EPISODE 283: A Global War on Freedom: How the US Corporate Transparency Act and the EU Digital Services Act Threaten Liberty


In a riveting conversation with Peter Mcilvenna of the UK’s Hearts of Oak, we describe what may be the most aggressive US domestic surveillance program since the Patriot Act – and its disturbing connection to a global censorship agenda. The story that emerges isn’t just about US regulation; it’s about the systematic and coordinated dismantling of economic and expressive freedoms on both sides of the Atlantic.

The New American Surveillance State

Remember Reagan’s famous warning that the nine most terrifying words were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”? Today’s version might be: “I’m from the federal government, give up your personal data, and as long as you don’t step out of line, we will keep you safe.”

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) represents an unprecedented federal power grab:

  • Massive Scope: 33 million small businesses, employing 61.7 million Americans, must submit to federal surveillance
  • Selective Targeting: Only businesses under $5 million revenue and fewer than 20 employees are affected
  • Draconian Penalties: $591 daily fines and up to 2 years in prison for non-compliance
  • Strategic Exemptions: Giants like BlackRock, Amazon, and Big Tech escape scrutiny
  • Global Data Sharing: Your information gets shared with 170 countries through the shadowy Egmont Group.

The Historical Echo

We’ve seen this movie before. Remember the IRS targeting scandal, where conservative groups with words like “tea party” and “patriot” faced extra scrutiny? The CTA creates a similar vulnerability for small businesses. As Mcilvennapoints out, it paves the way for an anti-second amendment bureaucrat to search the database for businesses with “gun,” “firearm,” or “freedom” in their names?

A Digital Iron Curtain

While the CTA surveils American businesses, the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) creates a parallel threat to free speech, with the power to levy fines of up to 6% of a company’s global revenue – including revenue from unrelated businesses. This means Elon Musk’s SpaceX could be penalized for X’s content moderation policies, a clear attempt at financial coercion.

“It is ridiculous and chilling,” Mcilvenna notes “Musk’s other companies have nothing to do with the platform policies of X. It is simply an unhinged coercive measure designed to break Musk.”

Mcilvenna describes how UK political operatives, through organizations like the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), are actively working to “Kill Musk’s Twitter” while strengthening ties with various political campaigns. This isn’t just UK domestic policy – it’s part of a coordinated international effort to control both commerce and communication.

Why This Matters Now

The January 1, 2025 deadline for CTA compliance is approaching, while the DSA’s censorship machinery is already in motion. This combination creates an unprecedented threat and the window for action is narrowing, but resistance is building:

– Multiple states have challenged the CTA’s constitutionality

– Business associations are filing lawsuits

– Popular movements across Europe are pushing back against censorship

– Independent platforms are fighting for survival

As Peter Mcilvenna warns, “This needs to be a front and center issue to protect over 33 million small businesses from an egregious overreach by the Federal government.”

Timelines:

  • 00:03 – Introduction: Peter Mcilvenna’s connection to Lord Thatcher’s administration and Brexit
  • 01:28 – Corporate Transparency Act introduction: Trump’s veto and subsequent revival
  • 05:19 – Federal overreach: Small businesses must register by January 1st deadline
  • 08:56 – FinCEN’s expanded role beyond traditional financial crimes enforcement
  • 10:55 – BlackRock & large corporations exempt from CTA requirements
  • 14:31 – Egmont Group: International sharing of business data across 170 countries
  • 18:06 – Digital Services Act targeting speech censorship in UK
  • 21:38 – Labour Party operatives working with US political campaigns
  • 23:17 – CCDH attacks on free speech platforms
  • 26:07 – EU threatening 6% global revenue fines against Musk’s companies
  • 29:20 – Rise of populist resistance movements across Europe
  • 37:30 – Push for CTA to become central campaign issue for 2024

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FEATURED GUESTS


EPISODE 283 TRANSCRIPT

Transcript:

Bill Walton (00:03)

A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure to be a guest on the Hearts of Oak podcast from the UK, hosted by Peter McAvena.

Peter (00:09)

Machalvenna. Machalvenna. Don’t worry. Bannon can’t get it right after 30 times, so don’t worry.

Bill Walton (00:30)

really interesting accomplished man who has worked for over a decade for Lord Person of Rannach, who was one of Lord Thatcher’s, Margaret Thatcher’s key aides. And he’s with us on all the issues. And it turns out that what’s happening in the UK is mirroring what’s happening here in the United States and in Europe with regard to speech censorship and all the issues that we care deeply about.

