Tag: SCOTUS

Neocons are panicking over another possible Trump presidency

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Atlantic: Two Men Running to Stay Out of Prison

Liz Cheney warns US ‘sleepwalking into dictatorship

Robert Kagan: A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.

…We can expect more of this when the war against the “deep state” begins in earnest. According to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), there is a whole cabal determined to undermine American security, a “Uniparty” of elites made up of “neoconservatives on the right” and “liberal globalists on the left” who are not true Americans and therefore do not have the true interests of America at heart. Can such “anti-American” behavior be criminalized? It has in the past and can be again.

So, the Trump administration will have many avenues to persecute its enemies, real and perceived. Think of all the laws now on the books that give the federal government enormous power to surveil people for possible links to terrorism, a dangerously flexible term, not to mention all the usual opportunities to investigate people for alleged tax evasion or violation of foreign agent registration laws. The IRS under both parties has occasionally looked at depriving think tanks of their tax-exempt status because they espouse policies that align with the views of the political parties. What will happen to the think-tanker in a second Trump term who argues that the United States should ease pressure on China? Or the government official rash enough to commit such thoughts to official paper? It didn’t take more than that to ruin careers in the 1950s.

Their panic just shows how out of touch they are with the working class! As for Kagan, there’s so much more that I could say, but for now I’ll just roll my eyes! 🙄

New York Times Helps Marco Rubio Push Persecution Of Antiwar Leftists + More

Ron Wyden Wants To Know Why The DEA Still Has On-Demand Access To Trillions Of Phone Records

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

For decades, the government has used the Third Party Doctrine to obtain massive amounts of phone records without a warrant.

Even prior to the creation of the Third Party Doctrine by the Supreme Court in 1979, government agencies were obtaining phone records using pen register requests that provided them with info on numbers called and the length of the calls. This method, however, required the government to supply some information of its own: specifically, a targeted source phone number phone companies could use to search for call metadata.

Ron Wyden Wants To Know Why The DEA Still Has On-Demand Access To Trillions Of Phone Records

Liberty fought tyranny in a barely noticed court hearing last week [re: Graham Phillips]

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Liberty fought tyranny in the High Court in London last week, in what I believe is one of the most important court cases of our time. The issues were simple. Is it permissible to disagree publicly with the British Government‘s foreign policy?

PETER HITCHENS: Liberty fought tyranny in a barely noticed court hearing last week, in what I believe is one of the most important cases of our time

Related:

Former civil servant in High Court fight after being sanctioned

‘Free Speech’ Fans Call for Censoring TikTok as Chinese Plot to Make Israel Look Bad

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Axios (10/31/23) reported that in a two-week period, TikTok saw “nearly four times the number of views to TikTok posts using the hashtag #StandwithPalestine globally compared to posts using the hashtag #StandwithIsrael.” As a result, the conservative outrage machine kicked into high gear.

‘Free Speech’ Fans Call for Censoring TikTok as Chinese Plot to Make Israel Look Bad

Biden Admin Awards Over $4 Million In Grants To Programs That Target “Misinformation” + Notes

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden Admin Awards Over $4 Million In Grants To Programs That Target “Misinformation”

The State Department has awarded the following five grants since September 1:

An $18,000 grant to the Albanian-based non-governmental organization (NGO) the Institute for Democracy, Media, and Culture* to ensure a “whole-of-society response to cyber incidents and misinformation.” The associated program began on September 1, 2023.

A $14,500 grant to Paraguay’s American Cultural Center [Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano] that will be used to implement workshops that “seek to combat misinformation and promote responsible digital citizenship.” The associated program began on September 1, 2023.

A $15,000 grant to the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Udayana University to “raise digital literacy among selected amcors communities, journalists, and social media influencers to combat misinformation, pre-2024 general election.” The associated program is due to start on October 1, 2023.

A $50,000 grant to New York University to complete the implementation of a speaker series that supports “countering misinformation.” The associated program is due to start on October 1, 2023.

A $50,000 grant to the non-profit Digital Rights Nepal*** “to create a sustainable network of youth to promote digital rights, safer internet use and a collective resilience towards misinformation and disinformation.” The associated program is due to start on October 2, 2023.

***Digital rights are the new Internet Freedom (think Arab Spring).

Skeptical Notes:

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You Can’t Wish Away The 1st Amendment To Mandate Age Verification

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

So, we’ve been talking a lot about age verification of late, as governments around the world have all (with the exception of Australia?!?) seemed to settle on that as a solution to “the problem” of the internet (exactly what that problem is they cannot quite identify, but they’re pretty sure there is one). Of course, as we’ve explained time and time again, age verification creates all sorts of problems, including undermining both privacy and speech rights.

You Can’t Wish Away The 1st Amendment To Mandate Age Verification

Related:

Ban Online Porn for Kids

The Moral Panic Over Internet Porn Can’t Overrule the First Amendment