Fair enough.
People didn't have the technology for dodging surveillance in '74 that they use constantly today. Burner phones, anonymous internet connections for example.
The upside of millions of video cameras, millions of microphones is that more people are correctly being charged (and cleared) of actual crimes, and the presence of such cameras can be deterrents to such crimes occurring in the first place. Also, it’s much easier for citizens to video record and widely disseminate police misconduct.
In 1974 people didn’t have the technology to enhance their privacy either. Bitcoin, for example.
Government didn't need machines to fraudulently count votes and change victors in elections in '74 either. Prime examples: “manufactured” votes in Illinois in 1960 that put JFK over the top. Same in 1930s that made Lyndon Johnson a senator (and later president). Numerous other examples. Also, technology has made it easier to expose political corruption (prime example, a certain laptop).

I can't agree.
The government didn't have the technology for surveillance in '74 that they use constantly today.
Millions of video cameras, millions of microphones.
They didn't have the technology to compile the data assembled either.
Computers the size of office buildings in '74 didn't have 1% the computing power that's in a single
cell phone now. What was impossible to do in years elapsed time in '74 is easy to do in seconds today.
Government didn't have machines to fraudulently count votes and change victors in elections in '74 either.

You make your rational judgments and I will make my rational judgments.

In 1974 the important national media (three networks, New York Times, Washington Post etc.) was uniformly leftist. Today at least portions of that media regularly calls the left out, and people can access opposing information and views much more easily. There was plenty of hidden surveillance in the past that was not exposed until years later, and probably most of this past surveillance remains hidden to this day.

I disagree. The domestic enemy is much stronger now in important ways, e.g., censorship of the media and domestic surveillance.
In addition, today the condition of the US is on the edge of disaster. That was not the case in '74 and Rand would certainly see the difference.

I don't think Ayn Rand's comments on the Middle East would be that different today. The enemy you cite was just as active and nearly as powerful 50 years ago, just not as obvious.

Thanks for posting the link.
Rand's comments in 1974 are based upon the US in 1974, not the US in 2023.
imo, her comments would be quite different today.
Rand would recognize that the enemy that must be defeated with our limited
resources (thanks to the insane policies of the fedgov and their corrupt
conspirators in what Rand used call 'industry') is much closer than the middle east.
Committing economic suicide in the US won't defeat Hamas and won't save Israel.

"Ayn Rand’s Thoughts on the Middle East and Israel" https://www.atlassociety.org/post/ayn...

You're right on Trump and Epstein. You could see the MSM turning themselves inside out trying to tie those two together as though Trump was involved in Epstein's antics. (But, don't look at Billy Clinton. Don't look at all those celebrities! Oh no.)

Me dino was thinking of that millstone when I came up with the aircraft carrier dunking.
And when you mentioned Kennedy being a name that seems to be a value to Americans, I immediately thought to look up Chappaquiddick in order to spell it correctly.

Trump was the only socalled elite that cooperated with The Epstein investigation. He canceled Epstein membership to Mara Lago . Trump rode the Plane to NYC from Palm Beach, not to Pedo Isle . Epstein was arrested during Trumps administration, not protected like previous admins. Trump administration saw the most arrests for human trafficking by many multiples.You claim Masks are Trumps turf? Very ignorant statement. Trump was repeatedly criticized for not wearing one and he always said that masks were a choice ,same with the jab.
Of course you can’t see the military industrial complex behind any of this Hegelian Dialectic used by them. It was reported Israel shot out of space a missile launched from Yemen. But Israels defenses against Paragliders were impotent? The most secure border in the world was breached in over 80 locations. Bibi funding and supporting Hamas is entirely ignored . The deep state is always on both sides. All the innocent lives lost on both sides is atrocious and just what Satan loves. Demand peace !

Roll Tide, A very old book speaks of a millstone neck tie for those who harm children.
To me it is RFKjr ‘s genealogy “last name” that seems to be a value to Americans.

ThanQ FFA,
This writer is amateurish. Yes ,we have a huge issue with censorship and people in power using it to silence any criticism. Free speech should be what every American should demand from our leadership with heavy penalties, for infringing on it.
RFKjr is anti -vax to a degree, big fuQing deal. Abaco and I Have warned about vax side effects for 8 yrs. RFKjr is also on record suggesting criminal Charges for climate change deniers.
First of all he is an idiot, and secondly he is hard to listen to ,do to his condition.
Actually if you are not for Trump you best check your premises. The leader of the Great Awakening is constantly attacked , as Fuck Schumer warned “7 ways from Sunday”. That is because the enemy is scared to death of Pres Trump. It’s Good vs Evil pick a side .

Yes, RFK Jr is a socialist.
Dimocrats can't be trusted.

