Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) recently got in touch with his inner mobster and threatened Elon Musk – the new owner of Twitter and the CEO of electric car company Tesla and space ventures company SpaceX. He told Musk, “Fix your companies” or “Congress will.”

As part of this threat, Markey referred to an ongoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation into Tesla’s autopilot driving system and Twitter’s 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Markey has done more than make threats: He is one of a group of Democratic senators who wrote to the FTC urging an investigation into whether Musk’s actions as the new owner of Twitter violated the consent decree or consumer protection laws. Since FTC Chair Lina Khan wants to investigate as many businesses as possible, it is likely she will respond favorably to the senators’ letter.

President Biden has also endorsed an investigation into the role foreign investors played in financing Musk’s Twitter purchase. Biden may be concerned that Musk is not likely to ban tweets regarding Hunter Biden’s business deals.

Concerns that Musk would allow tweets containing information embarrassing (or worse) to the Biden administration point to the real reason many Democratic politicians and progressive writers and activists are attacking Musk. They support efforts to suppress conservative, libertarian, and other “non-woke” speech on social media. They view the prospect of a major platform refusing to silence those who dissent from the woke mob or the Democratic Party establishment as a threat to their power. Musk further angered the left by committing what, to many Democrats (and Liz Cheney), is the ultimate hate crime — allowing Donald Trump back on Twitter.

The threat against Musk shows the threat to liberty is not just from big tech; it is from the alliance between big tech and big government.

Some conservatives think that increasing government’s power over social media is the correct way to make big tech respect free speech.

However, increasing the US government’s power over social media can just end up putting more power behind government threats like those from Rep. Markey. Expanded government control over how social media companies conduct their business can also further incentivize the companies to work with the federal government to shut down free speech.

Once the government steps in with increased regulation, the risk is that greater government control over what is communicated on social media will follow. The question will just be who is calling the shots on the exercise of that control. Will the result be an increase of the liberal or “woke” pressure on social media companies to silence conservatives, libertarians, opponents of teaching critical race theory and transgenderism in schools, and those who question the safety and effectiveness of covid vaccines? Alternatively, will a new sort of pressure become dominant, maybe pressure to comply with conservative or Republican preferred limits on speech? Either way, liberty loses.

Big tech companies silence their users to curry favor with politicians and bureaucrats, often after “encouragement” from politicians and bureaucrats. Therefore, to end big tech’s censorship, Americans should demand that all government officials — including the president — not violate the First Amendment. We must work to put an end to government officials pressuring or even “encouraging” social media platforms either to silence any American citizen because of his opinions or to downplay or suppress any news story. The way to protect free speech online is to separate tech and state.

After nearly four decades of silence, Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted Sunday night, prompting authorities to declare an ashfall advisory across the state’s Big Island. 

“The eruption continues at the summit of Mauna Loa. All vents remain restricted to the summit area. However, lava flows in the summit region are visible from Kona. There is currently no indication of any migration of the eruption into a rift zone,” the US. Geological Survey wrote on its website, adding the current volcano alert level is “warning.” 

USGS webcam showed the eruption is currently confined to the summit. 

Mauna Loa began to erupt at 11:30 PM HST on Sunday. The eruption is currently confined to the summit, and there is no indication that magma is moving into either rift zone. HVO is closely monitoring. Follow @USGSVolcanoes for updates. Find webcams here: https://t.co/PCmuqZqpcB pic.twitter.com/dv6vJBsASo

— USGS (@USGS) November 28, 2022

No mandatory evacuation orders have been given to residents around Mauna Loa, but Hawaii County opened shelters just in case the eruption worsened. 

The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. USGS wrote:

“Based on past events, the early stages of a Mauna Loa eruption can be very dynamic and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly.

“If the eruption remains in Moku’āweoweo, lava flows will most likely be confined within the caldera walls.

“However, if the eruptive vents migrate outside its walls, lava flows may move rapidly downslope.”

Portions of the Big Island could expect upwards of a quarter-inch of ash in some areas. 

Footage of the eruption is being posted on Twitter.

The world’s largest active volcano erupted in Hawaii for the first time since 1984.

