- This is more a confirmation than a revelation.
The Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor content on its platform relating to COVID-19 and other major stories, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed in a Monday letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Nevertheless, Zuckerberg admitted Facebook’s culpability in censorship that took place on the platform. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
This isn't a First Amendment violation per se, as there were no laws crafted which infringed upon speech. In addition to that, Zuckerberg would've been well within his rights to tell the Biden administration to pound sand and they would've had zero recourse against him. But this is also another lesson in how one shouldn't give government even one inch of latitude when it comes to our civil liberties, as it would soon turn into them demanding a country mile.
While Zuck's letter is a nice start, it shouldn't be the end. A lot of prominent medical professionals had their reputations undermined when their Facebook posts addressing the COVID-19 pandemic were labeled "misinformation," despite ultimately being vindicated (but only after having their good names sullied). I'm thinking a full autopsy should be performed in the motif of what occurred when Elon Musk took over Twitter.
- Not being a career politician is a good thing. But if one is attempting to run for the highest office in the land, one should possess at least a modicum of political acumen.
Donald Trump clearly does not.
If this is an attempt to draw in "pro choice" voters, it ain't gonna work. Trump is seen as the guy whose U.S. Supreme Court appointments shifted the balance of power in the Court, thus allowing them to overturn Roe v. Wade. No, he's forever out of their good graces. If anything, this will serve to hurt Trump among prolife voters (perhaps the most loyal GOP voting bloc in the party's history) given "reproductive rights" is a leftist euphemism for abortion.
If you're wondering why Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris has basically ducked all press coverage since the millisecond her boss endorsed her to replace him on the Dem ticket, it's because her surge in the polls has occurred largely due to her opponent committing political suicide. From Harris's perspective, why screw up a good thing?
- A silver lining in the event we have a President Kamala Harris come 1/20/2025? The Republicans are in a really good position to flip the U.S. Senate.
Three-term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) has been trailing GOP challenger Tim Sheehy by at least six points for some time now. Given that all Republican held Senate seats up for election this cycle are labeled "Lean GOP" or better, they merely have to flip two seats to wrest control. With Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) not seeking reelection, ruby red West Virginia is a shoo-in to go Republican. There's also a fighting chance in Ohio with Sen. Sherrod Brown receiving a serious challenge from Republican candidate Bernie Moreno.
Given Republicans are vulnerable to the losing their razor-thin majority in the U.S. House, the Senate may be the one backstop against a progressive utopia which would include statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico (giving Dems four additional Senate seats in perpetuity), expansion of the Supreme Court, etc. I don't believe I've ever uttered the phrase "most important election in our history," but I'm hard pressed to recall a timeframe when America has been teetering on the brink of collapse moreso than in the past four years.
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