And he’s written extensively in the last period about the Corporate Transparency Act, which is, I’ll let him explain it to you, but it’s an ominous piece of legislation that threatens all Americans. Peter, welcome. Great to see you again. And let’s start, I want to talk about the other issues that are coming up, especially the attack on

Peter (01:17)

It’s great to be with you. Thank you, Bill.

Bill Walton (01:28)

I’m Elon Musk from one of the groups, the Digital Services Act in the UK. But let’s talk about the Corporate Transparency Act here in the United States. What’s at stake here?

Peter (01:41)

Well, this is something weird and you may think, why am I a Brit, an Irish Brit, actually talking about a US bill? But you know what it’s like when you’re in media, you become curious and you delve into things and you grab a little piece of string and you pull it. And this was one of those. This is a bill that was passed in the beginning of 2021. President Trump had vetoed it and it was pushed through straight away after.

and it seems to be a massive overreach of the federal government. And what it means is that in a nutshell, every business owner, small business owner, has to register with a new database by the 1st of January. And if they don’t, they’ll be liable to find a $591 a day or up to two years in jail. Now, my understanding delving into this as a foreigner is that

companies and businesses are registered at the state level. So this seems to be an encroachment upon that divide. So that’s one part of it. Now, the second part is, do we really trust the federal government? Part of the reason why people are based in certain states is because of the rights that those states afford. So you can choose Texas or California.

and I don’t need to explain to you as audience why you would pick one over the other. So this seems to destroy that distinction and preference and reason for picking a state. So Elon Musk, of course, has moved from California because it’s a destroyed state and has moved all the businesses to Texas. But now this legislation affecting small businesses means you must now go on a database, put in your personal information.

upload personal information like they suggest you upload, strongly recommend, a list of documents including my certificates, including passport, including driver’s license and the list goes on. And if there’s any changes in your situation, if you change documentation within 30 days you must upload or you’ll be hit by a penalty from the federal government.

And we’ve seen examples of the feds targeting individuals because they are conservative. And that is the huge concern of this bill, that if you have going back Tea Party or Patriot or Love of Country or MAGA or anything which may distinguish you as a conservative American loving individual, will the federal government come down and attack you?

That is the concern. Now there are separate concerns when we touch on who this organization is, FinCEN, where they sit, and how this data can be used. But simply on the overreach of the federal government that they have no constitutional right. And this has been fought in seven different states. And in three states have ruled this is unconstitutional. But hey, what does that mean to a federal government that is…

rushing non-stop into gathering people’s well, we don’t know why. Should they use it for some other purpose? And of course, all these pieces of legislation come with a caveat that it’s for your own safety. mean, where have we heard that over the last five years? It’s for your own good. It’s for your own safety, for your own protection.

Bill Walton (05:19)

We’re here from the government. We’re here from the government. We’re here to protect you. I think that was Ronald Reagan’s or reduced, you that was his famous threat. Well, you know, I, I, so let’s, let me just see if I can recapture the summary. We’ve got a bill called the Corporate Transparency Act. It was initially launched or tried to put in the legislation and

Peter (05:28)

It was one of the nine most dangerous scary words in the English language.

Bill Walton (05:44)

when 2000, when Trump was still president, 2018, 2019, and he vetoed it. And he vetoed it for a very good reason. And then he was resurrected and shoved into one of the other bigger pieces of kind of omnibus legislation. So they snuck it in to existence and it gives FinCEN the authority to collect all this information. FinCEN is the financial crimes.

Peter (06:13)

Network Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Bill Walton (06:14)

arm of the Treasury Department. And the thing is, I have some personal experience with this. I worked in the Trump transition and oversaw the creation of plans for the Treasury among other financial services, other financial agencies. And, Vincent’s pretty small. I mean, it’s not, it’s like, it’s like 50, 60 people and they went after real criminals based on, evidence that came into them because somebody had might’ve committed a crime.

And what you’re describing here is something, who’s the guy that worked for Stalin? His name is Beria. And he said, can, you you show me the man, I’ll show you the crime. And so what they’re trying to do is collect a database on virtually every American. And therefore they can sort of scan that to see whether you’ve been up to some things that they want to declare a crime with, with nothing other than just the ability to maybe.

And with AI, they can do a very thorough search of that database. Is this, I got a note and then my other first-hand counter with this is I had a film company based in California. Big mistake, I guess that’s what you do if you’re in the film business. And I just got a notice from my bank there to say that I needed to provide them with notices of beneficial ownership of my LLC.

