Civil liberties thread

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homerfobe
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Q: How do you get a nun pregnant?
Spoiler:
A: Dress her up like an altar boy.
Spoiler:
That's so old, it's Image
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Vrede too
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Mon Jun 19, 2017 11:12 pm
O Really wrote:
Mon Jun 19, 2017 12:40 pm
Slants win in Supreme Court - R******s (Landover, Maryland NFL) live on.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-top ... &ocid=iehp
I like free speech, but this could get ugly. There are worse possibilities than these two. We'll see.
Here we go, didn't take long:
Supreme Court ruling leads to offensive trademark requests

... Since the decision, seven trademark applications for versions of the N-word, an offensive term aimed at black people, have been filed, PTO records show. Other applications include an epithet for people of Chinese descent, as well as a swastika symbol, the emblem of the German Nazi party....
But, not all of them are evil:

After Supreme Court Decision, People Race To Trademark Racially Offensive Words

I reserve my "right" to alter, deface and destroy.
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Hundreds Face Conspiracy Charges For Actions Of A Few During Inauguration Day Protests

I wonder how many medics were among those swept up. We and reporters both go where the action is without participating in it.

Tell the DOJ: Drop your bogus charges against Trump protesters!
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:56 am
Hundreds Face Conspiracy Charges For Actions Of A Few During Inauguration Day Protests

I wonder how many medics were among those swept up. We and reporters both go where the action is without participating in it.

Tell the DOJ: Drop your bogus charges against Trump protesters!
How Prosecutors Turn a Protest Into a ‘Riot’

... I was among the more than 230 people confined at 12th and L Streets with no access to food, water or bathrooms for up to eight hours.

... Most of the people in the group, which includes journalists, legal observers and volunteer medics, face charges of engaging in a riot, inciting a riot, conspiracy to riot and property damage....
Registered nurse fights ‘collective punishment’ of Trump inauguration protesters
Acquittal of J20 defendants could set precedent for remaining trials.


Not me, but it could have been at scores of other protests. I don't know Britt Lawson, but maybe we'll meet someday.

Dakota Access Pipeline Company Paid Mercenaries to Build Conspiracy Lawsuit Against Environmentalists
The private security firm TigerSwan worked to build a RICO suit accusing Greenpeace, Earth First, and BankTrack of inciting protests to increase donations.


The private security firm TigerSwan, hired by Energy Transfer Partners to protect the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, was paid to gather information for what would become a sprawling conspiracy lawsuit accusing environmentalist groups of inciting the anti-pipeline protests in an effort to increase donations, three former TigerSwan contractors told The Intercept.

For months, a conference room wall at TigerSwan’s Apex, North Carolina, headquarters was covered with a web-like map of funding nodes the firm believed it had uncovered — linking billionaire backers to nonprofit organizations to pipeline opponents protesting at Standing Rock. It was a “showpiece” for board members and ETP executives, according to a former TigerSwan contractor — part of a project that had little to do with the pipeline’s physical security.

In August, the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, Donald Trump’s personal attorney for more than a decade, filed a 187-page racketeering complaint against Greenpeace, Earth First, and the divestment group BankTrack in the U.S. District Court of North Dakota, seeking $300 million in damages on behalf of Energy Transfer Partners. The NoDAPL movement, the suit claims, was driven by “a network of putative not-for-profits and rogue eco-terrorist groups who employ patterns of criminal activity and campaigns of misinformation to target legitimate companies and industries with fabricated environmental claims.”

“It was as if the entire campaign came in a box. And of course it did,” the suit alleges. “Its objective was not to protect the environment or Native Americans but to produce as sensational and public a dispute as possible, and to use that publicity and emotion to drive fundraising.”

Among the nonprofit network’s alleged crimes: “perpetrating acts of terrorism under the U.S. Patriot Act, including destruction of an energy facility, destruction of hazardous liquid pipeline facility, arson and bombing of government property risking or causing injury or death.”

“We felt compelled to file the lawsuit against Greenpeace and others because we want the truth to come out about the illegal actions that took place in North Dakota and the funding of these actions,” ETP spokesperson Vicki Granado told The Intercept. “In many cases, the only way the truth comes out is through the legal process.”

The case was filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, passed in 1970 to prosecute organized crime — primarily the mob. Greenpeace says it amounts to a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP, designed to curtail free speech through expensive, time-consuming litigation.

“It grossly distorts the law and facts at Standing Rock,” said Greenpeace general counsel Tom Wetterer. “We’ll win the lawsuit, but it’s not really what this is about for ETP. What they’re really trying to do is silence future protests and advocacy work against the company and other corporations.”

“[The lawsuit] had some major racist overtones. They were basically saying that we were not intelligent enough to know for ourselves what the possibilities were in case the pipeline were to leak. They were basically saying we were manipulated,” said Linda Black Elk, a member of the Catawba Nation who lives on the Standing Rock reservation and organized against the pipeline months before the protests began. “I think the whole purpose of it is to scare tribes from further activism when it comes to the fossil fuel industries and to scare these green groups to keep them from supporting us in those future fights.” ...
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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You Won't Believe the 'Evidence' They're Using to Prosecute Trump's Election Day Protesters
Several J20 protesters could be facing 60-year prison sentences.


Federal prosecutors targeting anti-Trump protesters are relying on video evidence from Project Veritas, a far-right group under fire this week for allegedly trying to dupe the Washington Post with a false story of sexual misconduct.

The US attorney’s office submitted the footage in court on Tuesday as part of an ongoing trial against activists who protested Donald Trump’s inauguration and now face conspiracy and rioting charges that could lead to decades in prison.