Mauna Loa erupted at 11:30 p.m. local time Sunday (4:30 a.m. ET Monday), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. pic.twitter.com/dWdqjx7x0N

— Christopher Webb🇺🇸VOTE (@cwebbonline) November 28, 2022

UPDATE: View from Saddle Road of lava from Mauna Loa volcano eruption as of 1:30 am — Hawaii County Civil Defense working to confirm if any lava has flowed outside the summit caldera (pics: @KITV4 viewer AJ Taaca) pic.twitter.com/dN5reiq4PW

— Tom George (@TheTomGeorge) November 28, 2022

Latest reports indicate Mauna Loa eruption is still limited to the summit caldera. While the glow from the eruption is visible from parts of Kona, there is no indication that lava has broken out at this time. pic.twitter.com/jC20RHFZki

— Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) November 28, 2022

The eruption is large enough that weather satellites have detected it from space.  

The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaiʻi’s Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island erupted overnight. #GOESWest is tracking the thermal signature of the explosive event, as well as the ash and debris cloud. Updates at https://t.co/Pm6hBJrYvg @USGSVolcanoes #MaunaLoaVolcano pic.twitter.com/CQZ1rOvKo1

— UW-Madison CIMSS (@UWCIMSS) November 28, 2022

The Mauna Loa volcano on Big Island of Hawaii has erupted. An ashfall advisory is up in that area. You can see it here as it happened on https://t.co/j6cXc9WZdy satellite. This is the first time since 1984 it has. https://t.co/cUDj57GzJZ pic.twitter.com/ncOQBal4pI

— Mike’s Weather Page (@tropicalupdate) November 28, 2022

We’ve been closely following the developments of Mauna Loa. In late October, the intensifying earthquake swarms underneath the volcano caught our attention, indicating a possible eruption. And the quakes continued this month as we noted, “such unrest could be a precursor to an eruption not seen in decades.” 

Authored by Thomas Lifson via AmericanThinker.com,

You might think that an official rebuke of Pfizer’s CEO for misleading the public on the benefits of its COVID vaccine would be big news, especially given the fill court press by vaccine absolutists to compel people to receive the shots.

6 months ago, Dr. Bourla appeared with Klaus Schwab at the Wiorld Economic Forum (YouTube screengrab)

But even with a Google search, I have not yet seen any US media coverage of a starling rebuke delivered to Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla by a panel convened by the UK Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA). The criticism followed remarks he made in a December 2021 interview with the BBC. The following account is derived from an article in the Melbourne, Australia Herald-Sun by Frank Chung.

In early December 2021, Dr Bourla used an interview with BBC Breakfast to claim that the virus was “thriving” in schools and “there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely, are in favour of” giving five-year-olds the vaccine.

“This is disturbing, significantly, the educational system, and there are kids that will have severe symptoms,” he said. (snip)

By March 2022, some data were showing the effectiveness of the children’s vaccine plummeted to just 12 per cent within weeks of inoculation.

Dr Bourla said in the BBC interview that the main benefit of immunising children was “the indirect protection of adults”.

“The extent to which we can do that and protect adults by avoiding them being infected by children with the current vaccines is still quite uncertain,” he said.

“So, that’s the balance — we clearly want to protect children as much as possible and we’ve got good evidence now that this vaccine, even at a low dose, produces a really good protective immune response in children and produces many fewer side effects because of the lower dose.

The CEO’s touting of “good evidence” and his promotion of a jab that turned out to have but 12% effectiveness, drew an almost immediate complaint:

Shortly after the interview was published, parent lobby group UsForThem lodged a formal complaint with the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).

The complaint alleged Dr Bourla’s remarks were “disgracefully misleading” and “extremely promotional in nature”, breaching several clauses of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s (ABPI) code of practice, The Telegraph reported. (snip)

There is simply no evidence that healthy schoolchildren in the UK are at significant risk from the SARS COV-2 virus and to imply that they are is disgracefully misleading,” the complaint said.

A code of practice panel convened by the PMCPA found Pfizer had breached the code in a number of different ways, including by misleading the public, making unsubstantiated claims, and by failing to present information in a factual and balanced way, according to The Telegraph.

Pfizer appealed the findings, arguing Dr Bourla’s remarks were based on “up-to-date scientific evidence” and could be substantiated by the “publicly available independent benefit-risk assessments”. 

An appeal board panel met in November, where the breaches relating to misleading the public, making unsubstantiated claims and the lack of balance were upheld.

The more serious findings, including that Pfizer had brought discredit to the industry, had encouraged irrational use of a medicine and had failed to maintain high standards, were overturned.

The full case report will be published in coming weeks.

Pfizer is one of the largest television advertisers in the United States. That’s why I don’t expect this strong rebuke of its CEO to get much publicity here.

