Liberals — in Congress and media editorial offices — backed by local prosecutors, cops and more, continue to search for ways to silence and punish former President Donald Trump, his family and former administration allies, even though he left office several months ago. They’re looking for indictments, crippling financial levies against their businesses and much more.
They’ve maintained a ban on his views on Facebook and other “social media,” in hopes of preventing him from running for president again in 2024. But in their blood lust, their real targets are the workers who voted for Trump, as well as freedom of speech and political rights crucial for working people.
Trump, as well as all other Republican and Democratic Party politicians, defends to the hilt the interests of U.S. imperialism. But Trump also presented himself as an outsider who would work to end the carnage working people face and take on the “swamp” of politicians in Washington.
What liberals fear most is the working class, the “deplorables” as Hillary Clinton famously termed them, especially in smaller cities and the countryside. This includes over 74 million who voted for Trump in 2020, and the 80 million who didn’t vote for either capitalist candidate.
On May 5 Facebook’s so-called oversight board upheld the edict by company CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ban Trump from Facebook, where he had more than 35 million followers.
The action came after a few hundred conspiracy theorists and wannabe paramilitaries, followed by some supporters of Donald Trump, entered the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. This action was depicted by the incoming Democratic administration of Joseph Biden and liberal media pundits as an example of a growing threat from “white supremacist domestic terrorists.”
Instagram, another Zuckerberg outfit, also barred Trump, where he has more than 24 million followers. Twitter then placed a permanent ban on the former president, moving to shut him off from his over 88 million followers. Trump was also blocked from Snapchat and YouTube, where his channel had almost 3 million subscribers.
Bosses at these privately run big tech companies are exempted from being held liable for what is posted on their sites, based on their claim they are just a vehicle for others to speak. But their increasing moves to ban people who disagree with the liberal world outlook belie their “neutrality.” They are part of the poisonous spread of “cancel culture.” The casualty is free speech.
Twitter, for example, has frequently blocked accounts of organizations and political leaders in Cuba who defend the revolution. Last October, Facebook “deactivated” for 24 hours the account of Cheryl LaBash, a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba, and 14 others for posting information on a Nov. 14-15 conference organized to fight against the U.S. rulers’ economic war on Cuba.
Facing growing criticism over censorship, Facebook’s Zuckerberg, in a public-relations scam, set up his “oversight board” of “experts” last October to review company rulings. While backing Facebook’s January decision to block Trump, the board said Zuckerberg has to decide for himself whether to maintain the ban indefinitely.
In a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that these tech platforms should be regulated like the gas and electric utilities. This would circumscribe the censors at Facebook, Google and Twitter.
In a highly unusual move, FBI agents raided the New York office and apartment of Rudolph Giuliani, former mayor of New York and personal attorney for Donald Trump, at 6 a.m. April 28. They seized his cellphones and computers, claiming they’re investigating Giuliani’s dealings with individuals in Ukraine during Trump’s presidency. Newly confirmed Attorney General Merrick Garland himself gave the green light to conduct the raid.
Giuliani raid is ‘legal thuggery’
“What they did today was legal thuggery,” Robert Costello, Giuliani’s lawyer, told the media. Costello said the object of the search was to smear Giuliani as a criminal, in the face of the fact his client had twice offered to answer any prosecutors’ questions.
FBI agents also executed a search warrant at the Washington-area home of Victoria Toensing, a lawyer who worked closely with Giuliani. They seized her cellphone.
The liberal media — New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News — rushed to get the “news” in print so fast that they reported it inaccurately. Each had to retract false claims in their coverage saying Giuliani had received FBI warnings on “Russian disinformation.”
At the same time, federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson is going after former Attorney General William Barr, claiming he had “misled” her and Congress about former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s nearly two-year-long witch hunt against Trump on baseless charges he had secret ties with Russia.
The goal of the liberals isn’t just to ruin, and imprison if possible, Trump and those around him. It’s to send a message to anyone who doesn’t think “correctly” — that is, as they do — of what can be done to them.