Free Speech Group Slams Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro’s Gag Order on Public Employees
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | September 13, 2024
The Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE) has condemned a new executive order issued in Pennsylvania as unconstitutional, where that pertains to the First Amendment speech protections.
Governor Josh Shapiro’s move, described by the group as a “sweeping gag order” targeting public employees, is believed to be so egregious that FIRE is at the same time urging those affected across the state to join forces and challenge it in court.
The executive order prohibits anyone in the public sector – teachers, librarians, those working for utility companies among them – from making statements that can be interpreted as “scandalous” or “disgraceful.”
These changes to the code of conduct were added in May, in an “under-the-radar” fashion, but with rather significant impact: the code of conduct was now being extended to cover speech as well.
And these amended rules apply both to employees while at work, and off duty, FIRE remarks, bringing up a key question: who will decide what’s scandalous and disgraceful to the point that it must be punished?
“Impossibly vague” is how FIRE treats the wording of the order, which it believes merits a class action suit to overturn what is condemned as unconstitutional government overreach.
“No elected official can slap a gag order like this on state workers,” said FIRE’s director of public advocacy, Aaron Terr, adding that the group regards it as an abuse of power and hopes to team up with those affected for a legal battle.
In August, FIRE tried to communicate to the Pennsylvania governor that the rules were violating the First Amendment, in the hope of avoiding a lawsuit.
The August letter was ignored by Shapiro’s office. Back in May, those behind the contested changes made it obvious what prompted them: a war in the Middle East.
We obtained a copy of the second letter for you here.
In order to bring “moral clarity” into the way people are allowed to speak about that, concepts like “antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate speech” are mentioned as being on the rise in Pennsylvania, the US, and the whole world.
But Tarr is unimpressed. “The state is strategically putting all the chess pieces in place to punish everyday Americans for nothing more than saying something the government doesn’t like,” is his take on the true nature of all this.
And, Tarr added, “Our job is to smack those pieces off the board before someone gets fired for speaking their mind.”
Four Americans convicted for ‘conspiring’ with Russia
RT | September 13, 2024
Four US black rights activists have been convicted of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents, the Justice Department has announced. They have been acquitted, however, of a more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government.
A Florida jury found four defendants – Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess, Jesse Nevel, and Augustus C. Romain Jr. – guilty “of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government,” the Justice Department said on Thursday.
“Each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set,” it added.
The trial was part of longer-running US legal proceedings against Russian human rights activist Aleksandr Ionov, who heads the Russian Anti-Globalization Movement. According to prosecutors, the four defendants carried out actions in the US between 2015 and 2022 on behalf of the Russian government and received money and support from Ionov, who was allegedly in contact with Russian intelligence.
Yeshitela, Hess, and Nevel had also been charged with the more serious crime of acting as agents of a foreign government, although jurors cleared them of those charges.
The Justice Department claimed that the Americans all knew Ionov, who has also been indicted in the US in connection with the case but is not under arrest, worked for the Russian government.
All four of those convicted are or were affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which defends the rights of African people. They include the movement’s 82-year-old leader, Yeshitela, as well as members Hess, 78 and Nevel, 34. Former member Romain, 38, founded the Atlanta-based Black Hammer Party in 2018.
The defense, meanwhile, claimed that the government had prosecuted the accused simply for their pro-Russian views.
“This case has always been about free speech,” Hess’ attorney, Leonard Goodman, told the AFP news agency.
In an interview with RT last week, Ionov said that in the absence of any evidence, the US government had leveraged its foreign agents laws.
“Over two years, our counterparts have been unable to find any evidence” and used “the entire list of restrictions and limitations that could be imposed,” he claimed.
Yeshitela, speaking to a crowd outside the courthouse after the trial, said it was important that “they were unable to convict us of working for anybody except black people.” He stressed that he was “willing to be charged and found guilty of working for black people.”
The defense noted that none of the 12 jurors was black. After the dismissal of a black woman from the original line-up in week two of the trial, the judge refused the defense’s request to replace her with an alternate black juror.
EU could cut funding to German state of Thuringia if AfD forms government
The German state of Thuringia could get the Hungary treatment from the EU if the “wrong” government comes to power
Remix News – September 12, 2024
The EU could hit the German state of Thuringia with €1.5 billion in funding cuts if it exercises democracy and installs the wrong government led by the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The proposal to cut funding to the entire German state comes from the influential Jacques Delors Centre (JDC), a think tank at the Hertie School in Berlin, with a former EU commission advisor, Luise Quaritsch, suggesting cutting EU funding if the AfD comes to power.
She writes: “Right-wing populist and extreme parties are gaining support across Europe,” and the consequences of this can be seen “in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.”
In the case of Hungary and Poland, the EU has already been active using its “rule-of-law” instrument, which is a relatively new tool Brussels gained back in 2020. It has allowed Brussels to freeze billions of funding to Hungary in an attempt to oust Viktor Orbán’s government from power.
However, she argues that such a tool is not only suitable for states, but also for regions within nations, writing that Brussels can “use almost all of its instruments to take action against the authoritarian government of a federal state.”
She writes that the EU should cut all of Thuringia’s funds, totaling €1.5 billion, which it was supposed to receive from 2021 to 2027.
“This sum could have a serious impact on Thuringia’s regional and economic development and thus put a state government under pressure,” she writes.
These EU funds make up 15 percent of the state’s structural funds. She writes that the decision should still be taken carefully, but she argues that the EU has such power. She points out that such a tool has already been used in Poland against regions that had alleged “LGBT-free zones.”
Quaritsch recommends using Articles 258 and 260 TFEU to convict a state government that does not implement EU laws promptly or fails to uphold fundamental rights. However, such procedures can take years. She thus says that using the “conditionality mechanism,” which has also been used against Hungary and Poland, could help the EU immediately freeze funds.
AfD’s first-place finish in Thuringia and close second-place finish in Saxony have sent the political establishment in Berlin and Brussels into a meltdown, which has already led to a range of threats.
If the EU does decide to cut funding to Thuringia, such a move could also backfire. For one, Thuringia is an east German state, and many voters there may react with outrage if such an action is taken, including Christian Democratic (CDU) voters. Furthermore, Germany as a whole is a net contributor to the EU. While Thuringia is not as rich as some of the states in western Germany, voters and the state are not so dependent on EU largesse as other Eastern European nations.
Australia’s Latest Censorship Bill Threatens Big Fines Over Online “Misinformation”
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | September 12, 2024
Australia on Thursday introduced a new version of the upcoming legislation – slated to become law by the end of the year – targeting tech companies that are not tackling what the authorities decide to consider misinformation and disinformation.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
While the government explains the new bill as necessary to “crackdown on misinformation” – opponents see it as just the latest example of the government scheming to crack down on online speech.
The ruling Labor party is tabling this latest draft as a way to address previous criticism of the bill. It would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) the right to monitor online platforms and enforce new codes or standards on the industry – in case their actions are seen as inadequate under the “self-regulating voluntary” rules.
So much for the “voluntary” component of the narrative (also to be found in various EU directives). Long story short, in Australia with the new proposal of the bill – if tech platforms are found to be in breach of it, they will be fined the equivalent of 5% of their global revenue.
Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland is behind this draft as well, and this time around she is sugarcoating it as featuring “a very high threshold” for serious harm and verifiably false content.
Sadly, the reports out of Australia do not dwell on what exactly passes off as “high threshold” in Australia these days.
Instead, there are a lot of quotes that all seem to come from one and the same global memo. And let nobody conflate this kind of legislative effort with, say, government-empowered censorship. Michelle Rowland said not to.
“This is not about individual pieces of content, it’s not about the regulator being able to act on those, it’s about the platforms doing what they said they’ll do,” the official is quoted as saying.
In other words, platforms better self-censor (the exact same sentiment behind all those “voluntary codes”) – to save the Australian government the grief of openly censoring them instead.
Meanwhile, Rowland made it clear that the platforms, at least in her country, are seen as curators, rather than “passive purveyors of content.” … When that suits the government, that is.
Bill Gates Wants AI-Based Real-Time Censorship for Vaccine “Misinformation”
By Didi Rankovic – Reclaim The Net – September 11, 2024
Microsoft founder Bill Gates continues with his crusade, as part of the mission of the Gates Foundation, to not only proliferate the use of vaccines but find new justifications to in effect, force them onto those skeptical or unwilling.
One of the methods Gates has clearly identified as helpful in achieving this goal is hitching his “vaccine wagon” to the massive, ongoing scaremongering campaign and narrative around “misinformation” and “AI.”
Gates spoke for CNBC to reveal he may be a vaccine absolutist – but not a free-speech one. He also didn’t sound convinced that America’s Constitution and its speech protections are the right way to go when he brought up the need for “boundaries” allowing some new “rules.”
Gates’ argument incorporates all the main talking points against free speech: misinformation, incorrect information (aka, fake news), violence, and online harassment. And, he sneaked in vaccines in there, while making a case for “rules” in the US as well.
“We should have free speech, but if you’re inciting violence, if you’re causing people not to take vaccines, where are those boundaries that even the US should have rules? And then if you have rules, what is it?” Gates is quoted as saying.
He was evasive on who the authority to introduce that might be, but he clearly wants censorship and wants it to act swiftly. “Is there some AI that encodes those rules because you have billions of activity and if you catch it a day later, the harm is done,” he said.
In case somebody happens to not like Gates, and his lecturing the entire world what it should and shouldn’t do, they’re out of luck: he appears to be on a press tour to promote a Netflix “docuseries” that will have no less than five parts, and is called, “What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates.”
But looking back at “the past with Bill Gates” is never a bad idea. We can see Windows, which he now tells CNBC he was allegedly naive about and thought it would only be used for “productive and responsible purposes” as most people would want to have a computer at home.
What they got with Windows, however, is a virus-laden operating system, “a menace to society” in its own way, going decades without proper innovation, while Microsoft was seen by critics as going after open-source competition like a monopolistic, anti-competitive corporate bully.
But here is Gates now, to tell us what our future should look like.
Walaa Tanja ordered to 6 more months of arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network | September 11, 2024
Walaa Khaled Tanja grew up in Balata refugee camp (Nablus), in a family with a strong history of resistance for Palestinian liberation. At the age of 15, she received her mother, Latifa Abu Dara, on Al-Quds Street near the Huwarra checkpoint, when she was released as part of the Wafaa Al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011.
Her mother was later martyred due to cancer and her brother has also been repeatedly pursued, imprisoned and wounded by occupation soldiers.
Walaa was arrested on August 20th 2022, with Tahrir Abu Sariya and Maryam Arafat, and accused of attempting to carry out an armed operation in retaliation for the murder of Ibrahim Al Nabulsi. The occupation claimed that they opened fire on soldiers at the “Kedumim” illegal colonial settlement near the occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus and Qalqilya.
Walaa was released on November 24th 2023, as part of the first batch of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, in which 13 Israeli women and children were exchanged for 39 Palestinian women and children who were held hostage by the occupation.
This interrupted Walaa’s original 7-year sentence and she was welcomed home by her family. However, due to the heavy repression by the occupation, no big celebration was possible.
After her release, Walaa expressed her feelings about her liberation thanks to the Resistance in Gaza.
On March 12th 2024, while she was arriving to Tulkarem from Nablus together with her 16-year-old cousin, occupation special forces attacked the car with their guns pointed at them, and seized Walaa once again. She was taken to a military camp, then to Hasharon crossing and then to Damon prison.
Her abduction clearly broke the prisoner exchange agreement, which has now been done several times by the occupation.
Walaa was ordered to six months in “administrative detention” — arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable. On 11 September 2024, her detention was extended for another six months. We urge immediate liberation for Walaa Khaled Tanja, together with the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
Follow the Dismantle Damon campaign for more updates on Palestinian women prisoners.
ISM response to Biden’s statement on the murder of Aysenur Eygi
International Solidarity Movement | September 11, 2024
On 11 September 2024, President Biden claimed to be “outraged” and “deeply saddened” by Israel’s murder of our comrade Aysenur Eygi, but his actions tell a very different story. While he described the shooting as “unacceptable,” he is refusing the family’s demand for an independent, transparent investigation and continuing to trust the murderers to investigate themselves. Aysenur’s family and the ISM have been clear that we have no confidence in any Israeli investigation, given the Israeli army’s longstanding practice of using investigations as exculpatory coverups. We continue to demand a transparent and independent investigation.
For the United States government to accept the results of Israel’s internal military investigations is a complete dereliction of the US government’s responsibility to its own citizens, but it is nothing new. In 2003, the US did nothing to hold the Israeli killers of Rachel Corrie responsible for that murder. In recent years, the US has done nothing when Palestinian Americans, like Shireen Abu Akleh, have been murdered by Israel. President Biden is pursuing business as usual and allowing Israel to continue to kill both US Citizens and Palestinians with total impunity.
President Biden’s disrespect for Aysenur’s family and community extends even further. Although Aysenur’s family is mourning the death of a US citizen, his administration has yet to pick up the phone and call the family to offer condolences. He asserts that he will remain in contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities but is unwilling to communicate with the ordinary people who were closest to Aysenur.
In his statement, President Biden asserts that he treats “violent extremist Israeli settlers” and “Palestinian terrorists” equally and implies that the violence in the West Bank is equally the fault of both groups. Both assertions are false. President Biden’s administration arms the violent Israeli extremists, as ISM volunteers can testify to based on our extensive experience doing protective presence work in the West Bank face to face with Israeli settlers armed with US weapons. These are the same weapons that make the US complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As long as the US continues to send weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in the West Bank, the US is sustaining the violent extremism of the Israeli settlers and the Israeli government. Meanwhile, President Biden’s false equivalence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank elides the fact that the current violence has its roots in over a hundred years of settler colonial terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and now genocide, all perpetrated by Israel. Contrary to what President Biden asserts, it is Zionist colonization that is the obstacle to peace.
Ultimately, it is hypocritical for President Biden to attempt to change the focus to Israeli settlers alone, given that the Israeli army killed Aysenur with weapons likely provided by the Biden administration, which is fully aware that they are used to attack people protesting or witnessing demonstrations against illegal settlements. As one American ISM volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous says, “When I was detained by the Israeli army for my nonviolent work with ISM, everything I saw in the army van was stamped with ‘made in the USA’ or ‘property of the USA.’” As Amado Sison, another American citizen shot by Israel in August during the weekly demonstrations in Beita noted, “The money I pay in my taxes as a teacher probably funded the bullet they have run through me.” President Biden and his administration are complicit in Aysenur’s death and his statement today attempts to elide what the whole world knows: Israel’s violence is funded, sustained, supported, and endorsed by the US. Honoring Aysenur’s memory requires a complete change of policy, starting with an independent, transparent investigation and extending to an arms embargo.
Buffer zones, new Israeli means of seizing control of West Bank
By Fayha’ Shalash | Al Mayadeen | September 10, 2024
In mid-August, Alaa Srouji was surprised when the Israeli army handed him a notice to remove his greenhouses near Tulkarm.
The official reason was that he did not have a permit for them, but when the other farmers in the area received similar notices at the same time, concerns were raised. Many now suspect that “Israel” may be planning to establish a buffer zone in the Shweika Plain area.
Israeli media reported that settlers have been calling for the establishment of buffer zones, under the pretext of preventing armed infiltration of Israeli-occupied territory, similar to what happened on October 7.
However, Palestinian human rights and research centers have confirmed that these allegations cover dangerous goals: seizing additional Palestinian land to further settlement expansion.
Will be demolished at any moment
Srouji is a member of the Sun Roots Agricultural Cooperative Society, which plays a major role in helping farmers in Tulkarm in the face of Israeli policies.
But these efforts became subject to restrictions after the Israeli army handed them notices to demolish two greenhouses in the Shweika Plain under the pretext that they were not licensed.
“Although the greenhouses have been there for 14 years and provide livelihoods for many farmers and locals, Israel now intends to remove them,” he told Al Mayadeen English.
At the same time, six other farmers were told to disassemble their greenhouses or refrain from accessing their cultivated lands in the same area, all under the same pretext.
The association submitted an objection but didn’t receive any response. With the deadline for objections passing in early September, the greenhouses now face the imminent threat of demolition at any moment.
“When we submitted the objection, we learned that the reason for the notice was the proximity of the facilities to the Beit Hefer settlement, even though it is about 400 meters away,” he added.
Forbidden lands
The establishment of buffer zones in the West Bank is divided into two parts: one separates the Palestinians from the apartheid wall that “Israel” erected in 2002, encircling the Palestinian lands, while the other surrounds the settlements scattered throughout the West Bank.
Last November, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich emphasized “the necessity of establishing buffer zones around West Bank settlements to protect them from any attack,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
In February, the Israeli army issued a decision to seize 18 dunams of land from the village of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, citing “urgent military purposes” as the justification.
However, the villagers soon discovered that the decision was actually aimed at establishing a buffer zone around the Mitzpe Dani settlement, which was built on their lands.
