Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said the evidence that Iran was an imminent threat to the United States was not there.

The post Rand Paul: No Evidence Iran Was an Imminent Threat appeared first on Breitbart.

Ahead of a consequential vote on extending the government’s authority to conduct overseas espionage, several House conservatives are expressing their concerns.

On April 20, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which enables the government to spy on foreigners, is set to expire.

Many House Republicans and President Donald Trump have argued in the past that this power is easily abused, resulting in the inadvertent surveillance of American citizens. 

Back in 2024, facing a different deadline, Congress agreed to extend Section 702 for two years.

 Several members of the House Republican Conference demanded reforms to the authority, some of which were ultimately granted.

Now, House Republican leadership is attempting to move ahead on Wednesday with a clean extension of the authority. Trump has backed a clean extension.

The effort is being met with some resistance from House conservatives calling for amendments to the legislation.

“FISA Section 702 is a legitimate tool to monitor foreign threats, but the abuses are well-documented,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told The Daily Signal in a statement.

“Congress has an opportunity this week to reauthorize this valuable intelligence program while closing the loopholes that have allowed warrantless surveillance of millions of law-abiding Americans by voting for my amendment.”

Davidson has an amendment that would prohibit the federal government from purchasing American citizens’ data from brokers.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has argued that extending Section 702 is vital for America’s national security, and that introducing a plethora of amendments could prevent it from passing.

“It’s going to be a clean extension,” Johnson reiterated to reporters on Tuesday. “If we put amendments on it, it jeopardizes its passage and it’s far too important.”

Several House Republicans have submitted amendments for the consideration of the House Rules Committee—a leadership-controlled panel that determines the conditions for debate of bills on the floor.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., for example, has offered an amendment which would explicitly criminalize “knowingly [conducting] unlawful U.S. person queries.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is offering an extremely ambitious amendment which would attach the SAVE America Act—legislation requiring photo identification and proof of citizenship in federal elections—to the bill. 

Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., has offered an amendment which would allow members of Congress to “attend hearings and oral arguments of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” which considers requests for warrants for surveillance.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House intel committee, has given an extension of the authority his blessing.

In March, a court granted the annual recertification of the 702 program, so it would not immediately end if Congress does not act to extend the underlying legislation. Rather, it would expire in March 2027.

The post House Rebels Push Reforms to Government Spy Powers appeared first on The Daily Signal.



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The post Episode 5299: Live Coverage From Ireland Protests; Stopping The surge Of Foreign Born Workers appeared first on Stephen K Bannon's War Room.



We discuss polling, economy, battleground states, and more.

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Aired On: 4/14/2026

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The post Episode 5298: Chinese Ship Passes Through Blockade; Goal Is To Choke Off Iran’s Funds appeared first on Stephen K Bannon's War Room.

An inconvenient Democrat has had his career torpedoed by an avalanche of allegations, and the media want to give themselves a big pat on the back for their heroic “investigative journalism.”

They deserve no applause from the American people. In fact, the whole episode is a masterclass in media bias. More on that in a bit.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., announced Monday that he was not only bowing out of the California governor’s race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, but that he would be leaving Congress entirely.

Swalwell, in just a few days, was hit with an avalanche of accusations that he had inappropriate relationships and engaged in sexual misconduct with a series of women, including a staffer. Swalwell is married.

As I write this, another accuser has come forward saying that Swalwell drugged and raped her in 2018.

So far, Swalwell has denied the allegations and said he was resigning from Congress because he was distracted from his duties.

“I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members,” Swalwell wrote on X. “Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong. But it’s also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress.”

So far, nothing has been proven. We’ve seen previous “#MeToo” crusades turn out to be bunk, and that could be the case here. He could be a cad, but not a criminal. There are many possibilities.

Of course, Swalwell didn’t need facts or evidence to rush to condemn others who faced sexual assault accusations in the past. It’s hard to feel much sympathy for his plight.

What’s become clear, though, is that the allegations the media are dredging up now have been circulating in Democratic and media circles for a long time, if you can believe the commentary on X. POLITICO called it a “whisper network.” One journalist, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, wrote on X that she knew about these whispers for years, but the story wasn’t her “beat.”

Oh brother.

Then we get to the most ridiculous claim of all.

On CNN Monday night, Brian Stelter tooted the horn of his own network and showered praise on its due diligence in investigating Swalwell. He called it a “testament to the power of investigative reporting.”

What would we do without the legacy and corporate media working so hard to keep us informed?

It appears that rumors about Swalwell have been around for nearly a decade, even before he briefly ran for president in 2020. Is this a tribute to the glories of investigative journalism, or an example of malpractice?

These revelations line up in the most convenient way to ensure that Swalwell would leave the governor’s race at a time before his run could seriously jeopardize his party’s ability to win that race.

And that’s somehow the unseemliest part of this whole affair.

Despite Democrats holding a virtual lock on state-level politics for more than a decade, they find themselves in a situation where a Republican has a chance at taking the governor’s office. This is because they have a “jungle primary” system, whereby the top two vote-getters of any party advance to the general election.

In normal times, this would mean only Democrats would be on the ballot in a general election. But something funny is happening this year.

There are so many California Democrats desperate to get a crack at being governor, and apparently so few compelling candidates, that they’ve oversaturated the field. This has allowed two Republicans in the race to rise to the top of the polls, making a Republican/Republican runoff at least theoretically possible.

So what you are seeing now is a Machiavellian scramble, whereby the half dozen Democrats in the race and their media allies find a way—any way—to delete candidates from the race.

It was just a few weeks ago that Swalwell and his fellow Democrats were accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the FBI against him because he was allegedly sleeping with a Chinese spy. That couldn’t possibly be of concern, given his inclusion on the House Intelligence Committee, right?

Then events took a turn.

Just days before the Swalwell media deluge occurred, it seemed that the California election really could produce a Republican governor.

“If the primary were held today, according to the most recent polling, that would mean two Republican candidates, each pulling in just 14 percent of the primary vote, battling it out for the governor’s office in the fall,” Governing magazine reported on Thursday. “A lot could change before primary day, but the Democratic Party is increasingly nervous.”

A lot happened, almost immediately.

The allegations poured out. Swalwell’s supporters pulled out. He was ritualistically denounced by party leaders. In about a week, the California congressman went from being a frontrunner in a governor’s election to resigning from his seat.

What this whole thing looks like, as my colleague Fred Lucas noted on X, is that the media were simply spoon-fed the Swalwell story to ensure that at least one of the other Democrats would make it into the general election and win the race.

That makes this media cycle against Swalwell nothing more than a shining example of how much the legacy media help Democrats, even when they are targeting a Democrat.

Perhaps the bias and collusion are only too obvious at this point. It’s still remarkable to witness the swift ruthlessness of the Democrat-media machine in action.

The post The Swalwell Affair: How the Media Sat on ‘Whispers’ Until Democrats Needed Him Gone appeared first on The Daily Signal.

We put 150 rounds through a $99 folding .410 shotgun to see if it’s a viable truck gun or just a novelty.

The post Gun Review : Centurion Survivor .410 appeared first on The Truth About Guns.

Historically, tax season has never been easy for working Americans. It’s typically marked by days or weeks spent digging through stacks of receipts, invoices, 1099s, and W-2s. It’s undue stress of figuring out how to file or whom to hire for help. And it is uncertainty in not knowing if you’ll owe money—or how much—all while quietly praying everything is accounted for.

But this year feels different.

As families made the mad dash to file their taxes in the lead-up to April 15, many found they were keeping more of what they earned. And others, like mine, were astonished to find that, for the first time in a long while, they didn’t owe a few extra zeroes to the IRS. That’s because President Trump made a commitment to put American workers and families first—and followed through.

The Working Families Tax Cut, passed last July, extended and expanded the 2017 tax cuts secured during President Trump’s first term and prevented a $4 trillion tax increase that would have hit families’ budgets hard this year.

For the average taxpayer, that means more than $2,300 in extra savings each year over the next decade. These extra savings can fill up a commuter’s gas tank for an entire year, buy several months’ worth of groceries for a young family, or set up a Trump Account nest egg.

March 2026 data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows that tax refunds were up 11%compared to last year, with the average refund exceeding $3,500. For millions of Americans, that meant a bigger return—or a return for the first time in a long time—hitting their bank accounts this spring.

The tax relief secured in the Working Families Tax Cut, which was outlined by President Trump and codified by Republicans in Congress, is depositing dividends into taxpayer bank accounts even as you read this.

Middle-class families benefited from a larger standard deduction, which rose to $15,750 for individuals and $31,500 for married couples, allowing them to keep more of their income before taxes were even calculated. Parents saw the Child Tax Credit increase to $2,200, indexed for inflation, providing meaningful support for raising a family and extra cash to pay for child care, school supplies, and other essentials.

And thanks to a new deduction for both tip income and overtime pay, waitstaff working double shifts and construction workers putting in Saturday overtime are getting some much-needed relief as a reward for their hard work.

Seniors saw direct relief as well, with a new $6,000 deduction. For a retiree living on a fixed income, that can help cover essentials like prescription medications, utilities, or outings with friends and family. And for Americans purchasing a vehicle, the law allows deductions on interest for loans on American-made cars, helping lower the overall cost of a purchase that is essential to work, school, and daily obligations.

Just as important as the size of the tax cuts is the effort to make the system easier to navigate. By expanding the standard deduction and creating an above-the-line charitable deduction for those who do not itemize, the law offers a simpler path forward for millions of taxpayers. This is especially important for small businesses.

By permanently extending the small business deduction and allowing full and immediate expensing for equipment and investment, the Working Families Tax Cut gives job creators the certainty they need to grow and hire—fostering job creation and stimulating local economies in the process.

Tax Day offers a clear moment to evaluate whether the Trump administration and the 119th Congress’ policies are making a difference in people’s lives.

Because of the Working Families Tax Cut, Americans can answer, “yes.”

President Trump set out to put the American people first—to deliver tax relief that rewards work, supports families, and simplifies the system. Promise kept.

The post This Tax Day, Americans Are Finally Getting a Break appeared first on The Daily Signal.

My personal opinion on the FISA-702 reauthorization is well known {GO DEEP}.  However, I am not naïve enough to believe there is enough DC support to stop it. {GO DEEP} That said, I am disappointed the reauthorization will not be attached to the Save America Act as leverage. [Via Truth Social] – “I am working […]

The post President Trump Calls for a Clean FISA (702) Extension appeared first on The Last Refuge.

Billionaire Stephen Cloobeck, who strongly backed Eric Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign, announced that he has not only pulled his support from the former California congressman but is leaving the Democratic Party […]

The post Incensed Mega-Donor Evicts Swalwell from His Mansion, Quits Democratic Party appeared first on The Western Journal.

The real pain from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz hasn’t even hit us yet. All over the world, countries are running down their strategic energy reserves, and the last tankers that left the Persian Gulf before the war started will be arriving at their destinations this month. After that, things are going to start getting really crazy unless we get some sort of a miracle and the Strait of Hormuz is quickly reopened. The shortages that we have seen so far are nothing compared to what could be coming, and as you will see below, we are being warned that one of the largest food producing nations on the entire planet may soon be forced to ration fuel.

According to the Washington Post, less than 10 ships a day have been traveling through the Strait of Hormuz…

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained a week after the United States and Iran said they would facilitate vessel passage under a two-week ceasefire agreement. Instead, tensions have escalated. After Iran said ships must coordinate with its forces — and, in some cases, pay a toll — President Donald Trump called the demands “extortion” and announced Sunday that the United States would block ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, adding pressure to an already fragile truce.

But even as Washington seeks to squeeze Iran economically, Tehran retains a powerful advantage: geography. Over six weeks of conflict, Iran has halted virtually all traffic in the strait by laying mines, according to its military forces, and exploiting the vulnerability created by its terrain. Even under a U.S. blockade, these factors allow Iran to continue exerting influence over who crosses — and at what risk.

That risk, more than any formal closure, is what is keeping ships away. According to data from Kpler, only nine vessels have crossed the strait daily on average since the ceasefire, compared with the prewar traffic of more than 130 ships. “De facto, the ceasefire has done absolutely nothing to change the situation [in the strait]. None whatsoever,” said Lars Jensen of Vespucci Maritime, a container shipping consultancy based in Copenhagen.

Now that the U.S. Navy is conducting a blockade of Iranian ports, no vessels will be traveling to or from Iran, and the level of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will go down even more.

Both sides are expecting the other to give in.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is really suffering.

For example, a lack of fuel has created an unprecedented crisis for the nation of Australia…

In the film Mad Max, an oil shortage leaves Australian society teetering on the brink of total collapse.

In real-life, things aren’t quite that dystopian yet Down Under. But with barely a month of stockpiled diesel left and hundreds of forecourts running dry, the anxiety is palpable.

