Pam Bondi prosecuting "hate speech" raises serious questions.

 Pam Bondi ignited a firestorm within her own party when she appeared to promote DOJ action against those who indulge in "hate speech".  Later clarification by her better defined what hate speech was: that which exhorted violence.  I have a suggestion that Pam Bondi, as her first act of prosecution against hate speech, should target what influenced the Evergreen High School shooter. It is reported that He had spent much time on a neo nazi site. If that site advocated the use of violence and murder, that is not far from the famous Supreme Court standard of what is free speech and what is not: falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater is not free speech. This country has "monsters among us"(on both sides) and is a tinder box triggered when ignited by extreme partisanship and wide gulfs in opinions. Social media is full of those who howl for violence and death to their opponents and who ignite deranged minds to act out what they see urged in such sites. We, the onlookers and the audience, independent, non-partisan, or partisan, are the victims in the crowded theater, bewildered about who to believe, and some are panicked to make a run for it, even though many are trampled into the debris. We should never forget that what is hate speech to one side seems perfectly reasonable to the other. The democratic goal is not to let anyone in government decide what is and what is not hate speech, but to permit the voters to make that judgment call. However, to the Trump regime, hate speech is defined by opinions uttered by the libs and to use that drum beat to justify suppression, in violation of the First Amendment, which protects a person's right to speak words of hate, but not to act out violently on them. Trump wants to target liberal groups and protesters with a decades-old law once used against the mob

Oh, but wait, in the lexicon of MAGA's leader, there are some fine people in the neo nazi movement. Do not hold your breath for Bondi to take action against violence advocated by the extreme right. They are part of the red team. In the Trump regime, what is "falsely" is also subject to partisan definition. January 6 rioters were responding to what the courts have ruled is a false claim: the 2020 election was stolen. The most violent of them were freed from prison by Trump's pardons, and one who was killed in the mob actions was declared a national hero. Stay tuned.

Pam Bondi Defends 'Hate Speech' Crackdown After MAGA Backlash - Newsweek

A reader of my FB post on this same text said too he was constantly bombarded by attacks online. I wrote back to him the following:

There are some advantages to having run for public office and have had a public profile in my earlier days.. I was also one of Denver's first woman talk show hosts (in the era when Alan Berg was assassinated). You develop calluses and learn to avoid words that trigger deranged haters but still get a point across to those who need to hear it. This is not to say that the bomb squad went through periods when they opened suspicious packages received by mail, and our children were trained never to open packages delivered to our mailbox. The danger in this case came from foreign neo nazis who were targeting my outspoken immigrant husband. 

More thoughts along this line: Sadly, the success of bloggers and posters depends upon how outrageous or extreme they can sound and how they can inflame passions.   Being tempered makes for boring columns and low-rated talk show hosts. Fortunately, I have never had to rely on either for a living.

In response to those who use Kirk's assassination as an excuse for more violence in revenge

 On another social media site to which I belong, I was shocked by some whose response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk was revenge against those they hated...Obama, Pelosi, Soros, and a whole list of political adversaries...and said it was time for a CIVIL WAR (yes, in caps). I hear there are those on the lib side" who also vowed violence, though none on the social media sites I follow.. The lunatics on both sides are the enemies to our ability to pursue a goal and rights "granted by our Creator" we all should share, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, of life, liberty, and happiness. I was heartened by those who said political violence was a blow against democracy. Democracy is still the best way to achieve such lofty and universal aspirations.

I realize some do not give a twit about democracy. They are so bound up by either ignorance of what the alternatives are or those who feel the only way that counts is their way and seek a government that only rules on their behalf, the rest of the country and world be damned. Those who do not march in lock step with them should be beaten down and suppressed using whatever means they have, including violence.. To those who think that, all I can say is what goes around comes around, and the circle of violence only expands and accelerates until there are more and more victims in the grave on both sides. There are no happy endings in history, as even the victors or the governments they espoused based on hate, violence, and suppression eventually fall victim to themselves, either in suicide in a bunker or hanged by those they once suppressed. That should be the lesson we learned from the last century of world wars and revolutions, from the rise of totalitarianism (dictatorial control over governmental power, everyday life, thought, and culture) to Bosnia's war of ethnic cleansing. It may take years for this to unfold, but the old adage "those who live with the sword, die with the sword" has some truth.  So few of us have lived or experienced this. Too few of us know the history of what we have not seen with our own eyes. We are condemned to repeat it. Democracy's greatest asset is that it provides a plan and way for humans to pursue life, liberty, and happiness without violent conflict, instead.

To perpetuate the unending circle of political violence, the leader in chief of revenge on political adversaries is our own president, Donald Trump, who was quick to beat the drums of hate and retribution in the wake of the Kirk assassination. But there were also some on "the other side" who did likewise. Or, as New York Times opinion writer, David French, noted:" there are monsters in your midst, too". The exact count of who has the most monsters, red or blue? The libertarian CATO institute has some figures. After the 9/11 foreign terrorists, the right is in second place in the count of those perpetrating political violence in the US. Politically Motivated Violence Is Rare in the United States | Cato at Liberty Blog

Trump Escalates Attacks on Political Opponents After Charlie Kirk’s Killing - The New York Times   

   MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump fans the flames of violence, yet calls himself the law and order president updated

"To get past this dreadful moment, more and more Americans are going to have to face a painful fact. Evil isn’t confined to one side of the American divide. There are monsters in your midst, too. Opinion | There Are Monsters in Your Midst, Too - The New York Times

Trump Puts Democrat Senator in His Place for Rejecting God-Given Rights. The pertinent question in the USA is not who gives the rights, but what rights our nation should support. Cain is right in one regard: if you do not have a government that supports those rights given by God, you do not have those rights. The government plays a role in supporting or subverting those rights, whether in the USA or abroad, as do the theologians in power in their respective countries. Trump is correct in one respect: our founders saw rights as those granted by God, but on the other hand, he seeks to oppress those upholding those rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as listed in the Declaration. He uses or supports violence, military force, and all the power of the federal executive, which he can abuse to punish and suppress those who write, advocate, and support his political enemies. Our founders protected rights from being taken away in the Bill of Rights. 

