Thomas Sowell on reality…
Tag: politics
How the Foreign Agents Law Is Used To Silence American Dissidents
Democrats speak of the fight against “Russian disinformation,” while the Republicans pledge to combat “fake news” about Israel. Whatever you choose to call it, there is a bipartisan effort to rein in our First Amendment protections, which former Secretary of State John Kerry recently referred to as a “major block” to the government’s ability to combat misinformation. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Kerry went on to lament that the inability to control the message makes it difficult to govern absent the existence of a truth arbiter, a role government has increasingly tried to assume through backdoor means.
For example, the Twitter Files exposed government collusion with social media platforms to censor stories like the Hunter Biden laptop report before the 2020 election. Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya and other dissenting voices were shadow-banned or censored under White House pressure.
These examples highlight the government’s growing reliance on private-sector cooperation to stifle opposition under the guise of protecting public discourse. Yet the idea of labeling speech as “misinformation” or its messenger as a “foreign agent” is not new – it echoes historical attempts to discredit dissent.
This tactic has resurfaced with a vengeance with the rediscovery of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA), now a favored tool for deplatforming speakers under the pretext of transparency while stigmatizing dissent as foreign interference. As you will soon see, FARA is Un-American!
House Changes Rules, Makes It Harder to Oust Johnson From Speakership
On Friday, Mike Johnson won the speakership on the first ballot after Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self switched their votes following a break.
Johnson almost failed on the first ballot after Reps. Massie, Self and Norman voted for other Congressmen.
After a brief break, Johnson convinced Rep. Self and Norman to switch their votes.
The 119th Congress changed the rules to make it harder to oust a speaker.
It will now take nine GOP lawmakers to force the vote to oust a sitting speaker.
“Now that he is elected, Johnson faces a tough legislating challenge with the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years,” CNN reported.
“However, in a key victory for Johnson, the House made it harder to oust a speaker. Included as part of the sweeping package was a procedural change that will require a minimum of nine GOP lawmakers to force a vote to oust a speaker. Previously, it only required one member to force a vote,” CNN reported.
Does Germany Have the Stupidest Political Establishment on Earth?
There’s an old metaphor in military affairs—one that apparently goes back to Plutarch—about the disaster that occurs when competent soldiers are led by incompetent officers—namely “Lions led by donkeys.” The adage was popular in Britain during the First World War, when it became evident that most English soldiers were brave and competent, but frequently reduced to cannon fodder by their terrible leadership.
Since it became a unified country under Bismarck in 1871, Germany has frequently been led by donkeys. Kaiser Wilhelm II was a donkey and Hitler was a psychopathic rogue donkey. Now the much-abused citizens of Germany are being governed by a faltering Rainbow Coalition of Donkeys.
Guys like me who have a longstanding fascination with German culture, music, philosophy, and engineering can only regard what has happened to the poor Federal Republic with great sadness.
I thought of this adage this morning when I read an essay by fellow Substack author Eugyppius, who just published a marvelous essay titled German fascism crisis escalates as Elon Musk publishes a devastating 600-word editorial explaining why he supports Alternative für Deutschland.
The reaction to Musk’s perfectly reasonable editorial strikes me as the most remarkable outpouring of stupidity I have seen since the cancellation of Stefan Mickisch, one of Germany’s greatest musicians, in 2022.
No, The Truth Is Not Just Another Story
“The Democrats are self-immolating on the altar of their own tenuous relationship with common decency.”
– Tom Luongo
It must be obvious that the incoming government under Mr. Trump has one primary duty overall: sorting out truth from lies so the nation can reestablish a baseline reality to function upon. America is so punch-drunk from official lying that many intelligent people who ought to know better now proclaim that reality is unknowable, which is just a surrender to nihilism — the rejection of moral principle, a belief that the human project is meaningless.
This awful condition has led to the point where you know for sure that “Joe Biden” cannot possibly discharge his duties as chief executive, and yet nobody cares enough to investigate who is running things behind the front he puts up. That would generally be the job of the news media, which is supposed to function as the public’s auditor. Now, of course, you are persuaded that this was never really their job, that it was a sham, but that is just another lie.
The news was not flawless, but neither was it presented as nothing more than opinion. The news existed to register what happened day-to-day. It was not so much concerned with why things happened, which was much more difficult to establish, and usually reserved for the pages labeled “opinion,” so that you knew it was somebody’s conjecture. I know this because I worked as a newspaper reporter in the 1970s. I actually found out what was going on about this-and-that, wrote it up, and saw it in print hours later. The facts.
Journalism had some simple rules for reporting the facts about anything — and it’s hilarious that anyone thought it required a graduate degree from some credentialing mill like the Columbia U. School of Journalism. The news was often meddled-with by interested parties, government and business, but they did not completely overwhelm the ant-like labors of x-thousands of reporters in the field, and the stream of fact they circulated.
Not all of it was subject to dispute, meddling, or opinion because it was self-evident: Joe Blow got shot. . . a helicopter crashed in Ohio. . . a volcano erupted in Peru. . . .
Only over time, the past thirty years especially, our government grew and grew and one of the things that grew out of it was the nefarious “blob” dedicated to protecting the self-enlarging perquisites and interests of that government. Blobs will absorb things they encounter, and in a predatory way, the US government blob absorbed the US news media. The blob transformed the news into an engine for suppressing the facts or spinning them narratively when they could not be suppressed, in order to maximize the advantage of the government and to protect the operations of the blob itself.
It is also a fact that this blob is aligned mostly with Democratic Party, because that party is most avid for the continuing growth of government, and its members overwhelmingly dominate in the officialdom that dwells inside the DC Beltway.
The numbers speak for themselves on the DC voter rolls.
So, a new government under Mr. Trump is feared cringingly by the news media.
Germany’s Economic And Political Suicide
It’s that festive time of the year when interesting tales get told around a fireplace. So here goes (minus the fireplace).
Once upon a time there lived a country that was the envy of the world. It was among the world’s pre-eminent producers of manufactured goods. From chemicals and pharmaceuticals to precision engineering and the brewing of beer, it was second to none. Its people’s work skills, industriousness and discipline became the national hallmark of civilisational success. The country gained fame and fortune in bringing the luxuries of fine automobiles to the world’s rich and aspiring middle classes.
Alas, a blight visited that once great country not more than a score of years ago, though its destructive seed had been planted earlier. It was not some external force or act of God. Rather it was a sickness of the mind, a debilitating disease of the soul, that vexed that country’s ruling class. In restless search for virtue, the country’s rulers paid obeisance to the Goddess Gaia and promised the nation’s blood and treasure to satiate her inviolable sovereignty over her earthly domains.
This, then, is a tale of woe and misery. This Christmas shall not have been one of unalloyed merry times and good cheer. And while beer will have been drunk and dinners eaten in many a hearth and eating place, the lifeblood of that nation shall be constricted and its breathing blocked by a cursed phlegm as normal life resumes in the New Year.
Within the fateful score of years of becoming afflicted by the primordial cult of Gaia, the world’s envy has now become a sad basket case. Its economy has been tarnished as “the sick man of Europe”.
The beginning of the end of the German miracle
While the travails of Germany along with the economic stagnation of Europe as a whole have been apparent for some years now, the spate of dire headlines have gathered pace in recent weeks as the coalition government collapsed.
“Behind Germany’s Political Turmoil, a Stagnating Economy” — New York Times (December 17th)
“Germany Is Unraveling Just When Europe Needs It Most” – Bloomberg (December 15th)
“Europe’s Economic Apocalypse Is Now” – Politico (December 19th)
If Europe – and its economic powerhouse Germany – remains on its current trajectory, its future, Politico says, “will also be Italian: that of a decaying, if beautiful, debt-ridden, open-air museum for American and Chinese tourists”.
The economic rot induced by the adoption of Energiewende policies for the “energy transition” in 2010 resulted ultimately in the recession of the German economy in the last two years.
Among the manifestations of this rot are the growth of corporate bankruptcies in double digits, soaring layoffs as the Federal Employment Agency said that the unemployment figure could exceed the three million mark for the first time in 10 years at the beginning of 2025, and the crown jewel of German industry, its automative sector, announcing massive job cuts.
The West’s Era Of Dominance Is Over, “Europe’s Decline Is Undeniable”
Only a few years ago, most of Western Europe seemed like a fortress of stability in international politics. With robust economies, solid social systems, and the grand edifice of “European integration,” it gave an impression of permanence, impervious even to major geopolitical upheavals.
