Mary Margaret Olohan on April 22, 2021

• Twitter is refusing to address whether a tweet by Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James violated the platform’s terms of service.
• “YOU’RE NEXT,” James tweeted to his millions of followers with the hashtag #ACCOUNTABILITY. He has since deleted the tweet.
• Twitter’s policy warns that users may “not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. This includes wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm.” 

Twitter is refusing to address whether a tweet by Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James violated the platform’s terms of service.

James tweeted, then deleted, a picture Wednesday of Ohio police officer Nicholas Reardon who shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant as she attempted to stab another girl, body cam footage showed.

“YOU’RE NEXT,” James tweeted to his millions of followers with the hashtag #ACCOUNTABILITY. He has since deleted the tweet.

The Daily Caller News Foundation began asking Twitter whether the tweet violated the platform’s terms of service around 4:20 p.m. Wednesday. Twitter did not respond to the DCNF’s request before James deleted the tweet around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Twitter’s policy warns that users may “not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so.” “This includes wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm.”

Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy told the DCNF Thursday morning that “our teams do not evaluate Tweets that have been removed.”

Kennedy did not return a further request for comment from the DCNF noting that the tweet was up for over an hour and garnered tens of thousands of likes and retweets. James has almost 50,00,000 followers.

The social media platform locked the New York Post out of its account in October after it published a report on alleged emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop that allegedly showed Hunter and his father, president-elect Joe Biden, met with an executive from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2015.

Twitter also censored the story on its platform, prevented users from tweeting or sending the link, and locked the accounts of a number of high-profile Twitter users, such as former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who attempted to post the link.

The social media platform also repeatedly censored former President Donald Trump’s tweets during the 2020 presidential election with the caption: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”

Twitter’s silence comes amid massive media misinformation on 16-year-old Bryant’s death.

Media outlets and public figures immediately reported Tuesday afternoon that police had killed an unarmed girl, though body camera footage from the incident showed Bryant pushing one woman down on the sidewalk before swinging a knife at a different woman.

Police shot Bryant multiple times after they repeatedly told her to “get down.”

Twitter itself sparked a backlash through its description of Bryant’s death in a Wednesday Twitter Moment that made no mention of the fact that Bryant had a knife and was attempting to stab another black woman.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF on why it did not include the full picture surrounding Bryant’s death.

The post Twitter Refuses To Address Whether Lebron James Tweet Violated Terms Of Service appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Should any American have a property right to a federal job for life?

Citizens elect the House of Representatives every two years; Senators ever six years. The President every four years. Elections are the primary mechanisms citizens have to hold government accountable.

Unfortunately, behind this facade of Democracy are two million bureaucrats (or civil servants as they prefer to be called), who burrow into government positions for most of their careers. These bureaucrats control the spin on information given elected officials. In foreign affairs, these bureaucrats replace the President’s policy with policies adopted by interagency working groups. They write the hundreds of thousands of regulations few of us read, but control our lives. Bureaucrats determine who of us acts lawfully or unlawfully.

The impact of bureaucrats is massive; scandals at the FBI, Justice, State, ranging from destruction of information, to selling guns to Mexican gangs to kill Americans. All happening without any accountability!

In addition to job security, the Congressional Budget Office found pay and benefits for bureaucrats 47% more than the combined pay and benefits in the private sector. A Cato Institute study put the number at 80% more than the private sector. The average federal worker receives $123,160 in pay and benefits compared to $69,901 in the private sector.

On top of better pay and benefits, a Heritage Foundation analysis found federal employees work fewer hours a week than their private sector counterparts, 38.7 to 41.4 hours.

The  federal government must get the “best and brightest” since 99.5% of the 2 million federal employees receive a “fully successful” rating, or above, on their evaluations? Of the 2 million bureaucrats, only 0.1% received unacceptable ratings.

The cost of these federal bureaucrats is massive. Presently, there is $3.5 trillion in unfunded pension and health benefits.

Let’s ask the question again. Should any American have a property right to a federal job for life?

How did this happen?

Civil Service started in 1883 with the Pendleton Act requiring a competitive examination for many government positions. By requiring hiring based on the highest scores, Congress was eliminating political patronage. While only the top prospects were to be selected, the Pendleton Act did not protect government employees from being fired. In 1962, President Kennedy signed an Executive Order allowing federal employees a right to appeal a firing. In 1974 President Nixon issued another Executive Order ensuring an automatic right of appeal to an independent authority.

As appeals reached the courts, decisions were inconsistent. Over time, the competitive exam was stuck down by the courts, part-by-part. In 1978, Congress enacted the Civil Service Reform Act making the Executive Orders statutory and authorizing unions to collectively bargain with the federal government. The Supreme Court interpreted the new law as requiring trial-type hearings, making it almost impossible to dismiss a federal employee.

Another impact of “life-time jobs for bureaucrats” is that it fundamentally changes the role of the President. Article II requires the President to execute the laws of the U.S., yet the President controls only 4000 appointments out of 2 million positions. 99.8% percent of the bureaucracy beats to its own drummer. Many of these highly paid elites, believe “the public knows little or nothing” about issues facing the nation.

Over time, the public lost trust in government. In 1958 almost seventy-five percent of Americans trusted government. By 2013 only 28% of Americans had a favorable view of it.

Action

Other than dramatically shrinking government, the options for changing the bureaucracy are limited. Eliminating all civil service protections returns the nation to a spoils system. Hiring more political appointees expands the bureaucracy. Congress is weak at fact-intensive oversight. Moreover, it is unlikely that the protections can be eliminated due to strong union support. This leaves term limits as a practical solution.

In a major 1926 policy speech, Calvin Coolidge warned:

“Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy. It…sets up the pretense of having authority over everybody and being responsible to nobody…”

Term limits on bureaucrats would have three major benefits for our country.

First, term limits break bureaucrat control of government by eliminating the power imbalance between elected officials whose service can regularly be limited by citizens and an unaccountable bureaucracy that can hold jobs for life.

Second, with term limits, a greater number of Americans will be able to serve their country.

Finally, term limits, by reducing the number of bureaucrats qualifying for federal benefits, results in major reductions in unfunded federal benefits.

It’s a modest proposal, but it is a start.

The post Big Government: What To Do With Lifetime Unelected Bureaucrats? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Hillary Clinton was recently asked by a supporter at a campaigning event if she would agree to not take any special interest money from fossil fuels groups – because she herself had campaigned on a pro-green energy platform. Regardless of what one may personally think about the green energy initiative, it’s fairly sensible to expect someone who publicly is in favor of green energy to consistently vote and fund oneself accordingly.

But upon hearing the request from the woman in the crowd (an environmentalist herself), Hillary began acting defensive about how she chooses to fund her campaign. In a video capturing the moment, she can be heard denying that she takes any money from fossil fuel or oil companies – which is interesting, because the activist never directly accused Clinton of doing so, and merely asked her to promise not to in the future. Clinton then began ranting wildly about Bernie Sanders “lying” about her.

“I’m so, so sick of it!” Clinton yelled. The woman in the crowd was presumably a genuine Clinton supporter who honestly wanted her candidate of choice to go on the record for a cause she believed in. Instead, the result was a slightly incoherent rant about Bernie Sanders and an overly defensive position on where her campaign gets its money. Not what was likely expected, and one must wonder if the activist is still a Hillary fan after that exchange.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has received over $30o,000 in donations from the oil and gas industry

Video Below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsG3iNhtBCE

The post Hillary Lashes Out At Supporter When Called On Taking Bribes (VIDEO) appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.