Australia has one of the highest per-capita rates of diesel consumption in the world but it relies almost entirely on imports to meet that demand. There are two domestic refineries producing petrol but up to 90pc of that is imported, too.

If the conflict in the Middle East is resolved very soon, Australia will come through this okay.

But if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for an extended period of time, Australia will find itself in all sorts of trouble, because it only has about a month of fuel left before rationing will become necessary…

The country has 38 days’ worth of petrol left in reserve before reaching critical levels, at which point rationing would need to kick in. For diesel, it’s 31 days and for jet fuel, just 28.

For truckers and farmers in particular, the supply crunch feels near-existential.

Without enough diesel, Australia’s trucking industry will come to a standstill.

Even worse, Australia’s farmers won’t be able to plant their crops if they can’t get the fuel that they need.

And that is really bad news for the entire planet, because Australia is the world’s “fifth-largest producer of wheat and second-largest grower of barley”…

In a country that is the fifth-largest producer of wheat and second-largest grower of barley, McIntyre warns that “most farmers will need to decide before Anzac Day [April 25] whether they will plant a crop this year”.

Mathew Munro, the chief executive of the Australian Trucking Association, sounds equally alarmed. He recently described the situation for the country’s 60,000 trucking businesses as “an emergency”.

Yet again, we see another mention of wheat and barley in the news.

As I have discussed in previous articles, wheat production and barley production are both going to be way down all over the globe in 2026 because we are not getting nitrogen fertilizer from the Middle East into the hands of farmers throughout the northern hemisphere that desperately need it.

Nitrogen fertilizer is the primary reason why we were able to grow the population of the globe to 8 billion people.

And without sufficient quantities of nitrogen fertilizer each growing season, there is no possible way that we will be able to continue to feed 8 billion people.

If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened, 6 to 9 months from now we will be facing a global shortage of food of epic proportions.

The Trump administration is convinced that a naval blockade will be so painful that it will force the Iranians to give in.

According to U.S. Central Command, during the first 24 hours “no ships made it past the U.S. blockade”…

No ships will be arriving at Iranian ports, and no ships will be leaving.

This will cut off the flow of oil revenue to the regime, and it will also cause excruciating shortages of gasoline and diesel because Iran does not possess sufficient refining capacity to produce what they need domestically…

Within 10 to 14 days, Iran won’t be able to store oil and will have permanent long term damage to oil wells for extracting oil. Oil wells perform poorly after you stop the flowing process.

Iran exports oil, but it also imports gasoline and diesel. Iran lacks the ability to refine enough of their own oil into gasoline and diesel. So very soon Iran will be running out of fuel everywhere.

Meanwhile, this naval blockade is deeply upsetting the Chinese.

Most people do not realize this, but normally over half of the energy that China uses travels through the Strait of Hormuz…

More than half of China’s energy comes through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies.

“Such actions will only intensify contradictions, exacerbate tensions, undermine the already fragile ceasefire, and further jeopardize the security of navigation through the strait,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters Tuesday of the U.S. blockade. “This is dangerous and irresponsible behavior.”

For the moment, the Chinese are fine because they were wise enough to stockpile absolutely enormous reserves.

But if we get a few months down the road and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, the Chinese are going to start to panic.

If push comes to shove, I believe that the Chinese Navy would start escorting tankers to ports in Iran.

At that point, the Trump administration would have a major decision to make.

Let’s hope that it never comes to that.

Let’s hope that the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is resolved very rapidly.

But at this stage there is no end to this crisis in sight, and that is really bad news for the entire world.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post One Of The Largest Food Producing Nations On The Entire Planet May Soon Be Forced To Ration Fuel appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

An illegal alien gang member, previously deported from the United States, was found living in Duval County, Florida, after law enforcement began a manhunt for him, as he is wanted in his native Jamaica for murder.

The post Once-Deported Illegal Alien Gang Member Wanted for Murder Found Living in Florida appeared first on Breitbart.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment from today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” with Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. 

JACK FOWLER: Well, you were talking about not being pottymouth, so we’re gonna talk about some pottymouth people here, Victor.  

This is Donald Trump, well, there’s some podcasters infamous for being pottymouth. So here’s a headline: “Trump goes off on nut jobs Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones over Iran war criticism.” 

I think this is from the New York Post. “President Trump lashed out at four Right-wing critics of the Iran war.” This was Thursday, two days ago, from when we’re talking, describing them as nut jobs and losers who will say anything for attention.  

