Commentary
What a wonderful week it has been for Americans who have been seeking retribution, accountability, defense of the First Amendment and the preservation of democracy.
We have Elon Musk, Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, Tyler Vargas-Andrews, Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Michael McCaul and Tucker Carlson to thank.
The likes of founders Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry and more recent respected individuals like Chesty Puller and Charles Pulitzer would be proud. Don’t laugh. Think about it.
The Weaponization Issue
Journalists Taibbi and Shellenberger, in testimony at the “Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the Twitter files” for the House Judiciary Committee, spoke of their invitation, and that of Bari Weiss, to take “a deep dive into what censorship and manipulation was going on at Twitter.”
(Note: While it is widely known that Musk invited the trio of journalists to review the Twitter files, Taibbi refused to testify that Musk was his source, taking the journalism position of not revealing his source.)
“The original promise of the Internet was that it might democratize the exchange of information globally,” said Taibbi, adding that “A free Internet would overwhelm all attempts to control information flow, its very existence a threat to anti-democratic forms of government everywhere.
“What we found in the files was a sweeping effort to reverse that promise and use machine learning and other tools to turn the Internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role.”
Taibbi spoke of Twitter, Facebook, Google and other companies having developed a formal system for taking in moderation “requests” from every corner of government: the FBI, DHS, HHS. DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA. Then there was the involvement of a host of quasi-private entities.
You may recall the series of meetings between agents of the FBI and Twitter employees prior to the 2020 presidential election, during which agents cautioned the social media outlet of disinformation regarding the Bidens.
The focus of this network, according to Taibbi, was the making of lists of people whose opinions, beliefs, associations, or sympathies were deemed “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “malinformation.” He referred to the lists as a form of McCarthyism of the 1950’s.
And, where were the members of the media when this was revealed? Instead of demanding to know more and investigating the media outlets, as Pulitzer would have encouraged, they “became an arm of a state-sponsored thought-policing system,” declared Taibbi.
‘So what? Why shouldn’t we eliminate disinformation?’ they foolishly thought, failing to recognize that the American public can make up their own minds as to what is the truth.
Jefferson would have been proud. He vehemently opposed such government- controlled censorship, believing that democracy cannot survive in a country where power is given to people “whose suspicions may be the evidence.”
“In a free society we don’t mandate truth,” said Taibbi, “we arrive at it through discussion and debate.”
The Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal
The well-known U.S. Marine hero, Lt. Gen. Chesty Puller, would have been proud of the testimony given by Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, during which he recounted how his warnings about a potential suicide bomber were ignored by leaders just minutes before the deadly blast at Kabul airport, killing 13 Americans, during Biden’s botched withdrawal of Afghanistan.
Before the blast, Vargas-Andrews, a sniper, and fellow Marines, were providing security from a tower near the gate where the blast occurred. With the intelligence he was provided about a potential suicide bomber, they spotted an individual matching the description. While observing the man’s movements, the sergeant sought permission up the chain, even to his battalion commander, to engage the suspect, but to no avail.
Speaking of the injuries he suffered from the blast, which resulted in 44 surgeries, the sergeant said, “Plain and simple, we were ignored.”
“We need to know where the decisions are made – the president, DOD, the Department of State – and whether they were properly carried out by the commanders on the ground,” Vargas-Andrews told the committee, adding that he had personally observed slow processing of requests made to the State Department.
Vargas-Andrews, who lost his right arm and left leg in the explosion, tearfully testified in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the Marine Corps or DOD, disappointed that he was never interviewed by State, NCIS or FBI following the event. “What difference does it make?” Hillary Clinton might tell him.
“The withdrawal was a catastrophe in my opinion, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence,” he concluded.
It was the committee’s first hearing on Afghanistan, culminating an 18-month effort by its chairman, McCaul, who began pursuing an investigation into the State Department’s role in the evacuation while in the minority.
Commenting on an abdication of the government’s duty to protect Americans, McCaul said, “The nation sustained moral injury from what happened.”
The Unseen Videos of January 6
Until Fox’s Tucker Carlson succeeded in getting the January 6 Capitol breaching tapes not used by the partisan House Select Committee on January 6, Americans only saw footage that supported the anti-Trump narrative.
While the left has been criticizing Carlson for his programming on January 6, one can assume it follows their lazy reporting that made it easier to assume the Democrat committee’s findings were legitimate. And why not attack Carlson while they were at it.
Democrat Chuck Schumer, who repeatedly speaks of the fragility of our democracy, insisted that Fox pull the Carlson programming from the air.
Not surprising, the weak-kneed Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Utah’s RINO Sen. Mitt Romney voiced opposition to Carlson’s exclusive, even though it provided footage not shown by the Democrats and included an on-camera interview with former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.
So much for transparency, free speech and the First Amendment.
Carlson was accused of cherry-picking the footage and heavy editing by those who seem to forget that the Democrats hired former ABC News president James Goldston to produce its series of six episodes broadcast nationally in prime time.
What we saw was tightly edited video of rioters smashing through windows, made more for TV than a congressional hearing, with a “get Trump” focus.
The left was critical of Carlson’s footage of Jacob Chansley, the behorned and painted Navy veteran, who became the face of the protest as Q-Anon Shaman.
The clips showed him calmly walking the halls of the Capitol with Capitol Police members as escorts. If he was the dangerous terrorist he was claimed to be, he could have been easily arrested. Instead, they allowed him into Senate chamber where he prayed for the police.
While he admitted to Judge Royce Lamberth that it was wrong for him to enter the Capitol, and that he accepts responsibility for his actions, he insisted that he wasn’t an insurrectionist. Yet, he was sentenced to 41 months in prison, about half of which has been served.
Shockingly, however, the select committee chairman, Mississippi’s Rep. Bennie Thompson said, “I don’t know who he is,” and in a stunning admission, confessed that he never analyzed the footage before his leftist show trial, and wasn’t “aware of any member of his committee who had access.”
Finally … for those skeptical about my inclusion of Speaker McCarthy as one of whom we should be proud … think about it. When he was vying for the speakership, he promised more transparency. He promised open investigations of the weaponization of government and its collusion with Big Tech (Twitter, Facebook, Google), the Afghan withdrawal, and a rebuttal of the left’s portrayal of January 6, just reviewed. There’s more still to come.
I am reminded of Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s book, “Do What You Said You Would Do.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