The mayor of Deir Dibwan, Imad Musbih, told Al Mayadeen English that the seizure of these lands expresses the actual implementation of the buffer zone concept proposed by Smotrich last year.
The landowners were taken aback by this decision and tried to file objections, but to no avail, according to him. The Israeli goal, he said, is clear and resolute, and Palestinians are not allowed to stand against it.
“No one has been able to access the seized lands. They cannot cultivate them, nor graze livestock on them, nor even approach them under any circumstances”, he added.
In conjunction with the decision, the intensity of attacks by settlers coming from this settlement increased. They began to cross the seized lands and reach the village where they burned Palestinians’ vehicles, slaughtered their livestock, or destroyed their property.
All of this was done in front of the Israeli army and without any intervention to stop them. Rather, the soldiers attacked the Palestinians with gas and sound bombs and arrested them in case they tried to repel settler attacks.
New old policy
The sequence of events in the West Bank indicates that this policy is not new, but rather dates back to around three years, coinciding with the arrival of the current extremist Israeli government.
Raed Mukadi, a researcher at the Land Research Center, told Al Mayadeen English that about a year ago, an Israeli military decision was issued before the start of the olive harvest season, declaring certain areas off-limits to Palestinians. These restricted areas are concentrated south of Nablus, near Salfit, and parts of Tulkarm.
At the same time, there was another military decision in the al-Jalama area, north of Jenin, to stop building and removing facilities around the apartheid wall under the pretext of security reasons.
“It is an Israeli plan aiming to evacuate Palestinian lands close to the apartheid wall and settlements,” he explained.
According to him, the most dangerous thing is that preventing access to these lands might be a prelude to expanding settlements, constructing roads, or establishing military camps and army headquarters under security pretexts. This would effectively block their agricultural use or construction, leading to significant losses for the Palestinians.
“After the aggression on Gaza, many areas were closed off, including large tracts of land in the West Bank. For instance, access was blocked to 18,000 dunams in the Ya’bad Plain south of Jenin, with these areas being completely shut off. It remains unclear whether this closure is temporary or permanent, which complicates the ability to determine the total area of land that has been converted into buffer zones,” he said.
Coinciding with the aggression against Gaza, the Israeli government announced a state of emergency, which means giving full authority to the Israeli army to act and make unfair military decisions, according to the prevailing conditions.
The IOF actually began to seize vast areas near the settlements, settlement streets, military towers, and the apartheid wall, all of which were issued by senior Israeli authorities under the pretext of preventing Palestinian attacks, as he said.
UK’s Caroline Dinenage “delighted” to keep embarrassing herself
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | September 11, 2024
The UK has a new/old chair of the parliament’s Culture, Media and Sports Committee – and she is yet another champion of (obliging) Big Tech, and a veteran in the “war on disinformation,” but also attempts to demonetize “disfavored” public figures.
Caroline Dinenage keeps failing upwards: she has just been reelected to this role, after last year embarrassing herself by trying to pressure X and Rumble, and other platforms and media to demonetize actor Russell Brand because of anonymous allegations against him.
The Committee that scrutinizes the activities of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (BBC included), has a Sub-Committee specifically focused on what are considered online harms and disinformation, as well as UK’s sweeping censorship law, Online Safety Act.
It is from this position that Dinenage last fall decided it was a good idea to turn to X with the demand to cut Brand off from his revenue on the platform because of the (to this day unproven) accusations.
X refused. And the company explained why to the British MP in a letter that underscored commitment not only to free speech, but also X’s own terms of service.
“We do not take action on accounts where they have not violated our own rules or local laws (Brand was not at the time, and is still not charged with any crime). This is essential to protect free expression on the service,” the letter read, adding that all, including monetized content, is subject to X’s rules and user agreement.
X wasn’t the only platform Dinenage went to in a bid to swiftly deprive Brand of money: YouTube was one of them, and lo and behold, this one went along, demonetizing Brand in October 2023. All this happened before the alleged victims and the alleged perpetrator had undergone any due process.
And for a British MP to pressure platforms to punish someone essentially based on hearsay at that point is what famed journalist Glenn Greenwald called “preposterous.”
Rumble was another platform Dinenage urged to demonetize Brand last year. That would be a no, ma’am – was the essence of the free speech video platform’s response to Dinenage.
“We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so,” Rumble’s letter said, among other things.
