The Ministry of Diversion and Its Shiny Objects

In recent days Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced establishment of a Disinformation Governance Board to combat disinformation from human smugglers and to counter Russian cyber and election misinformation. Various politicians and commentators likened it to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell�s classic book, 1984. GOP pols immediately issued warnings that governmental attempts to control publicized information violate the Constitution�s First Amendment, and represent an extremely dangerous excursion into uncharted waters. Some said attempts to control speech on airwaves or Internet are �unprecedented.�

These warnings are entirely warranted. But the �unprecedented� charge is incorrect, for this has happened before. In 1949, during the Truman administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced a policy called the Fairness Doctrine. It required broadcasters to present controversial issues of public importance in ways that fairly reflect differing viewpoints. Failure to follow those rules could cause a radio or TV station to lose its broadcast-license.

While the original purpose of the Doctrine was to ensure that viewers or listeners would be exposed to a diversity of viewpoints, both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations misused it to combat political opponents who were operating on radio. This perversion of the Doctrine essentially dried up the airing of politically controversial issues, as most radio stations chose to stay clear of politics in order to protect their broadcast-licenses.

Finally, in 1987, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine entirely � thus removing all controls on the political content of radio or television broadcasting. Republicans might have used political control of the FCC at that time to turn the Fairness Doctrine their way, but Mr. Reagan and other conservatives believed that the Doctrine had no legitimate place within the Constitutional boundaries of our government. The end of the Doctrine launched the advent of political talk-radio, with Rush Limbaugh as its chief proponent.

I mention all this because the wide-ranging debate on Democrats� latest attempt to control the written or broadcast word will undoubtedly produce whole libraries full of argument and commentary, and fell entire forests to make enough paper to print all the books and newspapers. The proposed Disinformation Governance Board (a.k.a. Ministry of Truth) is, in fact, just another shiny object thrown out by what amounts to the Biden administration�s Ministry of Diversion. It will cause weeks � even months � of preoccupation by media, commentators, politicians and much of the general public.

But isn�t this new Ministry of Truth a dangerous, un-Constitutional idea? And if so, why is debating it harmful?

Yes, it is certainly a terrible idea. In fact, it�s so bad that it can�t possibly survive political scrutiny. Both Mr. Mayorkas and others in Joe Biden�s inner circle must surely know this. Yet they launched it anyway. Why? And what�s the deal with the whole �shiny object� strategy?

The deal is that each new shiny object diverts public attention away from more dangerous issues which the Biden-gang don�t want voters and political opponents to examine too closely. During their 15 months in office the Biden-squad�s array of shiny objects has included:

• The COVID pandemic;
• Mask-mandates;
• Transgender issues;
• Parental rights in education of their children;
• States� attempts to prevent election-corruption;
• Climate and the economy;
• Energy prices and inflation;
• Food shortages;
• Mr. Biden�s falling approval;
• A Biden second term;
• And many others.

Most voters know about these issues because media and politicians have lavished so much time and attention on them. They range in significance from highly important to trivial, but each one produces a wonderful scenario of conflict, which is the life�s blood of reporters and media-organs. They simply must run after those shiny objects, leaving other, more sinister issues in the shadows.

What are these sinister issues? I see a couple of lulus. There might be more, but my Big Two are illegal aliens and the slide into war.

The Illegals-flood.

Most Americans are aware that illegals can cross our southern border with little or no opposition from Immigration Control agents. But unless you watch news-organs like Fox News and One America News, or read The Washington Times or The New York Post, you might not realize how many illegals have entered under the Biden-policies, how many more are likely to come in during the rest of Mr. Biden�s term, and how much harm that flood will cause to the country.

