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Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn gave gave must-watch speeches last weekend at the ‘Rescue The Republic’ rally in Washington D.C. – which was organized to promote free speech and the 8 pillars of ‘Join the Resistance.‘

Taibbi torched the establishment, starting with John Kerry – who recently said he wants the First Amendment “hammered out of existence” so the elites can control information.

Taibbi also went full Les Grossman on the ‘anti-disinformation’ dickheads from the censorship industrial complex…

Let me pause to say something about America’s current intellectual class, from which the “anti-disinformation” complex comes. By the way: there are no working-class censors, poor censors, hungry censors. The dirty secret of “content moderation” everywhere is that it’s a tiny sliver of the educated rich correcting everyone else. It’s telling people what fork to use, but you can get a degree in it. –Matt Taibbi

But while “the Michael Haydens, John Brennans, James Clappers, Mike McFauls and Rick Stengels who make up America’s self-appointed behavior police” keep trying to censor, they’re on “a fool’s errand.”

But “Motherfucker, I’m an American. That shit does not work on me. And how can you impugn my patriotism, when you’re sitting in Klaus Schwab’s lap, apologizing for the First Amendment to a crowd of Europeans? Look in the mirror.”

Watch:

Novelist Walter Kirn also spoke at the event, telling “a little bedtime story” about his childhood in rural Minnesota – “the land of the deplorables,” that can best be summarized by the man himself via Racket News (emphasis ours);

When I was a kid in rural Minnesota, the land of the deplorables in the late sixties and early seventies, my mother had a little record player. The problem was, she only had five records, and all were protest music. Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary. I used to listen to the records, and I had a favorite song. Maybe you know it: “If I had a Hammer.”

It was very strange that my mother had these records, because she was a young Republican. Anyway, I was eight years old, and I had no idea what this song meant. It seemed to have something to do with being powerless, and dreaming or fantasizing that you had power. If I had a hammer, I’d hammer out justice. I’d hammer out freedom all over this land. I’d hammer out love between the brothers and the sisters…

That was my favorite line, because it was so puzzling. Isn’t love between brothers and sisters incest? As I said, I found this song confusing, and the thing that confused me most about the song was: Why didn’t the singer have a hammer? What had happened? Who’d taken it away?

This morning, I was reading Twitter and I was reminded of this song in the most unlikely way. I saw a clip of a discussion at one of those big international conferences that you and I are never invited to, and on this video was John Kerry, former Secretary of State, former Skull and Bonesman, that secret society at Yale — the same secret society that George W. Bush belonged to. The guy who ran against John Kerry for president in 2004: Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones. Talk about the illusion of choice.

Anyway, what Kerry was talking about was the First Amendment, and how it was a problem. A big, big problem. He had a peculiar complaint about it.

The First Amendment stopped people like him, he said, from trying to “build consensus.” Now, that’s how these people think about themselves, as builders of consensus. What does that make you and me? We’re construction materials!

John Kerry, master builder, had a complaint. The First Amendment, he said, was a “major block” for people like him from stopping what he now calls disinformation. It kept him from, he said, “hammering it out of existence.”

Now, I’m pretty sure that in 1949 when Pete Seeger wrote, “The Hammer Song,” or “If I Had a Hammer,” he didn’t mean if John Kerry had a hammer. He didn’t mean if they had a hammer:

If they had a hammer,

They’d hammer out disinformation.

They’d hammer out vaccine hesitancy,

All over this land.

They’d hammer out Kennedy.

They’d hammer Matt Taibbi….

That is not the song, and John Kerry has it wrong. The hammer does not belong to him.

That hammer belongs to us. It’s ours. But why don’t we have it? That’s the mystery.

That’s the question I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out. Look at this gray hair. It’s been a lifetime. Why doesn’t the singer have a hammer? Why? Why do we have to dream to fantasize? Why do we have to wish we had one?

Well, I think I’ve finally answered it. We have it right in front of us. The question is, will we pick it up? The question is, will we use it? So, I have a request for you. When you go home tonight, when you get home, pick up your hammer. Pick up your hammer and use it. It’s time to build.

My mother had one other record. It was by Simon and Garfunkel. It also had a song I loved called El Condor Pasa. I think you remember its greatest line: “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.”

Don’t be a nail. Pick up your hammers. Go home. Let’s build a New America.

Via The Cradle

The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria was severely damaged by an Israeli airstrike early on Friday, forcing the road to close and leaving those fleeing to cross on foot. 

Videos circulating on social media show the aftermath of the strike and the destruction it caused. Displaced Lebanese and Syrians can be seen trekking by foot across the border. 

Masnaa is the primary border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.

The Israeli army claimed in a statement that it struck a 3.5-kilometer underground tunnel crossing from Lebanon into Syria. It says it is working to stifle the flow of weapons from Iran via Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Israel’s air force bombed “an underground tunnel that crosses the territory of Lebanon into the territory of Syria, about 3.5 kilometers long, and which is used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons and store them in an underground route,” the Israeli army said in a statement on 4 October. 

The statement also announced the assassination of Mohammad Jaafar Qasir, who it said was the head of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 that allegedly operated the targeted tunnel.

It added that it “will continue to attack and destroy any infrastructure for smuggling weapons.”

Since late last month, Israel has been waging a massive and deadly aerial campaign across Lebanon, including its capital, Beirut. At least one million have been displaced and around 2,000 killed since September 20, with the death toll on a continuously rapid rise.

Dozens of loud explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburb just past midnight on Thursday as Israel unleashed another round of massive and destructive airstrikes. Several neighborhoods were reported destroyed as a result of the attacks.

Israeli 🇮🇱 airstrike has cut a main highway linking Lebanon 🇱🇧 with Syria 🇸🇾, first time this major border crossing has been cut off since the beginning of the war, footage by @JamilBassil

Friday’s airstrike led to the closure of a road near the Masnaa Border Crossing, from… pic.twitter.com/iT45ZynCS9

— Saad Abedine (@SaadAbedine) October 4, 2024

Hebrew and western media cited Israeli sources as saying that Hashem Safieddine was the target of the main attack on the suburb. 

Safieddine is the cousin and likely successor to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated on September 27 when Israel dropped over 80 bunker buster bombs and leveled around 10 buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb.