Tag: First amendment

This Is Tucker Carlson?

I remember back in the day when Tucker had a nightly show on MNBC a time when I watched there was not much that I agreed with but from time to time I thought he made a few good points.  Then MSNBC kicked him to the curd and he circled the drain for awhile before sliding down the drain into the sewer that was FOX News then there was nothing coming from his mouth that was anything but sewer sludge….then FOX also kicked him to the curb and now he is wandering around searching for that audience he once had….

In the days after the blowhard was shot there has been a wealth of rhetoric especially from Little Donny Do-Little…..he is doing everything he can to subvert any opposition to his restrictive policies….

Then out of the dark Tucker shows up and once again let his thoughts be known….

Tucker Carlson’s volatile relationship with President Trump may have just cycled back to being a critical one, this time centered on the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the Trump administration’s reaction to it. The former Fox News host’s main beef: the government’s targeting of anyone criticizing Kirk in the wake of his death—a targeting that Carlson says infringes on Americans’ First Amendment rights, per the Independent. “You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of his murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country,” Carlson said on a Wednesday edition of his online show, calling Kirk a “free speech champion.”

And if those laws do come to pass? “If that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever,” Carlson noted. “And there never will be. Because if they can tell you what to say, they’re telling you what to think.” And at that point, “there is nothing they can’t do to you, because they don’t consider you human,” Carlson added, per Newsweek. “They don’t believe you have a soul.” The Independent notes that Carlson’s diatribe seemed to target Attorney General Pam Bondi more than Trump himself, after Bondi made comments suggesting the DOJ would target hate speech in America.

Carlson added of Bondi’s remarks that maybe she “didn’t think it through and was not attempting to desecrate the memory of the person she was purporting to celebrate.” The Latin Times notes that the US “does not have a ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment, meaning most forms of such expression cannot be punished by the government.”

Once again I find myself agreeing with Tucker at least on this issue….

Time for civil disobedience is now.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–07Mar23

My friend Dr. Rex (https://hrexach.wordpress.com/ ) has turned me unto this situation in Florida by the mini dictator DeSantis….he has crapped on individual choice, and books and education and now he is coming for the first amendment in Florida.

Any blogger mentioning Florida’s governor or a state legislator would be required to register with the state under newly proposed legislation experts say would surely violate the First Amendment. Senate Bill 1316 states any person who writes “an article, a story, or a series of stories” about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature,” and is paid for their services must register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics within five days of publication. Authors would also need to submit monthly reports describing what posts mention officials, with links; the compensation received; and the individual or entity behind the payment—or face daily fines of $25 up to a maximum of $2,500 per report, per WFLA.

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register,” reads the bill, per NBC News. It also requires that “bloggers file notices of failure to file a timely report the same way that lobbyists file their disclosures and reports on assessed fines,” per WFLA. The legislation, to take effect immediately upon approval, excludes newspapers or similar publications. It defines a blog as “a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content”—which may or may not apply to YouTube video bloggers. The bill is authored by Jason Brodeur, a Republican state senator who’s “been the subject of frequent criticism in the media,” per Florida Politics.

“Paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk. They both are professional electioneers,” Brodeur tells Florida Politics. “If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?” Yet “it’s hard to imagine a proposal that would be more violative of the First Amendment,” Ron Kuby, a First Amendment lawyer, tells NBC. Brodeur has authored other bills experts say would be unconstitutional if passed. One would prevent journalists from shielding the identity of anonymous sources if sued and automatically presume information from such sources to be false, the Orlando Sentinel reports. It “empowers the rich and powerful to basically go after people who say things they don’t like,” Bobby Block of the Florida First Amendment Foundation tells the outlet.

All he needs now is to start wear some sort of uniform and his ‘style’ will be made.

If he is successful this may go to the Supreme Court…..and we know how those political hacks work….don’t we?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“It Is My Right!”

I am sick of morons claiming they are losing their First Amendment rights!

That is what I am hearing from many of the Hard Right d/bags when asked about their breaching of the Capitol and committing crimes in the name of the First Amendment.

Actually they are full of crap!

What they did was seditious….that is not a right.

First Amendment….Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

There is your key….” peaceably to assemble”…..the events of 06 January were NOT peaceable!

Like the torrent of video clips showing that last week’s terrorist attack on the capitol was more coordinated and more violent than its conspirators would want you to believe, the same conspirators are now pleading two narratives to cover their rear. One is that they were only exercising their First Amendment right to protest. The other is that the Black Lives Matter protests and riots didn’t draw the same scrutiny.

The right to protest is not in dispute. If that’s all the mob had done, its rights would certainly be defensible and protected, and everyone from the ACLU on down, including me, would defend that right. We’d be taking bets about how dull the Biden inaugural would be by now, not impeaching a president and witnessing one of the FBI’s most extensive manhunts in history. 