There’s a form I’ve got to fill out online. I haven’t gotten to it yet, but it looks, I called the bank up and they were professing innocence. said, well, this is just something we’re required to do by the feds. Yet they’ve already started implementing this. They didn’t mention the fines, but I think that would happen if I don’t fill this out. Is that correct?

Peter (08:02)

It is correct. And Bill, at the moment, I think it’s on average 11 % of small businesses, this was a month ago, had actually gone on this website and registered. So 89 % have not registered. And what’s going to happen to those 89 % who don’t do this in the next two months? Well,

is a jail time, a daily fine, $591. That is a large amount of money for many, small businesses who don’t have employees who are just by themselves self employed, we call in the UK, and they’re trying to run a very small enterprise, trying to make money, trying to make ends meet. And this is an attack on the economic lifeblood of the American economy on those small business owners that already have

tons and tons of regulation upon them and this heaps that on top of that.

Bill Walton (08:56)

Well, I’ve run, I’ve had a lot of small businesses and you could spend half your time filling out government forms and complying with regulatory requirements. It’s astonishing. It’s a crushing burden. And of course, the only people that can afford to deal with that are the very biggest companies and they get their staffed up to handle it, small businesses or not. So this is aimed at companies with fewer than 20 employees.

and less than $5 million in revenue. Now, by implication though, that means if you’ve got more than 5 million in revenue and more than 20 employees, you’re exempt from this?

Peter (09:28)

Thanks.

Exactly. So this isn’t attack on small businesses, those large organizations and you look at the exemptions, there are about 30 or 40 areas of exemptions. And most of them seem to be financial organizations. So it seems that if you’re a larger financial organization, hey, you’re exempt.

But if you’re setting up a shop to sell doughnuts or apple juice in your local area, or trying to print flyers and make a printing business or do small businesses, this is targeted at you. And it is really concerning of the lack of exposure of this. And 11 % of companies so far registering shows that many people are completely unaware this is the case. And this is going to hit them. And my line is not

comply. line is, the difficulty is this has been legislation since the beginning of 2021. And this has to be a campaign issue. And this has to be overturned. But that means that you need a Trump to win in both houses. And of course him to be in the White House. and only then can you have a conversation.

but many business owners are going to be caught up in this because they don’t want to give their information to federal authorities because they don’t trust the federal government and probably rightly so.

Bill Walton (10:55)

I think we’ve got to count on Trump winning. It’s late to make it a campaign issue with less than two weeks to go, but it should have been a campaign issue. I’m sorry we missed that one, but you point out in a piece you wrote in Federalist that BlackRock is exempt from this, Amazon’s exempt, Apple, ExxonMobil. mean, all the big actors don’t have to comply with this. Now, a question about the scope of the information. I brought this up in another…

meeting I was in and somebody said, it’s not that bad because these small businesses are only going to provide beneficial ownership information, which is, as I understand that, what that means is it just who owns the company and turn in their names and their social security numbers. But you’re saying it’s more, you’re saying their birth certificates, their other sorts of, the thing I’m concerned about is if,

these small businesses are supposed to turn in their purchases and their sales, and then they know who’s buying from whom and what the products are. And then they can identify certain products like, let’s say, guns to target businesses that in that industry. What about the scope of this? Is it just beneficial ownership or is it a lot more?

Peter (12:18)

It seems there is a list of documents that you’re asked to upload and part of the issue also is that if there are any changes, you’ve only got 30 days to upload that. And if you decide to close your business today, Bill, it’s irrelevant because this is retrospective. This goes back. So you’ll still be hit by a fine. Even if you’ve closed your business and think it’s all done and dusted, there’s nothing to answer for. So there are…

Again, if the concern is if gun or firearm or patriot or freedom or any of those trigger words off the left are in your information, then what’s going to happen? And my huge issue is where does the information go? This is another huge part of it. So FinCEN are part of a much larger group in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Well, as a Brit, I’m wondering why any US business owners should have to register with a financial crimes enforcement network. Immediately that rings bells. But then this sits under the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which sits under the Department of Treasury. So a Office of Terrorism is asking for you to put your information on their database. Again, as a Brit, I sit back and think,

If the UK government were telling me, we’ve got a terrorism website and you need to register with it, why is this needed? Why am I being targeted? And why should my information be on that? So this doesn’t make sense. And how is this information going to be used? This is, and this is part of a wider FinCEN is part of 170 other financial intelligence units worldwide.

And this all sits under it gets deeper, Bill, the more you look into this, this one, I’m a couple more articles. This is under the Egmont Group. The Egmont Group is a group organization is based in Ottawa, and it oversees EGMONT, Egmont Group dot org, EGMONT group dot org. And it’s the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units. And FinCEN

Bill Walton (14:31)

Yeah.

Peter (14:42)

sits under that. This is based in Ottawa. So are you going to have the Canadians, Trudeau, gathering this information and using it for what he wants to use? It seems so. That’s what I see as I’ve delved into this. This is not just not trusting the federal government. This is actually, this is shared wider with 170 other countries. What are they going to do with that information? So this is a really big concern and

I think up to now, maybe many US politicians or outlets have thought, you know, this is just, we need to gather this information against money laundering, which…

Bill Walton (15:22)

Well, let me pair that with something else that’s going on here. Of course, we’ve got the Internal Revenue Service, which is also part of Treasury, which gathers unbelievable amounts of information about tax from taxpayers. And then the SEC Security and Exchange Commission is pushing and Chris Iacovello runs American Securities Association is championing fighting against this.

SEC is trying to get all the information about our portfolio, our individual portfolio holdings to know what securities we own. And, you know, the question is, why do they need to know that? And well, they don’t need to know it unless they just expect that they’re going to start singling out groups of people for approval for behavior that’s not approved by the federal government. And of course, their fond hope is that federal government will be controlled by Kamala Harris and

and the rest of that crew and that’s not exactly gonna be, I mean, it’s a massive problem. I mean, it couldn’t be worse in terms of our privacy and their ability to come after people. So what do we do about this? I guess it’s a little late to make it an election issue, but we need to raise consciousness about it. If Trump wins, I’m sure whoever is gonna be the next Treasury Secretary, we need to get it on his or her radar screen.

because this is part of what they’re doing and we need to figure out a way to roll back this legislation in a next Congress. I see that as probably, you know, job one.

Peter (16:58)

I agree. I agree. It needs to be looked at and dealt with. My concern is that the Trump administration are going to have so many issues to deal with because of the attack on the American dream that Biden has orchestrated or Obama has orchestrated over the last four years plus. So there are so many things in the in tray to the Trump administration, but I think it’s important that small businesses are looked after or protected.

are allowed to operate without any concern of looking over their shoulder. And if you miss the 30 days, hey, 591 pounds a dollars a day. Businesses are already to the wall with inflation costs, with regulatory costs, with many other issues. And this just adds to the pressure and stress and concern that individuals face. So this has to be in the in tray. And that’s my hope.

that this will be on that. There are so many priorities, but I think this will also have to be the priority. And Trump understood the issue of this because he vetoed it back in December 2020.

Bill Walton (18:06)

Well, I’m on it, Your Honor. Let’s keep pushing it. I want to pivot a bit to what I mentioned at the outset about what we’ve learned about the UK authorities, the UK, people in the Labor Department in the UK now singling out Donald Trump as a target. And as I understand it, there’s a group that you have something called the Digital Services Act, which gives the federal, gives the UK government

all sorts of power to censor speech. And they’ve got a guy who runs an organization there, Morgan Sweeney, who’s kind of acting like George Sor- sort of the, sort Svingali of the liberal left woke movement in the UK. And he’s spearheading this targeting of Musk.

And in internal documents from his organization have the number one item, Kill Musk’s Twitter. So are you following this and what is this causing? Heads of explode in the UK or is it, how’s this being covered and what can we do about that?

Peter (19:23)

Well, it’s similar to a story that came and I have been following, but similar to a connected story just two days before, which was election interference in terms of Labour Party sending over 100 staffers to campaign for Kamala Harris. And I know the Trump campaign has already launched a formal complaint on that because that is election interfering. Russia is not the problem. It seems so Britain is the problem for election interfering in the US.

And the sad thing is our media reflect that. Our media have Trump Derangement Syndrome, every single one of them. The media on the right and the left, they all blew up when you mention President Donald Trump. And even we’ve got two individuals running for the Conservative Party. One of them, actually, when she was asked who she would vote for, if she was a US citizen, she said, well, I like them both.

