Issues & Insights
White House

Welcome To Joe Biden’s Police State

The Biden administration is using the Jan. 6 incursion into the Capitol building as a pretext for a domestic spying campaign that will supposedly target “violent extremists” but is more accurately described as the beginnings of a Biden police state.

Last week, we learned that the Defense Department plans to monitor service members’ social media posts for “concerning behaviors.” According to The Intercept, which broke this story, the plan is to enlist a private firm to do the spying, so as to avoid nasty entanglements with the First Amendment. The Intercept reports that:

An extremism steering committee led by Bishop Garrison, a senior adviser to the secretary of defense, is currently designing the social media screening pilot program, which will ‘continuously’ monitor military personnel for ‘concerning behaviors.’

This isn’t the only such incident.

Earlier this month, CNN reported that the Biden administration “is considering using outside firms to track extremist chatter by Americans online, an effort that would expand the government’s ability to gather intelligence but could draw criticism over surveillance of US citizens.”

And last month, Yahoo News broke the story that the U.S. Postal Service has been covertly monitoring Americans’ social media posts.

“The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as ‘inflammatory’ postings and then sharing that information across government agencies,” Yahoo said.

That story notes that “such data collection has also sparked concerns about the government surveilling peaceful protesters or those engaged in protected First Amendment activities.”

Ya think?

The New York Post editorial page details various other Biden administration projects aimed at “extremists.”

  • Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines published a “threat assessment” focusing on “white extremism.”
  • Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently declared that “domestic violent extremism poses the most lethal and persistent terrorism-related threat to our country today.”
  • Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a 60-day stand-down in February to review the ranks of the military for “extremism.”
  • Attorney General Merrick Garland marked the 26th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing by saying, “The Department of Justice is pouring its resources into stopping domestic violent extremists before they can attack.”

This is all bad enough and should be denounced by anyone who cares about the First Amendment.

What’s worse is that these efforts target only at those on the right – which the administration tars as “white supremacists.” That’s why all the focus is on the Jan. 6 event.

Team Biden apparently has zero interest in tracking violent leftist extremists who, unlike the handful of zealots who stormed the Capitol, have overtly promoted violence, burned down buildings, terrorized communities, and murdered innocent bystanders in the guise of “social justice.”

Of course, the Biden folks deny that there’s any such attempt to silence political opponents.

John Cohen, Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention, told AP that “It’s really important that people understand that in this administration, we do not view the mission of Homeland Security to police thought. It’s about protecting against acts of violence.”

The fact that Cohen felt the need to say this means that these efforts most likely have nothing to do with protecting against acts of violence but everything to do with policing thought.

All of this reminds us of the breathless claims about how President Donald Trump was supposedly trying to create a police state, with headlines such as “Donald Trump’s coming police state,” “Donald Trump’s Talk to Police Officers Was Police-State Authoritarianism Distilled to Its Essence,” and “In Trump’s Budget, You Can See a Country That Looks Like a Police State.” Like almost every other horror story peddled during the Trump years, these fears were completely unfounded.

Yet none of these Trump alarmists is raising a peep about actual police state antics being carried out by the Biden administration.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

We Could Use Your Help

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.

We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press, and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left. Revenue from ads on the site help, but your support will truly make a difference in keeping our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends!

You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free!

Just enter your email address below to get started.

Share

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

9 comments

  • Wouldn’t a private entity acting to violate a citizens rights at the behest of the US Feral Government be considered a government agent?

  • A small bit of good news from Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, former GOP Massachusetts Senate candidate, deleted from Twitter at behest of government officials:

    https://vashiva.com/first-amendment-twitter-galvin-lawsuit/

    “This is the first lawsuit to expose how the government censors U.S. citizens’ speech on Twitter. For years we were told Twitter acts on its own as a private company and you cannot question their decisions. Following the deplatforming of Dr.SHIVA, testimony and hearings in Federal court elicited how government and Twitter have created an infrastructure for government to launder censorship of speech through Twitter.”

  • Idiot website , nothing works ..ha..ha.. you will be gone in 6 months

  • There has been a steady march since WWII by the Democrat Party to turn America into a Fascist Dictatorship. The bureaucracy in our government is 99% Democrat that follows party lines no matter how absurd. Democrats in general are not bad people; just lazy and stupid. The Democrat Party on the other hand is pure evil and always has been. The Republican Party on the other hand is the Democrats little (slightly regarded) brother.

  • The irony of governmental extremists seeking to root out extremism.

  • A Marxist coup has been in power since Jan. ’21 and few even know this or give a hoot. Patriots are few as time moves forward. Now most are over sixty. Soon agenda 2030 will be fully in place and people will wake up and everything will be transacted in digital format.

  • Is there any truth to the rumor that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their families are going to take in, raise, pay for (non taxpayer dollars), provide health care for 200 and 150 respectfully “Migrant Children until full maturity” at their California and Delaware private homes?? Is there any truth to the rumor that the Democratic “House Representatives and Senators” have agreed to each do the same for a minimum of 20 “Migrant adults/ children” at their private homes? And last but not least is it true that the RINO’s have agreed to do the same as the Democrats for a minimum of 10 “Migrant adults/ children” with Mitt Romney offering to house 100 “Migrant adults/ children”???If the rumors are true my hat is off to them for their unselfish generosity for doing this at their own expense without any taxpayer funds/ dollars.

    Any verification to these rumors?????

  • Advocate 4 truedemocracynow dot com. Local governance by the governed. No pres, no senators, no reps, no fed judges. Limited fed authority. Just smartphone voting. Govt by popular, local consent.

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. Our goal is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis, because we believe the nation needs the kind of cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that we can provide. 

We Could Use Your Help

Help us fight for honesty in journalism and against the tyranny of the left. Issues & Insights is published by the editors of what once was Investor's Business Daily's award-winning opinion pages. If you like what you see, leave a donation by clicking on donate button above. You can also set up regular donations if you like. Ad revenue helps, but your support will truly make a difference. (Please note that we are not set up as a charitable organization, so donations aren't tax deductible.) Thank you!
Share
%d bloggers like this: