Keeping you informed, with
news from a variety of sources. To quote Nelson Mandela,
"
Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."
Be sure to keep up with the latest news updates on these webpages as well:
News about the European Union
that will have a real impact on Europe's future
The real news on Climate Change
Local News for those near Mauldin, South Carolina
Posts on Twitter
- see forwarded Twitter posts that are worth seeing
See the Weather anywhere
News for 1 July 2018 through 31 December 2018 - Click here for current news.
31 December 2018
For the first time in generations a majority of the justices on the court believe, to varying degrees, in interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning
Could be the end of the Court where "
the left deems the law as just politics and power."
But American law is designed to preserve the sovereignty of the people.
President Abraham Lincoln warned that "if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court [...] the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
In this image provided by the Supreme Court, President Donald Trump poses for a photo with Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the Justices' Conference Room before a investiture ceremony Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, at the Supreme Court in Washington. From left are, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Ashley Kavanaugh, and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Jr. and Elena Kagan. (AP)
Venezuela continues its Socialist decline
Socialism has Venezuelans eating garbage to survive
Venezuela was at one time one of the world's richest countries - close to being a first-world nation.
Google "food lines in venezuela"
to see numerous pictures of people standing in endless food-rationing lines
See the sordid history to date of Venezuela's decline as a result of its Socialist government
here.
Paris immigrant shantytowns
See more
here.
20 December 2018
GOP Senator McCain had Dems' anti-Trump Fake-News dossier
Europe's worst year since 2008 crisis
16 December 2018
Loyalty, rapport: Why Trump chose Mulvaney as chief of staff
Federal judge strikes down Obamacare as unconstitutional
Dems vow appeal of ruling that Obamacare unconstitutional
Ruling that Obamacare is unconstitutional causes political problems
Tyranny and Civil Disobediance In Action
Untold Thousands Flout Gun Registration Law
In 2013, Connecticut required owners of "assault rifles" to register their guns.
About 50,000 did, but an estimated
100,000 to 250,000 did not.
With the enactment of a single law, hundreds of thousands of instant felons were created.
This is wrong.
10 December 2018
Voyager 2 probe moves into interstellar space
9 December 2018
Europe's "new world order" in tatters
4 December 2018
Hillary wants Trump to win again - Camille Paglia
2 December 2018
Tax Riots in Paris
30 November 2018
Anti-Gun Researchers Undermine the Anti-Gun Narrative
Center-right Coalition Avenir Québec Party wins control of Quebec government
28 November 2018
Guns Save Lives — Armed Citizens Thwart Active Shooters 94 Percent of the Time
26 November 2018
The more guns a nation has, the less criminal activity
- by the
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
24 November 2018
President Trump donates salary to Veterans' business program
23 November 2018
More than a dozen prominent scientists will be presenting evidence Friday and Saturday casting doubt on the United Nations’ assertion that human activity is causing a global warming crisis.
Several of these scientists co-authored or reviewed portions of Climate Change Reconsidered, a series of comprehensive climate science volumes compiled by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (
NIPCC).
Among the highlights of the EIKE conference, scientists will discuss the latest science regarding natural climate cycles, sea level, solar variability versus atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, shortcomings regarding renewable power, flaws in asserted temperature histories, the benefits of a warmer world, desertification, and ulterior goals of climate activists.
“The scientific evidence and conclusions reported by climate scientists are far different than what the environmental left and their legacy media allies would like the public to believe.”
Measured temperature vs. what NOAA reports -
See the fraud.
Historic temperatures do not show a warming trend.
22 November 2018
 |
The is no right way.
Socialism is not about peace and love and sharing. It's about using force to make people do what you want. That's oppresion.
You can't have Socialism without tyranny.
|
National View: Trump's tariffs working, creating factory and manufacturing jobs
An interesting thing is happening right now in America's industrial heartland. Manufacturers are adding new workers at a brisk pace. And it's happening right in front of the very pundits and free-trade economists who predicted economic catastrophe over the past year.
