Did Jen Psaki Actually Say That?

 Did Jen Psaki Actually Just Say That?

The View from the Middle

Just yesterday, Jen Psaki, the Whitehouse spokesperson, admitted that the Biden administration is colluding with Facebook and Twitter to block what they deem misinformation.  I don’t know what is more frightening, what she was admitting to or the fact that she was bold enough to say it out loud in front of reporters.  We should all, Democrats or Republicans, be absolutely outraged by this admission for a number of reasons.

First, this goes beyond being just inappropriate.  It is illegal and unconstitutional.  The first amendment clearly states that the government shall not abridge our right to free speech.  It is particularly heinous when the government provides liability protection for these big tech companies through section 230 of the Communications Act and then directs them to stifle speech that they think is incorrect or that they just don’t agree with.

Even if the government claims to be blocking inaccurate information, their track record stinks in recognizing what is actually misleading.  If the government had its way, for example, we would have never even heard about the possibility that the Wuhan Lab was the source of Covid-19.  The Biden Administration would have totally blocked this story which today, thanks to freedom of speech, is proving to be the most likely explanation for this global pandemic.

We would also have never heard about Hunter Biden’s lost laptop.  In the beginning, government sources declared that this story was nothing but lies and, in fact, the product of a Russian disinformation campaign.  Both Twitter and Facebook censored the New York Post’s account – Yes, the New York Post, the 4^th largest newspaper in America - because they claimed that the Hunter Biden computer story was based on “hacked” information from the Russians.  That has since been proven to be a pile of “you know what”, but with this new Orwellian speech and thought control we would have never heard of Hunter’s emails revealing his drug addled life and Joe Biden’s (The Big Guy’s) financial participation in it.  

Just yesterday, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Minority Leader in the House, wrote an article on the dangers of inflation for the Wall Street Journal and that article was immediately taken down by both Facebook and Twitter.  The article was filled with facts about the massive amounts of money our federal government is spending or is proposing to spend.  There are different opinions as to what effect this spending will have on our economy and our spending power. The citizens of America, however, should hear both sides of that debate.  

And, of course, there is much, much more.  The last article I wrote talked about the incredible amount of “Big Lies” that are coming out of Washington.  Do we really want these devious politicians controlling what we get to hear and read?  And when does this censorship move from erroneous blockages of inconvenient facts to “problematic” opinions.  That is the term that Jen Psaki used to describe the direction the Whitehouse is giving to these tech giants.  The question is, which messages are “problematic” and to whom?

When, for example, does a pro-life message become “problematic” for this or any administration?  I can argue the benefits of both sides of this argument, but the country should not be limited to just one.  I can argue the Keynesian economic model, although I don’t believe in it totally, but I can also argue the benefits of free-market, private sector solutions to our economic issues.  The point is, the American people should hear both sides of this discussion, not just one.  But, if this kind of collusion continues between one political party and the entire communications industry (big tech and the mainstream media) our Republic, as it was intended is in real jeopardy.  

The words of our Declaration of Independence will have to be changed to, “half of our people are endowed with certain inalienable rights”.  The other half are to be ignored at best or demonized at worst.

How Many Big Lies Are There

The View from the Middle

The lamestream media would like us all to believe that there is only one “Big Lie” being told in America, but even that “Big Lie” has been ill-defined and unproven.  Donald Trump continues to suggest that the 2020 election was stolen from him and many Americans are concerned that the temporary changes that many states made in their election laws in response to the pandemic led to an unusual amount of voter fraud.  Those are actually two different things.  I personally don’t know of anyone who believes that the 2020 election can be reversed, but the audits in Arizona and Georgia have already uncovered irregularities in their voting results and Pennsylvania will soon launch their audit which will give us some more data on the level of voter fraud in that state.  The Democrats have fought these audits in the courts, but I’m unsure as to why.  These audits will identify improper voting actions and will only improve voter integrity in our country.  I’m not sure what the Democrats are afraid of, but questioning some of last year’s voting practices is not a “Big Lie”.  It is simply an effort to increase voter integrity.

