Crybaby Trump is against free speech and doesn’t have a sense of humor!
Here’s a skit from the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vQlhWBvAwY
And here’s a tweet that Trump made in response: (original, archive)
The text states:
“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!”
So Trump wants “retribution,” against people who were peacefully and lawfully exercising their first amendment right to free speech. He also wants them to be “looked into.”
Trump took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution. He ought to be ashamed of himself for thinking that the people at Saturday Night Live are somehow exempt from the first amendment’s right to free speech.
43% of Republicans say Trump should be allowed to shut down media
These Republicans are the very definition of fascism.
https://nypost.com/2018/08/07/43-of-republicans-say-trump-should-be-allowed-to-shut-down-media/
43% of Republicans say Trump should be allowed to shut down media
August 7, 2018
President Trump’s repeated cries of “fake news” and attacks on journalists as “enemies of the American people” have resonated with his base, with 43 percent of Republicans saying he “should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.”
The results — suggesting that a plurality of Republicans would have no problem trashing the First Amendment — came from a stunning new poll conducted by Ipsos and reported Tuesday by the Daily Beast.
The survey also showed that just 36 percent of GOP voters disagreed with that statement.
When asked if Trump should close down specific news organizations, such as CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times — all frequent Trump targets — 23 percent of GOP voters agreed while 49 percent did not.
Overall, Republicans were more likely to take a dim view of the media, the website reported.
Forty-eight percent said they believed “the news media is the enemy of the American people,” with only 28 percent disagreeing.
Nearly four out of five — 79 percent — said that they believed “the mainstream media treats President Trump unfairly.”
The commander-in-chief — who as recently as January called existing US libel laws “a sham and a disgrace” — has routinely accused journalists of lying, making up sources and knowingly reporting false information to make him look bad.
“The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!” he ranted Sunday in a typical media-bashing tweet.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently refused to respond when she was asked if she thought journalists were the enemies of the people — though first daughter Ivanka Trump said she disagreed with the characterization.
But it’s not only Republicans who think the president should have the power to muzzle the media, a common practice in dictatorships and authoritarian states like Russia, North Korea and China.
According to the survey, 12 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of independents agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.”
Conversely, 74 percent of Dems and 55 percent of independents disagreed with the statement.
But 12 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents agreed that “the news media is the enemy of the American people,” while 74 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents disagreed.
But there were kernels of positive news for the press in the survey as well.
Overall, 57 percent of those surveyed said they believed the news media and reporters were “necessary to keep the Trump administration honest” — including a 39 percent plurality of Republicans.
And a large majority — 85 percent — believed that “freedom of the press is essential for American democracy,” compared to 4 percent who opposed that statement.
The 43 percent figure roughly corresponds to the president’s loyal base.
Gallup’s most recent weekly tracking poll showed that 41 percent of voters approved of the job Trump is doing while 54 percent disapproved.
In my opinion, the fact that Maxine Waters supporters stole an American flag is far more significant than the fact that they burned it
This article from the Washington Times includes the following photograph of Maxine Waters supporters burning an American flag:
As a libertarian who believes in free speech and property rights, I think it should be legal to burn the American flag as long as both of the following conditions are met:
1) The flag being burned is the property of the person (or people) who is (or are) burning it, i.e., the flag is not stolen.
and
2) The flag is burned in a manner that is in accordance with all of the fire and safety laws, i.e., the flag burning doesn’t pose a physical threat or fire hazard to the lives or property of other people.
Well, the particular incident in the above photograph fails this test, because, according to the same article from the Washington Times:
A small crowd that gathered Thursday outside the Los Angeles office of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters to counter an expected protest by a self-styled militia group burned an American flag taken from the back of a pickup truck.
The vehicle, occupied by two men who appeared to be white, was stopped by the crowd. Some marchers opened the doors and one grabbed the flag flying on a pole in the bed of the truck, which sped off.
In other words, they stole the flag.
In my opinion, the fact that these Maxine Waters supporters stole an American flag is far more significant than the fact that they burned it.
I hope the person who stole the flag is prosecuted for robbery.
And I hope the people who blocked the vehicle and opened its doors are charged as accessories to robbery.
There is no excuse for committing robbery. Shame on them.
Hillary Clinton allegedly threatened to shut down a comedy club for showing this three minute video
Here’s the video, which contains profanity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n083eytJe5g
National Review reports:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427354/hillary-clinton-laugh-factory-comedians-threats
Hillary’s Campaign Ordered a Comedy Club Not to Make Fun of Her — Someone Should Tell Her This Isn’t China
The campaign actually threatened to shut the club down.
November 19, 2015
Hollywood’s Laugh Factory posted a three-minute video of comedians telling jokes about Hillary Clinton on its website…
… her campaign called the club demanding that it take the video down and give them the personal contact information of every single comic who appeared in it…
Club owner Jamie Masada reports that the campaign actually threatened to put the club out of business if he did not heed their demands…
The same information has also been reported by the Blaze and Judicial Watch.
However, I haven’t been able to find any mainstream media sources that have reported this information.
So, one of the two following things must be true: either the information is false, or, the mainstream media has failed to do its job.
If it is true, then this, by itself, is enough to convince me that Clinton does not support the Bill of Rights, and, therefore, should not be President. It also makes me wonder why the mainstream media has chosen to avoid reporting it.
If it’s not true, then the Laugh Factory owes Clinton a big apology.
Colorado judge rules that a Facebook post is an illegal campaign contribution
I agree with the law professor who said this could be troubling for free speech. I worry about the precedent that it creates, and about the possibility of it eventually being expanded to any kind of political speech that anyone makes on the internet.
USA Today reports:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/10/23/facebook-post-campaign-contribution/74486688/
Judge: School’s Facebook post a campaign contribution
DENVER — A Colorado judge has ruled that a charter school’s Facebook post amounts to an illegal campaign contribution to a school board candidate.
In August, Liberty Common School in Fort Collins, Colo., shared a newspaper article about a student’s parent running for a board seat in a neighboring school district. Liberty Common’s principal, former Colorado GOP Rep. Bob Schaffer, then shared the post and called candidate Tomi Grundvig an “excellent education leader” who would provide “sensible stewardship” of Thompson School District.
An administrative law judge, Matthew E. Norwood, called the violation “minor,” and ruled that “no government money of any significant amount was spent to make the contribution.” He also focused on the post to the school’s specific page, not Schaffer’s personal page.
“The school’s action was the giving of a thing of value to the candidate, namely favorable publicity,” Norwood wrote in his Oct. 14 ruling, which became public Wednesday. “It was given indirectly to her for the purpose of promoting her election.”
Law professor Scott Moss of the University of Colorado called that point troubling for its implications on political speech.
“I don’t buy that under the First Amendment speech about a candidate can be deemed a contribution,” Moss said after reading the ruling. “Is speech valuable? Yes. But that’s not a basis for restricting core political speech.”
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 