Deeper than expected Black Friday discounts have shifted the focus to profit margins, adding insult to injury to a sector that was already headed into year-end as one of the worst-performers in the S&P 500, with companies such as Target and Best Buy having shocked investors by slashing forecasts in recent weeks.

To be sure there was some good news: while the traditional Black Friday scenes of shoppers trampling each other for flatscreen TVs and Playstations were nowhere to be found, online sales set a new record at $9 billion (up from $8.92 billion last year, and $9.03 billion in 2020) due to deeply discounted items ranging from apparel to electronics.

In a nutshell, in-store sales were nothing special, online sales were outstanding, but deep inventory-liquidating discounts – the kind we warned about back in May when discussing the reverse bullwhip effect – aimed at stimulating spending have raised analyst concerns about margins.

As far as in-store traffic goes, Goldman made the following observations in the Northeast, Texas and Utah;

1. Overall traffic still appeared muted relative to 2019 at most “traditional” Black Friday weekend destinations, but was still higher than 2021.
2. Consumer electronics, toys, and sporting goods had the most traffic.
3. Promotions are back, as expected.
4. Stores looked very well stocked (which again is no surprise, see our preview more than six months ago about the ‘reverse-bullwhip‘ effect leading to an oversupply of inventory which retailers have struggled to pare down). 

Goldman further notes that according to Shopify data released Sunday there was a 19% increase in Black Friday sales vs. 2021, with the best performing categories being apparel & accessories, health & beauty, and home & garden.

The online sales blowout vs. muted in-store traffic comports with what we noted yesterday, as major shopping centers saw light activity despite the discounts.

Black Friday Has Gotten Out Of Control pic.twitter.com/AzhL3rFnas

— Steve Inman (@SteveInmanUIC) November 26, 2022

As the Financial Times notes:

The retail industry expects weaker growth over the course of the peak shopping season, with the National Retail Federation forecasting sales will advance 6-8 per cent during November and December. That would barely keep pace with inflation, which was running at 7.7 per cent in October.

As noted above, online sales set a record on Friday – with retailers such as Urban Outfitters observing that shoppers were putting record amounts of goods in their online shopping carts.The biggest discounts this year were for toys, which averaged 34% off listed prices, while electronics saw discounts peak at 27% according to Friday figures released by Adobe Analytics. Goldman also noted that online promotional activity began earlier in the week, with retailers using various promotional tactics – including targeted discounts and free shipping – to move products.

That said, it now appears that Black Friday discounts were so deep that some analysts have expressed concern over margins. Here is a snapshot of sellside takes from the start to holiday spending:

• Jeffries‘ Rondal Konik notes that a record number of companies offered higher promotions compared to last year.
• Morgan Stanley‘s Alex Straton says Black Friday traffic appeared “mixed,” and “sees further margin risk if consumers hold out on spending and force retailers to offer deeper discounts.”
• KeyBanc‘s Noah Zatkin says Black Friday weekend played out largely in-line with his expectations, with traffic ‘solid, but not strong,’ with in-store traffic for apparel and footwear brands softer relative to other categories. While Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said that online sales saw a solid weekend, and that significant discounting stimulated higher spending rates beginning early last week.

Companies to watch include Etsy, Wayfair, EBay, Chewy, Target, Costco and Best Buy, as well as sportswear brands such as Nike, Lululemon and Under Armour.

Now to see what Cyber Monday brings…

Authored by Jake Johnson via Common Dreams (emphasis ours),

The five major media outlets that collaborated with WikiLeaks in 2010 to publish explosive stories based on confidential diplomatic cables from the US State Department sent a letter Monday calling on the Biden administration to drop all charges against Julian Assange, who has been languishing in a high-security London prison for more than three years in connection with his publication of classified documents.

“Twelve years after the publication of ‘Cablegate,’ it is time for the U.S. government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets,” reads the letter signed by the editors and publishers of The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País. “Publishing is not a crime.”

The letter comes as Assange, the founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, is fighting the U.S. government’s attempt to extradite him to face charges of violating the draconian Espionage Act of 1917. If found guilty on all counts, Assange would face a prison sentence of up to 175 years for publishing classified information—a common journalistic practice.

Press freedom organizations have vocally warned that Assange’s prosecution would pose a threat to journalists the world over, a message that the five newspapers echoed in their letter Monday.

“This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” the letter reads. “Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists. If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.”

The “Cablegate” leak consisted of more than 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that offered what the Times characterized as “an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world.”

Among other revelations, the documents confirmed that the U.S. carried out a 2009 airstrike in Yemen that killed dozens of civilians. Cables released by WikiLeaks showed that then-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh assured U.S. Central Command Gen. David Petraeus that the Yemeni government would “continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours.”

The media outlets’ letter notes that “the Obama-Biden administration, in office during the WikiLeaks publication in 2010, refrained from indicting Assange, explaining that they would have had to indict journalists from major news outlets too.”

Monday 28th Nov is the 12th anniversary of the beginning of the momentous #Cablegate publication

Nine days later its publisher Julian Assange was arrested and has been in detention ever since – facing a 175 year sentence if extradited for truthful reporting #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/AeQdN94YXS

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2022

“Their position placed a premium on press freedom, despite its uncomfortable consequences,” the letter continues. “Under Donald Trump, however, the position changed. The [Department of Justice] relied on an old law, the Espionage Act of 1917 (designed to prosecute potential spies during World War One), which has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster.”

Despite dire warnings from rights groups, the Biden administration has decided to continue pursuing Assange’s extradition and prosecution. In June, the United Kingdom formally approved the U.S. extradition request even after a judge warned extradition would threaten Assange’s life.

Assange’s legal team filed an appeal in August, alleging that the WikiLeaks founder is “being prosecuted and punished for his political opinions.”

While the headline Dallas Fed Manufacturing survey did not weaken as much as expected, the production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell five points to near zero – its weakest level since the COVID lockdowns in 2020…

Under the hood, several other measures of manufacturing activity indicated contraction this month. The new orders index plummeted to -20.9 – its sixth month in a row in negative territory and lowest reading since May 2020. The growth rate of orders index dropped seven points to -19.9. The capacity utilization index turned negative, falling from 9.1 to -3.4, and the shipments index posted a second consecutive negative reading at -7.5, down from -1.6 in October.

Additionally, perceptions of broader business conditions continued to worsen in November. The general business activity index posted a seventh consecutive negative reading but moved up five points to -14.4. The company outlook index pushed down further, from -9.1 to -15.2.

However, it was the comments from respondents that offer the most prescient insight into US economic conditions:

• Customers are illiquid. Demand is there; there is just no cash to buy food. There is increased tension in terms of demand for skilled workers and retaining them. [Food Manufacturing]

• Business is slow and slowing. Our outlook for January is hopeful. [Paper Manufacturing]

• There is less panic buying going on. Inventories are beginning to go down. Lead times we are able to give to our customers are beginning to decrease as input of new orders slows. The slowdown is consistent with normal seasonal factors but way below last year’s very high fourth-quarter order level. We are beginning to see the end of the dislocations caused by the pandemic. [Printing and Related Support Activities]

• Recession is coming! We are just waiting for the backlog to evaporate. Then layoffs start. [Primary Metal Manufacturing]

• We are very concerned about the volume of future business activity. We see our customers pulling back their plans for expansion but still planning for the future. This has put us in a position to be very competitive to win every order possible to ensure our cash flow and ability to pay our employees and bills. [Machinery Manufacturing]

• We are still running strong; however, we believe that it is inevitable that the economy will contract within the next six months. [Machinery Manufacturing]

• [The Federal Reserve] is going too crazy—that is really affecting the industrial equipment industry and stalling infrastructure spending as I have never seen before. Millions of jobs are at risk in manufacturing. [Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing]

• The cost of capital is unbearable for small businesses and will delay or reduce expenditures or hiring unless business drives change. [Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing]

• The outlook is troubling and unsettling. Caution is the strategy. The Federal Reserve is too aggressive. Let what’s been done materialize in the economy before piling on. [Transportation Equipment Manufacturing]

Does any of that sound like an economy that is “strong as hell”?

Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times,

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said Friday that he would announce his bid to run for the position of chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) on Monday.

Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump, said he’d officially declare his bid at 11 a.m. ET on his website FrankSpeech.com.

“We’ve got to save our country. We can’t have the RNC out there if they can’t change,” Lindell said during an interview on his web program, “The Lindell Report.”

“I’ve said it before, they need to change what they’re doing based on the current footprint in the country. You need a different input to get a different output.”

Lindell’s proposition comes after Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair since 2017, signaled her intention to seek to lead the party for a fourth term.

“Guys, if you support me running against Ronna McDaniel, please email me,” Lindell said in an earlier interview. He said he wants to hear all feedback, including negative.

