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Open Letter to President Trump on Section 230
Posted on October 16, 2020 by Andrew Torba
An Open Letter to President Trump on Section 230By e-mail and First Class Mail
Dear Mr. President:
Gab AI Inc. (“Gab”) is a small company that has been a repeat victim of Big Tech’s immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
We are attacked by Big Tech because we stand for freedom and because we compete with their control over the flow of information online. We operate a social media site that has one core rule: political speech that is protected by the First Amendment is allowed on our site. We do not take sides.
We run an entirely legal business. We proactively engage with U.S. and international law enforcement to keep illegal activity, and criminals, off of our platform.
We refuse to censor legal speech. For this, we have been the target of extreme left-wing activists who have been successful in getting us banned from:
The Apple App Store, the Google Play App Store, the Mozilla Extension Store, and the Google Chrome Extension Store.
By payment platforms including Stripe, Paypal, Square, BitPay, Coinbase, and Visa.
By hosting companies including Joyent, Azure, Backblaze, and Amazon AWS.
By storefronts including Shopify and Gumroad.
By third party software tools including Embedly, Helpscout, Pusher, Medium, and Mailgun.
From crowdfunding websites including Patreon, StartEngine LA, and even our own whitelabeled portal when Amazon AWS refused to run it.
From Twitter Ads.
In short, Section 230 – and political bias – has allowed Big Tech to deplatform us from practically every single major resource required to operate our business.
We have every reason to hate Section 230.
But we want you to keep Section 230 exactly the way it is.
Section 230 helps the little guy. We seek to protect free speech on the Internet, and Section 230 is the only thing that stands between us and an avalanche of lawsuits from activist groups and foreign governments who don’t like what our millions of users and readers have to say. Without Section 230, we couldn’t stand up to these oppressive forces that want to eliminate free speech online. With Section 230, we can.
All over the world, the market is providing free speech-oriented alternatives to Big Tech. The single best thing you could do if you want to beat Twitter is NOT to abolish Section 230, which will take years and will hurt the companies you need to protect conservative thought – and indeed all free thought – on the Web.
The best thing you could do is to use sites like Gab.com to disseminate content and information your supporters need to read. The Free Speech Internet is growing fast as millions of people make the move over to Gab. If you join the Free Speech Internet it will grow even faster.
We have reserved an account for you at gab.com/realdonaldtrump. Do the right thing – do the effective thing, the thing that will help end Twitter and Facebook’s dominance over the Web for good – and get on Gab, and join us in our mission to make the Internet free again.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Torba, CEO Gab.com
October 16th, 2020
Jesus is King
https://news.gab.com/2020/10/16/an-open-letter-to-president-trump-on-section-230/
Pretty pink dress. Seriously!
Amy Coney Barrett’s beet-pink dress spoke before she did: it looked sensible, practical, and stoically feminine, an image she aims to project.
It was a pretty dress, maybe even stylish by D.C.’s standards. A flat bow rested on her right shoulder, just underneath a string of pearls. The justice picked a very nice outfit for her first confirmation hearing. Too bad it was curated for such an ugly, rotten process.
The dress stood out in a room full of anodyne blue and black suits; it spoke of soft prettiness when the proceedings are about the very opposite. Her outfit radiates a maternal warmth, an easy comfort. It hides her staunchly right-wing record. It masks the harm she has the potential to enable once confirmed against women, LGBTQ people, all of those with Obamacare, and victims of voter suppression.
The deep pink color of Barrett’s might not be youthful, exactly, but there is some life to it—underscoring her relatively young age for a Supreme Court justice. Barrett’s 48, like Brett Kavanaugh’s 53, means a long tenure. This dress, with its saccharine design, serves as a reminder of that.
Barrett’s dress made a statement. So did the Democratic women lawmakers at the hearing. Senators Kamala Harris, Dianne Feinstein, Mazie K. Hirono, and Amy Klobuchar all wore bright blue blazers, the color of their party.
Hirono and Klobuchar put Ruth Bader Ginsburg enamel pins on their lapels. Kamala Harris, who Zoomed into the meeting, had a copy of the children’s book I Dissent on a table behind her. A cartoon of RBG wearing her judge’s robe and famous collar smirked back at the camera.
If the Democratic sartorial coup spoke loudly, Barrett’s dress had a quieter impact. In her opening remarks, Barrett spoke of her devotion to family. She peppered in sweet details about each of her seven children. She mentioned that her mentor in college, an English professor, gifted her a copy of Truman Capote’s collected works upon graduation. (Was the subtext that she is anti-LGBTQ?)
The dress labored overtime to quell certain fears. How could anyone who looks this safe be a threat?
Barrett showed up to the hearing outfitted as the caricature of a mother, or at least the right’s archetype of one. Outfits can do a lot to create a reputation or communicate values. Barrett’s gender and family are seen as an asset by the conservative men who loudly support her, and this placid dress is a perfect sartorial vehicle for her and them.
Thom Tillis, a senator from North Carolina, propped Barrett up as an avatar of women’s empowerment during his statement. He said she had signed two copies of the Constitution for his granddaughters, writing “Dream big” alongside her signature. He called Barrett an “inspiration to millions of young women in this country.”
Lindsey Graham said, “This is a vacancy that has occurred through the tragic loss of a great woman, and we’re going to fill that vacancy with another great woman,” referencing Barrett’s takeover of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s seat. As if women are interchangeable. As if one exceptionally remarkable woman’s seat can be so easily filled a little more than three weeks later.
But there is more to being a mother than looking like one. There is more to being a “great woman” than having close proximity to power. Barrett’s outfit projected capability and congeniality, but she wore it while doing the bidding of a president who possesses neither of those traits.
Amy Coney Barrett’s dress highlights the absurdity it was intended to lull. And it is, perhaps, a warning. Republicans are rushing this process, and she is happy to go along with them, dressed perfectly and properly.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dont-let-amy-coney-barretts-confirmation-hearing-dress-fool-you
I always vote for the best dressed man - errrr - person! Anything else would be sexist!
Tangled web of lies and false flags
Headlines claim "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Kidnap Plot Busted By FBI". Virtually all stories include the claim that it was a "right wing extremist" group responsible.
The very first problem with the claims center on the FBI. The FBI has a history of entrapment-like "investigations", where simple minded fools without the means to accomplish their goals are offered said means by the FBI. The FBI invariably arrest some village idiots after said investigations, to make an example of them.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/12/newburgh-four-fbi-entrapment-terror
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/fbi-entrapment
A cursory glance at the early stories shows that the fools plotting to kidnap Whitmer had little idea what they were even talking about. Their talk of "200 men" and the need to purchase explosives directly from an FBI informant already makes the story smell of fish.
But, the "white supremacist" and "right wing" nonsense is being laid low, regardless of the village idiot's capabilities.
It turns out Brandon Caserta, one of anarchists who was arrested for plotting to kidnap Whitmer, actually hates President Trump and is on video calling Trump a “tyrant.”
And now there is evidence a second “rightwing” militia member attended at least one Black Lives Matter protest and was sympathetic to George Floyd and BLM protesters.
So we have not one, but TWO Antifa/BLM protesters involved in this "right wing" plot? Interesting, to say the least!
It turns out Brandon Caserta, one of anarchists who was arrested for plotting to kidnap Whitmer, actually hates President Trump and is on video calling Trump a “tyrant.”
“Trump is not your friend dude,” Caserta said.
He says Trump is “a tyrant” and calls President Trump an “enemy.”
The media, with the FBI being complicit, is playing the American public for a bunch of fools here. "Anarchist" do not equate to "right wing" or to "white supremacy".
I can grant that self proclaimed anarchists may have ulterior motives that they keep hidden until they have destroyed the existing government. Given that possibility, how did everyone jump to the conclusion that these particular anarchists are either "right wing" or "white supremacist"? Wouldn't it be just as easy to surmise that these fools are socialists, left wing militants, and/or communist activists?
Maybe, just maybe, these self proclaimed anarchists are really and truly anarchists? Maybe they don't care about left or right, maybe they don't care about black or white. All they want to see is government come tumbling down?
As usual, the public is being played. Mainstream Media has it's agenda, it has it's narrative, and that's all you're going to see when you tune in to "News at 11:00".
