Where I live, this week saw the most beautiful day of the spring so far. But we are in summer 1914 for free America?

Summer 1914 also reportedly saw exceptionally fine weather in Europe. Histories and literature are full of how the June 28 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was a faint rumble of distant thunder, usually ignored. By the end of August (after a century of almost complete peace) the Continent was plunged into a horrific four-year war. Huge political changes followed, generally much for the worse. Britain and France combined lost 2,077,000 men killed, more than 3 times WW2 losses. Germany lost 2,037,000.

I am told the new All Quiet On The Western Front movie evokes the awful battlefields well. I have not the stomach to watch. But my morning scan of ZeroHedge and a friend’s helpful email produced the thunder. For anyone who frequents the right-leaning news sources, it is very loud. But we have to face the fact that most Americans do not—and so are blissfully ignorant.

• ZeroHedge had Jonathan Turley’s America’s Blackout On Biden Corruption Is Truly ’Pulitzer-Level Stuff,’ May 14, 2023.

The Republicans of the House Oversight Committee, Turley judges, have definitive proof of extensive Biden family corruption in Biden’s Vice Presidential years:

The House has shown millions of dollars going to at least nine Bidens like dividends from a family business. As a long-time critic of influence peddling among both Republicans and Democrats, I have never seen the equal of the Bidens.

Turley is astonished at the lack of Regime Media reporting on the GOP press conference last week. This is true—try searching Google News. I follow news fairly closely but the first story I saw was on Sunday on the European webzine Remix: Biden family could be implicated in Romanian corruption scandal, by Mandiner, May 12, 2023.

Turley’s astonishment turned to anger on seeing that the only Bigfoot Media that referred to the story all had the effrontery to play it as a vindication for Biden—because he personally was not shown to have been directly paid [e.g., Republicans Finally Admit They Have No Incriminating Evidence on Joe Biden, by Tori Otten [Tweet her],The New Republic, May 10, 2023].

Turley points out:

The whole purpose of influence peddling is to use family members as shields for corrupt officials. Instead of making a direct payment to a politician, which could be seen as a bribe, you can give millions to his or her spouse or children.

He realizes that coverup has very serious implications:

The coverage this week has all the markings of a state media. The consistent spin. The almost universal lack of details. The absurd distinctions.

It is the blindside of our First Amendment, which addresses the classic use of state authority to coerce and control media. It does not address a circumstance in which most of the media will maintain an official line out of by consent rather than coercion [Emphasis in original].

• With this as background my friend’s story was chilling: Big Tech Strikes Again: Our Sister Site Townhall Censored, by Matt Margolis, PJ Media, May 15, 2023:

This week, our sister site Townhall published a column discussing the dangers of Joe Biden’s immigration policies, which have left our border wide open and allowed historic numbers of immigrants to flood into our country.

According to Facebook, the column was hate speech, and the article was flagged and unable to be circulated on the platform.

Margolis, perhaps afraid of Facebook himself, did not name, much less link, to the article. My guess: Asking the Right Questions About Immigration, by Laura Hollis, Townhall, May 11, 2023.

This is a competent and thorough statement of the immigration disaster. I notice it does, correctly, mention the possibility of increased voter fraud. The Commissars are even more hysterical about stopping discussion of that than immigration discussion.

Any serious Conservative/Right site was eliminated by Facebook’s Commissars long ago. VDARE.com has been gone three years. What remains are bland Conservatism Inc. and herbivore operations. But Townhall has been supplying a lot of immigration news recently , quite horrific of course.

Perhaps Facebook is signaling to this community to cool immigration coverage. This is likely to be followed by an extension of the Zuckerberg Desert to yet more Patriots.

So the MSM has become Sovietized and Big Tech is increasing harassment and suppression of the Samizdat rightish websites.

• Against this backdrop, ZeroHedge’s report of Biden’s astoundingly inflammatory speech at the recent (86% Black) Howard University Commencement is a blaring alarm: Biden And DHS Secretary Claim ’White Supremacy’ Is The Greatest US Terror Threat, by Taylor Durden, May 15, 2023.

Zero Hedge includes a clip of Cuban/Jewish/Immigrant DHS Secretary Mayorkas echoing this claim.

For Biden to say “The most dangerous threat to our homeland is white supremacy” (n.b.: Biden did not actually say “Terror Threat,” he was specifically talking about a political threat) in this era of ongoing U.S. annoyance of the Muslim world, the Democrat’s No Borders Policy (which goes back to the Obama Administration), the MS-13 gang and the (State-subsidized) Antifa Militia is ludicrous.

Most Americans probably reflexively dismissed this claim as silly. But it is extremely serious. They mean it. Biden at Howard recalled he mentioned it in his Inaugural.

ZeroHedge optimistically says

When they say they’re going after “white supremacists,” what they really mean is they are targeting anyone of any color that opposes their ideology.

but correctly adds

the truth is that the definition of extremism is changing daily to include values that common people hold dear. Today you are a good and moral person; tomorrow, you’re a terrorist. That is how these things have always worked.

So as 2023 moves into Summer we have:

• Intensified Sovietized MSM news management.
• Signs of a new Big Tech offensive to suppress Dissident websites.
• The Biden Administration promising increased political policing explicitly targeting White America.

Also rapidly mounting examples of the politicized legal system being used to intimidate and destroy Conservatives: see Monday’s blog Charlottesville Witch Hunt Continues: A Roundup.

It all points in one direction.

See you on the Marne.

Email Patrick Cleburne.