“I’ll step into that if God willing,” he added.

Ronna McDaniel, the GOP chairwoman, speaks during the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Salt Lake City, on Feb. 4, 2022. (Rick Bowmer, File/AP Photo)

McDaniel’s Reelection Bid

Following reports that around 100 RNC members signed a letter supporting McDaniel’s reelection bid, the GOP chair affirmed her bid in a statement obtained by The Hill.

“I’m humbled to have earned the support of over 100 members and officers at this time for my reelection bid,” McDaniel told The Hill.

“I look forward to continue working hard on behalf of the grassroots, in every state and territory, to grow our Party and invest in the critical infrastructure needed to keep the House, take back the Senate, and retire [President] Joe Biden in 2024.”

The RNC member support letter itself was cited in media reports that pointed to a screengrab shared by the Washington Post, which showed only part of a letter without the signature page.

McDaniel’s intention to run for reelection was first reported by Politico, citing anonymous sources who said McDaniel told members on a call she’d run if the committee members wanted her to.

Here is copy of the letter being circulated. pic.twitter.com/IwYRmqhJuG

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) November 18, 2022

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who lost his gubernatorial race against Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York, said on Nov. 17 that he was “very seriously considering” running against McDaniel for the GOP chairship.

“Due to the amount of requests I have received from both inside and outside of the 168 about running to be the next Chair of the Republican National Committee, I am very seriously considering your requests and am grateful for your messages,” Zeldin said, adding that it was time for the GOP to “retool” and “transform” in order to win the presidency in 2024.

Zeldin lamented Republicans not winning the U.S. Senate, saying it would mean the southern border would remain unsecured against illegal immigration and “deadly drugs” under the administration of Biden.

He also called for the GOP to examine why they were not as successful across the country as they were in New York and signaled that he could create a red wave in 2024 if he were the GOP chair.

Trump’s Support for McDaniel Unclear

Trump, who earlier this year praised McDaniel in a video to rally conservatives to support her, on Friday shared a post on his Truth Social account from a user who wrote: “Mike Lindell for RNC? Yes please.”

Several months before the midterms, Trump recorded a video for a members-only RNC meeting in Memphis in which he praised McDaniel, saying she was doing “a tremendous job,” but noted, “we have to watch the midterms.”

Trump expressed hope in the video that GOP would have a “tremendous” midterms, but earlier this month, the Republican forecasts of a “red wave” washed out.

The Epoch Times contacted Trump’s office for comment.

The RNC will vote for its next chair in January 2023.

Large swathes of Ukraine still remain in the dark, with emergency and utility crews currently racing to restore power and heat to major cities, at a moment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is warning the public to brace for more major Russian airstrikes.

Zelensky told the country Sunday night that the Russians “are preparing new strikes and as long as they have missiles, they won’t stop.” Last week saw some of the most brutal and large-scale waves of aerial strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid since the war began, leaving at least 10 million Ukrainians without power. 

“The upcoming week can be as hard as the one that passed,” Zelensky added in the fresh remarks. Even parts of the country that have had power must endure rolling emergency blackouts. “We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know this for a fact,” Zelensky forewarned. 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said that millions within the capital city might have to be evacuated as temperatures continue to plunge, and as it sees the first waves of snowfall this month. Missile attacks have shut down essential services, and warming centers and shelters have been set up where there is availability. 

Last week Klitschko warned that more rounds of sustained Russian attacks could result in a complete shutdown of Ukraine’s largest city.

But President Zelensky in a rare moment suggesting internal government infighting lashed out at his own officials: 

“I know that, unfortunately, not in all cities the local government has done a good job. In particular, there are many complaints in Kyiv. I expect better quality work from the mayor’s office… it is the responsibility of every local official to ensure that everything that should be there for people actually works,” the president said.

Western countries are reportedly getting ready to boost humanitarian aid efforts as the coldest months of the year are just around the corner for Ukrainians. 

The New York Times on Sunday also reported that the weather is an ever more difficult factor on the battlefield: “Increasingly frigid winter weather presented new challenges for Ukraine on Sunday as mud churned up the battlefield and snowfall made the government’s task of restoring power supplies devastated by weeks of Russian bombing all the more urgent.”

“The state energy company, Ukrenergo, said that there was enough electricity to cover 80 percent of the country’s consumption needs because nuclear power stations, disconnected from the national grid by Russian attacks last week, had been brought back online,” NYT continued. 