And, the FBI. That clown outfit is working hard to shed any credibility it may have. In the last election, the FBI worked hard to protect the D candidate, right up until the last days, then Comey turned on his mistress. Now, the FBI seems to be on track again, protecting the D narrative, and attacking the R, just before the election.
EDIT:
Credit to Magic Oddball's post here - https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=39975&page=1&cid=1062216#commentwrap
The BBC has a better rundown on the various groups that may (or may not) be involved here. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54470427
EDIT #2:
AC linked to this video below, it is well worth watching -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWN3FQGfkWw
Progressive teacher abusing 10 yr old student
Rantz: Video shows Tacoma teacher scold 10-year-old for admiring Trump
The morning after the world learned President Donald Trump contracted the coronavirus, a Seattle-area teacher went on a rant about the president to sixth graders. When a mom complained, he misled her about what happened. Luckily, the mom recorded the incident on her cell phone.
Brendan Stanton, a middle school teacher at P.G. Keithley Middle School in Tacoma, asked students who they admired and why. One student answered President Trump. That triggered Stanton.
Not only did the teacher boot the student from the chat, he proceeded to scold the child for his “inappropriate” answer.
Elsy Kusander’s 10-year-old son logged into his remote classes for another day of online learning on Friday, Oct. 2. Little did he know he’d be scolded for his support for Trump.
Each day, Stanton asks his students a daily question. This time he asked students, “Who is the one person you admire and why?” Students are asked to write their answers in the online chatroom. According to a screenshot, Kusander’s son wrote:
I admire Donald J. Trump because he is making America great again. And because he is the best president the United States of America could ever, ever have. And he built the wall so terrorists couldn’t come into in the U.S. Trump is the best person in the world. And that’s why I had admire him.
Stanton almost immediately kicked the student out of the chatroom, deleted the chat, and proceeded to attack the president, while calling out the student for mentioning him. The student, who I am keeping anonymous, immediately told his mother.
Trump name triggered teacher
When Kusander came into the room to see what happened, she heard Stanton berating the president. She started to film the comments on her cell phone.“The example that was shared in the chat, which I went ahead and erased for us, was not appropriate right? Especially as that individual has created so much division and hatred between people and specifically spoken hatred to many different individuals, OK?,” Stanton told his students.
Stanton was so offended, he apparently wouldn’t even say the president’s name. Instead, he referred to Trump as “that individual.” But he wasn’t done.
“Again, that individual has spoken hate to many individuals and I don’t think is an appropriate example for a role model that we should be admiring,” Stanton concluded.
Kusander was shocked at Stanton’s comments.
“I went into my son’s room and I heard the teacher saying that this individual is hateful and divisive, etc. I started to record,” Kusander told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “How can a teacher be teaching to his students horrible things about the president of the country without facts?”
Teacher misleads mom about what happened
Kusander demanded a phone call with Stanton to discuss the incident. The teacher obliged later that afternoon.
Normally, digital classes are recorded and posted to the online portal for students and their parents. This portion of the class? Stanton said he didn’t record it, citing student privacy. But perhaps he knew he acted out inappropriately, but without any evidence, who could ever know? He didn’t know Kusander recorded a portion of the incident when he initially spoke to her. That might be why Stanton didn’t explain to her everything that happened.
Stanton told the mother that he only deleted the Trump comment because it wasn’t related to the question of the day. He insists he told the students to choose a computer programmer they admired and if they couldn’t think of one they could list someone from the community.
“Donald Trump would not fit that prompt … just because it was a little bit off topic,” Stanton told Kusander according to an audio recording of the conversation shared with the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.
Kusander told Stanton she was recording the conversation at the start of the call.
Someone else’s fault!
Stanton then claims another student was offended by Kusander’s answer, and that’s why he deleted it. He assured the mother that it had nothing to do with his own political positions.
“My perspective has nothing to do with Donald Trump himself, right? I try to keep politics out of the classroom,” he explained.
When Kusander questions his recap, Stanton again assured her it wasn’t political at all.