But now, Dinenage – once a recipient of a non-monetary grant from Google – shared that she is “delighted” to continue where she left off with the previous parliament’s Culture, Media and Sports Committee.
Pro-War Lobby Attacks Alleged ‘Russian Influencers’
Photo Credit: http://www.kremlin.ru
By Ted Galen Carpenter | The Libertarian Institute | September 10, 2024
In recent weeks, there has been a surge of allegations that Moscow has long orchestrated an illegal campaign to influence U.S. public opinion. On September 4, 2024, the U.S. Justice Department charged two Russian media executives with an alleged scheme that authorities say illegally funneled millions of dollars to a Tennessee-based company called Tenet to create and publish propaganda videos that subsequently racked up millions of views on American social media. In a separate legal action, prosecutors seized thirty-two Russian-controlled internet domains that were used in a state-controlled effort called “Doppelganger” to undermine international support for Ukraine. As an aside to such legal maneuvers, U.S. officials contended that 1,800 Westerners, including twenty-one Americans, were guilty of acting as “influencers” on behalf of Russia.
The Justice Department filed an even more high-profile case the next day, accusing Dimitri Simes, founder of the Center for the National Interest, and his wife Anastasia, of illegally accepting more than $1 million in salary and other benefits from the state-owned Channel One Russia television station and trying to conceal the payments.
The Joe Biden administration is shamelessly hyping the prosecutions to smear anyone who criticizes or even questions U.S. policy towards Russia. Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins notes that Russian propaganda efforts in the United States have been spectacularly ineffective over the years. Nevertheless, Attorney General Merrick Garland, in announcing the latest prosecutions, asserted that “Russian disinformation is ‘a bigger threat’ than ever.” Garland’s smears were often stunningly vague, though. For example, he conceded that “the Kremlin-influenced U.S. influencers were unaware they were benefiting from Russian money.” That statement comes alarmingly close to contending that pro-Russian “influencers” were unintentional criminals. Garland stated, for example, “subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company [Tenet] were often consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.” Such a vague standard also gives an administration virtually a blank check to harass its ideological or political opponents.
There were several suspicious aspects about the Justice Department’s moves. One was the timing. The indictments took place just days before the scheduled debate between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The inflammatory tone in media articles from The Washington Post and other establishment publications dealing with these new prosecutions even more strongly suggests that partisanship is at play. For example, the Post’s headline read: “Trump-aligned Russian TV host charged in alleged sanctions scheme.”
However, there also seemed to be more than petty partisanship involved. Dimitri Simes, in particular, had long been an irritant to hawks in America’s national security state. His efforts to improve relations between Washington and Moscow especially were deeply resented by Russia haters in the powerful pro-war lobby. That hostility was magnified because of the prominence that The National Interest had achieved under Simes’ leadership.
The Biden administration’s ongoing campaign to squelch dissent about Russia policy is profoundly menacing and worrisome. I have published several articles in The National Interest over the years and have been a contributing editor to that publication. Given my interactions with Dimitri Simes, I have extensive doubts about whether he is guilty of the charges against him.
But even in the unlikely event that the charges are accurate, there are other, more fundamental issues that should concern all Americans. The statutes that he is accused of violating are sufficiently vague as to pose a threat to freedom of speech, in particular badly needed debates on numerous international issues like the tense relations between Russia and the United States. Could, for example, publishing an article in The National Interest or participating in a discussion sponsored by the Center inadvertently violate pertinent statutes? What about a paid interview? How could an author or participant be confident one way or the other? The mere existence of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and various sanctions laws directed against specific countries pose an intolerable mess to the First Amendment.
The overall rationale for prosecuting alleged “influencers” should offend every American who believes in freedom of expression. Preventing American citizens from accessing pro-Russian viewpoints is inappropriate in what purports to be a free, democratic society. That is true even if the Russian government is funding and directing such propaganda.
Moreover, Washington’s hypocrisy on the issue is truly breathtaking. The U.S. government directly and through front groups spends billions of dollars each year propagandizing foreign audiences with material that, not accidentally, also frequently ends up impacting domestic opinion. There is credible evidence that both U.S. and foreign journalists have been paid by the CIA to disseminate Washington’s propaganda. Evidence has even emerged that (primarily in Middle Eastern countries) the United States government established bogus “independent” media outlets to serve the same purpose.