“’I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the number one state-sponsored terror, to have a nuclear weapon, because they have one thing in common: low IQs.’”  

He’s writing this on Truth Social: “’They’re stupid people. They know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it too.’ The president raged.” 

I know it. 

“’Look at the past, look at the record. They don’t have what it takes, and they never did.’” Mamma mia … 

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: I don’t know about Alex, I don’t know Alex Jones. I’ve only met Candace Owens once, but I’ve been on Tucker’s show quite a lot and I’ve been on Megyn’s show quite a lot. They’re not low-IQ people. 

But what I don’t understand about them is this, and I like them both personally. I don’t know what precipitated this. I see Tucker had a little earlier turnabout, because on the bombing last summer, he said it was gonna cause World War III.  

But we learned afterward that he’s been calling Trump various times. He was back on good terms.  

So when this other strike hit, they got very, very angry. And Megyn gave a long excursus that she was sick. She had expletive—man, that I watched that clip. It was “f” this and “sh” this, but she was very angry at Trump’s existential threat to civilization.  

But I think, because they’re intelligent people, and Tucker said it was, what, satanic or something on Easter to do that. 

No one of their caliber would believe that Trump was going to wipe out the entire civilization of Iran. And we know that is true because he said help was on the way to the Iranian people.  

And as I said with Sami, if you go back, all of our wars, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, the Serbian misadventure, the Libyan fiasco, we hit dual-use targets. We took out civilian ships, port facilities in Libya. We bombed the grid into zero blackouts in Belgrade. One and a half [million] people, no electricity.  

We destroyed every bridge on the Danube. First Gulf War, Saddam didn’t have any infrastructure. TV, radio, power, fuel, you name it, we wiped it out. 

So Trump never has done that. He’s taken out one bridge, and the reason he hasn’t done that, last time he went, he bombed for 24 hours, is he thinks he wants a dividend of this campaign to end and be a revolt of the people. He said that.  

So when he said their civilization is going to end, it was a sloppy use of nouns. What he meant was this radical Shia Islamic regime culture, civilization is gonna be ended. The civilization that has been imposed on the Persian people. That’s what he meant. He should have said that. 

FOWLER: Yeah. 

HANSON: But what he does shows you what he means. Megyn and Tucker would’ve had a good case if this prior four weeks he had been hitting power plants, he’d been hitting schools, he’d been hitting water plants, he’d been hitting solar, all of that. And then he said, “I’m gonna just take it out.”  

But he hadn’t. He didn’t want to because he’s on the side of the Iranian people. The 93 million people, that he feels are enslaved by this corrupt, theocratic, interloping civilization, that was a hiatus and interruption in Persian history. 

OK. So I don’t understand that. So that means to me that they weren’t angry about the MAGA, but Trump never said he wasn’t going to use force. I was on Megyn’s show shortly after the summer bombing, and she thought that was great, and she was correct. It was, to nullify, at that point, what we thought were all of its nuclear potential.  

And then when you look at what he’s done, [Qasem] Soleimani, [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi, bombed ISIS, took out Wagner Group, got rid of [Nicolas] Maduro, bombed last summer and bombed … they all have one thing in common. This is longer.  

And what’s the thing in common? Except for Maduro, there’s no boots on the ground. There’s no door-to-door fighting in Fallujah, on the enemy’s terms. There’s no Helmand Province going into villages and never know who’s gonna shoot you, friend or foe or green on green or whatever we wanna call it. Soldiers in the Afghan army shooting us. 

There’s none of that. It’s an air campaign. And yes, it is now getting close to 40 days, if not beyond. But that’s not a war. That’s not 20 years in Afghanistan. That’s not eight in Iraq. That’s not even 72 days in Serbia.  

It’s about what the first Gulf War, I think, was, 42. So they know it’s not a forever or endless war. 

It’s a Jacksonian preemptive deterrent act so that these nuclear— they don’t have nuclear-tipped missiles pointed at the West.  

And as we said before, they’re not sending billions of dollars to these ring of fire or Arab terrorist proxies, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Hamas. And they’re not killing Americans as they’ve done for 47 years. 

FOWLER: Right. 

HANSON: And they’re not trying to assassinate presidents and secretaries of states. So it was long overdue.  

But what I’m getting at, finally, is, they know that.  

So then my next question to them is what’s the alternative? Now we’re having midterms and we’re gonna have a presidential election. So you’re not going to vote for this man because he used force in a way that contradicts, in your belief, the bans on forever wars. 

So you are going to turn over, by your absence or your lack of advocacy, you are going to see the Democrats win to punish Trump? To punish MAGA? 

So all the things that you fought for, Tucker, Megyn, Alex Jones, I guess, even Candace, closed border, we’ve deported over a half million people, in just a year and a half, and another million and a half have self-deported. Crime is at an all-time low. He’s rebuilding the military.  

We’re the greatest producer of gas and oil in history. He’s the first president that’s brave enough to take on DEI, and he’s doing a great job. He’s the first person to take on the insanity in higher education. 

So what I’m getting at is he’s done 85% of what they want. That’s Megyn’s agenda. That’s Tucker’s agenda. That’s Candace’s agenda. But on this one topic, it’s so egregious, apparently, it not only nullifies all of that other, but from what I understand, they’re gone now. They’re off. They’re done. 

And what’s gonna happen is you’re going to get a Kamala-type candidate or her, and the alternative is DEI in-your-face. Revenge DEI. Revenge open borders. Revenge illegal immigration. Revenge DEI in the military. Revenge an Afghan skedaddle. Two-theater wars. Da da da da da da. I don’t get it. 

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

The post Why Are Tucker, Megyn Attacking Trump’s ‘Jacksonian Preemptive Deterrent’ Attack Against Iran? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A recent ruling by a German court at first glance could be seen as a victory for freedom of speech. But on closer inspection, it shows why so-called visibility filtering—artificially restricting the reach of online content rather than removing it outright—is the future, and indeed increasingly the present, of online censorship.

As reported by the German alternative media Nius in February, a court in Wiesbaden acquitted defendant Sebastian W. of the charge of having “insulted” Germany’s then-Economics Minister Robert Habeck. (“Insult” is a crime in German law.) In a July 2024 tweet, Sebastian W. referred to the German minister as a “traitor.” Under Section 188 of the German Criminal Code, which is commonly known in Germany as the lèse-majesté law, the penalties for insulting a public official are greater than those for insulting an ordinary citizen.

In another highly publicized case also involving Habeck, German retiree Stefan Niehoff had his home raided in November 2024 merely for having retweeted an obviously satirical tweet that jokingly referred to Habeck as a “professional moron.” (On the Niehoff case, see here, here, and here.)

Much of the ostensible “hate speech” prosecuted under German law consists not, say, of speech considered to be racist, sexist, or homophobic, but merely of personal insults. Hence, much of the speech that German sources reported to online platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the E.U.’s flagship online censorship law, undoubtedly consists of such insults as well. The activities of the German organization HateAid, which enjoys the status of an officially certified “trusted flagger” of illegal content under the DSA, make this clear.

Under the DSA, European sources may flag any online content in any language posted anywhere in the world. A German organization like HateAid may not only flag German content for removal—it can also target Americans.

Thin-Skinned

The tweet for which Sebastian W. was charged was ironically part of a larger discussion of insult complaints, which included reference to HateAid.

The main tweet, which was titled “Urgent Warning and a Couple of Tips on Insult Complaints,” began as follows:

The business model of some politicians and suchlike is to bring charges against you, even without incurring any risk thanks to foundations [sic] like HateAid. Thus, politicians use our tax money to bring charges against us without incurring any risk, great.

To this, Sebastian W. replied, “Let’s see what networking can accomplish.” He then referred to a lawyer who is known to have represented Habeck and who, Sebastian W. said, is present on X with three different accounts to “case-hunt.” “Absolutely block,” he continued, “anyone who knows other hack lawyers of other traitors can share, for the purpose of blocking, under the comment.”

Sebastian W. appears not to have been charged for the description of the lawyer, but only for alluding to Habeck as a “traitor.” Why was he acquitted? Section 188 protects public officials only against “insults” on the condition that the “act”—that is, the insult—is such as to “substantially impede” the performance of the official’s public duties.

As Sebastien W.’s lawyer, Melina Schwendenmann, explained to Nius, the court found that while his tweet did indeed constitute an insult of a public official, it did not satisfy the stated condition given its limited reach. The reply had been viewed merely 1,245 times. The court found that this was not sufficient reach to impede the performance of Habeck’s public duties, and hence to justify a conviction.

Et Tu?

