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Behind the Scenes: Do We Know What’s Going On?
This morning on “Fox & Friends,” Vivek Ramaswamy, author of Woke, Inc., was expressing his satisfaction that the “Disinformation Board” of the Biden Administration has been dismembered—uh, “put on pause.” He insisted that citizens on the Left and Right had to have protested the establishment of this Department of Homeland Security, even though the Right was given the credit or the blame, depending on your viewpoint. The fact that they put Nina Jankowicz, musical performer extraordinaire in charge of the organization, ensured that the project, at least temporarily, would die.
Unfortunately, Ramaswamy also voiced his concern that the Biden administration would not give up so easily; he feared that the Board would go undercover to continue its work. The best use of their time during the “pause” would be determining how to keep their efforts secret to ensure its success the next time around.
I am not fond of conspiracy theories and tend to avoid them. But we have seen over and over again the many ways that the Biden administration pursues its goals even when they are rejected, particularly by the courts. Since this Board may not see the light of day again, and because the government has shown its obsession with banning disinformation, should we assume that they will quietly and subtly move forward with their plans? If they do, can we look for signs that they are punishing, banning, or prosecuting people even more vigorously for expressing ideas that they consider out of favor?
Even of greater concern, if they find a way to secretly create this organization, what other activities might they pursue to limit, even eliminate our freedoms?
Am I being paranoid?
Published in Domestic Policy
Screw that tinfoil hat on tightly, Susan!
How nice of her to help him out . . . . g-r-r-r-….
Time for a refresher on the modified Smith-Mundt act: (AKA domestic propaganda act)
Don, could you clarify the application of this act to the post?
It was unlawful from 1948 to 2012 for the government-funded propaganda to be broadcast in the US. Now it isn’t.
The Biden Administration has to find a way to spin things once it has lost control of Twitter. The Disinformation Board was an initial idea, but it stumbled primarily because they were putting an obvious propagandist in charge. Next time it will be more subtle. But Biden can’t afford to let free speech reign and still maintain power.
Observe to power of “and”.
They are going to keep the board but rename it to something innocuous . . .
Thanks. But what qualified as “government-funded propaganda”?
“programs for foreign audiences produced under the guidance by the State Department”. The idea was to destabilize adverse powers by broadcasting information to their publics that potentially put them in opposition to their governments. Now, why would this prohibition be lifted and the State Department be enabled to fund content for domestic consumption? Note date of the amendment — 2012.
Nobody knows what the h-ll is going on.
;-)
Oh, here you go . . .
The Clownish Disinfo Czar Got The Boot, But Biden’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Hired Monster Replacements
And I briefly thought it couldn’t get any worse . . . [sigh]
The will because the must. But if they fail — and pray G-d they do — they will be exposed and pushed back for time, hopefully a long time.
I am not sure the Disinformation Board going underground is effective, or rather It is as effective as the current system is. The purpose of the Disinformation Board was to officially label something as Dis/Mis/or Mal Information in a press release. Then to have the Main Stream Media beat up on social media outlets to either pull down or contextualize whatever the government didn’t like. All while have a quasi threat because of DHS’s role as a law enforcement organization, which would also have a chilling effect on content creation. The current system will still allow this on a distributed basis. It will work sometimes, as it has with CDC and CoVID and fail in other contexts as it more or less has with CRT. I think Mini of Truthiness would have helped them but only at the margins.
I don’t like so much of the emphasis has been about Jankowicz. The real issue is that the government shouldn’t be doing this at all, not even with competent people. We are being asked to ease back the First Amendment so that government officials, political appointees no less, can tell us what we can and cannot say. Why? Because Hillary thinks memes on Facebook cost her the 2016. There is not more to it than that.
I submit there’s a hell of a lot more to it than that. This is about controlling information. Tight control. Keeping the regime Narrative hot and bubbling while oppressing anyone who dissents from that Narrative.
And it’s part of how elections are rigged. Remember the infamous Time Magazine article where the leftists bragged about how they foisted Biden on us?
Now imagine that dialed up to 11. No, to 23.
I think in a sense you are both correct. Initially something happens that sparks a recognition on the part of the Leftist that something has potential for intimidating the Right. Strategically or not, the idea gets tested, and to their delight, reaps some benefits; the approach takes on a life of its own–supported by the insidious goals of the Left. And before you know it, you have a monster on your hands–controlled by the Left to attack the Right.
You can kill the wicked white witch, but it always comes back.
The Board of Puppies and Kittens. If you’re opposed to it, you’re obviously for animal cruelty.
Think everything you are hearing from the regime about Ukraine is accurate? Think again.
Susan, this is what used to be called, perhaps in times when direct statements of disagreements were not only tolerated but encouraged, as out-and-out lawlessness and the current thugocracy has done this very thing – they called it a “work around” of the Constitution when they did it with regard to the job vaccine mandate – time and time again. What is more troubling to me, as one who does not believe he is “virtue signaling” when he loudly proclaims his dedication to the American Rule of Law, is that the very creation of this Ministry of Truth belies either a complete and utter ignorance of the fact that the First Amendment even exists or an unbelievable measure of hubris and contempt of the American people and its institutions and, very possibly, a willful determination to tear some if not all of them down.
By the way, when I saw your heading, I immediately recalled a print of an article I have been saving for months (among the many in what Rush used to call “The Stack of Stuff”!) which appeared in American Greatness under the title Dazed and Confused– here. It is quite thought provoking and starts off with this line: “There is something they aren’t telling us.” While it is mostly about the madness surrounding the pandemic, the analysis applies to almost everything this administration has tried to do, much of which-the dissolution of the border, for instance- has been in direct contravention of the will of the people. Here is his second paragraph:
As you were saying!
I know it’s been said here and on many other venues but I think it bears repeating– as the old saying goes, there is nothing more dangerous than the desperation of a cornered, injured animal. These people-lawless thugs in my humble opinion – know they have just a few months to implement their Marxist schemes by executive fiat and they will stop at nothing to do as much damage to the Nation-and, obviously, to us – as they possibly can.
We must be vigilant and challenge them at every opportunity to try to mitigate the damage. It’s hard to be optimistic, Jim.
More like two and a half years. It’s all flowing from the executive branch, and the executive is not changing this fall no matter who gets elected.
You are not paranoid Susan. We have wicked people in charge of this administration. It is with great shame that I look upon our Catholic President and Speaker of the House and see the agenda they push and the lies they spread. I trust nothing they say or do. It breaks my heart to see what they are deliberately doing to this country and her great people. The absolute bloodthirstiness of their support for killing children in the womb leads to having to lie about everything. They are wicked. God save us.
What
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
The good new may be that the current administration is as incompetent as we think, which is not really good news considering what may be coming down the pike at us.
I prefer:
“When people are out to get you, paranoia is just good thinking.”
— Dr Johnny Fever, WKRP.
They always fail UP, don’t they?
Unfortunately . . .