Beyond such mundane measures, the U.S. propaganda apparatus has developed an especially close and unhealthy relationship with its Ukrainian counterpart. Washington has even funded and promoted Ukrainian government agencies that target and harass American critics who dare seek an end to NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The latest Justice Department actions suggest that Washington’s ugly campaign remains intact.
It is especially ironic (as well as infuriating) for U.S. officials such as Attorney General Merrick Garland to grouse about Russia’s efforts to reduce U.S. and international support for Ukraine. The Biden administration has waged a massive effort to echo and amplify Kiev’s propaganda in the United States as well as around the world. Most galling of all, the administration has worked with the Ukrainian government to suppress dissent in the United States about U.S. policy on the Russia-Ukraine war. In a truly free society, citizens must not be threatened by their own government for failing to support a particular foreign policy. The latest Justice Department prosecutions violate the most fundamental features of a democratic system.
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Book Review
Palantir CEO Calls for Draft to Fight the Empire’s Wars
Involuntary servitude is good for business
By Kurt Nimmo | Another Day in the Empire | April 20, 2026
In 2025, Alex Karp, the CEO of government and military tech contractor Palantir, published The New York Times best-seller, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West. The Wall Street Journal praised the book as a cri de coeur, a passionate appeal “that takes aim at the tech industry for abandoning its history of helping America and its allies,” while Wired praised the book as a “readable polemic that skewers Silicon Valley for insufficient patriotism.”
On April 18, 2026, Palantir posted twenty-two points to social media summarizing the book. In addition to taking Silicon Valley to task for insufficient patriotism, advocating a role for AI in forever war, and denouncing the “psychologization of modern politics,” the Palantir post on X declares: “National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.”
National conscription, a form of involuntary servitude, and the wars it portends, is good for business, especially for corporations within the orbit of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the national security state. Palantir fits comfortably within this amalgamation. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- The Voters’ Self-Induced Matrix
- Douglas Macgregor: No Peace – U.S. Prepares for ‘Total War’ Against Iran
- How A Fake Iranian Terror Group Was Invented To Proscribe IRGC in Europe
- Iran’s judiciary rejects Trump’s claim on ‘planned execution’ of 8 women
- Israeli army blows up school in southern Lebanon in violation of ceasefire
- The desalination front: Water as Israel’s Achilles heel
- Washington cuts flow of US dollars to Iraqi central bank until ‘acceptable’ government formed
- China blames US for diplomatic impasse with Iran, urges it to show ‘sincerity’ in talks
- Iran announces new Hormuz restrictions after US ceasefire violations
- After Islamabad: How the Global South Is Reshaping Eurasian Geopolitics
- If Americans Knew
- Israeli soldiers using sexual assault to force Palestinians out of West Bank, report says
- Top Biden Official Supports Trump Iran Attack, Says Biden May Have Done The Same
- A history of Israel’s invasions of Lebanon
- How the powerful pro-Israel lobby keeps controlling Democrats in the US
- Replay: Israel’s slow ethnic cleansing of Christians from the Holy Land
- 5 times Israelis desecrated Christian sites in the past two years
- US running out of weaponry for Israel’s war; Iran has plenty – Daily Update
- Israel is (still) killing aid workers in Gaza
- Catholics finally splitting with Trump over Iran war and Israel
- Israel’s “Black Wednesday” Massacre Leaves Lebanese Families Giving DNA To ID Loved One’s Remains
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: The Climate May Be 5 Times More Sensitive To Solar Forcing Than Commonly Assumed
- EV Industry Reached $70 Billion In Losses In 2024 Due To Delusional Green Ideologies
- Reality Check: Maldives Have Actually Grown In Size Or Remained Stable Over Recent Decades
- Abrupt Climate Change Also Occurred NATURALLY In The Past …25 Times During Last Ice Age
- Cave Discovery Reveals Today’s Desert Climates Were Recently Far Warmer, Wetter, Teeming With Life
- German Expert: Heat Dome Led To Record Temps In Western USA…Warmer In 1934, 1936
- New Study: No Linear Warming Or Glacier Retreat Along Northern Antarctic Peninsula Since 1980s
- An Inconvenient Tree: Uncovered In Alps… Europe Much Warmer Than Today 6000 Years Ago
- New Study Reports A 60% Slowdown In Greenland’s Ice Loss Rate In The Last Decade
- Low Intensity Tornado Wrecks Major Solar Farm, Creating A Potential Toxic Dump
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