With censorship, we are no longer a democracy

The 1st Amendment to our U. S. Constitution provides:

“Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press....”

The U.S. Supreme Court, over the last 200 years, has recognized only a handful of exceptions to the notion that “no law” means “no law.” Those exceptions include libel, slander, obscenity, “fighting words,” and words that create a “clear and present danger.”

Of course, “words” can be “elements” of a criminal offense, but only when they are accompanied by an action. Tom and Harry conspire (words) to rob a bank. They then drive to the bank.

But what about “misinformation?” “Disinformation?’ False information? Can “misinformation” spewed during a political campaign be punished? “Disinformation” or “false information during a pandemic be censored?

For over 200 years, our Supreme Court has held that the sole remedy is “counter-speech.” Civil penalties, criminal punishments and censorship have been forbidden remedies.

But why do I ask?

On May 2, 2022, during the Biden presidency, that CNN reported “Biden administration defends disinformation boardfrom fierce GOP criticism. …The Department of Homeland Security and the White House are defending a new initiative to help target disinformation … Last week, DHS announced an interagency team, dubbed the “Disinformation Governance Board,” to coordinate department activities related to disinformation aimed at the US population ….”

So, what exactly is “Disinformation Governance Board?” It would be a board authorized to censor whatever they deem to be “Misinformation, Disinformation or False Information” — speech or other information that they believe that you and I should not be permitted to hear. E.g. information pertaining to Hunter Biden’s laptop.

If you believe in censorship who would you nominate for the office of “Lord High Censor?”

The men who penned our Constitution and Bill of Rights believed the right of free speech was a “God-given right” of every free man.” It was not a right granted to men by governments.

Our founders knew that we could not trust ANY person or government official to impartially determine which speech should be allowed, or prohibited. Indeed, without assurance that a Bill of Right would be added to our Constitution that would guarantee free speech, the Constitution would not have been approved by the requisite nine states.

Hitler had his Ministry to Truth and Public Enlightenment. You can have the same. Simply vote for the party of the “Disinformation Governance Board.” Vote for the party, that with the support of 51 “former security officials” and FBI operatives, that prevailed upon Facebook and Twitter to bury the Hunter Biden lap-top story. Vote for the party that used the FBI and DOJ to suppress any Covid information, other than Dr. Faucci’s.

The founders believed that ideas should fail or prevail in the “marketplace of ideas.” They trusted no censors. Their remedy for misinformation, disinformation and false statement — the only one compatible with democracy — was, AND STILL IS, counter-speech.

Trust the government to censor even-handedly, and you piss away your God-given right of free speech.

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on September 27, 2024. 
Copyright 2024, John Donald O'Shea

Where exactly do Harris, Walz stand on the key issues?

Imagine: You are in the market for a new house. You contact a realtor Larson E. Conjob. He tells you, “I’ve got the perfect house for you. It’s a steal at $550,000.” Enthused, you ask him to show you the house. He replies: “Trust me. I can’t show it to you now; but you can see it right after you buy it! Trust me. You’ll be overJOYed!”

That is Kamela Harris’s campaign pitch; she’s selling “JOY!” And she is demanding that you wait until after you vote; then she will disclose her “program!” Rather like Nancy Pelosi, speaking of the Obamacare bill: “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it!” Or Joe Biden passing himself off as a moderate, while hiding in the basement; then governing from the far left.

The American voters — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — are entitled to know Harris’ positions on the key issue before they vote. And HOW she plans to deal with those issues.

Our Southern Border: Will she leave our southern border wide open? Or, close it? If so, how? Build a wall? Shut off welfare benefits to those who cross illegally? Immediately deport all who cross illegally? Revive the stay in Mexico policy? Stand on the border saying, “Don’t?”

Inflation: How is she going to beat inflation? Be “Joyful?” Print more money? Adopt Trump’s policy of “Drill Baby, Drill!? Raise corporate income taxes to 28%? Give first-time home buyers a $25,000 credit? Raise the top marginal individual tax rate to 44.6%? Raise capital gains tax rates (including “surcharges”) on realized gains up to 45%? Impose a 25% tax on unrealized capital gains? Impose price controls? Pray for “Hope and Change?”