What is there as a conservative Christian, what is there to like about Kamala Harris? There is nothing. And yet that’s what she said. that concerns me in the Conservative Party, but this is the Labour Party, the ruling Labour Party, Keir Stormer being the new British Prime Minister, certainly very much on the far left. And this story broke about Labour Party.

the head of operations of the Labour Party. So someone very influential posted this on her LinkedIn. So you’ve got that to the side. And then this story from Paul Thacker and Matt Tybee broke possibly just a day ago. And this is that this organization, the Center for Contouring Digital Hit, which I think I first came across, Robert Malone mentioned them to me as an organization that had targeted him and put him along with about a dozen others.

on the, I think the dangerous dozen, I think they were the ones from the Centre for Contra and Digital Hit. And they’re a far left organisation that seeks to attack anyone who critiques Big Pharma, who stands up for free speech, who is pro-life, who is concerned at the sexualisation of children, the march of the LGBT agenda, etc, etc, etc. And God forbid anyone would be a Christian.

Bill Walton (21:38)

How are they interfering? How are they trying to rig the outcome of the US election? How are they engaging here?

Peter (21:47)

So connect the first story. also this individual is working closely, seemingly, with comrade Kamala’s campaign. And he is a dangerous person. is very influential. And he Sweeney, he was very involved in setting up Center for Contra digital hate, which is a US company, a 501 C3, I believe, but actually was set up by UK operatives working

for the Left Wing Labour Party set up 7-8 years ago.

Bill Walton (22:18)

By the way, they are trying to kill Twitter and their 501 C3, if we had a fair-minded IRS, they’d yank that status from them immediately because that’s not part of what they’re… They’re not allowed to do that.

Peter (22:34)

Well, it’s called a British American not-for-profit NGO and it has offices in London and in DC. So this is a weird mix because we don’t come across this much a charitable organization working across the pond very closely set up by a Brit to influence US elections and to push, really to push hate against the right and common sense.

Bill Walton (22:59)

Are you writing on Substack at all? I I’ve got, I put my show out on Substack along with all the other platforms. And I guess CCDH is also attacking Substack, which has been kind of a haven for free speech, a lot like X has become.

Peter (23:17)

it has. And Substack and X really have been the avenues for free speech along with others like Telegram and others. it’s certainly those two have been the main avenues. And the left really fear the spread of truthful information that shines a light on evil. That’s what they fear. And that’s why Musk is

enemy number one really, me enemy number two after Trump. Because of what he has done with Twitter, think Elon Musk will be remembered not for Tesla or SpaceX, but he’ll be remembered for Twitter and X for actually allowing free speech online, unabated, unconstrained. That’s what he will be remembered for. And he has gone toe to toe with the British government as well. It’s this weird connection we have between Elon Musk

based in US, South African board, standing up for free speech and wanting to start the Department of Government Deficiency Drive with the Trump campaign. But he is the opposition of the British government as well, just to pull that in. Because when Keir Stormer attacked Twitter, attacked X, for talking about the demonstrations and rants we were having in the UK in terms of free speech on the immigration issue.

actually, then the British government threatened individuals abroad with coming over and trying them in the UK. And what did Elon Musk do? He started the hashtag two tier care, because care stormer, you see a two tier system, if you’re on the left and the right, and he just doubled down on his posts. So Elon Musk, for all the issues I may have with him about AI and transhumanism and all of that, you set that aside, you realize he is an individual be having been raised up.

at this moment to actually champion free speech online. that’s a weird and this story, the country for center for country and digital hit, it just broke that on the number one on one of their priority list. This was a couple of months ago. They had a list and killing X getting rid of Twitter, removing it almost that was the top priority they had in these private conversations. So you have the the most influential non-elected

British politician using an organisation he has set up to remove Twitter and work closely with the Kamala Harris campaign. And we’re told Russia is the problem with destabilising democracies. It seems though the Labour Party are the ones that are the real problem. So those two journalists, Thacker and Tybee have done an awesome job in highlighting this. And it’s really broken out the conversation of

Bill Walton (26:07)

Well, they’re never really going, they want to take Musk out completely. They’re not aiming just at X. I can’t remember which agency, but there’s some 6 % fine based on revenue that they want to begin leveling against Musk. But it’s not just Twitter, but it’s also Starlink and it’s all SpaceX and all those other Tesla. It’s anything, any revenue, the Musk company anywhere in the world.

They want 6 % of it as his fine. so it’s almost as if he’s about to enter into Trump land in terms of the lawfare and the regulatory state rising up against him. All the more reason we’ve got to win in the next couple of weeks.

Peter (26:56)

No, exactly. I’ll talk about that. And yeah, we didn’t expect a year ago for for Elon Musk and Robert Kenny Jr. to be MAGA. But hey, that’s where we are. And I’m loving it. That’s a you. But what you mentioned was we’ve had regulatory restrictions going through the UK, Europe, Australia and in Canada, in Ireland just yesterday or the day before.