Simply put, President Donald Trump's tariffs are working. U.S. manufacturing employment has now shown year-on-year growth of more than 250,000 employees for six consecutive months. That's the largest and most sustained manufacturing job growth since 1998. In fact, the U.S. added 32,000 manufacturing jobs in October alone, for a total of 296,000 new factory jobs since October 2017. Overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. manufacturing employment now stands at nearly 12.8 million workers.
While that's below the 17 million jobs of the early 1990s, 2.4 percent year-on-year growth for the past eight months undoubtedly is a big step forward — especially considering the more than 5 million manufacturing jobs lost between 2000 and 2010.
Particularly encouraging, according to a new analysis by our Coalition for a Prosperous America, is that this job growth is broad-based throughout the domestic manufacturing industry.
Even more impressive is that two large, metal-using sub-sectors — fabricated metal products and machinery manufacturing — have grown by more than 4 percent over the past year. Their job growth is even outpacing jobs added by the steel and aluminum makers that were the focus of President Trump's most significant tariff actions. The success of these metal-using sectors demonstrates that
mainstream economists and the media failed to understand how a modern economy works.
Critics of President Trump's tariffs say price increases on tariffed goods hurt "downstream" companies in metal-using industries that have to buy raw steel and aluminum. However, these same industries are now thriving and hiring workers more rapidly than the metal industries themselves.
How can that be?
The answer is that price increases are getting passed down the supply chain. And at the end of the chain, consumers are buying the goods because their incomes are rising.
This illustrates a fundamental fact of the U.S. economy: Many markets are made up of just a few sellers, and they all tend to raise prices together. In a growing economy, consumers who are feeling confident about the future simply pay the price increases.
By cutting taxes and embarking on deregulation last year, the Trump administration gave a boost to the economy. This is helping consumer incomes rise. At the same time, the tariffs are stimulating domestic U.S. manufacturing. So all boats are rising.
Tariffs work to deliver a boost to the U.S. economy in two ways. First, they make foreign goods more expensive, which shifts demand to American-made products. And second, they give industry a sense of confidence in the future. Indeed, the industrial CEOs who buy steel and aluminum every day report that they feel better about today's market than they have in years.
Of course, the current economic boom can't run forever. And recent stock market jitters suggest investors are worried about a recession. Much will depend on the Fed's management of interest rates. And the U.S. dollar remains overvalued, which makes imports cheaper and threatens to undo what the tariffs have accomplished.
Critics argue that an "America-first" strategy ignores the rest of the world. But last year, America imported $2.9 trillion worth of goods and services, more than any other nation in the world. By using intelligent trade policy to allow the economy to grow faster, the U.S. will import more, not less, over time. It's exactly what happened in the 200 years prior to 1973, making the U.S. economy the world's largest and its people the wealthiest.
by Jeff Ferry of Alexandria, Va., research director at the Coalition for a Prosperous America (
prosperousamerica.org).
16 November 2018
Court case against State of New York for violating First Amendment free speech rights of NRA to go forward
15 November 2018
Thought for the Day
11 November 2018
In 2016, according to the FBI:
1,604 murders with knives and cutting instruments;
659 murders with hands, fists, and feet;
472 murders with blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.);
374 murders with rifles.
For gun-control advocates, the emphasis is on the word "
control", not safety.
8 November 2018
7 November 2018
GOP takes the Senate
Dems take the House
6 November 2018
Vote today!
Celebrty mid-term meltdowns - Bizarre Barbra Streisand threatens to leave U.S. -
again
Go! And don't let the screen door hit you as you leave!
Streisand is that ultimate contradiction - a
rich Socialist.
Democrat state AGs attack Trump
5 November 2018
Senate report reveals reveals details behind mistaken identity claims, more
"The revelation of last minute allegations tested the committee in many ways. But these investigative efforts rose to the occasion and were critical to helping us obtain the truth. This was a serious and thorough investigation that left no stone unturned in our pursuit of the facts. In the end, there was no credible evidence to support the allegations against the nominee." -- Senator Grassley
Click here to read the full 414 page Senate report.
