Freedom Of Speech

Right Wing Fanatics Who Endanger America With Their Rhetoric!

Ronald 15 Comments

Freedom of speech is essential as part of the Bill of Rights, but that does not mean that anything uttered by right wing fanatics should be be given slack as free to exploit for profit without accountability.

We have those who have no issue with dividing America for their own profit, and some of them are beyond the pale.

They would include Tucker Carlson, formerly of CNN and later before leaving, at Fox News Channel, now a loose cannon, and becoming more extreme and reckless by the day.

It also includes Megyn Kelly, who acts totally different than a decade ago, before she was on NBC and then dismissed, and now has gone off the deep end in her rhetoric.

It also includes Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite, racist, nativist, and misogynist, who has no issue with appealing to single white men who are finding it difficult to adjust to difficult economic times, even though he is himself of Hispanic ancestry!

Fuentes was a major critic of Charlie Kirk before his assassination, thinking he was not extreme enough in his utterances and beliefs!

These are just three of a much larger group of Republican Right extremists, who present a dire threat to political stability for the American future, and unfortunately, have the ear of Republican leadership, including Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the Trump Cabinet Officers, who often embrace them!

Shocking Abuse Of Power: Censorship Mounting In Wake Of Charlie Kirk Assassination

Ronald 56 Comments

The Charlie Kirk Assassination is, shockingly, leading to a massive abuse of power by Donald Trump and his administration.

The latest shock is that comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC late evening program has been preempted indefinitely, because ABC has been threatened at losing its Federal Communications Commission license to operate, if they did not yank his program, due to comments made about Charlie Kirk.

This censorship follows CBS canceling comedian Stephen Colbert’s late evening show, effective in the late Spring 2026, but who can say that Colbert might not be “canceled” sooner than then?

CBS already made a legal settlement with Donald Trump, as did ABC earlier, over Trump’s accusations of unfair treatment. And CNN may soon be linked with CBS as part of a massive media merger, a danger sign for freedom of speech and press, and the First Amendment. Also, Trump has sued the New York Times for $15 billion for what Trump calls their lies about him,

The Washington Post under Jeff Bezos fired a columnist for her comments about Charlie Kirk, and there have been other media people who have been dismissed, and powerful corporate interests are rapidly consolidating control of news media into fewer hands, of billionaire oligarchs.

Additionally, universities are going after professors and staff, in a reaction that is shocking, along with many corporations, dismissing staff for their comments posted in only one week since the Charlie Kirk tragedy.

This unfortunate situation, leading to what looks like a move toward totalitarian control, reminds of the Reichstag Fire in Nazi Germany in 1933, which moved Adolf Hitler toward absolute power over his population.

America is in a constitutional crisis, deeper than ever, as we near eight months of this second Trump term!

How critics and opponents will be able to continue to resist is seen as a living, endless, nightmare!

First Amendment Under Attack After Charlie Kirk Assassination: An Out Of Control Abuse!

Ronald 9 Comments

America is in a very dangerous time, as the Charlie Kirk Assassination has spurred Donald Trump and his supporters to promote an attack on the First Amendment—freedom of speech, press, and assembly.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Deputy Chief Of Staff Stephen Miller, and Vice President JD Vance have all declared war on what they call “enemies” of the left, who must be suppressed by government action, although Bondi has backed off somewhat after criticsm even by some Republicans.

This attack on the First Amendment is also causing some media outlets, such as the Washington Post, and even MSNBC, to fire certain commentators, and for some universities, airlines, and other corporations to fire those who have posted on social media, in a manner that their employers have decided is not acceptable.

And Trump has started a $15 billion lawsuit against the NY Times.

ICe (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has also been engaged in abuse of power in their arrests of people who look or speak Spanish, and their rough treatment of those they detain.

These are all signs of Fascism in America, but those who believe in freedom of expression are refusing to back off.

There is NO justification for violence against anyone, but the record shows much more extremism by the RIGHT, rather than the LEFT!

Donald Trump’s War On Education And Foreign Students!

