? How did independent police forces work out in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Kampuchea/Cambodia, or Iran? Do you want to live in fear that an unmoored FBI might knock on your door at 2 AM and drag you off to jail? That is what you get with an FBI that reports to no one. That is what we have now, actually. Do you like that? Neither do I.

Under Biden, the FBI has functioned as a political force pursuing and supporting Biden’s political goals. That is wrong. Biden is the first president to ever use all of the available judicial and police resources in a coordinated effort to keep his political opponents off the ballot and in jail. Fortunately, the effort has failed. The American people know the charges against Trump would not have been brought against anyone else. Their cases have all fallen apart, and the people pursuing them – like Fani Willis in Atlanta – have proven to be corrupt and immoral trash.

Fortunately, most Americans saw through it. Everyone who isn’t a leftist/socialist/anti-Trumper recognizes bias and incompetence when they see it.

And, yes, quite a few people who thought they would ever vote for Trump, for anything, realized he was the better choice in 2024.

America has rejected the police state tactics of Biden and Harris. Trump has pledged to put people in charge – people like Kash Patel – who won’t let it happen again.

Rather than being a threat to our republic, Trump is poised to be the person who saves it.

Our duty is to hold Trump and his team accountable for doing the things they said they will. For the first time in at least four years, we have a president who publicly acknowledges the freedoms we have lost and is committed to restoring them.

Thank God.

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In the Weirdest Campaign On Record, the Best Decision is Still Obvious

By Rob Meyne

  • Oct. 30, 2024
  • 5-min read

The campaign has entered its last week. One certainty is that historians, if there are any left allowed to think and speak freely, will look back at this as perhaps the most extraordinary American presidential election.

The party in power spent more than three years claiming their president was mentally competent and up to the job. They argued, in contradiction of all evidence, that Joe Biden was fit, energetic, quick, and logical. The completely worthless Joe Scarborough wanted us to believe that Biden did cartwheels down the hallways in the West Wing, while juggling chainsaws, translating the Washington Post into Aramaic, and calculating the square root of Pi in his head.

It was like everyone in the media and the Party claimed Jabba the Hut wasn’t really overweight. When Biden’s senescence became too clear to deny, in the June debate, they decided he had to go. It always strains credibility when someone who has been claiming one thing is true for years on end suddenly switches their story completely. “Joe’s just fine” became “he has to go.”

Notably, the furor within the Democrat Party revealed a lot about their priorities. The discussion from their leaders was entirely about how Biden’s frailty affected their campaign. Not one person in Democrat leadership ever spoke about the good of the nation. Not one leader ever made a substantial argument that Biden had to leave because it was risky for America, and the world, to have an incompetent person, non-compos menses, with his finger on the nuclear button.

No. They only had to shoot Biden because he would have trouble winning the campaign. They cared about their power, but not the nation’s well-being. As the Democrats claim they are only concerned about preserving democracy, that is worth remembering.

Biden, the candidate who won the open Democrat primary process, receiving 14 million votes, was unceremoniously tossed aside by a self-appointed elite group of Democrat leaders and their billionaire donors. The American leftist oligarchy didn’t even cling to a pretense of openness or fairness. They installed in the presidential race a woman who has never received a single vote for the presidency.

Nor has she distinguished herself professionally. When choosing her, Biden didn’t ever claim she was best qualified to be president. He said he selected her primarily based on her sex and race, rather than on merit. He said it. Believe him.

Then, she spent four years in the vice presidency earning notoriety only for her failure to achieve anything related to two subject areas of which she was in charge: bringing broadband to rural America and securing the border. She is without accomplishments in these or any other discernible areas.

Harris is running as BOTH the proud owner of the four years of the Biden-Harris Administration AND the person who represents change. It is like having El Chapo encourage you to go to rehab. It makes zero sense.

Donald Trump has, to the chagrin of a lot of former Republicans and Republicans in Name Only (RINOs), dominated the GOP for a decade. He is the most unlikely of conservative leaders and not someone whose appeal to the working man is easily explained. I guess if millionaires like Obama can lecture us that too many Americans are rich, Trump can appeal to the average voter in Terre Haute. We find our heroes where we can.