4 November 2018
3 November 2018
So you think you want socialized medicine? See it in action in Great Britain
31 October 2018
"No sane country would provide birthright citizenship" - Senator Harry Reid
President Trump to sign executive order ending 'birthright citizenship'
Bulls and bears cannot agree
First look at the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy
30 October 2018
Trump - stock market is in a pause but if voters really want to see a rout, vote Democratic
Colorado Governor election - Colorado under full attack by Socialists
"Time to defeat socialism and radical extremism"
Hillary Clinton quips 'they all look alike'
This is Hillary.
29 October 2018
Brazil's Trump - Jair Bolsonaro - wins Presidency
- "a champion of Brazilian values"
28 October 2018
If you believe that, see
Socialism kills,
Who Gets To Decide?, and
So You Want Socialism?.
"There is no group in America that has been more lied to, more abused, or more taken advantage of by the Democrats than black people.
"At long last, we can return the favor by ENDING their stranglehold on our votes.
"Patriots, PLEASE support the #BLEXIT movement.
"We will hold BLEXIT rallies in every major urban city in America that has been destroyed by the Left’s rotten policies.
"Let’s do this TOGETHER!"
-
Candace Owens
Also see
this link on #BLEXIT in Candace Owens' own words.
27 October 2018
On the Honduran Caravan by Ed Mazlish
To those who oppose the US government using force to stop the Honduran caravan: You don’t get to nullify laws you don’t like. And when foreigners attempt to nullify American laws, it’s an act of war against the American government.
The express purpose of this caravan is to challenge and negate America’s right to police its borders. Armed or unarmed, that is a direct attack on the United States’ government and its legitimacy/authority. Not to mention that the timing of this attack on the American government suggests an attempt to interfere with and influence upcoming American elections.
There is plenty of room for rational disagreement about the proper amount of force that the US government should use in repelling such a threat. But those who sanction this attack on the legitimacy of the US government are advocating anarchism.
25 October 2018
Earthquake splits tectonic plate in two and geologists are shaken
24 October 2018
Dems hate to agree with Presiden Trump on
anything, but read
What Democrcats have said about illegal immigration in the past
23 October 2018
Growing up surrounded by books bolsters skills later in life
22 October 2018
Analysis of mid-term election politics
Don't miss the latest
Political Cartoons
21 October 2018
Your life span is written in your DNA, and we’re learning to read the code.
Cytosine, one of the four DNA bases of the genetic code, makes genes more or less active
20 October 2018
China's Great Leap Backward
(
PDF version)
--
"His only tool is repression"
Socialist dictatorship is, in the end, just dictatorship, no matter how 'enlightened'.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters gets displayed on a billboard
18 October 2018
State Department provided 'clearly false' statements to derail requests for Clinton docs, 'shocked' federal judge says -
Deep State in action
17 October 2018
If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck . . . Nazi and Antifa - they are the same.
One is a winner. One is a loser.
16 October 2018
Democrat Missouri Senator McCaskill Hides Secret Agenda From Voters to Get Elected
Tennessee's Phil Bredesen lies to voters to get votes running for Senate - tries to appear less Leftist
14 October 2018
Senator McConnell about President Trump: "I look at the results."
"I think he can go to the American people in 2020 and correctly claim extraordinary success."
Make that
290 accomplishments in just 20 months.
Thanks to Millennials, Republican Party breaks ground-game record
Meanwhile, Leftists don't like their Leftist mobs being called mobs
Leftists respond with attempts at censorship, denials and excuses
13 October 2018
Trumps list: 289 accomplishments in just 20 months, 'relentless' promise-keeping
Get
your own PDF copy to pass along
for the enjoyment of your friends and the frustration of Democrats you know.
12 October 2018
Trump nominates 3 conservative judges to Ninth Circuit,
snubbing California Senators Feinstein and Harris
11 October 2018
The Socialist European Union's slow decline accelerates as more regulations and restrictions are imposed
8 October 2018
Thought for the Day:
You may not realize it, but we are in a war. A war to keep America a Constitutional Republic or lose it to a Socialist Nightmare.
