Episode Details

The conservative block recently celebrated the paring down of the 1500-page Continuing Resolution that kept the government open. Part of that celebration centered on the defunding of the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which the learned pointed out was an integral cog in the Deep State anti-First Amendment censorship apparatus. However, the reports of the Center’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

The so-called "Global Engagement Center" sounds about as threatening as a high school debate club. But in the wise words of Vivek Ramaswamy, it was actually a linchpin in what we might call the "censorship industrial complex." Its mission? Supposedly to combat "foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations." Foreign, they emphasized, because: a) apparently, the truth is only offensive when it comes from outside our borders, and b) political censorship is forbidden in the First Amendment.

Here's the kicker: the GEC, like its cousins in the Deep State alphabet soup of government agencies (think CIA, FBI, and all those other three-letter nightmares), was supposed to be our shield against foreign threats. But—and especially over the Obama and Biden years, this shield has been turned inward, targeting those pesky American citizens who dare to think differently, especially on topics like COVID or Hunter Biden's laptop or the manufacture of the J6 events. The GEC, it seems, was more like a junior partner in Big Brother's surveillance state, keeping tabs on “Wrongthink.”

Because heaven forbid, they couldn't directly censor Americans (that pesky First Amendment thing gets in the way, don’t you know), the GEC played it coy. They funded the British-based Global Disinformation Index. This group was less about fighting disinformation and more about creating a blacklist for publications like The Washington Examiner, RealClearPolitics, and The New York Post. The result? A financial guillotine for conservative voices, with ad revenues drying up faster than the initiatives promised by the BLM activists who bilked millions from their supporters and immediately abandoned them.

Then came the bureaucratic masterstroke. The GEC’s funding was tucked away in that behemoth 1500-page legislative monstrosity—the Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. It was like serving a scoop of bureaucracy with a side of contempt, drawing the ire of Elon Musk and others. But, after much outrage and protest, the spendthrifts of Congress managed to shave it down to a mere 120 pages, cutting the GEC's funding and retreating from the legislators’ pay raises intact. Crisis averted? Not quite.

The joy (no, not Kamala Harris “joy”) was fleeting. Like a magic trick, the State Department pulled a rabbit out of its hat, rebranding the GEC as the “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference Hub.” Isn't that just a mouthful? Same people, new sign on the door, and a budget that miraculously “re-aligned” itself. It's like watching a bad magician perform at a second-rate political fundraiser.

Now, with Donald Trump's second term looming, the questions are these. Will he be able to successfully play whack-a-mole with these bureaucratic hydraheads? Or will Republican infighting and the voraciousness of the Deep State apparatus mute his efforts to rein in the bureaucracy and tame the beast?

There's talk of a "vibe shift," a cultural sea change where even former