“I do try to keep politics out of the classroom … because students have different opinions, right?,” he said. “And so if the way that I said it was not perfect, I do apologize. What I was trying to say is just, ‘Hey, hey, guys, let’s get it back to our topic of the day because we really need to get moving into our content, which was on our computer scientists.
But even in this call, Stanton pushed his political position. He said he was offended by her son’s claim that the border wall keeps out terrorists.
“But we know that our neighbors at the southern border are not all terrorists, right?,” he noted.
The student neither said southern neighbors are terrorists nor implied it.
Kusander pointed out that she emigrated to the United States from Honduras. Stanton told her, “So you would understand.” Not quite. She went on to explain why she’s against illegal immigration, despite Stanton assuming she’d agree with him.
Teacher changes his story
Kusander finally revealed she actually witnessed and recorded the incident. Stanton’s story then started to change.“I came into the room, and you were talking, I got my phone and I recorded part of your conversation,” she revealed before doubling down. “I clearly saw and recorded what you were saying …”
Suddenly, the apolitical Stanton who would never bring his political opinion into the classroom, was a little more honest about what transpired.
“I do apologize if my words were not perfect at the time,” he told her. “If I used … if I said that Trump was ‘hateful and divisive,’ that may have been what I used at the time, but my purpose was in bringing us back to the conversation of computer scientists and the positive role that they’ve played in our history.”
He again offered to apologize to her son.
“I totally respect him as an individual. And his opinion. I am always interested in student feedback and also parent feedback as well. So I appreciate you having this conversation with me,” Stanton said.
Politics clearly played a role
As much as Stanton would have Kusander believe he keeps politics out of the classroom, the opposite was quite clearly the case here.
The teacher’s comments weren’t fleeting to get the conversation back on track. They were sustained criticisms to make it clear that he doesn’t approve of the president, as if any of his students even care what his stance is. He literally wouldn’t say the president’s name. That doesn’t seem particularly healthy.
Multiple emails to Stanton, the principal of P.G. Keithley Middle School, and the district communications manager went unanswered.
It’s a pattern
Kusander shouldn’t just be commended for being such a tremendous advocate for her son. Her decision to record the rant and confront the teacher is a masterclass in how to handle these issues. She’s not doing this to get Stanton fired. She just wants him to understand why this is inappropriate so he better handles himself if this happens again.Let this be another reminder to pay close attention to what teachers are telling your kids. Some of their political bias is pretty clear.
At Seattle’s Catharine Blaine K-8, one teacher taught students as young as 11-years-old to refer to a riot as an “uprising” and rioters as “freedom fighters.” A second grade teacher at Grove Elementary in Marysville pushed a shockingly anti-police video to students. In Gig Harbor, at Discovery Elementary, students were recommended a book instructing them to become Progressive activists.
Remember to talk to your children and ask them about what they’re learning. And don’t be too shy to record what you witness teachers saying to your kids if it’s inappropriate. If you don’t, the video from the classroom may not be uploaded as you expect.
Gotta love this Mom for defending her child, and calling out a lying sack of shit.
"You don't know, but I'm from Honduras" "Coming to this country illegally is a crime." "building the wall is not something divisive"
God bless this woman. And, this Political Indoctrination Propagandist "teacher" should be fired, and barred from ever having contact with children again.
https://mynorthwest.com/2203336/rantz-seattle-teacher-scolds-student-trump/
America's hottest women buying guns by the thousands
FORMER SENATOR SAYS ‘WOMEN SICK OF ALL THESE GUNS.’ WOMEN SAY OTHERWISE
By Larry Keane
Former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) was replaced by voters in 2018 and is now a political talk show pundit. During a discussion about the violence erupting in America’s communities, including Kenosha, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon and her home-state St. Louis, Missouri, Sen. McCaskill opined women are “sick of all these guns.” Data shows she couldn’t be more mistaken.
Not So Show-Me Senator
Missouri is a state with strong Second Amendment approval and Sen. McCaskill tried to hide her antigun beliefs while in office. She was caught talking about her support for more gun control when she thought no voters would hear. Even her staff was recorded describing the senator’s Second Amendment voter deception. When pressed why she wasn’t more vocal for gun control, a staffer bluntly stated, “But she doesn’t openly go out and support groups like Moms Demand Action or just like other groups that are related to that. Because that could hurt, her ability to get elected.”On gun control, Sen. McCaskill supported a grab-bag of favorites, including reinstating a so-called “Assault Weapons Ban,” limiting so-called “large capacity magazines,” expanding background checks and even voting against a right-to-carry reciprocity bill.