Hillary keeps putting down democracy
"Willing to destroy any part of government they cannot corrupt with partisanship."
"Its clear the seamy efforts of the former administration are still going strong."
7 October 2018
Great Tweet by President Trump:
"You dont hand matches to an arsonist, and you dont give power to an angry left-wing mob. Democrats have become too EXTREME and TOO DANGEROUS to govern. Republicans believe in the rule of law - not the rule of the mob. VOTE REPUBLICAN!"
Review:
President Trump's remarkable week
So bizarre and sick it shouldn't be true
but is:
"If he is not taken out of office he will win again in a landslide,"
[MSNBC guest and marketing expert Donny] Deutsch, talking about Trump in 2020.
Making it clear once again that Leftists consider voters to be mindless rabble.
6 October 2018
He's In!
Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called the vote "a victory for liberty in America" and called Kavanaugh "a good man and good jurist."
But this was never about Justice Kavanaugh's qualifications.
Kavanaugh confirmed and sworn in as Supreme Court Justice
Socialist coup thwarted; freedom lives
Senate poised to confirm Kavanaugh for Supreme Court
Democrats set horrible precedent with sexual McCarthyism -
lynch-mob mentality
Senator Susan Collins' speech, the GOP, and America
"Collins' speech Friday was an inspiring reminder of what the Senate is supposed to embody a place where lawmakers give a thoughtful and reasoned presentation of the facts before us"
"Supporting our bedrock principles isnt a partisan position. Its an American position." -
Making America Great Again!
McConnell: GOP decided to stand up to the mob
"We did the right thing for a good man."
"This is why Republicans got elected."
President Trump's winning streak
Teacher tries to block release of info about her ANTIFA activities
27 September 2018
S.C. Senator Lindsey Graham lambasts Democrats over sham Kavanaugh hearing
Growth of populist, anti-global parties in Europe
26 September 2018
Democrats try to disrupt, bringing GOPers together
President Trump: "The Democrats are playing a con game."
Meanwhile, Democrats try mob-rule harassment when a Republican Senator and his wife go to eat in a restaurant.
From President Trump's speech at the UN: "We will never surrender America's sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy. America is goverened by Americans. We reject globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism."
See the full text of President Trump's speech to the UN
here.
23 September 2018
Democrats show true colors - denial of presumption of innocence if you disagree wth them
21 September 2018
Strong stock market reflects a strong economy
lowest unemployed in 49 years - since November of 1969
industrial index up more than expected
3% growth projected for the U.S. in second-half of 2018
See also:
Economic Arteries
Delay, delay, delay - Democrats try every trick to stall Kavanaugh confirmation
18 September 2018
Bank of America and Citigroup anti-gun business practices - two banks to shun
16 September 2018
Chinese fear competition from other ideas - shutting down churches
No Freedom in China - Socialism cannot tolerate it, nor survive it.
That "cure" is far worse than the "disease"!
14 September 2018
Textbook example of why setting a minimium wage does not work
13 September 2018
Traitor John Kerry consorts with the enemy against the U.S.
Middle-class income hit all-time high in 2017 - over $61,000
Jobless claims remain at half-century low
Inflation is up in China
11 September 2018
See the latest news from the EU on Brexit and upcoming legislation
10 September 2018
Obama said Trump would need a "magic wand" to get 4% GDP increase
Latest increase is 4.2% - no doubt that's "magic" to someone like Obama
Angry Obama still does not get it as he hits the campaign trail
Obama's policies were wrecking the country.
For eight years, he blamed it on Bush.
And he wants credit for Trump's successes?!?
5 September 2018
Manufacturing Index Hits 14-Year High
Shaking off the Bush-Obama era - It's the Trump era!
You know the economy is doing great when ...
Oh, no! A labor shortage? What do we do now?
Simple: we innovate! We figure out new ways of donig things!
When the demand goes up, and the supply goes down, we innovate.
That is how Capitalism works.
Economic growth - coming soon, to a location near you!