Another oddity from 2024 is the GOP nominee has been the target of two, “count ‘em,” two, assassination attempts, being shot in one and narrowly escaping the other. The FBI, Secret Service, and DOJ continue to tarnish their reputations through incompetence on the job and cover-ups and lies to Congress and the public.

If you believe anything the FBI tells you, at this point, you probably think Ed McMahon is still going to send you a sweepstakes check. The FBI has released little information about the assassin in PA, even though the dribs and drabs that have come out raise more questions than they answer.

As it stands, we are to believe that a 20-year-old punk, with no formal training, was able to construct explosive devices, operate encrypted phones, elude the most prominent executive protection service on the planet, and kill a bystander while almost killing, and injuring, a former president. All this more easily than you could get Hillary to take a bribe.

Trump’s record as president is sterling compared to Harris/Biden. No reasonable person would look at the economic, crime, immigration, health, drug, or foreign policy landscape and say, “at least it is better than under Trump.” You cannot factually make a reasonable argument for Harris over Trump. It can’t be done.

All you can do is pile on top of Trump’s existing flaws, real and imagined, and claim they disqualify him from consideration. Trump has deficiencies, certainly, but so does Harris. One must willfully ignore Harris’s record, positions, and foibles to argue that her opponent’s flaws make her the better choice.

No competitive election is ever a choice where only one side should be evaluated. Logical and factual electoral choices are made in the context of the alternatives. If they are not made that way, they are not logical or informed. Anyone who says they must vote against Trump regardless of the other option is not making an intelligent decision. That simple.

This year will answer the question of whether an incumbent president or VP of the following description can win the presidency: they have a dismal track record, no significant achievements, issue positions most Americans abhor, aren’t capable of doing mainstream interviews, and refuse to even hold a press conference.

Having spent her entire service as VP trashing half of America, and suggesting that anyone who raises information that is inconvenient to them should be censored, Harris is not credible presenting herself as a unifier.

As America has learned more about Harris, we have found there is very little “there” there. She is like a glass onion; every layer that is pulled away reveals more of the vacuity of her core.
There is a better alternative to Harris. There is not a perfect one, just one that is clearly preferable for the nation.

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Democrats Depend on Monolithic Support from Minorities and Illegals

By Rob Meyne

  • Oct. 29, 2024
  • 4-min read

Almost everyone likes to say we need to keep politics out of one thing or another. Which is certainly a nice sentiment. Rainbows and unicorns would be nice, too, but they aren’t reality.

It is good to operate in the real world. The truth is that all the major decisions that determine the circumstances of life are political. If you recall your political science, politics has been defined as the authoritative allocation of goods and services. In other words, what happens in our society is directed or at least affected by the laws, regulations, and mores under which we operate.

Every rule imposed on us that is enforceable by a court is provided by the political process. Even the decisions we feel like we control – what to eat, where to go to school, or how much to exercise – are made within societal and governmental guidelines that limit us or empower us, as the case may be.

That is, basically, why this author is a conservative. Which means voting Republican more often than not.

Nothing in the Democrat Party agenda makes us freer. It all makes government more powerful and richer. Think if you can come up with even a single component of the Harris campaign that makes government less rich, powerful, and coercive. Just. One. We won’t hold our breath.

The border is a disaster today completely because of political acts. On taking office, Biden and Harris reversed about 90 executive orders put in place by President Trump. Trump’s policies, including “remain in Mexico,” led to a more stable border with fewer Illegal crossings. And violent crimes committed by people who didn’t come here legally were fewer.

If the border is a humanitarian crisis, it is one that was created intentionally. Even Democrat House leaders and former presidents admit it. Representative Jerry Nadler, President Bill Clinton, and others don’t even bother to deny it.

Of course this is not a revelation to anyone who pays attention. Democrats wanted this crisis and made it happen. Why? They want the workers, the new voters, and the political power.

The border under Biden and Harris was deliberately opened to allow as many foreigners in as possible, as quickly as possible, in violation of the law, to swell the ranks of current and future voters. If you think Democrat leaders have suddenly in the past few years been overwhelmed by an epiphany of compassion, you must be drinking some of whatever Kamala seems to overindulge in.

A decade or less ago, everyone in Democrat leadership was opposed to illegal immigration. Obama, Clinton, and Schumer are among those who spoke eloquently on this. Then some demographic changes came along and Democrats realized they could stack the deck in their favor.