Violence, Rioting and Surging Firearm Sales
As the coronavirus pandemic escalated, Americans became concerned for their safety and the safety of their families and neighborhoods. They watched as local law enforcement were stretched thin and unable to quickly respond to calls for help. Criminals were released from jails, many of whom committed more crimes. Prosecutors announced they wouldn’t prosecute criminals, inviting law-breakers to act. With cities facing violence, looting and rioting, calls to “defund the police” echoed. Close to Sen. McCaskill’s home, the McCloskey’s of St. Louis made national headlines for exercising their right to protect their home.These legitimate concerns spurned historic numbers of Americans to buy firearms in 2020. More than 13 million have done so, including more than 5 million first-timers.
Women Gun Owners Growing Fast
Speaking on TV about violent riots and how they may affect November’s presidential election, former Sen. McCaskill stated women had had enough. She said “And, you know, the American suburban women, they see that. And they don’t like everybody having an AR-15. That’s part of the problem in America right now.” She continued, “And the guns is a huge part of this. And women in America are sick of all of these guns…”Data tells a different story. The continuing surge of firearm ownership in America includes women as one of the fastest-growing demographics, continuing a 20-year trend. In 2003, 13 percent of women identified as gun owners. Today that number totals around 25 percent. A quarter of those female gun owners said self-protection was their main reason for purchasing a gun and a whopping 70 percent affirmed owning a gun was essential to their personal freedom.
2020 sales have grown those numbers. Former Sen. McCaskill may be inconvenienced to learn of the nearly 13 million new firearms in the past 8 months, 5 million were purchased by first-time owners and nearly 2 million were women.
Data also shows handguns and Modern Sporting Rifles, including the AR-15 model former Sen. McCaskill mentioned, are among the most popular-selling firearms, for reasons of personal protection. Women aren’t just buying guns and placing them in a safe or storing them away either. Women’s firearm training courses are booked solid, shooting ranges across the country are hosting “ladies night” events and women are practicing to ensure they are confident gun users. The ‘Soccer Mom’ has become the ‘Security Mom’ as they’ve taken their concerns, jumped off the fence and went right to the gun retail counter.
Former Sen. McCaskill is right. Women are concerned watching current events. But they aren’t “sick of all these guns.” Violence, rioting, looting and calls to reduce law enforcement are prompting women to take their safety, and the safety of their families, into their hands. That’s why the Second Amendment exists.
https://www.nssf.org/former-senator-says-women-sick-of-all-these-guns-women-say-otherwise/
Gun control advocates hate women!
A progressive's look at the Kyle Rittenhouse shootings
Column: Here’s why Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen shooting suspect in Kenosha killings, is likely to get off
By ERIC ZORN
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
SEP 03, 2020 AT 3:39 PM
Kyle Rittenhouse is going to walk.
This is my conclusion as I emerge, blinking in the light, from the rabbit hole I’ve been down all week of self-defense law, jury-instruction language, charging documents and online, frame-by-frame analysis of the videos of the tragic shootings in Kenosha during street protests on Aug. 25.
Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, in the shooting deaths of two protesters and the wounding of a third. The homicide charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 65 years.
Those of us on the left who are already outraged that it’s legal for civilians to openly carry military-style assault weapons in public spaces should begin now to brace for the inevitable resolution of this case.
Kyle Rittenhouse is probably going to walk.
He’s going to plead self-defense — his lawyers have already signaled as much — and from what I’ve seen, read and heard, I predict he’s going to be acquitted on the most serious charges.
Yes, it seems certain that Rittenhouse was in violation of Chapter 948.6 of Wisconsin law when he was guarding business properties with a weapon of war slung across his back. That law bans minors from carrying guns, and Kenosha County’s criminal complaint notes the maximum penalty for that offense is nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.
