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JD Vance was about to say “European Commissioners,” but he stopped himself, and instead said “European Commissars.” This was no slip of the tongue. Vance clearly had in mind the commissars of the old Soviet Union, and as he was addressing, at the Munich Security Conference, a roomful of their intellectual children and heirs, his choice of words was entirely apt. Vance was there to call out these cosseted elites, who aren’t used to being called out, and the predictable rage has ensued. But the vice president’s message was prophetic. If European leaders were interested in maintaining their countries as free societies, they would heed him.
“Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today,” Vance said, “it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be, quote, ‘hateful content.’ I look to my own country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of, quote, ‘combating misogyny on the internet, a day of action.’”
Vance continued by referring to the flashpoint for the freedom of speech today, the point at which it is most heatedly disputed: the burning of the Qur’an. “I look to Sweden,” he said, “where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Koran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder. As the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant, and I’m quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.’”
If speech can be shut down for giving offense to some group, there is no freedom of speech at all. Speech has legal protections in the first place so that tyrants cannot use the excuse of offense to shut down dissent. The freedom of speech is the indispensable foundation of any free society, and as Vance dared to point out, in Sweden, as in Europe as a whole, it is severely threatened.
The ”Christian activist” to which Vance referred was an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden named Salwan Najem. His friend who was murdered was Salwan Momika, who had burned the Qur’an several times. Momika had been scheduled to appear in a Stockholm court for the crime of inciting racial hatred by burning the Qur’an, but didn’t show up: he had been murdered for the same acts.
Momika had been charged with “agitation against an ethnic or national group” for burning the Qur’an, which was ridiculous on its face: Momika was Iraqi, after all, and was setting fire to the Islamic book not because he wanted to agitate against Muslims, but because he wanted to call attention to the violence and oppression that the Qur’an inspires those who believe in it to commit.
Burning books is associated with National Socialism and with the forcible suppression of ideas, and so many people regard it with unalloyed horror. Momika, however, was not burning the Qur’an because he wanted to conceal what it says, but because he wanted to draw attention to what it says. The Swedish government should have hailed Momika as a hero of the freedom of expression; instead it vilified and persecuted him.
Back in March 2024, Momika explained what was at stake: “The persecution I am subjected to in Sweden is tantamount to defending Islam and supporting the project of Islamizing Sweden and the West, granting asylum and protecting Islamists, and while those who criticize Islam are expelled and persecuted, this means that the law on freedom of expression is in real danger and Islamic values may be imposed on Western societies and the application of Sharia law. Islamism will inevitably come to them unless we take action.” And now his murder proves that he was one hundred percent correct.
Salwan Momika should have been protected as a hero of the freedom of expression, daring to risk his life to call attention to the oppression and violence that is carried out in accord with Qur’anic teaching. Instead, he was persecuted by both countries, vilified, exposed to danger, denounced, and now murdered. Salwan Momika’s fate demonstrates in microcosm what will happen to freedom in both countries. JD Vance showed in Munich that he was well aware of this, and called upon European leaders to mend their ways. But will they heed?
Most of this holds up well, some 45 odd years later. …
( Some of it does not, so aI overlook that part. )
How’d you post that?
I’d like to post “{Der Comissar is Here” by Falco.
“Don’t turn around, whoa-uh-oh (Ja, ja)
Der Kommissar’s in town, whoa-uh-oh
He’s got the power and you’re so weak
And your frustration will not let you speak (La, la, la, la, la, la)
Don’t turn around, whoa-uh-oh (Ja, ja)
Der Kommissar’s in town, whoa-uh-oh
And if he talks to you, then you’ll know why
The more you live, the faster you will die.”
I don’t know.
Usually they don’t post right.
Sometimes, they do.
If there is a rhyme or reason, it is beyond me.
• Good Luck ~
Thanks. All I can do is try again. I tried once and it didn’t work so I didn’t try again.
Tell them to Go Out in the Garden and Eat Worms as our Mom used to say that to us
European Commissars. Very apt. Well put, JD Vance.
Why would anyone want to live in a country with such weak weenie leaders and dictator wannabes. This is what leads to wars, as we have seen.
We most certainly dodged a bullet last November. Thank God Kammy lost bigly.
Still waiting for the people of Western Europe to find their cojones, on the mantle piece, in a jar, where you left them in 1946.
This explains Vichy France, too.
Exactly. Marshal Philippe Petain was a hero of WWI at Verdun. Apparently he became a collaborationist when the Nazis let France have southern France, but actually under Nazi control. He died under sentence in a prison fortress after France was liberated. Typical Euro weanie
No wonder all those National Socialist types were shaking in their jackboots. Speaking truth to power takes courage, but expect consequences. Vance may not be invited to their private parties with the elites.
Ah, Vance is from a small town in Ohio. He doesn’t need any champagne and caviar. He might eat frog legs, though.
The Commissars are furious and weepy rolled into one, noteworthy that.
JD Vance just did something that a vice president has ever done before, to my knowledge: He hosed down the elite European leaders who are on the path to totalitarianism. He put the arrow right in the heart of the most megalomaniacal assembly of leaders of the failing 0f European nations. His perfect speech was given with confidence and authority. If there were any doubts about his tenacity, they have been assuaged. He is true to our Republic and most reasonable Americans are very proud of him. The Dems sent a congressman to lighten the impact, but he doesn’t have a chance to have any impact on Vance’s speech. He will probably be charged with stupidity and arrogance by the court of patriots. .
You are so right. Most Americans are extremely proud of JD Vance! He delivered that historic Speech in a dignified and straightforward way. No ad hominem attacks , no pounding the podium, and no yelling. I hope the attendees who did clap were not rounded up later and charged with “Hateful Clapping” or “acting like Nazis”. I am sure JD’s Speech was music to their ears. Normal Germans are being treated like second class citizens in their own country! Didn’t a German Judge recently charge a rape victim with a longer sentence than the actual Rapist got, because she called him a PIG ?! That pretty much tells you all you need to know about German Leadership these days. And what I want to know is WHY WE have 100,000 MEMBERS of the US MILITARY over there, keeping the Peace for a bunch of ‘Psychopathic Overlords’ who no longer uphold the basic requirement of Democracy like Free Speech for their own people! Shame, shame, shame on all of us….
Europe is nearly lost. Under the deranged leadership of the EU Commission, led by Ursula Von Der Leyen, Europe is fully engaged in the suicide of its nations.
I loved it when one of those mini-tyrants couldn’t finish his speech, in rebuttal to Vance, because he broke down in tears. The bully got poked in the chest for picking on the little guys and he had to run home to mommy crying like a little baby that just had his rattle taken away. Vance embarrassed the lot of them for their duplicity. If I were a German citizen I’d be worried about how these weenies will react to being exposed. Any social media posts containing “Vance” will now probably earn you a jail sentence.