Ronald 9 Comments

Donald Trump has declared open war on higher education, and all education, as well as foreign students, attempting to dictate curriculum, funding, and expulsion of foreign students.

As an educator and a proponent of freedom of speech and open discussion and debate, all decent people must resist Trump’s attempt to create a government controlled curriculum of what knowledge and ideas are to be promoted.

Foreign students are being victimized, despite the fact that they are a major strength of our university system nationwide, and the movement to expel students for their beliefs and thoughts is a fight that cannot be allowed to be lost!

And the idea of universities having federal funding cut at the whim of the White House and its lackeys in the Presidential Cabinet is outrageous! For instance with Harvard University, but also many other institutions nationwide, Trump is trying to promote mind control, a tactic of authoritarian regimes to control curriculum, and what can be taught to students.

American universities are the envy of the civilized world, and the battle to prevent “Trumpification” of higher education, and even education below the college level, must be fought for without pause!

Civil Liberties Under Attack With Arrest Of Palestinian, Mahmoud Khalil, Activist From Columbia University!

Ronald 1 Comment

Civil liberties are under attack in the Trump Presidency, and the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student of Palestinian descent, is an alarm bell, as there is no justification for his arrest by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and his detention in secret in a prison in Louisiana.

Khalil may have political viewpoints about the Israel-Gaza War that are unpopular and opposed by many American Jews and other supporters of Israel, but that is not justification for the move to deport, when he is here legally on a green card, a permanent resident card with the permission to work,and has not committed any felonies.

Khalil led student demonstrations last spring, but when did we declare there is no freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech, just because some of us may not agree with one’s viewpoints?

This was not the way that demonstrations at the University of Virginia in 2017 by white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers were treated, by Donald Trump!

Trump is acting like a dictator threatening all Americans’ rights to the First Amendment, and this case must be fought to restore the basic principles of the Bill of Rights.

This was abrogated by President John Adams in the 1790s, Woodrow Wilson during and after World War I, and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, most infamously among our Presidents, and it is not a political or partisan view to oppose violations of the rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution!

College Campuses And The Israel-Hamas War

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The Israel-Hamas War in the Gaza Strip in the past seven months has led to the deaths of more than 34,000 Palestinians, including approximately two thirds being women and children.

It has become the biggest controversy on college campuses in many decades, and has led to massive demonstrations and occupations of many campuses by protesters, and by outside agitators not connected to the universities.

The ugly situation has many tones of antisemitism, endangering Jewish students, advocating violence, and calling for destruction of Israel.

Freedom of speech and the right to protest are basic constitutional rights, but it does not include the right to interfere with normal operation of educational institutions.

One can disagree with the strategy and tactics of the Israeli government, and yet also understand that a nation has the right to exist and to defend itself after the horrific massacre of about 1,200 people on October 7, 2023 by the extremist Hamas terrorist group.

One can also condemn right wing MAGA Republicans, led by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Ohio Senator J D Vance, and other extremists, who want to employ military force to end the protests.

It is also disturbing that college students often have little knowledge and information, as they rely on social media, rather than established news sources, for their view of the world.

Colleges are supposed to be places for debates, education, empathy, and understanding, not for occupation and calls for genocide against an entire nation and people. To allow a small percentage of students and outside agitators to shut down a campus and threaten those who are opposed to their tactics is reprehensible.

These disturbances on college campuses are undermining the future of universities in the public mind, as extremism, violence, and occupation by many students and outsiders endanger public support for higher education.

It is also making more likely that many commencement ceremonies around the nation will be canceled, and this for students, who in many cases, did not have a high school graduation ceremony due to the COVID 19 Pandemic in the Spring of 2020.

Many of these demonstrators are destroying their education, as many will be suspended or expelled, will face possible criminal charges, and many corporations will be unwilling to hire people involved in civil disobedience without any conclusion.

Young people have a right to their beliefs, but not to stop the operations of universities, as many of these individuals will regret long term their youthful emotions that will not be good for their long term futures.

Every effort must be utilized to end the Israel-Hamas War and to free the remaining hostages, and Joe Biden has a major challenge ahead of him to convince Benjamin Netanyahu to change his strategy that has endangered the international community’s view of the conflict.

This issue could affect the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, bringing back memories of the disastrous Chicago Democratic convention in 1968, that led to the defeat of Hubert Humphrey and the Presidency of Richard Nixon.

43 Years Since Reagan Assassination Threat, And Dangers Ahead!

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It has been 43 years since the last direct threat against an American President.

Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley on March 30, 1981, and miraculously survived and recovered, although many observers think his later diagnosis of Alzheimers Disease may have been related to that shooting.

There have been threats against Presidents and other top government officials in the four decades since, thankfully without the kind of horrible experience that Reagan went through.

But the levels of verbal violence and threats has grown exponentially, and now Donald Trump has used violent rhetoric, incitig his supporters and threatening Joe Biden, federal judges, and others, claiming “freedom of speech”.

But “freedom of speech’ does have its limits, and there is a need to make that clear to Donald Trump and everyone else, on all sides of the political spectrum, that using incendiary rhetoric could lead to prosecution and imprisonment!

The fact that we have gone through the longest period of no turnover in the Presidency, and that the 25th Amendment has only been used twice, in 1973 and 1974, is a warning of the growing reality that the nation is likely to face growing odds of a transition that we have not faced in a half century since 1973-1974.

So the office of the Vice Presidency is more significant than ever, moving forward!

Nomination Of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson To Supreme Court A Homerun! :)

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President Joe Biden has hit a homerun with the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court vacancy created by the soon to be retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.

Jackson has exceptional credentials, and already has been approved by a bipartisan vote last year to sit on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where other justices have been members, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Jackson has excellent educational credentials, as well as impressive judicial and legal experience.

But of course, the white supremacists and racists are attacking her appointment, since Jackson will be the first black female Justice in American history to sit on the Supreme Court, a long overdue development.

Her appointment will not affect the right wing conservative balance on the Court, but her age of 51 means she will be likely to serve on the Court for a generation or more, and will witness, hopefully, a more balanced Supreme Court down the road!

Jackson has demonstrated her understanding of the issues of disabiled people, workers, immigrants, freedom of speech, and the concept that a President is NOT a King, regarding Donald Trump!

This is another of the great developments that the Presidency of Joe Biden has brought the nation!

Evil Fox News Channel Hosts Tucker Carlson And Laura Ingraham Promote Nativism Against Afghan Refugees!

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Evil Fox News Channel Talk Show hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are spreading fears about the move to save Afghan interpreters and other Afghans who worked for the United States during the Afghanistan War, and now face retribution from the Taliban monsters who have gained control of Afghanistan again.

They feel no loyalty to those who sacrificed their safety to help the US military, and they feel no compassion for the women and girls who face horrifying treatment from Taliban soldiers and the government, who want to destroy all the gains women have made in the past 20 years.

These two monsters have no compassion, no empathy, no sense of loyalty to those who made a difference to American soldiers for the past generation.

The concept that such despicable, disgraceful hatemongers are allowed access to influence nativism, racism, and Islamophobia, and be so well paid as they promote hate and division, is an example of freedom of speech gone amuck!

Journalism Essential Protection To Preserve American And Foreign Democracy From Authoritarianism

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Journalism is an honorable profession, and the promotion and protection of the institution and the people who spend their lives promoting truth and facts is essential, in order to preserve American and foreign democracies from authoritarianism.

Of course, there are those journalism sites and individuals who choose to use their influence to peddle lies and mistruths, (such as Fox News Channel, Newsmax, One America Network), but it will not take away the validity and reality that major news sites ARE reliable, no matter how much naysayers claim otherwise.

All human beings make mistakes, and no journalism source is 100 percent accurate, but history tells us that reliable journalism sites are correct more than 90 percent of the time.

When one sees the shutdown of the Hong Kong democracy newspaper, and the crackdown on all expressions of truth, facts, and democracy in many nations around the world, it makes the defense of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to vote ever more urgent into the future.

So the struggle against authoritarianism requires recognition in America of such news sources that have proved their value and accuracy over the long haul, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and a multitude of other news sources!