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In this mailing:
* Chris Farrell: Betraying the Cuban People, Again
* Pete Hoekstra: Freedom of Speech: A Vulnerable Right


** Betraying the Cuban People, Again ([link removed])
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by Chris Farrell • August 2, 2021 at 5:00 am
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* Everyone knows that Biden's hollow platitudes are utterly meaningless. "The United States stands with..." what, exactly, does that mean? What does "stands with" look like?
* Here is the ugly truth: Biden does not care a damn about the Cuban people throwing off 60+ years of communism. Cubans are holding the largest anti-government rallies in decades. American media coverage has been near zero. Half of Biden's White House staff probably does not understand what the president means by "repression," admires Fidel and Raul Castro, and can be found wearing Che Guevara T-shirts on the weekends.
* Cuban President and First Secretary of the Communist Party Miguel Díaz-Canel could order the machine-gunning of every protestor on the streets of Havana and the Biden administration would do nothing. Well, perhaps they might take the "strong action" of two weeks ago and sanction ONE Cuban government official, followed by the "stunning" sanctioning of TWO additional Cuban police officials. Díaz-Canel actually condemned protestors looking for food, calling them "counter-revolutionary mercenaries."
* Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad are advocating for programs and policies right out of the Cuban Communist Party's playbook. They actually want the power outages, rationed medical care and food shortages ordinary Cubans are protesting against. Their militant ideology and policy proposals fit right into the anti-American, Marxist "Critical FILL-IN-THE-BLANK Theory" concepts taught from the Frankfurt School.
* Under the Biden administration, the Cuban people will be ignored by the United States, again, as they have been for 60+ years. It is a horror for America -- with brutal, bloody consequences for the innocent people that continue to hold out hope that America will finally help.

Cubans are holding the largest anti-government rallies in decades. American media coverage has been near zero. Everyone knows that President Biden's hollow platitudes are utterly meaningless. Pictured: Cuban-Americans march from the White House to the Cuban Embassy on 16th Street during the "Cuban Freedom March" on July 26, 2021 in Washington, DC, urging the U.S. government to intervene in Cuba to support human rights and end communist rule there. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"Elections? What for?"
— Fidel Castro, January 1960

"The United States stands with the brave Cubans who have taken to the streets to oppose 62 years of repression under a communist regime."
— President Biden, July 22, 2021

Take a look at the opening quotes to this essay, pause, and think about them. There is a long litany of American miscalculations, cowardice, gamesmanship, indifference, condescension, and exploitation centered on Cuba, the Cuban people, and Cuban-Americans. It has been a bipartisan problem for decades, with a lot of American political rhetoric; one double-crossed, failed invasion attempt; and brutal communist intransigence.

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** Freedom of Speech: A Vulnerable Right ([link removed])
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by Pete Hoekstra • August 2, 2021 at 4:00 am
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* Rather than developing into a new marketplace of open competition among ideas and ideologies, the social media space has narrowed. Thought regulation, and even censorship, whether overt or hidden, has become commonplace. Too often, only "correct" opinion and the approved version of "truth" have been allowed. The arbiters of online speech — faceless corporate bureaucrats — frequently display outright political bias.
* The flag desecration votes demonstrate how vulnerable the concept of freedom of speech is. America's Founders realized the potential tyranny of the majority and that is why they made it the First Amendment. They understood that freedom of speech is essential....
* We must not accept the new intolerance of corporate progressives. It is time to stand up to the social media titans of our age, the new robber barons, and put a stop to their aggressive attempts to control the marketplace of ideas.

Social media has undoubtedly become the dominant form of communication in our society. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults identify themselves as Facebook users. Statistics show that people on average spend 2.5 hours per day on social networks and messaging. Also, 49 percent "of consumers depend on influencer recommendations on social media." Social media boosters claim that this success shows that Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other platforms are fulfilling their promise to help build an interconnected world of free expression and solidarity in diversity of thought. But is this true?

Many of us in the world of politics, and political discourse in particular, hoped that social media would form a new marketplace in which differing ideas and policy options could be promoted and debated freely. In recent months, however, it has become undeniable that the opposite is happening.

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