Bill Walton (27:07)

I’ll see you again.

Peter (27:26)

and the US have got a similar bill. So in the UK it was the online safety bill and this bill is to remove hate online. Now, hate, we don’t want hate towards anyone, but hate is an emotion. So do we really want to go down the avenue of banning an emotion? What next? Being miffed, being concerned, being sad? Can we ban sad?

The danger for where you go when you target an emotion as the issue instead of an underlying problem with that. And that’s the online safety bill, which has been billed as protecting children online, which no one can argue with. And within days of the UK proposing this legislation, which was 350 pages, one of the largest bills the UK have seen in a long time, five years in the making, the European Union set up the Digital Services Act, which is exactly the same.

So together they’ve been working behind the scenes to set this up and it is to attack social media companies and online providers and define in the UK as 10 % of global annual turnover. That is huge and that has meant that Wikipedia, Signal, WhatsApp, they have all publicly said they may have to pull out of the UK and Europe.

if this is going to be implemented. It has been implemented, but we don’t know how it is going to be actioned. That’s the issue because it will be within the courts to see how this legislation is going to be used. It’s wide reaching, it’s got loopholes, and this is going to be taken to court. And only by a legal decision by a judge will we see how this is going to play out. Because are the police really going to go and arrest everyone who posts anything that someone

says someone else may find offensive. This is how wide this is.

Bill Walton (29:20)

We’ve got our opposition here in the United States. We’re all focused on Donald Trump and the people he’s going to bring with him. And if we think about that a bit, it’s, know, Kennedy would join him and Trump would join him, not Trump, but Musk and, and, Tulsi Gabbard, I guess, just declared herself a Republican that these, these people would join forces. They see the bigger threat and, know, I find Donald Trump incredibly entertaining and, and

in the camp where I don’t some of the things he says I don’t I don’t take seriously he loves to exaggerate for effect and it works well in negotiation but it doesn’t work well with the left-wing media. Anyway I digress you opposition the United States we were organized what about the UK I mean you work for Lord Pearson associated with with Margaret Thatcher you also I think were a major

help to Nigel Farage’s party and the Brexit movement. What’s happening there? there an opposition emerging that can counter this?

Peter (30:32)

I’ve been ingrained in politics five years with UKIP, which was the Brexit party, Nigel Farage’s party, and actually was national campaign manager for the European parliamentary elections and the local elections in 2019. So I kind of understood how to campaign in the UK, how to get candidates, getting the message across, et cetera, et cetera. We have had little opposition to this. 650 MPs, and I think maybe it doesn’t oppose this.

And there seemed to have been events that happened that were used to push this forward. So we had an MP who was stabbed and killed, David Ames, killed by someone from a Muslim background. But of course, we were told it was mental issues that the person had. So again, deferred from an open and honest conversation about that. And when that happened, it was

we need this online safety bill. This is so important. This person was radicalized online. And yet it seems the way it was radicalized in his local mosque. But that was not part of this conversation. mean, if you’re going to go where the evidence lies and you’re going to restrict the internet because you’ve got hit there, why not a religious center? Because you’ve got hit there. no, you can’t go there. So immediately that conversation was focused on on the online aspect.

And there were maybe a dozen MPs that opposed this, not fully opposed it, but said we need to tweak it and change it. So it went through with absolute majority. There was little media opposition, a little concern about free speech restrictions, but that was it. Because again, this is about protecting children from online hate, sexualization, all of that. That was how it was built. And no one in their right mind will disagree that children

need the protections online, because we’re in a completely different world to where we were in my generation was completely different. I understand that conversation, but that was used as a way to push this through exactly the same in Australia in Europe. And I was over in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago speaking at a conference and that morning, Australia announced they were putting the similar legislation in the Australian Parliament. And that was being pushed through. think Cosa

Kids Online Safety Act or something like that. think that’s a similar type of bill in America that will seek to restrict conversations online.

Bill Walton (33:01)

Let me ask you a global question. You’re in the UK and you’re very steeped in history and culture. The English speaking people, it started in England and the UK, free speech was the organizing principle. mean, the Magna Carta, 1215, and wanted to get out from under the power of the king.

forced for liberty for centuries. And just in the last 50 years, the UK, England, Scotland, Ireland, now we see in Australia, the UK, mean, Australia and UK were among the worst in terms of the lockdowns in 2020, 2021, et cetera and so forth. And so it seems like, and Canada, of course,

under Trudeau, it seems like the English speaking peoples have become the worst enemies of speech. Thoughts?