Israel/Hamas War: Give Israel whatever support it needs? Support Hamas?” Give Iran billions to “play nice?” Borrow Trump’s policy of “maximum sanctions against Iran?” How?

Iran becoming a nuclear state: Let it happen? Do what must be done to guarantee it will never happen? Hope that Israel “nukes” Iran? How?

Men invading women’s sports, restrooms, locker rooms, etc.: Support men calling themselves “women?” Force the women to let men participate in women’s competitions? Stand up for women and girls?

Defund the Police: Four years ago, she was “for it.” Is she still for “defunding?”

“Cashless Bail:” Four years ago, when rioters were burning down American cities, she invited donations to provide bail to get the rioters out of jail. She also supported “cashless bail.” Has she seen the light? Or is she “doubling down?”

Fracking: She was against it four years ago? Whither blow the winds now?

“Medicare for All:” Four years ago, she was for abolishing all “private insurance,” and legislating “Medicare for All.” What, Kamala, is your position today?

Prevent Medicare and Social Security from going broke: Make both available to illegal immigrants? Deny both to illegal immigrants?

War in Ukraine: Would you “wash your hands of it?” Continue the current level of military aid?
Provide greater aid? Tell Putin, “Don’t?”

Taiwan: Most of our computer chips come from Taiwan. What if China invades? Let China take Taiwan? Go to war if necessary to keep Taiwan free?

Electric Cars: Is she still planning to phase out all gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2030? 2035? Allow the market to determine whether cars purchased are electric, or gas/diesel powered? Is there even enough electric power available if all cars were electric?

First Amendment: Is “hate speech” beyond the “pale of the 1st Amendment?” Is misinformation? Disinformation? Or has the U.S. Supreme Court over the last two hundred years correctly determined the categories of speech that are beyond the “pale of the 1st Amendment?” Can the U.S. Government use privately-owned business to limit free speech — something the Government itself is prohibited from doing?

Climate change: Should all gas stoves be eliminated? Replaced with electric stoves? Should Americans be limited as to how low they can set their air-conditioners?

There is something very wrong with a presidential candidate who refuses to truthfully tell the voters what she plans to do if elected? There is something equally bizarre with voters voting for a candidate who refused to tell the voters what her program is. (Note: many of her proposals come from her “surrogates.” That allows her to say, “I never said that!”)

We in America have never experienced a communist national government running our country. Everywhere else, once you get a communist government, you stuck with it — like incurable cancer.

Vice Presidential candidate Walz has made over 30 trips to China. Is he a Communist? A Communist fellow-traveler? Is this something a rational voter should want to know? When’s the last time the Communists were voted “out” in China?

America was built on the idea expressed in our Declaration of Independence that our rights are inalienable and “God-given” — our rights weren’t given us by kings, presidents or congresses. The only thing that stands between us and totalitarianism is what is written on a few sheets of paper — our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

So long as our founding documents are construed consistently with the intent of the founders, our rights remain “God-given.” But when people come to power who believe that the Constitution should be construed consistently with their “more enlightened” notions, you will have lost your freedoms — even if you were promised “Joy and Freedom.”

Don Wooten is worried about AI being an uncontrollable ugly monster. I have the same concerns about candidate Harris who is afraid stand in front of the voters — sans teleprompter — and tell the American people where she stands on the key issues, and more importantly; HOW she intends to deal with them.




First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on September 11, 2024.
Copyright 2024, John Donald O'Shea

Harris needs to say if she'll rewrite Title IX

                          Note: Title as Submited: "Candidate Harris, … Define “Woman.”



The Biden Administration’s new Regulations “re-writing” “Title IX” went into effect on August 1, 2024.