Traditional Democrat constituencies aren’t having babies at a high rate. Those groups are not growing. Many Democrat voting blocks are starting to look to the GOP. Time will tell, but many polls now show a majority of Hispanics support Trump. Black Americans are also apparently growing more favorable toward Trump, but, again, we will see.

Recognize the Democrat’s worst nightmare would be for Hispanic and Black Americans to vote guided by informed and independent thought.

The Democrats have become largely the party of elites: corporate CEOs, Hollywood, Wall Street, the defense complex. Millionaires/Wall Street/High Tech give to Democrats today much more generously than to the GOP. It wasn’t always the case.

Democrats used to portray themselves as the party of free speech, peace, and working people. Today, the roles have completely flipped. Republicans are the party of free speech, enjoy broad blue collar support, and are actively trying to disengage in wars.

When Black voters deign to exercise independent thinking, or (shudder) vote Republican, they are vilified and called Uncle Toms, and worse, by the Dem leadership. The lesson: Democrats love Black people as long as they stay in their place and do what they are told.

Barack Obama has lectured, insulted, and criticized Black men for not supporting Harris. Obama’s lesson is that Black men are misogynist and hateful if they DON’T vote for a candidate because of their sex. Obama wants Black men to fall in line and do what they are told. Fortunately, there are a ton of smart, independent Black men who don’t want to be told what to do.

It does not mean you are rational, principled, and well-informed if you vote for or against someone because of their sex. In fact, it shows just the opposite.

The border crisis Harris and Biden created gives Democrat leaders and their donors cheap labor, illegal votes, and likely future voters.

If Kamala wins and takes both houses, non-citizens will be given immediate amnesty and citizenship. Game, set, match. Millions of new Dem voters will spring up overnight, changing the electoral composition of the nation forever.

Consider the Democrats have also pledged to pack the court, eliminate the filibuster, give DC and PR statehood, and we’ll never have another competitive election. The deck will be stacked in favor of the Democrats for our lifetimes and beyond.

Yes, the border is a political issue. As is everything else.

Trump is our best hope of saving our republic. If Trump wanted to be a dictator, he would have done it when he had the chance. He did not.

In the last four years, we have seen Democrats use the courts to stop their political opponents, including those within their own party. Only one party wants a functioning “democracy” with an informed and free-speaking citizenry, and it isn’t the Democrats.

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If Harris and Walz Win, You Lose.
It is That Simple.

By Anthony Trevlac

  • Aug. 11, 2024
  • 4-min read

For those who pay close attention to public affairs, global or domestic, the quadrennial search for a new president is frustrating.

It is certain that huge majorities of people will vote without knowing very much about the challenges we face or about the people running, I have friends who say they don’t follow the news or the campaign, but are very certain they will never vote for Trump.

Really? You don’t even know what is at stake, the facts, or the records of the candidates, but you are certain of your decision? That doesn’t make sense. It isn’t logical to say BOTH that you don’t know much AND that you are certain for whom you will vote. It makes as much sense as your doctor saying they won’t examine you but are confident they have the right diagnosis.

We have a chance to vote for one of two people who have track records. This SHOULD be among the easiest voting decisions we’ve ever seen. Was the nation better off under Trump or under Harris & Biden? That will tell you how to vote.

Harris and Walz are the most socialist/leftist pair to ever seek our nation’s highest offices, and it isn’t even close. But they are running hard from their records and don’t even want you to know what they believe. Of course, Harris has been VP, and they say she was part of every action the Biden White House has taken, so she owns their dismal record. But, the good news is that, if you want to vote for a guy who signed a law requiring tampons to be available in boys restrooms, you’ve got your chance, because Walz did just that.

The addition of Walz to the ticket confirms they think they can win by relying on identity politics and socialist/leftist policies. Maybe they can.

The Dems are presenting a marketing campaign, not a political campaign. They don’t even PRETEND to care about issues. And it has never been so clear.

Gov. Walz is a sign that the antisemitic cohort of the Democrat Party is in charge. Walz sucks up to the radical Islamists in MN and elsewhere. He has repeatedly hosted a MN cleric who celebrated the Oct. 7 attacks. That is the Dem choice for VP. He has explained that free speech guarantees don’t apply to hate speech and misinformation. Well… of course they do. The First Amendment was designed, specifically, to apply to free political speech that you don’t like. The Dem leaders are now saying, openly, that First Amendment protections do NOT apply to speech they don’t like.