Now, however, it has become an inexhaustible source of peculiar headlines and confusion.
We see endless talk of sending “European peacekeepers” to Ukraine, drawn-out dramas over forming a government in France, or pre-election storms in a teacup in Germany. There are attempts to meddle in the Middle East, and above all, a deluge of irresponsible, often meaningless statements from Western European politicians. For outsiders, these developments provoke a mix of bemusement and concern.
In Russia, the Western side of our shared continent’s apparent decline is met with suspicion but also a certain sadness. For centuries, Western Europe has been both an existential threat and a source of inspiration for Russia. Peter the Great famously reformed the country to borrow the best from European thoughts and culture. In the 20th century, the Soviet Union, despite great sacrifices, secured victory over Nazi Germany during World War II. And for many Russians, Western Europe has long been an “Eden,” offering respite from what were often harsh realities back home.
But a Western Europe that is economically unstable, politically chaotic, and intellectually stagnant is no longer the same as what once inspired reforms or envy. It’s no longer a place Russia can look to as a neighbor worth emulating or even fearing.
How the rest of the world sees ‘Europe’
For most of the world, Western Europe’s problems provoke only curiosity. Major powers like China and India are happy to trade with its various countries and benefit from its technology and investment. But if Western Europe were to disappear from the global stage tomorrow, it wouldn’t disrupt their plans for the future. These nations are vast civilizations in their own right, historically shaped far more by internal dynamics than by European influence.
Meanwhile, African and Arab nations still view Western Europe through the lens of colonialism. For them, its decline is of material interest but little emotional consequence. Türkiye sees European countries as prey, aging and weakened rivals. Even the United States, a supposed ally, approaches the continent’s crises with a businesslike detachment, focused solely on how to maximize its own interests at Europe’s expense.
Red Flags: Recognizing the Signs of Political Manipulation
When you hear politicians speak, you’re often not hearing the full truth—you’re hearing what they want you to believe. Their speeches, press conferences, and interviews are carefully crafted to make you feel a certain way or see an issue from their perspective. But what happens when those messages twist facts, hide agendas, or manipulate emotions?
The good news is this: you can spot political manipulation if you know what to look for. Whether it’s an empty promise, a misleading statistic, or an attack meant to distract you, there are clear red flags you can identify to protect yourself from being misled. Here’s how.
Elon Musk’s AfD Endorsement Triggers EU Push for Stricter Censorship Under Digital Services Act
Elon Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has sparked significant controversy, particularly among European political figures concerned about the potential for what they call “foreign interference” in Germany’s upcoming elections.
Musk, the CEO of X, voiced his support for some of AfD’s policies following a deadly terror attack in Germany. His comments have raised alarm among EU officials, prompting calls for increased scrutiny of the X app and its compliance with the EU’s stringent censorship laws.
Thierry Breton, the European Union’s former Commissioner, took to X to express his outrage over Musk’s support for AfD. In a tweet posted on December 21, Breton accused Musk of being involved in “foreign interference” in Germany’s electoral process, especially given the timing of his comments around the tragic attack in Magdeburg.
Breton, who has been an advocate for strict censorship of social media platforms, and even threatened Elon Musk for over his interview with President Donald Trump, also called for the immediate application of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) to combat what he described as “double standards” when it comes to regulating speech online.
Top Democrat on House Oversight Committee Promises ‘Trench Warfare’ Against Trump’s Agenda
The incoming House Oversight Committee Democrat Ranking Member has promised to carry out “trench warfare” against Donald Trump’s political agenda.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who narrowly defeated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to serve as the head Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement that he would go all out to try and quash Republican reforms.
“We know what the Republican playbook will be,” Connolly wrote in a statement following his victory. “We’ve seen it before. They have demonstrated that they are willing to traffic in debunked conspiracy theories and enable the worst abuses of the Trump administration.”
“This will be trench warfare. Now is not the time to be timid,” he continued. “I promise the American people that our Committee Democrats will be a beacon of truth and prepared from Day One to counter Republican gaslighting.”
“We will be disciplined. We will be laser focused in getting results on the kitchen table issues that affect the American people the most. We will stand up for our democracy and for truth. And we will protect the tremendous and historic progress we have made as House Democrats.”
Hellbound and Down 
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