Rights? Who needs Rights? Australia wants massive surveillance of its subject population
This is not Freedom
September 2018
Fortune magazine gets it: MAGA makes possible Make the World Great Again.
21 August 2018
Soros - Facebook - Twitter collusion intent on censorship
Facebook has "trust ratings" for each user
18 August 2018
Senate confirms President Trump's 25th, 26th appellate judge nominees
one in seven appellate judges are Trump appointees
China population in internment camps grows to one million people
Forced into classes to shout, "The Communist Party is good!"
"Sense the Party's thought, obey the Party's words, follow the Party's lead."
Still the same old Socialist story of abuse and killing
13 August 2018
FBI finally fires Peter Strzok
12 August 2018
D'Souza's great movie Death of a Nation - don't miss it!
See the story of the histories of the Democratic Party and the GOP - the GOP has always been predominatly pro-rights, anti-slavery, and pro-freedom for all. The Democratic Party, since its creation by Andrew Jackson, has been oppressive, pro-slavery, and ant-freedom. See the relationship of the Democrats to the Italian Fascists, and to the German Nazis. Put the pieces of the puzzle together. Learn the things those behind the
Fake News do not want you to know.
10 August 2018
Gowdy Warns of Possible Subpoenas in Trump Dossier Investigation
7 August 2018
Alarmist now-or-never environmentalists fall flat on their faces
Detailed look at the Trump trade policy
It used to be Free-market Capitalism vs. Communism. Now China is "State Capitalism". It's still the same.
4 August 2018
A detailed history of Socialist Venezuela's decline
Lays bare why government control inevitably never works
3 August 2018
U.S. unemployment drops to 3.9% - lowest in 50 years
Lower-than-estimated 157,000 new jobs in June - comapanies unable to find workers?
U.S. GDP 4% 2nd quarter; 5% third quarter?
11th record-setter for Trump - 155,965,000 employed in June
Trump staffs up Mideast team for peace plan rollout
Dem. Senator Dianne Feinstein's staffer a Chinese spy
Tennessee businessman wins GOP primary for Governor
Race shows value of aligning with Trump
Freedom March Saturday in Portland, Oregon to be met by Antifa protesters
Bezos throwing money, engineers into corporate space race
Automated defense for tanks, military vehicles
30 July 2018
J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon - President Donald Trump's tax cuts, along with some of his other efforts, have helped out the U.S. economy.
"The way the American public should be thinking of it is: For 20 years, we've been increasingly uncompetitive, driving capital and brains overseas." Dimon also said some of the regulatory rollbacks pushed by Trump are helping small businesses.
Twenty years - i.e., Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have been bad for the American way of life and thus the economy.
Well, we knew that.
The Democrats' corrupted view of history and racism
28 July 2018
U.S. GDP up 4.1% for the quarter
25 July 2018
One international $48B company is seeing economic growth worldwide, and economic experts are noting this is the first time since 2006-2007..
The United States is the financial center of the world, and with a Socialist President, the world economy suffered. But with a pro-freedon, pro-economic improvement President, not only are his actions
Making America Great Again, but as a result the rest of the world is growing, too!
Imagine if the EU and the rest of the world escaped Socialism, and became free!
Game-changer: Mars lake of liquid water discovered
24 July 2018
Ninth Circuit rules right to carry firearms in public
23 July 2018
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley lowers the boom on Russia and Iran
22 July 2018
Obamas Former Director of National Intelligence Says
Obama Behind Entire Russia Witch Hunt!
President Obama's former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, came clean on CNN and stated that former President Obama was behind spying on President Trump!
James Clapper's statement was also caught by Rush Limbaugh
Mainstream leftist media go crazy; make ridiculous accusations against Trump
One of the greatest Presidents since Lincoln is for everything the media is against - freedom and prosperity.
Hillary?? She looks
terrible. Read
the story.
20 July 2018
This marks the end of gun control
19 July 2018
Putin says powerful forces at work trying to damage US-Russian relations
Socialist Venezuela continues decline - general health and safety affected
Even Dems admit Socialist vision would bankrupt the U.S.
