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This article discusses one way in which the FBI and other agencies use their new powers.

The Twitter Files Reveal an Existential Threat

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Imprimis_Jan_1-23_8pgWEB.pdf

Excerpt: The Twitter Files have revealed or confirmed three important truths about social media and the deep state.

First, the entire concept of “content moderation” is a euphemism for censorship by social media companies that falsely claim to be neutral and unbiased. To the extent they exercise a virtual monopoly on public discourse in the digital era, we should stop thinking of them as private companies that can “do whatever they want,” as libertarians are fond of saying. The companies’ content moderation policies are at best a flimsy justification for banning or blocking whatever their executives do not like. At worst, they provide cover for a policy of pervasive government censorship.

Second, Twitter was taking marching orders from a deep state security apparatus that was created to fight terrorists, not to censor or manipulate public discourse. To the extent that the deep state is using social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to subvert the First Amendment and run information psy-ops on the American public, these companies have become malevolent government actors. As a policy matter, the hands-off, laissez-faire regulatory approach we have taken to them should come to an immediate end.

Third, the administrative state has metastasized into a destructive deep state that threatens to bring about the collapse of America’s constitutional system within our lifetimes. Emblematic of the threat is the fact that “the intelligence community” has proven itself incapable of not interfering in American elections. The FBI in particular has directly meddled in the last two presidential elections to a degree that should call into question its continued existence. Indeed, the FBI’s post-9/11 transformation from a law enforcement agency to a counter-terrorism and intelligence-gathering agency with seemingly limitless remit has been a disaster for civil liberties and the First Amendment. We need either to impose radical reforms or scrap it entirely and start over.

The late great political scientist Angelo Codevilla argued that our response to 9/11 was completely wrong. Instead of erecting a sprawling security and surveillance apparatus to detect and disrupt potential terrorist plots, we should have issued an ultimatum to the regimes that were harboring Al Qaeda: you make war on these terrorists and bring them to justice or we will make war on you. The reason not to do what we did, Codevilla argued, is that a security and surveillance apparatus powerful and pervasive enough to do what we wanted it to do was incompatible with a free society. It might defeat the terrorists, but it would eventually be turned on the American people.

1 posted on 03/03/2023 1:05:43 PM PST by Retain Mike
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To: Retain Mike

‘Mueller, by contrast, was a former federal prosecutor who had never served in the FBI. That showed in the way he approached the reorganization, Long says. “Mueller felt like headquarters knew better than anybody, and he did not trust the agents on the streets of any field office.”’

Mueller is just another member of the Deep State trying to seize control of this Republic.


2 posted on 03/03/2023 1:11:36 PM PST by antidemoncrat
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To: Retain Mike

Codevilla was right, it has happened.


3 posted on 03/03/2023 1:13:10 PM PST by exnavy (Grow your faith, and have the courage to use it.)
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To: Retain Mike

Are they all out investigating traditional Catholics, the biggest threat to the U.S. today?


4 posted on 03/03/2023 1:13:34 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: Retain Mike

RE: Mueller created what are called flying squads, Long says: “When there was a big case, he would fly a squad in from headquarters
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MyFy-vrCiec

Born to be Airborne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKO3Uo9QCGU


5 posted on 03/03/2023 1:13:40 PM PST by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
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To: Retain Mike

You even see this in the FBI TV show. Alanza de la Garza’s character is SAC in charge of NY office but almost every episode has her being contacted or controlled by either an asst director or the Director himself. In addition the program has cases that would normally be handled by NYPD being taken over by the FEEBS.


7 posted on 03/03/2023 1:16:56 PM PST by xkaydet65
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To: Retain Mike; bitt; little jeremiah

P


8 posted on 03/03/2023 1:18:44 PM PST by thinden (buckle up ....)
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To: Retain Mike

The problem with that agen y is that a) it should never have existed and b) once it did exist it was given far too much power.

Was such an agency a goal of the Revolution? Or would it have been one of the things the Patriots fought against?

The question answers itself. There is no such animal created by the Constitution. Just one twisted apparatchik who saw an opportunity.


9 posted on 03/03/2023 1:20:34 PM PST by Regulator (It's fraud, Jiim)
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To: Retain Mike
Freeh "donated" $100,000 to the trust fund of one of Brandon's grandchildren, during an employment search.

The poor waif!

10 posted on 03/03/2023 1:26:36 PM PST by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix . Orwell's "1984" was a warning, not an instruction manual.)
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To: Retain Mike
’To the extent they exercise a virtual monopoly on public discourse in the digital era...’

I understand the point of that statement, but I’m uncomfortable with blanket generalizations like this and the attendant suggestion that the individual has no recourse. If people give social media that power, social media will take it. But there are plenty of places on the Web where people still freely express themselves (!) and where alternatives to the liberal orthodoxy and tyranny are available.

Just as people get the elected leaders they deserve, they get the social media they choose to value, too. I’m not condoning what the social media giants do; but in many ways it seems to be a case of ‘caveat emptor’, and ‘vote with your feet’. We’re not helpless – many of us have lived very well without ever ‘Tweeting’ or ‘Facespacing’.
11 posted on 03/03/2023 1:26:49 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Retain Mike

Mueller’s Stasi will continue to grow stronger and more tyrannical...

The FBI’s actions in the 1990s and early 2000s demonstrated that the American serfs could easily be controlled by an American Stasi-like organization...

The FBI got away with murder, kidnapping, evidence falsification, and mass murder of women & children without so much as a whimper from the serfs...

Only one or two men attempted a response...

Today’s Stasi is orders-of-magnitude more evil and powerful than the East German predecessor was...


15 posted on 03/03/2023 1:57:45 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperatly need him)
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To: Retain Mike

9/11 was an important event leading to the loss of liberties for the American people.


16 posted on 03/03/2023 1:59:34 PM PST by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERBODY'S BUSINESS-REMEMBER PASTOR NIEMOLLER)
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To: Retain Mike

The whole agency needs to be defunded and shut down.


17 posted on 03/03/2023 2:19:47 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Retain Mike

Traitor W strikes again, would we have been better off with Gore?


18 posted on 03/03/2023 3:06:01 PM PST by cowboyusa (There is no co- existence with Pinks and Reds)
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To: Retain Mike
"Wray also insisted public trust in the FBI remains high. As proof, he cited the growing number of applications to work at the agency over the past three years,

Soldiers of obama.
20 posted on 03/03/2023 3:11:48 PM PST by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: Retain Mike
Siuzdak ­considers current DOJ prosecution of Jan. 6 offenders overkill. “There were definitely people in that group actively seeking to do something bad. They had helmets and they had bottles of mace and they were in formation. Those people are dangerous.”

No mention of FBI agents who were there to either participate or incite

25 posted on 03/03/2023 5:05:35 PM PST by PGR88
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