And to provide an independent watchdog element, they wrote the founding documents and amendments to protect free speech and entrench a free press as an outside monitor.

These have often been eroded over the ensuing decades. Congress has, in effect, ceded many powers to the presidency, which hasn’t minded.

And the media watchdogs today have surrendered their role as citizen sentries to the political sympathies they carry for one of the parties and the antipathies they harbor for the other.

Turns out, the Biden administration has been meeting secretly with social media representatives to instruct them on what issues and topics it wants censored on those platforms.

Think about that a minute: two institutions colluding to withhold information from citizens. That’s a tactic practiced by authoritarian governments.

Now — and this has stunningly been widely ignored — comes an unprecedented defiance by this Biden government of Democrats toward a government watchdog created by the same government just 14 years ago.

Here are my brief thoughts:

We’ve now posted three dozen of these brief audio commentaries in recent months. Here are a few of them you might have missed —

• Joe Biden’s weird warning about a looming Armageddon.
• The serious little-noticed shortage just ahead for the holidays and new year.
• And the advanced ages of one party’s leaders in Washington.

This week’s column examines the presidential possibilities and outlook for the 2024 election campaign, which has already begun historically early.

And then, of course, there is the ongoing Twitter drama, which my colleagues here have addressed from numerous angles, including this one and this one.

Thanksgiving, both the American one and the Canadian version back in early October, is my favorite (or favourite) holiday. From my house to yours, the warmest of wishes for you and yours this week and the many holidays to come.

By the way, the next audio commentary out later this week will explore some unexpected thoughts on that very celebration.