Washington, however, is the home of “Big Lies”.  Let me take this opportunity to remind you of just a few.  The first “Big Lie” is that Republicans are actually behind the “Defund the Police” movement because they didn’t support President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.  There was $350 billion for state and local governments in that bill that Jen Psaki said “could be used” to hire more police.  There was, however, no suggestion and certainly no mandate that this money should be used to support the police.  I believe that this money was really intended to allow liberal run cities to balance their books after years of pathetic and even criminal financial mismanagement.  Even the ultra-liberal Washington Post gave Ms. Psaki and the Biden administration three Pinocchio’s for that accusation.  

Hunter Biden alone is responsible for a mountain of “Big Lies” all by himself.  First, there’s the “Big Lie” that he actually deserved his position on the Burisma board because of his knowledge and expertise in the energy industry and his familiarity with Ukraine.  The next “Big Lie” is that his father, Joe, had no knowledge of Hunter’s business dealings in China or Ukraine.  Sure!  Then there was Hunter’s laptop that wasn’t his laptop and is now being ignored for the media.  And now we are to believe that Hunter’s art, which he blows through a straw (isn’t that how da Vinci did it?), is worth $500,000 per piece.  But, of course we can’t ask who buys his amateurish, splashes of color for those exorbitant prices.  Certainly, those buyers wouldn’t expect access to the current President of the United States, would they?  Hunter is a bundle of “Big Lies” all by himself.

Then there was the insurrection that wasn’t actually an insurrection.  The protesters weren’t even armed despite the fact that President Biden said they would need F-15’s and nuclear bombs to take over our government.  The Senate was back in session within four hours and the only person killed was an unarmed Trump supporter.  Also, a big lie within a big lie was that police officer Brian Sicknick was beat to death with a fire extinguisher by a Trump supporter. It took 30 days to confirm that officer Sicknick actually died the next day of a stroke. By that time most people couldn’t even remember who Brian Sicknick was.  A lie followed by the delay of truth.  Man, these people really know how to deceive.

All of this is just a distraction from what happened last summer as rioters tore through cities across this nation looting, destroying and killing people.  Those riots inflicted over $2 billion of damage in blue cities across the country and at least 25 people were killed including six children.  I don’t know if we should call the coverage of these riots by the lamestream media a “Big Lie” or a “Big Rationalization”, but to compare January 6^th to this is journalistic malfeasance.  

Here’s a quickie.  The lamestream media will try to tell us that there is nothing wrong with Joe Biden’s mental acuity.  The reality is that he is nearly 80 years old (he’s 78) and he is showing all the signs of his age.  He is constantly using note cards to remind him of what to say.  Even during photo-ops with Putin and during press conferences, which also reveals that he knows the questions before they are asked.  He stumbles through speeches even on the teleprompter, he often responds to reporters in inappropriate anger and what is it with this creepy whispering thing.  This is something the media should be investigating, but that is not going to happen unfortunately.

Even “The Big Lie” is a “Big Lie”.  The media continues to allow Democrat politicians to compare the new voting laws in Georgia and Texas to the Jim Crow laws that were abolished almost 60 years ago.  They, the media, allow Democrats to demonize those who support these laws as racists and bigots without offering any specific examples of how these laws suppress voters.  In both Georgia and Texas, access to the polls has actually been expanded vs pre-pandemic requirements.  Even the Washington Post gave Joe Biden four Pinocchio’s for his suggestion that Georgia’s new law suppressed voting access there.

And if you think that voter ID is the issue, you would be wrong.  A recent Rasmussen survey found that 75% of Americans are in favor of voter ID and there is almost no difference between black and white voters on this issue.  In fact, most black Americans find it insulting to suggest that they are less capable of getting a photo ID to vote.