Let’s assume the protest had remained peaceful. Even then, a protest isn’t an end in itself. It’s about a message. It should be judged accordingly. The KKK or any other neo-fascist organization has the right to march downtown. But it remains a despicable organization with a reprehensible purpose. It does not have a claim to any moral ground just because it’s exercising its First Amendment right. The mob gathered in Washington last week with an equally despicable and indefensible purpose: to overturn a democratic election decided by 81 million voters, certified by 50 states, reaffirmed by 60 court decisions and the attorney general. So it wasn’t a protest, since there was nothing to protest. It was the fabrication of a coup that became an armed insurrection. Insurrections are not protected by the First Amendment.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/16/no-open-sedition-not-first-amendment-right

Doing what Trump and his mindless supporters do manipulate the facts and the narrative will not change that these people committed sedition and that is a high crime.

DO NOT use the Constitution to try and justify what crimes they committed.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–06Mar19

We Americans are proud of our rights….especially our freedom of the press thing……but where does the US fall in the grand scheme of freedom of the press?

There is a World Press Index…..

Freedom of the press. 1. Norway 2. Sweden 3. Netherlands 4. Finland 5. Switzerland 6. Jamaica 7. Belgium 8. NZ 9. Denmark 10. Costa Rica 11. Austria 12. Estonia 13. Iceland 14. Portugal 15. Germany ……40. United States……140. China……..(World Press Freedom Index)

Those “socialist” countries of Scandinavia lead the way in freedom of the press……but don’t tell conservatives and the GOP for it will screw up their rhetoric and narrative for decades.

All this is Making America Great Again, Mr. Trump……and you make it great again by attacking one of our best freedoms?

You people, Trump supporters, are a bunch of deluded slugs if you believe a word of the Trump Lie Machine.

So I have said…so I have written!

Turn The Page!

The Golden Age Of Free Speech

We all know about the First Amendment ….the right to freedom of speech…..just how does that equate in this age of information with the access to the internet and all that goes with it?

For most of modern history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated. Shutter the news­paper, pressure the broad­cast chief, install an official censor at the publishing house. Or, if push came to shove, hold a loaded gun to the announcer’s head.

 

This actually happened once in Turkey. It was the spring of 1960, and a group of military officers had just seized control of the government and the national media, imposing an information blackout to suppress the coordination of any threats to their coup. But inconveniently for the conspirators, a highly anticipated soccer game between Turkey and Scotland was scheduled to take place in the capital two weeks after their takeover. Matches like this were broadcast live on national radio, with an announcer calling the game, play by play. People all across Turkey would huddle around their sets, cheering on the national team.

https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-issue-tech-turmoil-new-censorship/

The prevalence of “fake news” accusations have expanded in recent years once it was shown just how influential the “news” could be.

Now just the hint of “fake news” can send any conversation off the course and onto the rocks of stupid.

Since we have been thumping our chests about “fake News” I have written about this on several occasions…..https://lobotero.com/2016/12/20/the-curious-debate-over-fake-news/

“Fake News” is just a modern use of Goebbels’s theory of propaganda and as usual I had thoughts on this as well….. https://lobotero.com/2013/01/11/what-is-propaganda/

Calling something “Fake News” does not make it so……and wrapping around the First Amendment does not make it a “true” statement…..and because something fits your limited view of the issue does not make it a factual statement nor does it make it a false statement.

The individual needs to the work to find the truth…….I wish I could state that I have ever confidence that the American people will search for the truth……but as usual I would be deluding myself for most Americans are too lazy to look beyond their little limited view.

And the beat goes on!

Turn The Page!

Censorship By Any Other Name

The truth is I despise the hateful, insulting crap that comes out of the mouths and off the fingers of many on the Right…..but I also believe they have the right to express themselves as they wish….short of any violence.

I have written on our 1st amendment here on IST…….https://lobotero.com/2017/02/13/will-there-be-freedom-of-the-press/

But recently a couple of the so-called “social media” sites have taken up the idea of deleting and banning some of their users….

This week, internet giants like Facebook, Youtube, Spotify and others banned the notorious Alex Jones and InfoWars from their platforms, and the purge is enjoying widespread support among the left, which has made a reputation for itself as intolerant of differing opinions (last year, for example, a group of Antifa protesters beat one of our own Anti-Media reporters and destroyed his camera equipment at a rally simply because he was filming).

In Jones’ case, Facebook cited hate speech, though this stance seems inconsistent considering the platform has caught flack for allowing anti-semitic content. This lack of principle doesn’t matter to many left-wing partisans, though, as long as someone they find reprehensible is silenced — even as others with far better reputations are banned from other platforms (to clarify, Anti-Media does not endorse Infowars in any way, nor do we consider them to be a legitimate news outlet).

https://theantimedia.com/americans-end-free-speech/

I understand why the “Zuck” did this…he was trying to divert attention from his past transgressions that are not going away as he had said they would.

But I do not think that these a/holes should be banned….that is as bad as people that called for me to be banned back in the days of my youth because I had a more socialist leaning in those days.

All the “fake news” tomes on the web are just that on the web…..a person must choose to search for the facts and the truth or believe whatever they are told by pundits who are paid to stir the pot….after all most are propagandists paid to deceive.

I have used this reference before in an attempt to get Americans thinking for themselves…..

Fake news is nothing new. But bogus stories can reach more people more quickly via social media than what good old-fashioned viral emails could accomplish in years past.

Concern about the phenomenon led Facebook and Google to announce that they’ll crack down on fake news sites, restricting their ability to garner ad revenue. Perhaps that could dissipate the amount of malarkey online, though news consumers themselves are the best defense against the spread of misinformation.

https://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

You have the link…now USE IT!

So I Have Written!

Turn The Page!

Closing Thought–25Apr18

Trump has been at odds with journalists ever since he announced he was a candidate in 2016…..he has daily Twitter storms about this media or that journalists…….usually those that do not agree with him on his many and varied opinions.

And recently Trump stated that journalists, at all, should be jailed and forced to give up their sources…..apparently he is not knowledgeable on the Constitution and the First Amendment……

Amid more salacious talk and other key interactions—including discussions of “golden showers”; how President Trump claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin bragged to him that Russia had the “most beautiful hookers in the world“; and a request by the president for the then FBI director to “let go” of the investigation into national security advisor Michael Flynn—a revealing moment contained in the contemporaneous memos of James Comey, redacted versions of which were released Thursday night, is when Trump suggests jailing journalists and then having them sexually assaulted as way to force them to “talk” about their sources.

http://theantimedia.com/trump-journalists-jail-raped/

Interesting, yes?

For someone that claims all this patriotism to mention anything that impedes a persons First Amendment rights is just silly…..and a bit scary.

Freedom Of The Press

We Americans pride ourselves on our freedoms…..freedom of religions and the biggie freedom of the press.

But for over a year now we Americans have been having this tug of war with our press freedom….some say “fake news” is everywhere….I disagree…..yep there is some form of fake news but is it widespread….nope only in the small minds of certain people.

President Donald Trump, who recently said he would announce the “MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR,” has been awarded the title of the world’s most oppressive leader toward press freedom by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Trump claimed the journalism organization’s top prize for “overall achievement in undermining global press freedom,” and joins four other leaders, including strongmen like Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who “have gone above and beyond to silence critical voices and weaken democracy,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

The group said its awards were for “recognizing world leaders who have gone out of their way to attack the press and undermine the norms that support freedom of the media.” Though CPJ determined that countries like Russia and China hold the tightest grip on their national media, it declared Trump the winner for “overall achievement.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-oppressor-press-freedom_us_5a54bc75e4b003133ecc3439

I have a pretty good idea on who will win the Trump fake news award…..fair is fair….tit for tat….all those cliches.

Could the “award” be a violation of ethics?

Every awards show has its critics, but President Donald Trump’s much ballyhooed “Fake News Awards” has drawn attention from a group beyond the usual peanut gallery: ethics experts who say the event could run afoul of White House rules and, depending on what exactly the president says during the proceedings, the First Amendment.

The White House has not yet said what form the awards presentation, scheduled by Trump for Wednesday, may take. But Norman Eisen, the former special counsel for ethics for President Barack Obama, and Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, have both tweeted that if White House staff members were involved, they would be in violation of the executive branch’s Standards of Ethical Conduct, which ban employees from using their office for “the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/15/trump-fake-news-awards-ethics-339183

Hate Speech vs. Free Speech

After the last shooting, the one that claimed a Congressman (since there are so many I wanted to clarify which shooting) there has been much written about the aftermath…all the hate filled post and Tweets.

Rabid conservs attack libs as the cause of the horrible attack and then it is the Libs turn to attack conservs and along the same lines…..all in all it is hate speech disguised as “news”.

That leads us to the debate on “free speech”.

Whenever someone mentions how destructive hate speech can be there will inevitably bring about some person harping on the first amendment…..and how trying to control hate speech will inevitably lead to the end of our republic.

I have tried to take on this topic in the past…..

Source: That Thing Called “Free Speech” – In Saner Thought

I recently read a piece of this subject written by a law professor……..

Since its inception as America’s founding political document, there have been 27 amendments to the United States Constitution. Even the most adept scholars can rarely name and define each one. Many amendments are obscure and deal with legal nuances like changes in representation and how to handle US citizens who come into a foreign title of nobility. While these constitutional adjustments rarely get public attention, the First Amendment continues to spark controversy across a wide swath of the US population. What is free speech? What does the Constitution protect? What is the difference between hate speech and free speech? With the recent attention on the safe space movement on college campuses, it’s increasingly important to understand the legal parameters of the First Amendment.

………

The wording of the First Amendment is relatively straightforward. At the core, Americans receive protections to exercise their religious beliefs freely, with specific prohibitions against the government passing laws to restrict religious practice. In addition, free speech is protected as well as a free press, with no restriction on citizens assembling peaceably. The confusion comes when people don’t understand what each of those things means, or when broader interpretations are applied to legal definitions that are, in reality, more narrow.

Source: Hate Speech vs. Free Speech: A Critical Analysis by Constitutional Law Expert Sujit Choudhry

We could solve this problem with a little civility toward each other and refuse to repeat words from the haters (people that live to hate)……there is no dishonor in being civil with each other.