But they don't
want Socialism; they want
power
more power than the Constitution allows!
18 July 2018
Trump, House GOP discuss further tax cuts
Four Dem states sue Federal government over "unfair" tax cuts
Soros calls Obama his biggest disappointment
17 July 2018
"Economy growing considerably stronger"
16 July 2018
Sore Loser Hillary Clinton Trolls Trump, questions his loyalty to U.S.
Good article listing President Trump's accomplishments
"Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems know how to do is resist and obstruct! This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country but at some point, it will heal!" - President Trump
15 July 2018
SCOTUS Justice Scalia made clear the Second Amendment and the Heller case prohibit "assault weapon" bans
The
AR-15 is America's most popular gun, with 10-12 million in circulation.
Petulant little boys - Princes William and Charles refused to meet President Trump
Certainly not leadership material
CO2 emissions reduced in the US, but increase in the EU
The free market wins, socialism loses.
14 July 2018
Free speech is dead in Britain
13 July 2018
Trump, May pledge cooperation on trade
Twelve Russian GRU agents indicted for hacking into
state election computers, Hillary campaign computers, DNC computers
Mueller Indicts 12 Russian Spies for Hacking in 2016 Campaign
Read the indictment here
UK Trumped!
Strzok's infidelity to wife and to U.S.
Giuliani slams Strzok for collusion, refusal to name co-conspirators
12 July 2018
Gowdy accuses Strzok of 'textbook bias'
The Left is made up of: (1) the wannabe power-mongers who are in control; (2) their thugs, and (3) the patsies, suckers, and dupes who think it is all about building socialism. Strzok is one of the thugs.
Trump takes Britain by storm
09 July 2018
Overview of the Supreme Court and the selection process
08 July 2018
How much savings do you have in your 401k? Is it enough?
07 July 2018
Record 155,576,000 Employed in June; 10th Record for Trump
Average hourly earnings is $26.98
Hispanic-Latino Unemployment Rate Hits 4.6% - Lowest Level on Record
Hispanic-Latino unemployment rate averaged 9.4% during Obama Presidency
Dems call jobs growth "reckless" in desperate attempt to derail Trump successes
Low unemployment gives employees baragaining power - training, better pay ...
"Businesses are getting a little desperate."
Trump orders formation of Space Force as sixth military branch
Prime Minister May wins support from divided UK government on Brexit plan
AIDS vaccine passes key early test
06 July 2018
Trump is not wrong on the China trade war
"If the future of the Democratic Party is Socialism,
then the Democratic Party has no future"
NY Dem says Party betraying American values
05 July 2018
3.4 million new jobs created since Election Day
43 Obama-era EPA scandals the media ignored
Trump down to three candidates for Supreme Court
Decision will be announced Monday, July 9th
U.S. labor shortage reaching a critical point; holding back economic growth
California Congressional Rep. Maxine Waters - a corrupt, dirty politician
Excellent article reprinted here, from
Freedom Is Indivisible
Feature Article by Robert Tracinski, July 4, 2018
The biggest news this week is that the left has officially turned against the First Amendment and freedom of speechand just in time for the Fourth of July!
If youre on the right, it is not news that the left wants to shut us up. The only change is that this goal is being announced openly in the leading publications of the mainstream left, specifically in a long article in the New York Times warning about How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment. Weaponized. Thats right, theyre giving the First Amendment the same treatment they gave the Second. Does free speech seem as scary and dangerous as an AR-15 yet?
So whats wrong with the First Amendment? It protects people the left doesnt like. No, really, thats the argument.
On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm. The courts five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public [employees] unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority had used the First Amendment to reject a California law requiring religiously oriented crisis pregnancy centers to provide women with information about abortion. Conservatives, said Justice Kagan, who is part of the courts four-member liberal wing, were weaponizing the First Amendment.
The article laments that free speech arguments at the Supreme Court used to mostly protect speech by people on the left.