The founders also viewed government as an instrument for granting rights they had identified as inalienable. That was their unique contribution used to offset a too powerful federal government, as well as the separation and balance of powers. I draw heavily on this conclusion from https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/first-principles-what-americas-founders-learned-from-the-greeks-and-romans-and-how-that-shaped-our-country_thomas-e-ricks/

Pam Bondi ignited a firestorm within her own party when she appeared to promote DOJ action against those who indulge in "hate speech".  Later clarification by her better defined what hate speech was: that which exhorted violence.  I have a suggestion that Pam Bondi, as her first act of prosecution against hate speech, should target what influenced the Evergreen High School shooter. It is reported that He had spent much time on a neo nazi site. If that site advocated the use of violence and murder, that is not far from the famous standard of what is free speech and what is not: falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater is not free speech. This country has "monsters among us" and is a tinder box of extreme partisanship and wide gulfs in opinions. Social media is full of those who howl for violence and death to their opponents and who ignite deranged minds to act out what they see urged in such sites. We, the onlookers and the audience, independent, non-partisan, or partisan, are the victims in the crowded theater, bewildered about who to believe, and some are panicked to make a run for it, even though many are trampled into the debris.

oops. DOJ Deletes Its Own Study From Website Showing ‘Far More’ Domestic Terrorism Committed by ‘Far-Right Extremists’

Oh, but wait, in the lexicon of MAGA's leader, there are some fine people in the neo nazi movement. Do not hold your breath for Bondi to take action against violence advocated by the extreme right. They are part of the red team. In the Trump regime, what is "falsely" is also subject to partisan definition. January 6 rioters were responding to what the courts have ruled is a false claim: the 2020 election was stolen. The most violent of them were freed from prison by Trump's pardons, and one who was killed in the mob actions was declared a national hero. Stay tuned.

Trump drags his feet on Ukraine again and deceptively invents an excuse

 Trump is inventing another excuse to drag his feet in support of Ukraine....he'll impose more sanctions if Europeans stop importing oil from Russia. There are already sanctions in place, as Biden imposed them, but the Trump administration has stopped enforcing them, according to Ann Applebaum of the Atlantic on MSNBC this morning. Trump's holding further sanctions against Russia hostage to extract pledges from Europe for what they are already doing is deceptive. European imports of oil from Russia have been cut drastically since Russia invaded Ukraine. All but three European countries have already agreed to stop importing oil from Russia and are already doing so...But oil is not the main problem, and the three holdouts are situated along a Russian oil pipeline. The real challenge is finding and affording alternative energy sources, from wind to natural gas to heat homes and generate electricity. Where does the EU’s gas come from? - Consilium . Over 47% of European electric energy comes from wind, water, and solar. Electricity from renewable sources reaches 47% in 2024 - News articles - Eurostat

Even some in the president's party are disgusted with Trump and now Vance over their lack of action in supporting Ukraine. Frustrated GOP senators blow steam on Russia: ‘Sick of Trump and JD and Putin ‘love affair’

reuters.com

How much oil does the European Union import from Russia?
Kremlin shrugs off EU plans to speed up phase-out of Russia's energy    My comment: So they say for their domestic propaganda.  However, what Russia loses  is their ability to hold Europe hostage to their threats of cutoff of energy.

PROJECT 2025'S plan to replace employees with Trump loyalists sort of worked

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's plan to replace the "deep state" with loyalists to Trump and their cause, sort of worked, though not in the way they planned. Elon Musk was tasked with finding "waste, fraud, and abuse," and thousands of federal workers were fired en masse, particularly those on probation. Some agencies were closed altogether. Originally, Project 2025 called for reclassifying key positions and turning them into political appointments, once protected by career service non-partisanship, using a mechanism called Schedule F. Musk and the Trump administration effectively bypassed much of that with the mass firings. However, the Heritage Foundation's plan to have cadres of replacements screened for ideological purity to fill vacant positions began to be implemented when one of its plan authors was appointed to head the Office of Management and Budget by Trump. The Trump administration has had six months to implement this scheme. How far they have gone toward their goal is not clear, but what has been done so far will stay in place.  A judge has just made it harder to do much more in the future, other than filling vacancies, putting a halt to mass firings... Those unlawfully fired, per the Supreme Court, will not be reinstated. The Heritage Plan is now faced with filling vacancies, but they cannot do any unlawful mass firings to cause the vacancies as they once did. Trump administration unlawfully directed mass US worker terminations, judge rules

AFGE | New Trump Administration Packed with Project 2025 Architects

Project 2025: The Plan To Seize Power by Gutting America’s System of Checks and Balances - Center for American Progress