Democrats claim they are exerting “soft power” by wasting our money on silly crap like Sesame Street in Iraq. If they actually wanted to exert America leverage to advance freedom throughout the world, they would follow the example of the Trump Administration.

Via Revolver News:

Western nations love to pretend they’re the gold standard of freedom and that all-important precious democracy—but lately, countries like the UK are looking a lot more like the regimes we used to fight against. …

Trump’s new plan is to put economic pressure on these so-called allies and force them to respect real human rights, starting with free speech.

Via Daily Express:

Keir Starmer’s hopes of agreeing a free trade deal with the US could be at risk over a free speech row. The US state department issued a statement [March 30] saying it was “concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom” …

[A] source familiar with trade negotiations told The Telegraph there should be “no free trade without free speech”.

Readers will recall JD Vance’s historic speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, calling out Western Europe for suppressing speech moonbats don’t want to hear:

Others in the Trump Administration are on the same page. The Secretary of State backed up Vance firmly:

The USA and UK have enjoyed a special relationship going back generations. We fought in two world wars largely for its sake. It is based not merely on shared language and history but on shared values. That’s why the Trump Administration is defending our friendship by calling out the betrayal of these values, which prominently include freedom of speech and thereby freedom of thought.

On a tip from seaoh.

The moonbats running Poland had better hustle if they want to be at the vanguard of the leftist plunge into the darkness of tyranny. They have moved to criminalize memes, but Germany is ahead of them:

[A] German right-wing journalist has been sentenced to seven months’ probation for mocking left-wing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

In its verdict on Monday, April 7th, the district court in the Bavarian town of Bamberg also ordered David Bendels to apologise in writing to Nancy Faeser.

Reports that Bendels was forced to write “I will not criticize moonbats” 10,000 times on a blackboard could not be confirmed.

Bendels is editor in chief of the news website Deutschland-Kurier. His crime:

The meme, which was posted by Bendels last February, shows Nancy Faeser holding up a sign, with the words: “I hate freedom of expression.”

Maybe the reason lefties can’t meme is that they have no sense of irony.

On a tip from seaoh.

As they say, the Left can’t meme. So Poland’s Ministry of Justice has published guidelines that may make memes illegal:

The guidelines for prosecutors announced on April 3 include provisions for creating a group of prosecutors specialising in pursuing “hateful acts”. They will examine content to spot “intolerant views and attitudes”, with special reference to those expressed against minority groups. They will also conduct searches of email inboxes and seize electronic devices belonging to those suspected of posting “criminal content” in public spaces.

Intolerant views are not to be tolerated — not while moonbats like Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are cracking down on “criminal content.”

It is impermissible to offend not only non-Caucasians but also foreigners, Muslims, sexual deviants, and of course transsexuals:

The features to be protected by the guidelines include race, nationality, affiliation or ethnicity and religion as well as sexual orientation and gender identity – despite the absence of such grounds in the penal code.

Gasps former Polish Conservative Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki,

“Could someone really face criminal charges or even jail time over a meme? It may sound absurd but for all the internet jokesters who value freedom of expression, it’s no laughing matter.”

If you can’t beat them, throw them in jail.

On a tip from ABC of the ANC.

East Germany was infamous for relying on informants to impose absolute tyranny, even turning relatives against each other. The tradition continues:

Germany’s Interior Ministry, headed by Nancy Faeser – known for banning media outlets – and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth have launched a project dubbed, “Advice Compass on Conspiracy Thinking.”

The center is there to provide advice to anyone who “suspect[s] their friends or family members have fallen victim to conspiracy theories,” according to the Interior Ministry.

A “conspiracy theory” can be defined as an unproven theory regarding current events that does not meet with the approval of the authorities. Often, the difference between a conspiracy theory and confirmed truth is a matter of weeks. The Great Replacement is still regarded as a conspiracy theory among leftists, even as they effectively acknowledge it.

As serious as the matter is, hilariously enough, the German word for “advice” happens to be – “rat.”

“Holistic” is how Faeser chose to describe this approach and the inclusion of the “advice” center into Germany’s overall fight against what the authorities consider to be extremism and disinformation.

“Holistic” is a euphemism for “totalitarian.”

In Munich recently, JD Vance tried to warn Germans (and Britons) where this is heading. Many Germans pushed back against the increasingly hostile and authoritarian left-wing ruling class in last month’s election by voting AfD. But the leftist uniparty blocked AfD from taking part in the governing coalition.

On a tip from Brian Brandt.

Listen to them when they tell you what they intend to do to you. Looking like a villainess from a weird science fiction movie, Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) has proclaimed the following:

“We are all willing to work with anyone who is serious about doing the work of censoring the American people and advancing progress.”

Whether this was some kind of Freudian slip or Pressley is too dumb to hide the ball, she really did say that. She was at a rally protesting the hold Trump’s people put on a rogue agency, Elizabeth Warren’s tyrannical Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

This gives an idea of what progressives mean by “progress.”

On a tip from Wiggins.

Via USAID, leftist Swamp rats employ both carrot and stick to reward political correctness and punish dissent. Moonbattery.com was assigned the stick.

Politico isn’t the only liberal propaganda platform to be coercively yet furtively financed through USAID. Via Gateway Pundit:

The Columbia Journalism Review on Tuesday released a report on the importance of USAID’s donations to approved journalists at home and abroad.

According to CJR, USAID spent $268 million to fund over 6,000 approved journalists.

That was the carrot. Regarding the stick:

At the same time USAID was funding 6,000 approved journalists – USAID was also spending MILLIONS to silence populist and conservative outlets like The Gateway Pundit.

USAID money has found its way to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which aspires to silence countermoonbat websites by cutting off their advertising. They prioritize 10 sites on their Defund Racism page (archived here); the second one listed is Moonbattery.com.

CEO Imran Ahmed is on video bragging that CCDH got Google to demonetize Gateway Pundit in 2021, costing it a fortune. Directly or indirectly, Google controls an outsize percentage not only of internet traffic but of internet advertising — as I learned when it put Moonbattery.com on its advertising blacklist the previous year.

On a tip from Dave F.