Well, hell's bells. Me dino has been considering RFKJr. to be more of a dead horse than any other kind of horse from the get-go.
Up until now after hearing him try to talk, I kind of liked him for not braying Schiff like a typical Jackass Party politician.
Now is the first time I read any scuttlebutt about his maybe taking a flight to Pedo Island. If true, he is a dirty old goat who deserves the execution of repeated keel-haulings beneath an aircraft carrier.

Thanks. Yes. What we're seeing is a poorly constructed, thin smear. Again. This is politics in America today, unfortunately.

+1 to all that, Drivetrain!

The last time I checked, Bill Ackman can spend or not spend Bill Ackman's money wherever he wants and the U.S. Constitution is not meant to be a suicide pact (that is don't use the Constitution as a screen to hide evil people doing evil acts to the detriment of the nation).

Well stated. 👍
Thank you for taking the time to post this.

In a word: No.

I'm reading none of the promised calls for censorship of any kind. I'm reading an impassioned, articulate plea from this donor Bill Ackman that the "Nuthin' tuh see here, move right along" admins at Harvard start walking their own talk on what they nauseatingly call "Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging," rather than presiding over a clear exclusion from that pretense of people who happen to be Jewish, Asian or Caucasian, an exclusion that has been allowed to precipitate into violent threats and actual assault.

This Ben Bartee's rant to all fourteen of his blog followers is all frothing rage at Ackman - but sports a gaping hole where this "demand for censorship of speech on campus" is supposed to be sitting as justification for that frothing rage. Forget about the facepalm-inducing disconnect on "censorship" by private entities, this guy couldn't even find material to support his own premise against Ackman, to say nothing of the secondary rant on Kennedy's X comment. Which, just as the excerpt above shows, simply talks about college admins walking their talk and congratulates Ackman on what is, again, an excellently-articulated rundown of the fact of "protest" crossing the line into open threats and physical assault.

This blogger goes on to spew, straight-facedly, a bit of juicy guilt-by-association innuendo and a jaw-dropping conspiracy-theorist's gem: Kennedy flew on Epstein's jet, "which was often used" in connection with Pedo Island. The very jet! LOL Trump and a whole lot of other high-profile people from politics to business hung around with Epstein. Because they were all high rollers, and high rollers, like every other social clique, tend to hang out. To casually insinuate that that acquaintance equals screwing kids - sans a shred of evidence in support of the proposition except: innuendo and association - is at best ethically contemptible. To proceed from that to: a.) Epstein "is credibly suspected of having been a CIA and/or Mossad agent running an industrial-level blackmail operation," plus b.) my supposition on this "credible suspicion" that I'm getting from... well somewhere... and which I therefore get to present as fact, equals c.) the CIA and/or Mossad "have something" on RFK - is a veritable masterpiece of crackpot supposition in defiance of reason, ethics and the rudiments of proof.

Why are we even being dragged through this sewage? It's fit fodder for a Jerry Springer episode. What this blogger's self-important rant - and the Ackerman piece and the RFK post to which it links - tell me is that Ackman is a good man who's doing the right thing by holding a mirror up to these hypocritical college admins, and that Kennedy is consistent in both his support of the only civilized republic in the Mideast and is justified in his support of Ackman. Oh, and that this blogger is a certifiable dirtbag whose stock-in-trade is inflammatory gossip, apparently.

If this Bagbee or whoever shows up some day in a courtroom with proof of Kennedy soliciting pedophile prostitution at Epstein's island, proof of CIA and/or Mossad blackmail of Kennedy, and maybe proof that he's cleared the cobwebs from his brain on that whole "private action vs. censorship" thing, let us know. Colleges have every right to define the rules for their campuses, and deodorizing the stench of antisemitism would be a laudable thing. A college is not a government. Ackman called out a big one on its contemptible hypocrisy, and RFK applauded. I agree with both of them. If in the highly unlikely event that Harvard starts fitting students with muzzles (masks? Sorry Trump, that's your thing and I didn't mean to step on your turf,) then I will revise my appraisal. As it stands RFK has just underscored his character and moral compass, and Ackman has emerged as a defender of civilization against barbarism. Bravo to both.
.

The wheels are coming off his cart. He's a better alternative than Biden, Newsome, and possibly Trump Behind Bars. That's just my opinion. But...He needed to be flawless to have any chance. You know the tradition of Kennedys and the deep state, anyway - right? And, I haven't followed his campaign for a while and don't know anything about his stance on Israel.

well....

if those protestors were insulting any other group they be thrown out of those schools
"river to the sea" means the removal of Israel and death to all Jews, you know genocide

try and say that to those Americans left that saw the camps, i dare you protestors


but i am not sure just what RFKjr was asking for
and some of his positions are a bit off the wall