Because so many free-speech claims of the 1950s and 1960s involved anti-obscenity claims, or civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests, it was easy for the left to sympathize with the speakers or believe that speech in general was harmless, [Frederick Schauer, a law professor at the University of Virginia] said. But the claim that speech was harmless or causally inert was never true, even if it has taken recent events to convince the left of that.
So nowthe horror!free-speech claims are being used to protect Christians and corporations and people who dont like being forced into unions, and how dare anyone stand up for those people.
The Times even went so far as to commission a study counting the number of times the Court has ruled in favor of liberal speech and conservative speech. This is a highly dubious exercise, since there is a good deal of subjectivity in deciding which speech is liberal and which is conservative, and the study is so vague about its criteria (and the resulting Times article even more so) that its assertions are meaningless. Warren Henry notes that a similar studymore about that in a momentcounts rulings upholding the imprisonment of anti-war activists during World War I as anti-progressive, despite the fact that these cases were prosecuted by the Progressive hero Woodrow Wilson.
Yet anyone on the right can venture a guess as to why the Court has seen more cases involving conservative speech in recent years and decided more frequently in favor of them. With the advent of crusades against hate speech, people on the right are more likely to be targets of attempts to suppress their speech.
The glib answer here would be to chalk this up as a generational difference between the old liberals who preened themselves on their dedication to free speech, and the authoritarian Political Correctness of younger Progressives. But the old liberals dedication to free speech was always a more pragmatic and instrumental than they liked to admit. You can see this in the complaints in the New York Times article from the very same old liberals who pioneered free-speech arguments in defense of left-leaning advocacy groups or anti-war political candidates, who are now appalled that these same arguments are being used on behalf of corporations and conservative political activists. Back in the day, old liberals like John F. Kennedy talked about how freedom is indivisible, so that in defending the freedom of one man, you are defending the freedom of all. Now the fact that freedom of speech protects everyone is considered a problem with First Amendment jurisprudence.
In short, many of the old liberals fought for free speech largely because they wanted to protect people like them from overbearing authorities. But now people like them are the overbearing authorities. Consider the recent Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which was decided based on the way members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission spoke contemptuously of a bakers Christian faith before imposing a fine on him. Now that the left holds power, they chafe at any restrictions on their authority.
Catherine MacKinnon states this view in its most strident and tendentious form: Legally, what was, toward the beginning of the 20th century, a shield for radicals, artists and activists, socialists and pacifists, the excluded and the dispossessed, has become a sword for authoritarians, racists and misogynists, Nazis and Klansmen, pornographers and corporations buying elections. In this view, there are only two types of free speech defendants: radical socialists and bigots. The first deserve legal protection and the second dont.
But there is also something else going on. As the left has gained more political power, it has championed regulations that have spread out like a fine net into every part of human life. But Margaret Thatcher also reminded us that freedom is indivisible, and she did so to destroy the myth that you can have political freedom and economic slavery. The more the government seeks to dictate all of our decisionswhat kind of cakes we have to bake, what medical advice we can offer, who gets to negotiate with our employer on our behalfthe more they necessarily impinge on our freedom of speech. That is the lefts problem with First Amendment protections for people who they think should be regulated to keep them in line.
This is really what Elena Kagan is complaining about in her dissent in the Janus decision where she warns that the Courts conservative justices are weaponizing the First Amendment, in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy. What gives rise to these cases is the fact that the old liberal differentiation between economic freedom and intellectual freedomthe first of which could be violated without limit but the second of which had to be scrupulously respectedwas an artificial one. In her conclusion, Justice Kagan actually does a pretty good job of making Mrs. Thatchers point for her.
Speech is everywherea part of every human activity (employment, health care, securities trading, you name it). For that reason, almost all economic and regulatory policy affects or touches speech. The First Amendment was meant for better things.
When Kagan writes, The First Amendment was meant for better things, I cant help hearing, The First Amendment was meant for better peoplefor good Progressives and not for the likes of you and me. But what she specifically means is that the First Amendment should be ignored when it impinges on anything having to do with commerce or capitalismdespite her own admission that all such activity involves freedom of speech.
