What Part Of Free-Speech Is Too Hard To Understand?

I GENERALLY DON’T COMMENT ON COMMENTS – BUT HERE’S AN EXCEPTION:

Yesterday . . . I Wrote Of Trump’s Unfounded Threat Not To Open The Canadian-Built Gordie Howe International Bridge. As a Result, the Emails & Comments Came Fast & Furious in Defense & Contrary to What I Wrote.

In This Editorial . . . I Will Deal With Two Issues – The Bridge & The Comments I Received – But First The Comments.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WORDS & HOW THEY ARE USED CANNOT BE MINIMIZED:

All Major Decisions Are Eventually Predicated On The Use & Definition Of Words.

THE GALGANOV.COM COMMENT DOCTRINE:

I Give People Who Comment On Galganov.com A Great Deal Of Latitude . . . Because I am A Great Proponent in the Belief of Freedom of Expression (Free-Speech) . . . But Like Most things . . . There Are Limits.

Yesterday . . . Kenneth R Lee Of Lakeland Florida . . . Wrote in the Galganov.com Comment Section – “The majority of you IDIOTS chose to get your feelings hurt . . . And It Went On From There.

What Kenneth Lee of Lakeland Florida Wrote After Calling Myself and the People who Read Galganov.com, and/or the People who Disagree with his Views IDIOTS  – Reading Anything Else Kenneth Lee Had To Say (Write) Was Irrelevant.

No One Likes Being Called An Idiot.

It’s Not As If I Haven’t Called Group-Thinkers Knuckleheads, Jerks, Etc . . . But to Insult Someone with a Varying Opinion just because of Contrary Views to your Own is Unacceptable.

People Very Often Write Things In My Comment Section That I Don’t Agree With, which is Why I Have a Comment Section, Because I Don’t Need Approbation with Everything I Write or Say.

From Time-To-Time I will Inform a Commentator that He or She is Very Close to Crossing the Line Between Free-Speech, And Speech That Is Unworthy . . . But Almost Always – I Allow Comments Which I Find Out-Of-Line – Acceptable To Be Published . . . Unless The Comment Is So Egregious – That I Will Not.

I NEVER EDIT A COMMENT . . . Not Even When a Writer Asks me to Correct Spelling, Punctuation, Dates – Etc. I Just Won’t Do It – Because it is Not my Comment to Correct. But What I Have Done from Time-To-Time . . . is Remove a Comment at the Request of a Writer, who Changed His or Her Mind Not to Publish His or Her Thoughts for Whatever Reason.

The Other Issue That I Won’t Abide, is When One Commentator Attacks the Opinion(s) of Other Commentators . . . The Galganov.Com Comment Section Is Not A Debating Forum.

I Also Won’t Tolerate Obscenity, which Hasn’t Really Been Much of a Problem. Overall, I am Very Pleased with the Comment Section and the Variety of Opinions from People who Read Galganov.com.

As You Might Imagine . . . What you Read in the Comment Section on Galganov.com is Only a Smattering of the Comments I Receive in my Email In-Box. And In-Spite of the Volume of Comments & Emails I Receive . . . I Read Them All & Generally Respond To Emails When Required.

Back To Kenneth Lee Of Lakeland Florida . . . My First Instinct to Deal with Mr Lee Calling me and Others who Read Galganov.com – IDIOTS, was Simply to Delete his Comment & Remove him Permanently from my Directory . . . But I Try Not To Make Decisions When I’m Angry, Because Cooler Heads Generally Always Prevail.

MR LEE MADE MY CASE FOR FREE SPEECH BETTER THAN I COULD:

As I’ve Written A Gazillion Times In The Past – Vis-À-Vis Donald Trump . . . It’s Not So Much What President Trump Does, As Much As What Trump Says, And How He Says-It.

Mr Lee Called Me An Idiot, which Had as Much Sting to me as a Mosquito Biting the Ass of an Elephant, But He Should Have Not Used My Medium To Be Personally Insulting . . .

I AM NOT A MAN OF EXTREME INFLUENCE & POWER . . . VERY LITTLE OF EACH:

But When The President Of The United States Of America Calls His Opponents Crass & Offensive Names, or Levies Penalties Out of the Thin-Air to Bully Others to Take a Knee, or Makes Threats of Tariffs Against Leaders of Friendly Nations as a Negotiating Tactic . . . That Crosses A Clear Line Of Political Civility.