And maybe the biggest lie of all is that Joe Biden intends to unite our country.  He continually demonizes anyone who disagrees with him.  Calling virtually half of Americans racists and bigots is easy, but not uniting.  It requires no proof and actually shuts down any discussion that might lead to compromise.  A few months ago, President Biden stooped to calling Governor Abbott of Texas a “Neanderthal” for opening up that state’s economy.  Since that time Texas has consistently outperformed almost all other states, even California and New York.  When the President apologizes to Governor Abbott, I will consider that a small glimmer of hope that he actually intends to unite this country.  Unfortunately, I think his plan looks more like “divide and conquer” than unity and prosperity.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Sowell

 The View from the Middle 

Thomas Sowell is a brilliant economist, social theorist and philosopher who you might not have heard of.  He has lived an extraordinary life, rich in experiences and formal education which has given him the material to write over 30 books.  He was born on June 30^th, 1930 (happy birthday, Thomas!) in Gastonia, North Carolina.  Unfortunately, his father died before his birth and because his mother already had four children, his great aunt along with her two grown daughters adopted and raised Thomas.  He was not born to privilege, but his challenging upbringing just added to the rich quiver of life trials and adventures that has formed his opinions.

At age nine they moved to Harlem, where he eventually qualified to attend the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York.  Unfortunately, at age 17 he was forced to withdraw from “the Stuy” for financial and family reasons.  But he didn’t turn to crime as a solution.  He got multiple jobs and even tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers before he went into the Marines as a photographer.  After leaving the Marines he took night classes at Howard University and scored high enough on College Board exams to enter Harvard.

I won’t bore you with an extensive list of his awards and accomplishments, but let me highlight just a few to give you a sense of the significance of his life’s work.  He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard after dropping out of high school at age 17.  He received his master’s degree from Columbia and his doctorate from UCLA and has served as a faculty member at Cornell and UCLA.  As if that’s not enough, he’s a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.  He dabbled in Marxism in his early years, but he abandoned that notion in 1960 and his fellowship at Stanford is named after Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning, free market economist, whom he calls his mentor.  He has been an unapologetic capitalistic, libertarian ever since.  And, if he ran for President today, even at age 91, I would vote for him.  But sadly, he is too good for politics so we can best benefit from his wisdom by reading his books.

Thomas Sowell is not just a stone-cold genius, but he is a black man whose opinions are supported by more than his intellect and education.  He has lived through Jim Crow, discrimination, civil unrest and the civil rights movement, and those experiences along with his intelligence form his opinions.  I believe he is a “must read” when it comes to economics, of course, but also when he speaks out on race relations.  His books like “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”, “Discrimination and Disparity” and his “Controversial Essays” are plainly written, powerfully reasoned and, as always supported by mountains of documented facts.  

There are many, many areas where Dr. Sowell and I agree. For example, he is no fan of our public-school system, and of course neither am I.  When my two daughters were in school, my wife and I had the luxury of “school choice” and sent our girls to a private, Christian school.  Our girls have been long out of school, and I would not personally benefit from a voucher system today, so why am I such a rabid supporter of that concept?  It’s because I think it is the best thing for our children and our country.  It would make our public schools compete or die, and it would give millions of people more choices in the education of their children.  That’s a choice that I had and it’s a choice that I believe every family should have.

Thomas Sowell put it this way, “No group is more in favor of vouchers than blacks – and no one is more opposed to vouchers than Democrats…This doesn’t mean that Democrats are racist.  It is just that they need the support of the teachers’ unions and they are not going to get it if they vote for vouchers, whereas they can count on the votes of blacks regardless.”  It is the ugly truth of politics.  Politicians often make choices not in the best interests of their constituencies in order to get elected.

In his “Controversial Essays” he added that, “public schools are where the battle needs to be fought, but too many black leaders are too dependent on labor unions in general and teachers’ unions in particular to fight that battle.  And they are too dependent on a vision of victimhood to risk telling young blacks that they have to get their own act together too.”  I love this thought because it states the obvious to me.  While all Americans need to work together to find solutions to our national problems, young black men and women must exercise some personal responsibility to eliminate any gaps (actual or perceived) between the races. 

If you haven’t read any of his books, I encourage you to do so.  I particularly recommend one of his most recent, “Discrimination and Disparities” or his “Controversial Essays, both of which I have read.  While the latter was written back in 2002, it demonstrates how things just don’t change – the issues or the real, thoughtful solutions to those issues.  And if you have the urge to tear down some statue, somewhere, I would prefer you erect one to this exceptional man in the place of your choosing!!