Posted on 05/05/2023 6:53:10 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Beginning in the 19th century, snake oil salesmen falsely claimed their elixirs and tonics could treat a wide array of ailments. In the 21st century, a group of senators are hawking a bill they assert can cure the oh-so-many maladies caused by using the social media app, TikTok. Just like snake oil salesmen of the past, these Senators may talk a good game, but their antidote is far worse than any purported affliction.
To address our nation’s hysteria over dance videos, more than twenty Senators, both Republican and Democrat, support the RESTRICT Act. They tell us that this bill will help rein in the dastardly threat that comes from the Chinese government supposedly spying on silly videos made by American teenagers. Instead, it bestows an astonishing amount of power to the Executive branch in a manner that the Chinese Communist Party would approve of. As Tucker Carlson correctly observed, “this is not an effort to push back against China. It’s part of a strategy to make America much more like China.”
The RESTRICT Act eschews almost all notions of checks and balances by granting a vast amount of power to the Executive branch to intervene in all kinds of economic transactions. It would effectively allow the Secretary of Commerce to become the Commissar of Commerce.
The bill’s application is far from limited to Tiktok or other internet-based companies. The third section of the bill would enable the Secretary of Commerce to investigate any business that is in any way subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary to determine if its transactions “pose an undue or unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”
Though the bill already designates China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba as foreign adversaries, the RESTRICT Act also empowers the Secretary of Commerce to...
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I’m from the Government and I’m here to help. The check is in the mail and I promise I will respect you in the morning!
Bkmk
It is our domestic adversaries I worry about—the Democratic Party is far more dangerous than China, Russia, Iran etal.
The only necessary indicator is: If the Rats are for, it’s bad. The GOP’s a crapshoot
I assume a federal agent reads every word I type.
If I use TikTok, I assume Beijing scans my words by computer.
Most websites make it clear that spying on me is their bread & butter.
TikTok is undercutting the Internet ad business.
Which in turn undercuts the sales of Chinese-made crapola.
Much as I dislike what “social media” have done to our culture, there isn’t any sure-fire way of shutting TikTak up without murdering the First Amendment as a byproduct. Which is just what our globalist betters would love to do.
If you want to ban TikTok, then focus on TikTok, not on a Patriot Act for the internet.
Sometimes I hate it when people shop at Acronyms R Us.
There is no entity more seditious than the Democrat party.
A preview how it will work is currently available in Ukraine where vloggers like Gonzalo Lira are being arrested for telling the truth about the war in Ukraine.
Excellent point that we should all need, one’s own self first...
I am opposed to an Executive Branch power to designate “foreign adversaries”.
Congress has the power to declare war. Congress also has the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal.
But to give an already too powerful Executive to designate, let’s say, Russia as a “foreign adversary” and thereby impair the rights of American citizens to engage in otherwise normal activities, subject to reprisals under color of law, is a bridge too far.
What you said. Perfect.
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