Prosecutors played the video – which reportedly showed undercover footage from a meeting of activists – one day after the Washington Post reported that Project Veritas had sent a woman undercover pretending to be a victim of Roy Moore, the US Senate candidate accused of sexual misconduct.

The decision to use video from a discredited ultra-conservative group known for ethically questionable tactics has drawn criticisms from civil liberties groups, who have argued that the federal government under Trump is aggressively prosecuting activists who oppose the president....
:roll:
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billy.pilgrim
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:55 pm
You Won't Believe the 'Evidence' They're Using to Prosecute Trump's Election Day Protesters
Several J20 protesters could be facing 60-year prison sentences.


Federal prosecutors targeting anti-Trump protesters are relying on video evidence from Project Veritas, a far-right group under fire this week for allegedly trying to dupe the Washington Post with a false story of sexual misconduct.

The US attorney’s office submitted the footage in court on Tuesday as part of an ongoing trial against activists who protested Donald Trump’s inauguration and now face conspiracy and rioting charges that could lead to decades in prison.

Prosecutors played the video – which reportedly showed undercover footage from a meeting of activists – one day after the Washington Post reported that Project Veritas had sent a woman undercover pretending to be a victim of Roy Moore, the US Senate candidate accused of sexual misconduct.

The decision to use video from a discredited ultra-conservative group known for ethically questionable tactics has drawn criticisms from civil liberties groups, who have argued that the federal government under Trump is aggressively prosecuting activists who oppose the president....
:roll:
Yesterday on another thread JTA posted,


"I found this quote. Pretty pertinent to the past year:"


"...Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone; you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' Why not?-Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty. Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, 'everyone' is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, 'It's not so bad' or 'You're seeing things' or 'You're an alarmist.'
And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can't prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have....
But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked-if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in '43 had come immediately after the 'German Firm' stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in '33. But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.
And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying 'Jewish swine,' collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in-your nation, your people-is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way."

-Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Yep, I thought of that while I was posting.
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:17 pm
Yep, I thought of that while I was posting.
Fits a lot of what's going on
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Image
Image

It's not everyday I have the privilege of writing to you with good news, but a DC jury just found the six defendants in the first trial of Trump inauguration protesters not guilty on all 42 charges.

This is a stinging rebuke to the government, which had a detective exclusively work on this case for nine months (40 hours a week plus overtime) and spent weeks presenting "evidence" to the jury.

As you were one of 50,000 people who called on the DOJ to end its prosecution of Inauguration Day protesters, I know you are as elated as I am.

Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff told the jury during her closing that “reasonable doubt doesn’t mean very much,” but the jury decided that civil liberties, due process, and freedom of expression still have meaning in Washington, DC.

As one juror told the Washington Examiner, "The jury as a whole believes it's a legal act to attend a protest where vandalism occurs."

While this is cause for celebration, 188 people who were swept up in a mass arrest on Inauguration Day, including a second journalist, still face charges. And the Department of Justice announced today, they were moving ahead with their trials.

This is unacceptable. Given the resounding defeat that was just handed to the government for their attempts to use guilt by association to criminalize dissent, all of remaining charges must be dropped immediately and Assistant US AttorneyJennifer Kerkhoff must resign immediately.

Last I wrote to you, I told you that no matter how discouraging the present may seem, all unconstitutional attempts to chill dissent and stifle social movements have a bleak future.

There's still much work to be done, but make no mistake, today is a day for celebration.

In Solidarity,
Chip Gibbons
Policy & Legislative Counsel
:clap: :---P
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Fuck you Beauregard.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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Re: Civil liberties thread

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:thumbup:
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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‘Spontaneous’ protests will only be legal with 48 hours’ notice under (Durham) North Carolina proposal
Proposal follows tear-down of Confederate statue in August.


If it passes, I would bet on this being found unconstitutional after the Durham County Commission wastes a bunch of taxpayer money trying to defend it. I would help organize a non-advance notice demo. just to test it.
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Thu Dec 21, 2017 6:37 pm
... It's not everyday I have the privilege of writing to you with good news, but a DC jury just found the six defendants in the first trial of Trump inauguration protesters not guilty on all 42 charges....
Department of Justice abruptly drops charges against 129 Trump inauguration protesters
A quiet surrender at 5:30 p.m.


:---P
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Kenneth Marcus has no meaningful history of support civil rights, but he does have a sordid history of trying to squash political speech.

Tell your Senators to reject his nomination for Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Under Louisiana Bill, Peaceful Protesters Could Face 20 Years in Prison

:wtf: :bs: :cussing:
Introducing “Checkpoint: America” (article)

Today, the Cato Institute is launching a new online initiative: Checkpoint America: Monitoring the Constitution-Free Zone.

For over 60 years, the executive branch has, through regulatory fiat, imposed a “border zone” that extends as much as 100 miles into the United States. Within this area–which, according to the ACLU, encompasses two-thirds of the U.S. population–are a series of Soviet-style internal checkpoints run by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service. The majority of these stretch across the southwestern United States from southern Calfornia to the Texas Gulf Coast. As outlined below, CBP agents operating these checkpoints routinely violate the constitutional rights of citizens and other who are forced to pass through them to get to work, go to the store, or make it to a vacation destination in the American Southwest....
Not often that I'm citing and agreeing with the Cato Institute.

Checkpoint America: Monitoring The Constitution Free Zone (website with map)
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Prosecutors Withheld Evidence That Could Exonerate J20 Inauguration Protesters, Judge Rules

What part of 'illegal' don't they understand? Lock the federal prosecutors up!
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: Civil liberties thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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