Peter (34:11)

I would agree. Sadly, I would agree. the British response to most things is now a shrug. The Gaelic shrug that you maybe get in France, but the French are there with their yellow jackets and they’re fighting. And of course, in France, Macron got a kicking in the last election and Marine Le Pen is on the up. You’ve got the positive side is the rise of populism across Europe. We are not seeing that in the UK. We have been stuck with

a far left government, the biggest defeat of the so-called conservative party, the biggest defeat in over 100 years, the biggest majority of any party in over 100 years. So that’s where we are going in the UK with little media pullback. In Europe, it’s a different situation. You’ve got Gert Wilders in Holland, you’ve got the Freedom Party just came top in Austria, although the Austrian authorities are not allowing them to form a government.

first time since Second World War that the winning party in Austria has not been allowed to discuss forming a government. The Swedish Democrats pull top up in Sweden. Of course, Viktor Orban is championing a Christian conservative nationalist model in Hungary. Maloney is beginning to get more more strength and backbone as she’s found her feet in Italy. And I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt because

She was very powerful in speaking on family values and truth whenever she was campaigning. I think she’s been constrained, but I think she’s now finding some of that freedom again. So across the board in Europe, we are having the rise of populist parties that are talking about strong borders, talking about the danger of Islam in a nations that are Christian ethos, are talking about parental rights.

are talking about why are we sexualizing our children? And the list goes on and on. And that is resonating across Europe. In the UK, we don’t have a political option for people who love their nation, who want strong borders, and who want the state to bud out. And we’d like to see a strong church once again. In Europe, we do seem to be seeing that. So there’s something very positive. And that is another reason why

many institutions are working so hard to make sure President Trump is not successful on the fifth, because his success will be a starting gun to the populist rise that we are seeing across Europe. will give that so much impetus. And there are many institutions and authorities, call it what you like, who do not want him to win because of the euphoria

it will cause in Europe. And we could see the whole European Union project collapsing, I think, if President Trump is allowed to take his position in January, because I can’t see him not winning in November. It’s whether he’s allowed to take a position in January without going down too many rabbit holes. But that will provide such a shot in the arm for the populist right in Europe. And that is why he is so feared by everyone across Europe, media and politics.

Bill Walton (37:30)

Just last night, had, or day before yesterday, Joe Biden speaking, they’ve let him out to speak, and he’s now telling everyone that Trump, if he’s elected, will murder tens of thousands of Americans. We will get rid of the entire civil service and that Trump needs to be put in jail. Now, this is, he technically is still the president, Joe Biden’s still the president of the United States.

disgusting. mean, it’s reached new lows in terms of what they’re… And Biden’s one thing, the popular media, they’re talking about how Trump’s going to round everybody up and put them in jail. The scaremongering is astonishing. Fortunately, I don’t think Americans are buying it. They may not love Trump, but they know that what they’re saying is not true. And I think some of this hysteria hopefully will help him win the election.

Peter (38:27)

Well, I would say that if any of your viewers have not been to a Trump rally, you have to go. As a Brit, I’ve been to three of them and have loved it. It is something so exciting. You’ve got not just a head knowledge of this is what we need to do, A, B and C, but you’ve got a heart connection that really believes passionately that actually America can rise up in the American dream, in the freedoms. And I’ve been to too many British political events and

Bill Walton (38:32)

Right.

Peter (38:54)

They’re not the most exciting events, Bill, but you go to a Trump rally and you go away, you’re buzzing. You’re walking on air, you’re on fire, you’re passionate. And that’s what he is doing with not only the the MAGA base, but wider because people look at Kamala. Even you’ve got the left attacking her. You’ve got Saturday Night Live doing skits on Kamala. And they’ve had enough of her. They realized that she they hoped

by replacing Biden with her they would get something better. I don’t know if they have. I think they could have got something even worse. So Anne, she talks about Trump as Biden does about Trump going to weaponize the institutions. Seriously? Seriously? Do you not really what you’ve done and what they have done to Trump, what they’ve done to Peter Navarro, what they’ve done to Steve Bannon, what they’ve done to all the J6ers?

Bill Walton (39:37)

I’m going to

Be better now.