The ruling is highly significant for the application of the DSA, which requires online platforms to remove illegal speech, at least in the jurisdiction where it is illegal. (Given the complexities and costs involved in tailoring content moderation to different markets, this requirement can often result in global takedowns.) But the law also explicitly permits platforms to meet their DSA obligations not by removing content outright, but by restricting its visibility and hence reach.

This idea was popularized by Elon Musk in November 2022 when, shortly after completing his acquisition of Twitter, he announced a new policy of “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” But long before Musk adopted it, European Commission officials were already using the freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-of-reach mantra to try to reconcile the obvious censorship the DSA requires with the freedom of expression that is, after all, guaranteed by the E.U.’s own Charter of Fundamental Rights. (See Věra Jourová’s December 2021 remarks to Politico, where the E.C.’s then-vice-president for values and transparency uses the same expression.)

In theory, visibility filtering or reach restriction is supposed to be reserved for speech that is not per se illegal, but is still deemed socially harmful. Hence, it would be illegal under the DSA itself for platforms to allow it to proliferate. Such “legal but harmful” speech essentially refers to alleged mis- or disinformation. The suppression of “illegal hate speech” and “harmful disinformation” represent the two main pillars of the DSA’s censorship system.

But the ruling of the Wiesbaden court shows that reach restriction, given the above-mentioned condition, can in fact make otherwise illegal speech legal by eliminating the harm, or ostensible harm, entailed by its wide dissemination. As we have seen, this applies to Section 188 of the German Criminal Code regarding insulting public officials.

It also applies, however, to Section 130, Germany’s “incitement” law that prohibits “hate speech” in the more usual sense. This is because Section 130 also involves what we could call a “publicity condition.” Incitement is illegal only on the condition that it occurs in such a way as to represent a threat to public order. Incitement that falls on deaf ears, so to speak, represents no such threat. Ensuring that such speech is not heard, or is at most only barely audible, is precisely what artificial reach restriction is designed to bring about.

Censorship, 2026 Style

The American public debate about online censorship remains almost entirely mired in the assumption that such censorship essentially involves content removal and account suspensions. But this is a very 2020 assumption that no longer corresponds to the reality of online censorship.

Major platforms’ regulatory submissions to the E.U. show that visibility-filtering is already the predominant mode of censorship they use to remain in compliance with the DSA. For instance, data included in X’s April 2024 DSA Transparency Report shows that the platform took action on 226,350 items of content reported to it under the DSA during roughly the prior five months, with 40,331 being globally deleted and 62,802 geo-blocked in the E.U. This means, however, that 123,217 items, or nearly 55%, “merely” had their reach restricted in keeping with the FOSNR (Freedom of Speech, Not Reach) enforcement philosophy that is also touted in the report.

Unfortunately, these aggregate figures were not included in X’s subsequent DSA transparency reports, making it more difficult, if not impossible, to infer the exact extent of visibility filtering in the platform’s DSA enforcement mix.

But other platforms are not so mysterious about the extent of their visibility filtering. Meta’s August 2025 DSA Transparency Report for Facebook shows that its response to alleged misinformation consisted almost exclusively of visibility filtering, or what Meta—and, incidentally, also the DSA—describes as “demotion.” This report explains that demotion “refers to an action that we may take to reduce the distribution of content.” Nearly nine million items of content containing alleged misinformation had their distribution restricted during the six-month reporting period. For what it is worth, Meta claims to have had all such restricted content fact-checked.

Following a change in reporting requirements, the most recent set of DSA transparency reports now essentially consists of raw spreadsheet data presented according to a standard template. The data for X suggests that the proportion of visibility filtering in the platform’s DSA enforcement mix has, if anything, increased since mid-2024. But deciphering that data would require an article in its own right.

However worthy their intentions, American defenders of free speech who continue to focus on content removal and account suspensions are missing the plot about the online censorship regime that has coalesced under the pressure of the E.U.’s Digital Services Act. Content removal and account suspensions were censorship 1.0, while 2.0 is visibility filtering.

In an August 2023 interview with CNBC, then-X CEO Linda Yaccarino spoke of content that she famously termed “lawful but awful”—a dumbed-down version of the E.U.’s “legal but harmful”—and cheerfully admitted that the platform would make such content “extraordinarily difficult to see.” But what, after all, is the difference between “extraordinarily difficult to see” and invisible? The line is a thin one indeed.

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