In a recent article published by the Washington Times (�Open Borders the most successful Democrat voter drive in history�), columnist Rowan Scarborough writes:

�Mr. Biden has illegally opened the gates to just about anyone, be they drug and sex traffickers, migrant job seekers, sex offenders, or other criminals. The brutal Mexican drug cartels are getting richer. Their Chinese-produced fentanyl is killing record numbers of Americans. Official count of people illegally entering the USA is in the millions in 2021-�22, and will go even higher the rest of Mr. Biden�s term because he wants it to.�

Mr. Scarborough says federalized ballot-counting and opened borders will combine to produce a very successful Democratic voter-drive. He adds:

�Candidate Biden urged foreign invaders to �surge,� and promised them free stuff. His department of Homeland Security chief has pledged not to deport illegals. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said illegals are free to roam the country; and Mr. Biden is about to suspend a public health law that will result in a half-million illegal crossings in a matter of weeks.�

Mr. Scarborough goes on to explain Democrat-proposed federal legislation that will enable automatic registration of hundreds of thousands of new voters, including many non-citizens. It will make it much easier for non-citizens to escape prosecution for having voted illegally. He lists examples of locales where evidence shows that illegals are already voting. These include: Richmond, Virginia; Frederick County, Maryland; Pennsylvania; and Georgia. He concludes:

�Democrats, with a wink and a nod, want to keep illegals voting. Blue states refused to cooperate with a special commission named by former President Donald Trump to compare voting rolls with federal immigration records…[Mr. Biden] so far has not gotten his election overhaul, but he has kept the illegals flowing over the southern border to vote � now and later � for his party.�

This is Democrats� �long game:� changing the demographics of the country enough to cement in place a permanent majority for their party. Biden-operatives have been clever about hiding the scope of the illegals-surge by shipping busloads and plane-loads of them to various locales across the country, in the dead of night. No one knows how many thousands have been swallowed up in the vastness of the USA, but many locales will soon find them knocking on the door to apply for welfare, college tuition, housing and other aspects of Mr. Biden�s �free stuff.�

Marching into War.

If floods of illegals are Democrats� �long game,� engineered to gain permanent control of the country, then getting us into a shooting-war with Russia is their �short game� � designed to save (and extend) the Biden presidency. Partisan Democrats, who think they won�t come anywhere near actual bombs and bullets, are cheering for �War!� and demanding that we help the valiant Ukrainians via direct military intervention. Having already spent $16.5 billion on plane-loads of heavy armaments that he shipped to the Ukraine, Joe Biden has now requested another $33 billion for new arms-shipments � an amount twice the annual budget for control of our own borders. (Luckily, we need only to fire up the currency-printers to pay the bill.)

Experienced statesmen warn that Mr. Biden�s arms-shipments are escalating the Russia-Ukraine war � possibly leading to our direct involvement, and even expanding the hostilities into an actual world war which might include a disastrous nuclear exchange. They say an American president committed to peace should be engaging in serious diplomacy-efforts to bring about a cessation of hostilities and a peaceful settlement. But Good Old Joe seems deaf to that counsel as he pushes us ever-closer to the brink of open conflict with a dangerous, unpredictable ex-KGB adversary who threatens to use nuclear weapons if we continue to oppose him.

Back in my wasted youth, the word on the street was: �Don�t play a game of Chicken unless you�re prepared to wreck your car.� It was sound advice, but some young fools ignored it and got themselves killed when an onrushing opponent refused to yield. It�s very much like what we�re doing against the Russians now. Will Vlad (The Impaler) Putin actually be crazy enough to pull the nuclear trigger? I hope not, but I don�t know. And neither does Joe Biden.

The Biden camp seems to believe that Joe can�t lose by getting us into a real shooting-war with the Russkies. Or maybe they hope he can look warlike, but will avert an actual conflict by bluffing Putin into a peace-deal. Either way, they think Joe�s new Commander-in-Chief cred will recover his approval rating and make him a solid lock for a second term.

Thank heavens, we booted out that dangerous radical, Donald Trump, so Good Old (moderate) Joe could bet the farm on a poker-bluff with no high cards in his hand. What a happy day!

The question is, �Do we feel lucky?