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A Right to Voice Antisemitism?

By J Robert Smith

  • May 2, 2024
  • 6-min read

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh (he of “What is a Woman” fame) aired a segment from his show last week at X. Walsh addressed Governor Greg Abbott’s crackdown on anti-Israeli/pro-Hamas protests at Texas colleges. Abbott declared, in effect, that there wasn’t room in the Lone Star State for antisemites. In fact, yes, there is.

As odious as antisemitism is, Americans have rights to be antisemitic – anti-Christian, anti-Muslim, anti-white, anti-black, anti-homosexual, anti-heterosexual. You get the point. We have rights to our prejudices no matter how vile. Moreover, we have a right to public expression of those biases. We’re free to assemble with likeminded people so long as assemblies are peaceful and laws are obeyed. On the other hand, we’re free to condemn bigots and haters. We should. We can gather publicly to do so if we care to.

Eruptions of lawlessness and violence at Columbia, Harvard, and UCLA in the last 48 hours underscore that protesters had no interest in civil demonstrations. Threats and acts of intimidation toward Jewish students are appalling. Arrests have been made and charges filed. Penalties should be stiff, though societal permissiveness and affluent parents’ checkbooks are likely to shield student-violators from tough consequences.

But, mind you, mass arrests haven’t happened because students expressed a noxious mix of antisemitism and pro-Hamas sentiments. They acted criminally.

Here’s Abbott’s statement, posted at X, that Walsh reacted to:

“Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”

Abbott’s declaration swings and misses, unless he meant to grandstand. While condemning students’ antisemitism, he skipped mentioning lawbreaking. Was Abbott playing to the passions of the moment? Was he simply venting his own disgust?

Perhaps Abbott assumed that the public understood? He’d enforce the law and restore order, not deprive anyone of their rights. But when passions run high, clearer language is required.

Protesters don’t belong in jail for repugnant speech. But when speech crosses a line – threatening violence toward persons – protections are forfeited. Real violence – harming persons, property destruction, and/or causing mayhem – are felonies. There are also misdemeanor infractions like trespassing. Columbia University failed to deal swiftly with lawbreakers. The consequence was to embolden lawbreaking on campus.

Under Ron DeSantis’ leadership, the University of Florida laid down clear ground rules for protests. The university issued a statement defining boundaries.

The Citizen Free Press posted the university’s statement at its X account. The statement listed dos and don’ts for protesters. It made clear that lawbreaking and/or failure to comply with the institution’s rules would result in penalties. Under the header, “Consequences for Noncompliance,” the statement read that “[i]ndividuals found responsible for engaging in prohibited activities shall be trespassed from the campus. Students will receive a three year trespass and suspension. Employees will be trespassed and separated from employment.” Florida State troopers and campus police haven’t hesitated cracking down on violators.

The University of Florida’s directive addressed acceptable and prohibited behavior. It didn’t address cause for protest. Not that leaders should remain mum in the face of vitriol directed at Jews or others. There’s a moral imperative to speak up. But upholding the law is a governor’s chief obligation.

Should college students be expelled for joining hate-filled protests on campuses, as Abbott recommends? Should peaceful antisemitic crowds be disperse for hate speech? What is “hate speech?” Who makes the determination?

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What does Easter have to do with our rights?

By J. Robert Smith

  • March 28, 2024
  • 2-min read

Christians know the pivotal importance of Easter. Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for our sins to bring about God’s reconciliation with man. Repentance of sin was made possible through the Almighty opening the door to His forgiveness. Christ’s resurrection was proof of His divinity. His sacrifice and ascension accomplished His mission.

But I’ll suggest that Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection not only restored our full humanity in God’s eyes, but was meant to lift us out of thousands of years of human bondage – that’s bondage to others with the power to hold fellows captive in some way. We were no longer to be chattel. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection broke the chains forever, spiritually and in this world.

Our human rights – our natural rights – were granted by God and God alone. We are free-willed by nature. Our rights didn’t derive from governments and weren’t subject to the desires of kings, queens, emperors, or modern dictators. We were created and meant to be free to strive to be our best selves; free to produce; free to express – free from the whims of potentates and, today, in America and across the globe, from establishment elites, who in their arrogance believe that their affluence and stations entitle them to not only order our lives, but decide our lives’ worth.

Elites are no way entitled. The 2,000-plus years of history since Christ’s death and resurrection have been a struggle by our ancestors — and now us — to throw off shackles. We’re to live completely in the sunshine of God’s grace. We’re to live as decent, civilized people, respectful of others while seeking ordered, fruitful lives.

Too many American elites now are electing to challenge God… to not just question our birthright, but to steal our rights from us. They’re turning their backs on our founding. As John Adams said, “Our Constitution was only made for a “moral and religious people.” For only under God, in accordance with His laws, do we fully achieve our liberty as human beings, both in our earthly and spiritual lives.

It does us well to reread our Declaration of Independence, which unambiguously states:

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.

The Declaration’s words weren’t chosen for effect. They boldly declared that our liberty was given to us by God and wasn’t subject to the narrow interests of any tyrant. Those words aren’t any less true today. They remain consistent with Jesus Christ’s gift of liberation two millennia ago.

Happy Easter.

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End of the Road for Free Speech?

By Rob Meyne

  • Nov. 8, 2023
  • 1-min read

It has been learned that the FCC will vote, next week, to give itself control over the internet. That’s right. Complete control of the internet. If this is allowed to stand, it could well be the end of all free speech in this country.

Everything we do, read, learn, and believe comes to us through the internet, or is connected with it at some point. NO governmental agency has the authority to, or justification for, controlling the internet.

It is instructive that the Biden administration has tried to keep a lid on this. They know it is bad policy, they know it is probably unconstitutional, and they know they are pursuing governmental control of the internet so they can censor you.

Don’t let them do it.

See the full proposed rule below (PDF download):

FCC FACT SHEET* — Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet
 
 

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Why I Returned to Twitter

By J Robert Smith

  • Dec. 14, 2022
  • 3 min read

In January of 2021, when Twitter brass suspended Donald Trump’s very popular and powerful account, it was the last straw for me.

I’d been on Twitter since the autumn of 2013, as I recall. By July 2020, with a lot of sweat equity, I’d built my account to nearly 16,000 followers. I was adding an estimated 100-200 followers daily during that tumultuous summer. The riots and general lawlessness that Democrats were permitting in the cities they ran were fueling my following. Then there was the contentious presidential race. With frequent posts about the Trump-Biden dustup, my profile was rising and reach spreading. A conservative surging in popularity was always a red flag among Twitter’s woke monitors.

Then, suddenly, my new followers slowed to a trickle. Some days, nothing. Then over the course of the next few weeks, my existing following started to dwindle. I went to a Germany-based platform that determines if your Twitter account is being “shadow-banned,” among other surreptitious means of muzzling members conservatives. My account was being shadow-banned.

Went the reports, Twitter was allegedly purging “bots,” phony accounts. By November 2020, as I recollect, I’d lost about 4,000 followers. Sure, bots have been and are a problem at Twitter. They inflate Twitter’s aggregate count. Twitter’s member volume helps sell advertising and ups pricing.

But purging bots in the middle of a hotly contested election season? Elon Musk questioned Twitter’s price tag in negotiations because, he contended, the platform’s value was inflated by Twitter execs allowing bots to increase its value. Seems a little too coincidently, doesn’t it?

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Media Bias Threatens Our Republic

By Rob Meyne

  • April 12, 2022
  • 3-min read

There are countless times, in any given day, you are likely to hear references to “two Americas.” Depending on the speaker, issue, and occasion, one person may not even be picturing the same two Americas as another.

Americans get their information from different sources and in ways that didn’t exist not that long ago. Whatever you presume to be a “fact” depends on where you get news, who you trust, and what they believe.

People also believe something a friend or family member tells them more easily than information from another source. Whether it is true has nothing to do with it. Countless Americans think Donald Trump said, “Nazis and white supremacists are fine people” or that a new bill in Florida prohibits people from saying the word “gay,” or that Republican-sponsored state laws restrict voting rights of black Americans. None of these three beliefs is true. But people have heard it and assume it is true.

The digital age has increased the amount of information we can access, but its reliability isn’t what it once was. Most people don’t have the time, interest, or expertise to check key facts in every story they come across. It is understandable. People are busy.

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