The left is turning against the First Amendment because absolute respect for freedom of speech is not consistent with tearing down capitalism. This brings us to Georgetown University law professor Louis Michael Seidman, who laments, What I have come to see is that its a mistake to think of free speech as an effective means to accomplish a more just society. The New York Times piece is mostly just echoing the argument made by Seidman in a forthcoming law review article which asks, Can Free Speech Be Progressive? Seid answers no, and says, in effect, so much the worse for the First Amendment.
The most ominous part of Seidmans article is not specifically about the First Amendment. It is his naked admission about the basic political priorities of Progressivism, which he sums up this way: by Progressivism, I mean the modern political stance favoring an activist government that strives to achieve the public good, including the correction of unjust distributions produced by the market and the dismantling of power hierarchies based on traits like race, nationality, gender, class, and sexual orientation. Did you notice what is missing? Freedom is not included among the political values sought by the left. It is not one of the standards by which political outcomes are to be judged. No wonder they have given up the defense of freedom of speech and ceded it to the right.
Freedom was still nominally on the list of priorities for the old liberals, who still held to John Stuart Mills idea of the individuals unquestioned sovereignty over his own body and mind. But as I have described elsewhere, this liberal paradise couldnt last. The essence of Seidmans article is his concern that the legal distinction between property rights and freedom of speech is breaking down, and breaking down in the direction of more freedom for both, rather than more government control of both. He is a little cagey about his own preferred outcome, but it is in the direction of more control, and he hints at some kind of Progressive paradise of centrally planned and optimized redistribution of speech opportunities. In other words, Progressives get to speak, and everybody else doesnt.
It is inevitable, really, that the left would finally turn openly against freedom of speech, because the First Amendment is a weapon. It is a legal weapon that can be used by private citizens against government coercion. It is a weapon in the hands of the people against overbearing authority. But it is only a weapon because freedom is indivisible, and so long as the First Amendment exists, it is a threat to all other forms of domination and control.
04 July 2018
John Stossel - what the Fourth of July is really all about
Don't miss Stossel's contrasting the lack of rights in not-so-free Britain
yet this is the Socialist European dream envisioned by so many Democrats.
Happy Independence
Day !!
Judge tosses suit alleging Trump campaign conspired with Russians in hack
Dershowitz unloads on NY socialist Dem, Martha's Vineyard liberals
"I want a fight within the Democratic Party to restore it to the days when it was a great centrist party"
Judicial Watch statement on Clinton email investigation
Ramussen Report
48% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trumps job performance
U.S. Supreme Court Earns Highest Approval in Years
More Voters Now Want Merit-Based Immigration, Not Family-Based
41% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction
The Majority Are Proud to Be an American, Proud of History
Senator Tim Scott to recommend Trey Gowdy for Supreme Court seat
03 July 2018
Rep. Nunes calls ten Obama officials to testify
on possible government surveillance abuse during the 2016 election
Democrats "are the ones that have all this blood on their hands.
They're the ones who completely destroyed the FBI and DOJ."
The Left's tactics have not changed from those used in 1917 by Lenin in Russia
* corrupt and destroy the means of justice, making justice impossible
* corrupt and destroy the truth: control the news, and fill it with lies
* corrupt and destroy integrity:
deny doing the things you have been doing, in the face of any and all evidence
accuse the opposition of doing all the illegal things you have been doing
as was reported in
this news article on remarks by Ca. Senator Harris.
01 July 2018
Inside Trump's plan for a new Supreme Court Justice
Leftists in panic that freedom-lovers may prevail over "progressive" socialists
If this keeps up, they won't be able to take over, and get to tell you what to do.
Socialism Will Work This Time, The Left Promises
(ignore
Venezuela).
The Left needs to face reality - Trump is winning - he is doing what Americans want.
Actually, I think that is why the are attacking him so strongly - they are in a panic.
Lashing out at Trump is nothing new for liberals
'We are Witnessing the Evolution of a Socialist Coup'
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