US Sanctions EU Officials for Free Speech Suppression in Major Widening of US-European Rift
Yesterday for the first time the US announced sanctions against European officials associated with the EU’s Digital Services Act and UK’s Online Safety Act, and specifically for their overreach in attempting to censor Americans extraterritorially on US soil.
These censorial attempts were made via a dense web of NGOs which collaborated with various US institutions, including the Biden administration, in “flagging” American content as well as creating ‘black lists’ of American “offenders” earmarked for deplatformization and other forms of illegal free speech suppression.
US Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers:
Our targets are foreign, but you’ll notice that some collaborated with U.S. bureaucrats on Murthy-style speech suppression. Don’t worry: we’re pursuing transparency, truth, and reconciliation at the @StateDept, too.
While this is a big step, the US Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers specifically noted that these so-called “sanctions” are not of the high-octane Magnitsky Act variety—which seek to debank and financially ruin the targets—often levied on Russian interests, but rather merely visa restrictions—at least for now—which simply keep the sanctioned officials from being able to visit the US, or booting those already there.
The full list of sanctioned ex-officials. The most prominent amongst them is Thierry Breton—a bigwig EU commissioner under von der Leyen’s corrupt regime—and one of the “masterminds of the Digital Services Act” itself.
Another is Josephine Ballon of HateAid, a “hate speech” watchdog; here’s her succinctly “democratic” opinion on free speech:
Naturally, all the top Eurocrats got their marching orders to begin organizing a desperate defense of the so-called ‘European values’:
But as per usual, the latest “assault on Europe” by the Trump administration has revealed or highlighted two key things.
First, the fact that the rift between US and Europe is growing, as the Trump administration appears to understand that the Deep State has retreated to more defensible positions in the EU, after being at least somewhat thwarted and beaten back in the US. And so now, Trump’s admin sees that it must be pursued and cut off at the root in Europe itself, at least according to Richard Werner’s plausible hypothesis:
This erupting dispute is bringing the ongoing war between Trump and the Deep State out into the open, at least in Europe: Having had to concede territory in the US, the American Deep State retreated to it’s biggest fortress: Germany and the EU, where it has been entrenched, drawing its legal powers from the 1945 Occupation Statutes in Germany and its control over the dictatorial EU Commission ever since the CIA created these EU institutions in the first place (with Jean Monnet, Schuman, Spaak etc & the European Movement all CIA assets).
In this case, specifically, we can refer to the ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’—as coined by Mike Benz—which is a loose overlap of many globalist NGOs and other ‘special interests’ which have fashioned a kind of international web capable of both influencing and operating in any Western nation.
The elites have expressed their shock at this development, being beside themselves at the fact that the US could possibly dare to form a schism between the different arms of the global Deep State:
But the second thing I mentioned which the latest developments have revealed is the utter hypocrisy of the performatively pearl-clutching Euro-elites. They shriek in outrage at the ‘assault’ on their so-called freedoms when the US dares to do the very thing these Euro-elites themselves have gleefully subjected many less-fortunate nations to, particularly Russia.
For instance, compare Kaja Kallas’s hand-wringing to her own earlier calls to ban travel for Russians:
In fact, the maudlin outrage in general over the Trump admin’s shifting stance on Europe is quite ‘rich’, when you think about it.
Take this recent headline which purports that only now, after desecrating the sacred “European garden” has the US finally crossed over into the ‘malign’ category:
Think of how offensive that is to the rest of the real world, which exists outside the neocolonialist barbican of Borrell’s Edenic ‘garden’. Decades of interference in global elections, invading dozens of third world—and particularly Middle Eastern—countries, destroying nations and millions of lives all in the name of some cooked-up ‘freedom’—all fine and acceptable: the US was the ‘shining beacon’ of Democracy.
But now that the unchained American dragon has set its fiery breath on sacred Europe, a sudden outbreak of teeth-gnashing and pearl-clutching amongst the panicked elites. How patently malign! You can see the blatant Eurocentric racism bleeding through in the desperate attempts to cushion that final and inviolable fortress of global elite privilege that is the European sacred ‘garden’ from the most harrowing and unthinkable of punishments: equal treatment.
Welcome to the Golden Age, dear Europeans: under Pontifex Maximus Trump, you too are become the Jungle.
Now prostrate yourselves and grovel for forgiveness.
A fitting valediction from one X user:
The vise is closing on the detached, self-absorbed EU ruling class.
Europe is simmering with rage as citizens watch their nations suffocate under corruption, censorship, mass immigration, ideological fanaticism, and institutional failure.
Brussels has become a sealed bunker of arrogance, deaf to reality and hostile to its own people.
By cutting itself off from the streets, from accountability, and from common sense, the EU has signed its own death warrant. What remains is a hollow, decaying construct staggering toward collapse.
Just remember, when times get bad, there’s only one thing the putrid Eurocrats know how to do, as always: double down.
The report is brief today to give you all a chance to enjoy Christmas without too much mental exhaustion. That said, one final item.
Now that Christmas has arrived, the West is naturally resorting to cheap propaganda gimmicks in calling out Russia for not accepting Zelensky’s desperate “Christmas truce” attempt, with even the Pope virtue signaling his ‘disappointment’ with Russia to add to the chorus of his globalist masters:
Only slight problem with that is, Russia’s own previous Christmas truce proposal in 2023 was roundly rejected by both Zelensky, Biden, and the Europeans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Russian_Christmas_truce_proposal
On the evening of the same day, Russian president Vladimir Putin instructed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to declare a 36-hour temporary ceasefire along the entire line of contact between Russian and Ukrainian troops from midday (12:00 Moscow Time; 09:00 UTC) on 6 January to midnight (24:00/00:00 Moscow Time; 21:00 UTC) on 7 to 8 January 2023.
The truce proposal was rejected by the Ukrainian authorities, who called it a "cynical trap". Despite the ceasefire being declared, it had little effect as fighting persisted.
Also from Wiki:
U.S. president Joe Biden stated that the truce proposal was merely a "breather" for Russian forces and a chance for them to reform. Asked by journalists to comment on Putin's initiative, he noted that Russia continued to bomb Ukrainian "hospitals, kindergartens and churches" on Christmas day 2022 ("on the 25th") and New Year. "I think he [Putin] is trying to take a breath of air", Biden added.
So much for that.
To join the festive Christmas spirit, Zelensky even displayed his grace in an official offering whereby he shared his great Christmas wish… that Putin should drop dead; that’s besides his description of Russians as not human elsewhere in the address.
Zelensky wishing for Putin’s death on his Christmas message:
My dear people, since ancient times, Ukrainians believed that on Christmas night, the heavens open.
And if you tell them your dream, it will surely come true.
Today, we all have one dream. And we have one wish for everyone:
"May he perish," as everyone says to themselves.
Last time Zelensky implied the same wish for the American president in his “some live, some die” remark, this time it’s the Russia one. It seems the darkness has devoured ol’ Zelensky, and thoughts of death now regularly oppress the poor Ukrainian leader’s fragile psyche. In some traditions they even say that wishing ill on others could mark you for the same fate.
Don’t worry though, if the above was a bit of a downer, Italy’s Meloni has a Christmas message that’s sure to leave you in better cheer:
Merry Christmas all!
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Give up your free speech and the freedom of the press at your peril. Once they are able to silence you, the game is over. The loss of all of your other freedoms will fall like dominos after. Anyone that advocates to censor you, or to unmask your anonymity is your adversary. Treat them like one - no matter what else they say.
But why is it so vital and necessary for the combined monolithic apparatus of government, corporations, and NGOs, to brute force censor everyone while decimating the careers and reputations of the dissenters? Here is why:
The reason the First Amendment is prime directive order 1, is because it is the most important freedom we have for the same reason it is the first target an adversary subverts, disrupts, and destroys during a crime, a war, or a takeover—preventing a target from assembling, communicating, and organizing a response to an assault grants an enormous advantage to the aggressors.
"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we will be led, like sheep to the slaughter." -Washington
And i am sorry to say it but this is where the rubber meets the road: The Second Amendment is second because it is the remedy for anyone trying to subvert the First.
Simplicius, thanks for your prolific output. Even today.
Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful festive season.