You have freedom of speech unless you’re a military expert who thinks Ukraine is losing its war and wants to travel to Russia. That exception, of course, is written into the First Amendment. From Gilbert Doctorow at gilbertdoctorow.substack.com:
In various essays over the past year, I have said time and again that in the United States citizens enjoy vastly more freedom of expression than in Europe, where I am living. The reason is found in the healthy split of voters between Trumpites and dyed in the wool Democrats, close to 50-50 among those who are politically active and will vote. Meanwhile Europe celebrates its “solidarity,” as I noted yesterday, and has zero tolerance for those who do not agree with their governments’ foreign and other policies.
Yesterday’s events at an airport in the USA shattered those illusions about American freedoms.
First there was the news that Scott Ritter, a former U.S. military intelligence officer, was pulled off his plane which, with further flight connections would have taken him to St Petersburg, Russia where he was designated as a high level invited guest and would speak at the International Economic Forum that opens tomorrow. Upon being removed from the plane, his documents were taken from him. He was eventually released but his U.S. passport was kept by officials. Clearly Scott is not headed anywhere for some time.
