Mike Solana opens his technology blog with …

As the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice attempts to jail the opposition party’s frontrunner presidential candidate, Americans have naturally been distracted by the largeness of these questions: did Trump “do it” (whatever “it” is (there’s a new thing every month or so)), will justice be delivered equally among the rest of our crooked politicians, and what will actually happen — just technically speaking — if Trump is both convicted of some crime or other and triumphant in the next election? The subject is important, if nebulous …

You might ask how can anyone support Trump given what he’s been like. Read on for an answer:

Last week, to broad industry shock, Biden’s DOJ filed a lawsuit against SpaceX for “discriminating” in favor of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Only hiring Americans? Not in this country, asshole (this country is America). As Alex Tabarrok reported for Marginal Revolution, the SpaceX story was a strange case for many reasons, the government’s own policy ostensibly in conflict with the lawsuit most importantly among them. On Twitter/X, Elon argued the decision to hire American citizens wasn’t his choice. It was the law, which by the way our government was also following.

At its most basic, the conflict between SpaceX and the DOJ appears to be rooted in confusion over terminology. Space companies are ITAR-controlled, which means they can only hire “US Persons.” The phrase “US Person” apparently includes refugees and asylum seekers waiting for their day in court, while the phrase “US Citizen” does not. The government has itself used the phrases interchangeably, I guess by mistake, for years. Nonetheless, the DOJ is taking Elon Musk to court, and the reason is obvious: the Democratic Party considers him an enemy.

Elon is a proponent of “free speech,” and regardless of how perfectly the value has manifested on his platform, it’s undeniable the spectrum of acceptable politics on Twitter/X has broadened. This, for a certain kind of radical political creature, is intolerable. Kristen Clarke, head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division leading the lawsuit, not only appears to be quite racist (all “satire,” she has since alleged), but is a committed proponent of limiting speech online. Her repugnant view is held in the name of combating “hate speech,” a purposely ambiguous term that can, by design, be applied to ‘politically incorrect’ opinions on almost any polarizing topic from immigration to welfare. “Misinformation,” another concern of hers, has similarly been weaponized by the state.

For the DOJ, none of this is about SpaceX. This is all, obviously, about Elon’s stated intention for Twitter/X to remain politically neutral, which is to say this is all about the next election. Obviously. Elon is being warned: fall in line, or we will make your life a living hell. He will have to choose, as will the rest of the industry over the coming year.

The most dangerous aspect of our last election was the broad alliance between political power (including unelected political power), media, and the technology industry — the early shape of an indomitable One Party State. But that alliance, while still loosely intact, has slightly eroded over the last year. In tech, specifically, it is less socially acceptable to be so openly authoritarian. The Washington Post is therefore now preparing readers to blame Twitter/X, Meta, and YouTube for a Trump victory following a general (if very slight) relaxing of draconian, pro-DNC speech restrictions. One such horrifying liberalization: Meta now allows users to opt out of seeing fact checks on Facebook posts. This story will carry on for many months to come, likely reaching its zenith sometime around the next “stolen” election. (Washington Post)

It continues to amaze me how many pundits assume voters are voting only for the presidential candidate. Biden’s administration has been a trainwreck of bad ideas and bad policy execution, apparently aided by tech companies and the mainstream media. The only way to get rid of bad policy is to get rid of the vegetable on top of the Democratic ballot next year.

(I do realize that Trump had his own share of bad policy, and of course he’s not exactly balanced either. As I have written before, I want neither Trump nor Biden running next year.)