Title IX is the federal law that requires universities and colleges that receive federal funding to provide equal opportunities to female students. These include equal opportunities in sports. As such, an educational institution must provide male and female athletes with equal access to financial aid. This means that funds allocated to athletic scholarships must be proportionate to the participation of male and female athletes. In other words, if a university allocates $500,000 to athletic scholarships, and 45 percent of its athletes are female, it must allocate $225,000 of that amount to female athletes. (Outside the financial aid context, an institution does not need to spend the same amount of funds on male and female athletes).

In the words of Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA),

“The Biden-Harris administration might not be able to define what a woman is, but they are waging a systematic and deliberate campaign to eliminate Title IX and destroy women’s sports.

“50 years ago, Title IX created opportunity and allowed girls across America to dream. And we’re all watching the Olympics right now, and I can’t help but think that we are all witnessing those dreams become reality for so many of our young female athletes. … But just think about it: If Biden and Harris had their way, Katie Ledecky might have never earned a single medal for our nation had she been forced to compete against biological males.”

President Trump vows that he will immediately undo the Biden re-write of Title IX.

But what is candidate Harris position on the issue?

Is she for or against the re-write? The American people are entitled to know the Harris’ position. Or is she going to pull a “Biden,” and hide in the basement? Why isn’t the Mainstream Media insisting that she tell the voters exactly where she stands on the issue?


If ever there was a ‘woman’s right issue,” this is it. Biden’s re-write of Title IX will affect over 35 million girls and women students. By comparison, there are less than 1M abortions per year in the U.S.

Are men going to be allowed participate in — and dominate — women’s college and high school sports?

Will your daughter be required to share the locker room with male athletes? The shower? Rest rooms?

Will your daughter be forced to share a dorm room with a male when she goes to college?”

Can you your daughter be compelled to believe that a man who declares himself to be a woman is ipso facto a woman? Can she be punished for using the wrong pronoun in referring to the erstwhile male?

Conservatives believe that our U.S. Constitution should be construed consistently with the intent of the founding fathers. Progressives believe it should be construed in accordance with their own “more enlightened notions” of due process and equal protections.

Until the Obama years, there were only two sexes. It was a “settled question.” Since, Progressives, with their more “enlightened notions,” now insist that there are many more.

For many Americans, there are only two sexes: men and women. A man has a penis and testicles and cannot birth or bear offspring. A woman has a vagina and female organs, can conceive, carry and bear a child, and can nourish it with breast milk. A man has XY chromosomes; a woman, XX.

For the “more enlightened” Progressives there are additional sexes. Moreover, a person can change his sex. A man can undergo surgery, or he simply can declare himself to be a woman.

But are Progressives truly “more enlightened” or are they “science deniers?”

As a very little boy I can never recall not knowing the difference between a man and a woman. My mother was a woman. My father was a man.

When I was no more than two or three my mother explained to me “where babies came from.” When I noticed an aunt with a very large belly, my mother explained to me that my aunt was “pregnant and was going to have a baby.” She explained that the baby developed inside his mother’s womb. She told me that only women could have babies, and she told me some women fed their newborn babies with milk they produced in their breasts; others used baby bottles.

Eighty years of my life have confirmed to me the truth of what my mother told me. And eighty years of my life have confirmed to me the truth of Genesis 1:27.

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sums the issues up well:

“The big concern that I have is that the rule applies to bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower areas, which means that schools and colleges could lose federal funding if they require students to use the facilities corresponding to their biological sex.

“And then it also expands the definition of sexual harassment to include addressing someone with the pronouns that align with his or her sex, that conflicts with his or her preferred gender.

“This is bending the norms of life that have existed for millennia.”

Since the days of Jefferson, Americans have always enjoyed freedom of belief, conscience and speech. If any American man wishes to believe that he is a woman, he has a right to do so.

Our 1st Amendment guarantees that right, as well as his right to declare himself a woman. That same 1st Amendment, however, guarantees that you and I can believe otherwise (believe our own eyes), and say that he isn’t.

Title IX took — as a given — that there were just two sexes. It requires schools that receive federal funding to provide equal opportunities to female students. It was not passed allow either men or women to “redefine themselves.” Such a re-write can only be done by Congress. 

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on September 1, 2024. 
Copyright 2024, John Donald O'Shea