In case you wondered why Russia attacks the power grid in Ukraine. Lessons learned from US/NATO. pic.twitter.com/OPSyax9vBh

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) November 27, 2022

The government meanwhile has continued calling on Ukrainians to make conscious efforts at cutting back electricity usage: “If consumption increases in the evening, the number of outages may increase,” Zelensky had warned over the weekend. “This once again shows how important it is now to save power and consume it rationally.”

Austrian rail traffic froze Monday, impacting critical transit routes between Europe’s east and west, as workers held a 24-hour strike over pay disputes. 

According to Reuters, the labor action has disrupted 8,000 connections and left more than a million passengers stranded. 

“The railway union vida is on strike today from 00:00 to 24:00. For this reason, no trains can run all day throughout Austria and across borders,” the country’s federal railway system, OeBB, wrote on its website. 

The labor action was last-minute after pay negotiations broke down between the rail workers’ union and OeBB. The union demanded a 400 Euro increase due to the cost-of-living-crisis in the EU for the 50,000 rail workers. They were offered 208 euros plus a one-time payment of 1000 euros. 

“Wedged between eight countries including Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, Austria is an important hub for European rail travel,” Reuters noted. 

“I don’t want to rule out the possibility of irregularities on one train or the other, but in general I expect that we will be back to serving our customers with the usual quality as of Tuesday,” OeBB chief Andreas Matthae told local radio broadcaster ORF. 

The strike is malicious as it disrupts critical EU rail networks. Though not surprising due to the EU’s worst inflation crisis in a generation thanks to backfiring sanctions against Russia. 

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter with a pledge to restore free speech protections, the media and political establishment have maintained an unrelenting campaign to use pressure from corporations and foreign governments to force him to restore censorship policies. Reporters have covered seemingly every celebrity declaring that they are leaving the site or even selling their Teslas in protest. As companies joined the boycott, commentators gleefully announced the “death,” “collapse,” and “demise” of the social media company with some mocking Musk’s endangerment of billions for free speech. New figures, however, appear to show that the public is solidly with Musk on the free speech issue. New signups at Twitter are at an all-time high with two million new signups per day.

As these companies and activists demand censorship, customers are signing up in mass to embrace the greater diversity of viewpoints and expression at the company. While companies are yielding to demands from the left that they cut off ad revenue until Musk restores censorship, users are flocking to the site.

The over two million new sign-ups per day represent a 66% increase over the same time frame last year, according to figures released by Musk.

Slides from my Twitter company talk pic.twitter.com/8LLXrwylta

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022

Of course, it has long been known that the public wants more, not less, free speech. It is the political establishment that is struggling to retain control over speech on social media at any cost. Facebook even tried a massive commercial campaign to convince the public to embrace censorship.

President Joe Biden has led calls for censorship on social media, which have been largely heeded by companies like Facebook and Twitter. Biden is accusing Twitter of “spewing lies all across the world” by seeking to reduce one of the largest censorship systems in history. 

President Biden has previously accused social media companies of “killing people” by refusing to impose robust censorship over a wide range of subjects. Many of those banned or censored were doctors with opposing views on the data and the science related to the pandemic.

Some of those doctors were the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for a more focused Covid response that targeted the most vulnerable population rather than widespread lockdowns and mandates. Many are now questioning the efficacy and cost of the massive lockdown as well as the real value of masks or the rejection of natural immunities as an alternative to vaccination.  Likewise, those who alleged that the virus may have begun in a lab in China were widely denounced and the views barred from being uttered on social media platforms. It was later learned that a number of leading experts raised this theory with Fauci and others early in the pandemic.

We are now seeing increasing evidence of back channels used by government and political figures to maintain a censorship system by surrogate in the social media companies and foreign allies.

President Biden however, has denounced Musk as a guy who “goes out and buys an outfit that spews lies all across the world.” He then claimed “There are no editors anymore. There are no editors anymore.”

The President the added:

“How do people know the truth? What do they — how do they make — make a distinction between fact and fiction? There’s so much — so much going on. And we’re in the middle of this.”

Indeed, perish the thought that citizens might be left to pursue the truth on their own without the government or surrogates in the media framing it for them. How could we possibly “know the truth” without our social media overlords?

Apparently, millions each day are signing up to do precisely that.

As for Musk, he is predicting one billion users in a year. What a nightmare for many in Washington . . . one billion people discussing contemporary issues freely  . . . without “editors” telling them what “the truth is.”