“Why are you harassing Twitter?” Jim Jordan asked Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan at a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week. That harassment began when Elon Musk brought journalists into Twitter to expose the federal government’s censorship regime. 

The FTC tried to demand that Musk reveal his contacts with reporters in December after the first publication of the Twitter Files, arguing that it could violate a consent decree protecting customer data. Now an analyst at Ernst & Young has testified that the FTC attempted to pressure him into a negative report on Twitter to justify punitive action. Twitter parent X Corporation filed a motion last week to terminate the consent order over this corruption, leading to Jordan’s question during the hearing.

We now know that the censorship empire will not go quietly. A federal judge put a temporary halt to the federal government’s suppression of speech and dissent this month. The FTC has shown its colors as Big Brother’s enforcer –providing us a warning that authoritarians do not retreat easily. 

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Blackrock is a Wall Street Behemoth, managing more of your pension dollars than any other company in the world. It led the way in pulling corporate America left, by pushing ESG—environmental, social and governance—investing. 

This approach takes the focus off of the fiduciary responsibility to put the financial performance for your retirement funds above all else and shifts it towards various social goals. The backlash has been severe. Recently, the CEO of the firm Larry Fink distanced himself from the investment trend he himself fostered. He announced a rebranding away from ESG, saying that he was embarrassed to have been involved in this political debate and said that ESG had been weaponized by the far left and the far right. 

Well, he’s half-right. The left used it as a weapon. The right is just defending us against that. But Mr. Fink, is the solution not obvious? Stay out of political debates and you won't find yourself ashamed of the political debates that you're in. 

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The open borders policy pursued in fact, if not in law, by the Biden administration has created far greater dangers from illegal immigration than America ever confronted before. Aside from the substantial challenges posed by the Mexican drug cartels, America is seeing migration from far distant countries.
 
Most concerning, there has been an increase of more than one thousand percent of migrants from countries including China and Afghanistan. And many of the immigrants are young men of military age.
 
It is not easy to reach the United States from either country. And given the oversight and control China, in particular, exercises over its citizens, it’s a safe bet they’re coming here with their government’s blessing.
 
So why is China—our key adversary on the world stage today—now sending their young men across our borders? And the better question is: why is our government permitting them to do so?
 

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Three years ago, mainstream media outlets circled the wagons around Netflix for the film “Cuties,” about a dance troupe of pre-adolescent girls who performed highly sexualized routines. The New Yorker accused critics of being part of “a right-wing campaign.” 

Now, the film “Sound of Freedom” depicts real-life events in combating actual child trafficking—and the elite media is attacking the film, primarily because conservatives have promoted it. CNN, the Guardian and others accused the film of playing up to QAnon conspiracists—despite that almost all of the film takes place outside the US and is based on actual events. 

Child sex trafficking is real and it is growing, both outside and inside the US, as the Department of Justice declared two months ago. “Sound of Freedom” is a powerful, well-made film that shines a bright light on this scourge. One has to wonder why American media have rushed to block the light, especially after cheering the sexual exploitation of pre-adolescents three years ago.

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Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson has been criticized for making a flawed claim about black infant mortality in her recent Supreme Court affirmative action dissent. The incorrection assertion—a mischaracterization of a study that was itself flawed—first appeared in an amicus brief for the case.

But that wasn’t the biggest problem with Justice Brown citing the study. It was that she cited any study at all.

Studies may be entirely persuasive (or sometimes, less so). But whatever facts they marshal, they do it in support of policy arguments.  And public policy is never the purview of the judiciary.

Deciding what’s sound public policy—what the law should be—is up to the legislature. Adjudicating what the law is—and what’s constitutional—that, and that alone, is the job of the judiciary.

In the United States, Supreme Court justices don’t sit as an unelected super legislature. Let’s hope they remember it.

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A District Judge recently issued an injunction forbidding the government from talking to tech companies about banning content. That’s a good thing. 

When government holds the power to destroy a private business, even its suggestions are inherently coercive. So, for now, government is off the backs of Facebook, YouTube and the rest. But that’s not enough. These companies need to actually embrace the freedom they’ve been given and stop acting as the regime’s censors. 

Tech companies are not innocent victims of government: according to Alliance Defending Freedom’s Viewpoint Diversity Score, big tech has vague and subjective standards of free expression and shows serious signs of bias. Just because the government is no longer allowed to use its power to force these companies to be biased, doesn’t mean that they will automatically become free speech zones. They actually have to choose to be free and fair. 

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It’s fitting the Supreme Court abolished affirmative action right before Independence Day. Holding that every college applicant deserves to be evaluated as an individual, not as a member of a racial group, the Court affirmed the guarantee of equality set out in the Declaration of Independence.

In a 58-page concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas delivers a statement for the ages. Himself a product of the Jim Crow South, he writes, “This vision of meeting social racism with government-imposed racism is self-defeating, resulting in a never-ending cycle of victimization.” 

Justice Thomas affirmed the existence of a colorblind Constitution. He writes, “Individuals are the sum of their unique experiences, challenges and accomplishments. What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them.” 

The spirit that animated our Founding Fathers is alive and well in men like Justice Clarence Thomas. He is a national treasure.

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What better birthday gift could America get on Independence Day than a judicial order that dismantles an “Orwellian Ministry of Truth”? Federal judge Terry Doughty used that description of the massive censorship regime between the executive branch and social-media platforms in issuing an injunction to derail it. 

In his memorandum, the Louisiana judge noted that the supposed effort to combat “misinformation” turned into a political silencing project. “It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature,” Doughty ruled. “This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech.”

“Americans have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country,” Doughty concluded. The First Amendment makes it patently clear that government has no business regulating and censoring public debate and dissent. That’s one of the key values and liberties we celebrated the day Doughty issued the injunction.

Happy Birthday, America!

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With Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and University of North Carolina, the Supreme Court abolished affirmative action. It clarified that our government has no business picking “winners and losers” based on skin color.

Since 1978, affirmative action has been justified on the “diversity” rationale. After last week’s decision, some worry college campuses will become less racially diverse. But discriminating by skin color isn’t the best way to address that concern.

Ironically, those hysterically denouncing the Students for Fair admissions decision also oppose school choice. Yet it’s often black and Latino children who are trapped in failing schools — dominated by teachers’ unions, which won’t tolerate competition.

Students of all colors from all backgrounds are capable of competing on their own merits for seats at elite universities. What too many lack is the ability to choose an education that will prepare them to do so. It’s time to change that.

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The long, hot days of summer are now on us—and with them the celebrations like the Fourth of July and family vacations.

It is important to keep in mind that across large parts of the world the idea of either freedom or leisure—much less both—is so far off as to be the stuff of legend—of far away lands—especially one named America.

We are so blessed that we often simply forget to count our blessings; we ought to marvel at what we’ve had for nearly 250 years now.

No, we are not a perfect nation, not even close, but we are the best hope of mankind, exceptional for all of our history. 

Yes: Our political leaders often disappoint., but often they inspire.

And—I should point out—our challenges on the world stages are formidable.

But I’m hopeful that we can rise to those challenges of yet another era.

I know this: The facts of history do not lie. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Happy Fourth of July—from all of us here with the Salem Media Group.

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