Lindsey Graham must go

He's being challenged in South Carolina in November by Jaime Harrison, who's looking like he could possibly take Lindsey down. Fingers crossed. Give a little if you can.

So is your president, but you're okay with that

[E]ven though Graham’s famous defense of Brett Kavanaugh boosted his standing among Republicans, his association with Trump is today proving to be a drag in his reelection campaign. Graham barely leads his well-funded Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, in the conservative state, and he’s conspicuously not speaking at this week’s Republican National Convention.

  Vanity Fair

Aww. After repeatedly prostrating himself before the orange god, he didn't even get a speaking spot.

The following are excerpts of his answers from a Vanity Fair interview with Graham:

[T]he Chinese Communist Party pretty much owns every business enterprise and all the private data being collected by TikTok. [...] Snapchat doesn’t have to report to Trump.

Not at the moment. But if Trump isn't booted from office, all bets are off.

So here’s the deal. If TikTok is saved, you can thank me.

Oooh. Wait til the orange one hears that.

So I get a call from Sean Hannity. His daughter’s crying. They’re going to do away with TikTok. I said, “Well, get her a new watch.” I don’t follow TikTok. Then my niece calls me, tells me they’re going to do away with TikTok. Let’s see, General [David] Petraeus calls me, says they’re going to do away with TikTok. So my niece, General Petraeus and Sean Hannity’s daughter, there must be something about TikTok. So I got smart real quick.

I'm hearing this in the voice of a two-bit gangster.

Mnuchin called me and said that Trump wants to basically shut down the platform, and you’ve got 100 million Americans who use it, mostly young people. And he said, when they told me it was that dancing-cat video site, you know where the cats dance, I’m all in. If it’s up to me, we’ll never shut down anything that good to show animals dancing, and all the other stuff you do on TikTok.

And now I'm cackling with laughter.

So I called up Trump. I said, “Listen, the Chinese part is true.

He's trying to replace Michael Cohen, isn't he?

You’ve got to be worried about communist China owning this platform, having all this data. But if you shut down this site, you’re going to get kicked in the ass by a bunch of young people. Bad decision.

I can't wait to hear Trump's version of this story.

Let Microsoft or somebody buy it, put it in American hands and allow the platform to survive and thrive because so many people enjoy it.” And he said, “Well, I’ll get back with you.”

LOL, Lindsey.

Now I think TikTok may be suing about the executive order. So I don’t know where we’re at.

You don't even know where YOU'RE "at", Lindsey.

You know, so I did the thing called the EARN IT Act. If you’re a parent or you’re a young person, there’s a lot of sexual predators out there on social media sites. You strike up conversations. And we’ve got to harden these sites against abuses. One of the abuses that I’m worried about is the social media sites being used by child predators, scam artists, and now the communist Chinese party, having your data. That’s not good. It’s not good to have a business enterprise penetrate America this much, owned by the Chinese communist party, because only God knows what they will do to your data. Sell it to terrorist groups for counterfeiting money. Knowledge is power, data is power.

Tell us more, Lindsey. You can't, can you? You don't know how data is power. And why would the Chinese government sell our data to terrorists? I'm pretty sure they would use it for their own purposes to infiltrate our economic, technological, social and political systems.

So your privacy matters to you, but your data should matter too. Because once they know who you are and all the information about you, they can monetize it, they can use it against you.

Tell us how that works.

You know when I was little, I used to go outside and play. There were three TV channels when I was born, I was born before cable, B.C. Young people today have tremendous opportunity, but a lot of pressure. A lot of social pressure, a lot of bullying on the internet. It’s a different world out there today. And I’m very worried.

He's not describing a problem with China owning TikTok. He's pretty much just babbling.

QAnon is batshit crazy. Crazy stuff. Inspiring people to violence. I think it is a platform that plays off people’s fears.

If the GOP HAD a platform this year, that would be it.

And it’s very much a threat. But there are a lot of websites out there. How do you live in this world?

It's nothing less than a miracle, Lindsey.

I would like to remove Section 230 liability. That if you’re going to have a social media site like QAnon or anything else, you spread this stuff at your own peril. So when this guy went into the pizza restaurant in Washington, because they alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza place in Washington. This guy took it seriously, went in with an AR-15 and started shooting up place. Thank God nobody got killed. But the pizza owner under my theory, could sue QAnon for passing along garbage. That’s a pretty dramatic step. But the only way I know to make people more responsible who run these websites is allow lawsuits when they go too far.

[...]

The point is that CNN is held to certain standards. You can’t libel or slander somebody. You can’t incite people. The First Amendment allows you to speak your mind, but it doesn’t allow to yell fire in a movie theater.

Isn't Lindsey Graham a lawyer? How can he be so ignorant? Section 230 doesn't protect QAnon. It doesn't protect individuals who post libelous material on social media. It protects the social media platform itself, relieving it of liability for what people post. You already post at your own peril if the person you slander or libel can find out who you are. (Which would be the reason people don't want 230 in their way, I guess, because they don't know who's posting, therefore, they want the right to sue the only person whose identity they do know - the host of the social media site.)

Also, Lindsey, where in the First Amendment does it make a protection exception for yelling fire in a movie theater? That's one of those common tropes that people think is true, but isn't. You could probably be sued for doing that, but it would have nothing to do with the First Amendment.

What Type of Speech Is Not Protected by the First Amendment?

Anyway, back to Lindsey's Vanity Fair interview...

Freedom of speech is one thing. Being able to attack each other’s ideas is part of America. But what’s the line? When you inspire people to commit acts of violence and turn on one another in a violent fashion, that’s not free speech, that’s criminality.

Tell that to your orange president.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.