But even those who break that law don’t forfeit their right to “use force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm (if they) reasonably believe that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to (themselves),” as Chapter 939.48, Wisconsin’s self-defense law, spells out.
According to prosecutors, video from the scene and witness accounts, the legally relevant portion of the story picked up a little before midnight: For unknown reasons, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, who had earlier been yelling angrily at the armed men who had come to the protests, was at a run, chasing Rittenhouse along Sheridan Road and into the parking lot of a used-car dealer.
When Rosenbaum, who was unarmed, finally cornered Rittenhouse, he grabbed for the teenager’s gun. Multiple shots rang out, and Rosenbaum fell, mortally wounded.
Did Rittenhouse have a reasonable belief under the circumstances that if Rosenbaum got his gun he would suffer death or great bodily harm? Jurors in Wisconsin are instructed that “reasonable” means “what a person of ordinary intelligence and prudence would have believed ... under the circumstances that existed at the time.”
Tensions were high late into the protests against the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. Gunshots from other weapons were heard immediately before and after the shots that killed Rosenbaum. Whether you think Rittenhouse is a hero for helping guard against a repeat of the vandalism the night before, or if you think he’s a reckless wannabe cop who had no business in Kenosha, you’ve got to concede that, at that moment, he was probably terrified.
Rittenhouse hustled away. Soon a group of people began chasing him up Sheridan Road, shouting “Beat him up!” “Get him! Get that dude!” and “Get his ass!” according to the prosecution’s summary. One of the pursuers took a swing at Rittenhouse and knocked his ball cap off.
Were those running after him simply trying to effect a citizen’s arrest in the belief that Rittenhouse had just committed a crime and might be a danger to others?
“Whether or not the people chasing him thought they had the right to chase him is irrelevant,” said Richard Kling, a veteran Chicago defense attorney who teaches evidence and forensic science at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Rittenhouse stumbled and fell as he ran. One of his pursuers took a flying kick at his head and missed as Rittenhouse fired two errant shots from the ground. A second pursuer, Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake, Wisconsin, swung a skateboard at Rittenhouse, hitting him on the shoulder, and grabbed and tried to hang onto Rittenhouse’s rifle. Rittenhouse shot Huber in the chest during that struggle, prosecutors said, killing him.
A third victim, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, of West Allis, Wisconsin, who survived, first held up his hands in a gesture of surrender at a distance of a few feet. In one of his hands, he held a gun. But when he “moved toward” Rittenhouse, prosecutors said, Rittenhouse fired, striking him in the arm.
That final shooting “will be the most serious problem” for Rittenhouse at trial, Kling said. ”The guy did have a gun in his hand. But he wasn’t pointing it at or threatening Rittenhouse.”
What about the context, though? The confrontational, high-adrenaline interactions that led up to the tragic deaths. The night air punctuated by gunshots. Danger all around.
Did the teen willingly put himself in that fraught milieu and illegally, allegedly, risk a horrific escalation of that danger by carrying a gun on the scene? Yes.
Runaway's note: That final shooting is really the least problematic for Kyle. Grosskreutz had a lethal weapon in his hand, as he approached Kyle a second time. That weapon was being brought to bear as Grosskreutz advanced. More, Grosskreutz has been quoted, "I just talked to [Gaige] too–his only regret was not killing the kid and hesitating to pull the gun before emptying the entire mag into him. Coward.”
Runaway's second note: For anyone who missed it, the above was written by a left wing partisan who took the time to study the videos. The only possible conclusion of an honest person who studies all of the video, is self defense was warranted.
Runaway's third note: If Rittenhouse were a racist, he's a total failure. Kid shot 3 white people, and never even threatened any black person in the crowd. The Aryan Brotherhood would disown his young ass!
Qualified Immunity Is a Disgrace, No Matter Where You Live
Whether police officers are granted qualified immunity—the legal doctrine that makes it considerably more difficult to sue civil servants who violate your rights—largely depends on where the offense occurred, and thus where it's litigated in court, according to a recent Reuters investigation.
But even in the courts that try to hold public servants to a higher standard, officers routinely receive qualified immunity for conduct that shocks the conscience.
Judges in the Fifth Circuit—which covers Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana—"are more likely to prioritize police power over citizens' rights and liberties," Reuters reports. That deference to the state doesn't stop at the police. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted qualified immunity to a group of prison guards who forced a naked inmate, Trent Taylor, to stay in two squalid cells, one with "massive amounts of human feces" and the other with raw sewage overflowing on the floor. Though the judges on that panel acknowledged that Taylor's Eighth Amendment rights had been violated, they granted the group qualified immunity on the basis that the precise amount of time the inmate spent in those cells—six days—had not been spelled out in pre-existing case law.
Alternatively, the Ninth Circuit, which covers California, Washington state, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon, "has set a higher bar for police," granting qualified immunity in 42 percent of excessive force complaints. But even that appeals court has awarded qualified immunity in some head-scratching cases.
In 2019, for instance, the Ninth Circuit gave qualified immunity to Los Angeles police officer Michael Gutierrez who, without warning, shot a 15-year-old boy as he was preparing to make his way to school. The teen's friend was holding a plastic Airsoft gun replica. "Under the circumstances, a rational finder of fact could find that Gutierrez's use of deadly force shocked the conscience and was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment," the Ninth Circuit wrote. But that wasn't enough. "Because no analogous case existed at the time of the shooting, we hold that the district court erred in denying Gutierrez qualified immunity for this claim."
https://reason.com/2020/08/28/qualified-immunity-is-a-disgrace-no-matter-where-you-live-reuters/
"Shoot me, nigga!!"
Antifa Is Mostly Made Up Of Privileged White Dudes
https://spectator.us/antifa-white-privilege-race-minneapolis/
Antifa’s white privilege
Even in a riot, the races aren’t equalThere is no right to burn down your neighborhood, but it’s always an option. Freedom means choice, and real freedom must include the choice of self-destruction — but not destroying someone else’s neighborhood. Especially not when the neighborhood is mostly black and poor. That is what the privileged whites of antifa are doing by instigating disorder and destruction in Minneapolis’s 3rd precinct and elsewhere. Cost-free kicks at black people’s expense: the height of white privilege.
Race is the American sickness, and though everyone is sick of it, no one has the cure. The murder of George Floyd and the fact that it took riots before his killer was charged, confirms, should anyone still need confirmation, that Americans are still not equal before the law. Don military fatigues and storm the Michigan statehouse, and the police will recognize you as a fellow patriot. Pass a counterfeit bill while black, however, and no law can protect you from the law.
The laws that antifa learn to despise in their four-year colleges guarantee their racial privilege. If you’re black and angry enough to burn down banks and stores in your black neighborhood, tomorrow you’ll have to live in the ruins. If you’re white and you burn down banks and stores in someone else’s neighborhood, tomorrow you’ll be back in white world: fixing bikes or brewing espresso, waiting for The Man to cancel your student loans, living in a historic urban neighborhood whose historic black population you and your white friends have gentrified out of sight.
This isn’t the first time masked gangs of property-holding whites have stormed into black neighborhoods and smashed the place up to show they are above the law. They used to do it to preserve their racial privilege, to exclude blacks from exercising their rights of participation. Now they do it in the name of the racially underprivileged. Either way, they never asked for an invitation. They don’t have to, do they? They’re white and they know their rights.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/01/antifa-is-mostly-privileged-white-dudes/
Antifa Is Mostly Made Up Of Privileged White Dudes
Many in the media treat Antifa as a diverse group of warriors against fascism and racism. This is an absolute fabrication.
JULY 1, 2019 By David Marcus
At Occupy Wall Street, there were two very distinct groups. On one side of the park were the peaceful intellectuals. They ran the library and the general assembly, and organized services in the park. On the other side was the black bloc, a collection of black-clad punks, often with bandanas ready to serve as masks, who mostly engaged in drug use and drum circles. The latter group is directly related to the movement we now know as Antifa.One thing that both of these groups had—and continue to have—in common is that they are mostly young white people. This is not surprising; poll after poll shows us that the vast majority of far-left progressives are white. The intellectuals at Occupy understood and tried to address this, giving special treatment to the speech and ideas of their small cadre of non-white participants. The Black Bloc and Antifa take a different approach; they just cover their faces.
But when members of Antifa are arrested, the masks come off. And, as recent mugshots of Portland Antifa members show, these people are about as diverse as the Washington Generals.
At a time when many on the left are rightfully concerned about far-right white violence, why do so many seemed so nonplussed by far-left white violence, in most cases even refusing to acknowledge that that’s exactly what Antifa is?
One sociologist writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz attempts to prove fanciful claims that Antifa is a rainbow coalition of the oppressed desperately fighting in their own immediate self defense. Stanislav Vustotsky writes:
“Many militant anti-fascists become involved in this form of activism because aspects of their identity are directly targeted by fascist violence; they are queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, people of color, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and certainly identified in ways that intersected across these categories.
For them, anti-fascism was a means of ensuring their safety from a movement that threatens their very existence and venerates violence as the highest form of action. Even the Antifa activists who identify as cis heterosexual white males are the targets of fascist violence as ‘race’ and ‘gender’ traitors.”
Vusotsky claims to have formally studied Antifa—interviewing them, attending meetings, and “engaging in the culture of anti fascism.” Needless to say he doesn’t exactly come off as a neutral party to all this. But what is stunning is what is not in his piece. He claims to have conducted “ethnographic research,” on the group. If so, where are the numbers that back up his assertion that Antifa is wildly diverse?
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Antifa has seen videos of their violent antics and can see for himself or herself that almost all of them are white dudes. Anyone who has ever been in their presence knows this too. I would be very interested to see this ethnographic research, and I am curious if Haaretz looked at it before publishing the author’s bizarre claim. It strains credulity to believe that if Vusotsky had hard numbers to back up his assertion he would have simply left them out of his article.
The reason this point is so important is that it betrays a double standard that many in our media use regarding violent white activists. On the right, their whiteness is front and center; part of the toxic brew that stews their hate. But this is equally true of Antifa, which has its roots in the far left of the English punk scene in the 1980s.
Antifa’s goals are not those of most non-white Americans. Most non-white Americans don’t want to destroy the systems of government, abolish the police, end capitalism, or cripple corporations. The group is absolutely trying to impose a style of anarchy that is steeped in (and almost unique to) whiteness.
When cowards wear masks to engage in violence, we must remove the masks to see who we are actually dealing with—not the fairy tale of diversity version. When Andy Ngo, a minority gay man, is mercilessly beaten up by white activists, the fact that the activists are white is a big part of the story in today’s landscape. Don’t believe the progressive narrative: Antifa is mostly a bunch of privileged white dudes.
A tribute to first responders
Detroit Firefighter Dies Trying to Save Girls From Drowning
Sgt. Sivad Johnson, 49, a 26-year veteran of the Detroit Fire Department, dived in to rescue the girls, who were later safely brought ashore.The body of a Detroit firefighter was recovered from the Detroit River on Saturday, a day after he dived into the water to save three young girls from drowning, the authorities said.
Sgt. Sivad Johnson, 49, a 26-year veteran of the Detroit Fire Department, was visiting Belle Isle, a 982-acre island park in the Detroit River, with his 10-year-old daughter, Hayden, on Friday evening when he heard witnesses say three young girls were drowning, said Eric Jones, the Detroit fire commissioner.
Sergeant Johnson gave his phone and keys to his daughter, and he and a civilian dived into the river to save the girls, Commissioner Jones said. After the girls were safely brought to shore, Sergeant Johnson’s daughter realized she could not find her father and called 911 around 9 p.m., according to the Michigan State Police.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/us/sivad-johnson-detroit-firefighter-dead.html
Sgt. Johnson epitomizes emergency personnel everywhere. People who care about other people, and will jump in where others fear to go. But, it's good to remember that Sgt. Johnson isn't alone. Firefighters, EMTs, police, and medical personnel, all around the world rush in when there is an emergency - often at the risk of their own lives.
Give this man a moment of silence, if you will. And, the next time you have reason to speak to a first responder, you might take time out for another moment of silence. Most first responders never have to sacrifice much more than a little blood, sweat and tears throughout their careers, but, they are there, ready to do whatever is required.