Peter (39:48)

And they say that President Trump is the one who will weaponize the institutions. It is so blatant and I believe the American people will see through it for what it is, which is other lies. And I believe they will put their ex beside President Trump. And I think the early day voting shows the Republicans are getting out on our voting.

Bill Walton (40:07)

Well, put your seatbelt on because the reverberations are probably going to be felt in the UK. If Trump wins, then I believe he will, if we get anywhere close to a fair election. They’re not going to accept that outcome. I it is just going to be… I don’t have any idea how it’s going to play out, but the number of people who won’t accept Trump as president…

is going to create such an uproar. I hope we can keep it peaceful. I think we will, but it’s going to be a very bumpy ride to get between here and the inauguration day. So we need to get out of here right now. We’re going to continue this. I like this home and away we’re doing here.

Peter (40:54)

You

Bill Walton (40:56)

perspective on what’s going on here in the States, particularly the work you’re doing on the Corporate Transparency Act. We’re going to get together and fight that. But before we get out of here, talk about Hearts Evoke. You launched it about four years ago. What’s Hearts Evoke and how can we hear more from you?

Peter (41:18)

Thanks for asking that, Bill. And was great to have you with me, me 10 days ago, and getting your perspective and what is happening over there and discussing how you’ve said the Bill Walton show and your background. But we saw parts of Oak, was after UKIP, after the Brexit party, and we achieved Brexit in some shape or form. And a number of us came together and thought, what do do next? Because have you ever heard of a political party that has won AEM and does it?

It doesn’t happen around the world. So never before has it happened. So we were wondering what to do. We thought we’ll set up a populist free speech alliance that will educate the public, will have lobby events in parliament, will have educational events across the country. And we launched 20th of February 2020. Two weeks later, you weren’t allowed to leave your front door because of lockdown. So we thought, what do we do? We’ve just started two weeks ago and now we can’t do anything we planned. So we thought, well, let’s do media.

So 720 interviews later, 225 guests, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many great people, traveling to the States and actually meeting a lot of my guests face to face. And I love that connection that we’re trying to build because 50 % of our viewers are US, 50 % are UK or European, 45 % of our, yeah, and that works the same for audiences as it does for guests.

And it’s just been so much fun connecting with people, having Steve Bannon on three, four times, streaming on War Room, getting to know Jason Miller in my time working on Getter, and then him being the most senior person on the Trump campaign. And you realize that God makes connections for a reason. And you realize later on what that is. You don’t know what it is back then. You just enjoy the ride, you enjoy the connections, enjoy the people. And we want to be a…

not the moving a beacon of light, but we want to be speaking truth on a range of issues, not afraid to engage in stuff and doing everything from Christian ethos. Cause I think in the UK it’s from a libertarian point of view generally, but not from a Christian point of view. And to me, if you’re saying this is wrong, but can’t provide something that’s right. If you’re saying this is error, but can’t provide truth, then you’re not providing a solution. You’re just calling out the problem. And I think as a Christian, we can say, well, what truth is.

that’s Jesus and you can talk about what the Bible teaches on a range of issues and I think that’s what we bring which is quite different to the UK scene and I know in the US you’ve got podcasts all over the place, you’ve got huge media outlets. In the UK it’s not really the same and it’s quite a barren field in terms of alternative media but we are one of maybe four or five other alternative media outlets that are

really doing well, engaging with the public, using every platform available. And I think we are having a role post a political solution in the UK. At the moment, there is a political solution. you as you know, Bill, then you go directly to the public, use media to go directly. And in doing that, I think we are speaking truth and maybe doing what the the politician should be doing, and probably doing what the church should be doing.

Bill Walton (44:42)

That’s a topic of another show. Peter McAvely, we can find you here in the States on War Room, what, two or three times a week?

Peter (44:53)

So we are, yeah, Monday, Thursday and Saturday, 3pm Eastern. And we stream on War Room, on Getter and Rumble. We stream on X at Hearts of Oak UK on X or hearts of oak.org is the website.

Bill Walton (44:57)

OK.

Yeah.

Well, whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it right. It’s great distribution, great program. So to be continued, we raised a lot of issues we didn’t get to cover here today. We will in the future. So we’ll be talking soon. And all of you have been listening. I hope you’ve enjoyed Peter and his insights into what’s happening both here in the United States and in the UK and the rest of the world. If you like programming like this, tune in to us. Subscribe. Have your friends subscribe.

have them subscribe to Peter’s show, Heart’s Evoked, so we can work as a duet here. anyway, thanks for joining, and we’ll be talking with you soon.

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