WORDS MATTER . . . ESPECIALLY THE WORDS OF A WORLD LEADER:

In My Last Editorial – I Criticized President Trump For Attacking The Gordie Howe International Bridge.

This is What President Trump Wrote Two Nights Ago on His True Social Website about the Bridge . . . That Canada Paid-For In Canada’s Entirety.

He (Trump) Will Not Allow The Bridge To Be Opened Until Canada Relinquishes At Least 50% Ownership Of The Bridge, Pays for all the Disrespect Canada Has Shown to America, and Allows America to Share in the Tolls to be Charged to Cross this Bridge.

HERE ARE THE FACTS . . . WHICH ELUDED TRUMP’S TRUTH SOCIAL:

This International Bridge That Crosses The Detroit River, was Agreed-Upon a Decade Ago with Great Enthusiasm by Both Countries. And During Trump’s First Term in Office (2017), while the Construction of the Bridge was Under Way – Trump Declared . . . That This Project Was Amongst America’s Most Important.

From Beginning To End . . . The Gordie Howe International Bridge was a 50/50 Collaboration Between the Country of Canada, which Agreed to Pay for the Entire Bridge Construction ($6.4 Billion Dollars) and the State of Michigan, with the Understanding that Canada will Charge, Collect & Keep all the Bridge Toll Revenue Until the Construction Cost of the Bridge was Paid-Off-In-Full. At that Point, All Toll Revenue Would Then Be Shared Equally Between Canada & The State Of Michigan.

Canada Also Agreed . . . that the Bridge Would Be Built by Unionized Canadian & Unionized American Construction Workers . . . Americans on the American Side – Canadians on the Canadian Side – And Would Only Use American & Canadian Steel For The Construction.

More To The Point . . . In Addition To Canada Paying For The Whole Shebang, it was Agreed by Both Parties that Michigan & Canada will Own the Entirety of the Bridge 50/50, with Canada & Michigan Sharing 50/50 in the Bridge’s Maintenance & Management.

Adding-To The Bridge Construction . . . A Canadian Company Invested Some $250-Million Dollars to Build a Custom’s Plaza at the End of the Gordie Howe International Bridge . . . On The American Side.

SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? WHAT’S THE REASON FOR TRUMP’S OUTRAGE?

If Dual Construction, Financing, Revenue Sharing, Ownership & Management . . . of this Bridge Isn’t the Epitome of the Best One Could Ever Hope-For as a Corporate & Political Example of Mutual Cooperation – I Have No Idea What Else Could It Be.

WHY DID TRUMP GO APE-SHIT ON SUCH A FABULOUS JOINT VENTURE?

As It Turns-Out . . . Howard Lutnick, Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Met With Matthew Moroun, an American Billionaire whose Family Owns the Ambassador Bridge, which Crosses the Detroit River, as Only One of Two Ways to Get Across from Detroit to Windsor.

The Second Way Is A Tunnel (Detroit Windsor Tunnel).

I’ve Traveled Both. And Take it from Me, Even During Off-Peak Hours – There Is Always A Traffic Jam Over Or Under The River In Both Directions.

Matthew Maroun Was Pissed-Off With This Project Even Before The Deal Was Made Between Canada & Michigan. And as Expected – The Maroun’s Did all they Could to Put a Stop to the New Bridge. Every Crooked Businessperson Loves A Monopoly. Just Imagine How Much Money the Maroun Family is Going to Lose, as Half its Bridge Revenue is Now Going to be Shared with in a Competitive Way to Cross the Detroit River.

As I Was Made Aware . . . After the Lutnick/Maroun Bridge Conversation, Lutnick Had a Meeting with Trump this Past Monday, where Lutnick Disparaged the Soon-To-Be Opened Gordie Howe International Bridge . . . As An Assault & Insult To MAGA, Since It Was Supposedly All Canadian.

Do You Think This Is (Was) The First Lie Or Exaggeration Trump Levied On Canada?

Make No Mistake About-It . . . Words Have Consequences, and No One Is Too Important to be Questioned or Debated, Especially The Leader Of Any Country.

Tomorrow Is My 76th Birthday . . . So I’m Taking the Day-Off from Writing, But Not from Reading your Emails & Comments . . . So Please Comment & In-Email-Away.

The Moment Free-People Give Blind Obedience To A Leader, Is The Moment We Are No Longer Free.

Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov