Patriot Act about to be renewed

June 1, 2015: the Patriot Act will almost certainly be renewed in the USA, for the fourth time. And who better to keep us up to date, then John Oliver? Takeaway: pay attention to Section 215.

 

Out of all this, I still can't believe MSNBC interrupted a congresswoman with "breaking news" about Justin Bieber. Ugh.

Merry Police Elf Christmas State!

WPXI News says we should beware watchful idols like Elf on a Shelf, because it convinces our kids to accept a future "police state."

But... 

We already have a police state, don't we? Secret surveillance, journalists getting jailed, protestors getting teargassed, arrested and fined, and innocent civilians getting murdered in broad daylight with no legal consequence because it was the police who murdered them. How many more horrors do you need to have a police state?

Some Facts About the Michael Brown Incident

While Michael Brown was deemed too dangerous to live, another man in Dallas set fires so that he could shoot police and firefighters who responded, and HE was taken into custody unharmed and perfectly alive. Spoiler alert: he was white. (source)

Fox News jumped to paint Michael Brown as a criminal for allegedly stealing cigars in this video, meanwhile the man who terrorized Dallas and shot multiple officers was given a chance to defend his reasons as NBC published an article painting him as a human who was making a respectable political statement.

The town of Ferguson, Missouri is 67 percent African-American. Their police force is over 96 percent white. (source)

This sort of thing happens often; 4 other unarmed black men were killed by police this month in the USA: Eric Garner(NY), John Crawford(OH), Ezell Ford(CA), and Dante Parker(CA) (source).

Black women and girls are also regularly killed by police, see the stories of Yvette Smith(TX), Eleanor Bumpurs(NY), Aiyana Stanley-Jones(MI), and Tarika Wilson(OH).

It happens even in "nice places": police officers have shot unarmed black men and women in Hollywood, Riverside (California), and Prince Georges County—a Maryland suburb known as the most affluent US county with an African-American majority. (source)

The ACLU sued to get a copy of Ferguson's police report covering the shooting, but it was "mostly blank" and did not contain any info like a description of the scene, quotes from eyewitnesses, names of the officers involved, or any other pieces of information normally found on such documents. (source)

German reporters covering the protests afterwards (it's international news) said that Ferguson officers were worse to deal with than covering conflict zones in Georgia, the Gaza strip, Kaliningrad/the Soviet Union, Iraq, Vietnam, China, and Cuba. Police here would not let them take any pictures and they got arrested. (source)

Ferguson police also threatened to kill American journalists covering the protests. (source)

Though the Grand Jury is not even sure they will charge Darren Wilson with anything, Darren Wilson has raised over $234,000 for his legal defense at Gofundme. Michael Brown's family has raised only $168,000. (source)

Our police force now has so much military gear that you can play the Cop or Solider? guessing game online.

A 14-year old in Lilburn, Georgia, was so bothered by our epidemic of police violence that he designed an app for it.

After that, Obama decided he also was alarmed and ordered a review of our militarized police system. Racism or race was not mentioned even once in the 1,382 word New York Times article covering his statement.

Goodbye Right to Remain Silent

And today's episode of "Which USA Right is Dying Now?" is...

The right against self-incrimination! (5th Amendment to the US Constitution)

 In this case, Salinas v. Texas, Salinas remained silent when questioned and the judge used that as evidence of his guilt: "He had remained silent, and the Supreme Court had previously made clear that prosecutors can’t bring up a defendant’s refusal to answer the state’s questions. This time around, however, Justice Samuel Alito blithely responded that Salinas was “free to leave” and did not assert his right to remain silent." 

Why? Because Salinas didn't use the correct legal term when deciding to remain silent: "He was silent. But somehow, without a lawyer, and without being told his rights, he should have affirmatively “invoked” his right to not answer questions." 

 And that's not even the worst part..." Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia joined the judgment, but for a different reason; they think Salinas had no rights at all to invoke before his arrest (they also object to Miranda itself)."

I thought the courts were supposed to enforce the US Constitution...not destroy it?

CISPA Ends Internet Privacy in USA

Passed just last April: "CISPA is an extreme proposal that allows companies that hold our very sensitive information to share it with any company or government entity they choose, even directly with military agencies like the NSA, without first stripping out personally identifiable information," said Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel at the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office.

House Representative Alan Grayson (Florida), tried to introduce a tiny amendment to make sure a warrant was required before companies had to hand over info. But "The Rules Committee wouldn’t even allow debate on requiring a warrant before a search."

Why would the House rush through such a controversial bill?  Well, interest groups in support of the bill spent $605 MILLION DOLLARS lobbying Congress since 2011. That's 140 times as much as those who opposed the bill, who only spent $4.3m!  Why count since 2011?  Well that's when lobbying was allowed to get bigger than ever, because Citizens United vs. FCC had just taken off.  (The ironically named Citizens United* was a conservative group who sued the Federal Election Comission to allow corporations political "rights" to bribe--I mean, lobby--Congress unlimited amounts of money for the first time in US history.)

* ironic because it should have been named Corporations United.

Freedoms are no Longer Free, AKA American Fiscal Theory

You thought your 1st Amendment freedom was free? Think again.

Scott Walker, governer of Wisconsin, already enacted a policy that charges protesters money to protest.

American government: Ohohoho, yes! We spent all this money on the military and corporate handouts, and then we tried to cut money from social programs to fund this, but then we got all these annoying protestors, so now if we can just charge the protesters money we can kill two birds with one stone! *evil cackle*

Gosh. I don't even have to try to make fun of the government anymore. They've made a caricature of themselves before I even got there..

1st Amendment Fails in Indiana

After a notable history of book burning, Indiana is making waves with internet censorship. Last month the Indianapolis Public School System added two new categories to it's Inappropriate Content List; "Alternative Spirituality/Belief" and "Alternative Sexuality/Lifestyles." This means that school computers will now block all sites containing information on dangerous topics such as atheistic views, Witchcraft, voodoo rituals, "any other form of mysticism", LGBT information, fetishes and paranormal events.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is launching a campaign to protest this policy, claiming promotes it religion over nonreligion, which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The FFRF Staff Attorney Rebecca Kratz also wrote that this policy discriminates against the 15% of the population that is nonreligious (the fastest growing segment of the American population), and limits student's capacity to expand their knowledge and acceptance of all individuals and beliefs."

Of course this policy limits student's capacity to expand their knowledge and acceptance, but only on INAPPROPRIATE topics; that's the whole idea...If atheists really are the fasting growing segment of our population, then what better way to reverse that trend than making sure children can only read about the mainstream religions?

Note: this post may be unavailable in the state of Indiana.

Dark Side of the Tweet

Remember when Twitter was used to aid the Green Revolution in Iran? Most people thought helping those protectors assemble was a good thing.

Well, that time is past. Welcome to the flipside.

Elliot Madison, a self-proclaimed Anarchist, was using Twitter to broadcast police locations during the recent G-20 Summit. And while investigating the government and sharing information about it would seem to be protected in America, Elliot and his accomplice have been charged with criminal use of communication facility.

Apparently, the growing utility of Twitter has pushed the First Amendment up against a wall. Who would have thought there are some things it's illegal to tweet about?