10-year-old walks alone a mile away from Georgia home, leading to his mother’s arrest
10-year-old walks alone a mile away from Georgia home, leading to his mother’s arrest
Brittany Patterson, 41, said she was shocked that her son’s stroll could lead to a criminal charge.
By David K. Li
November 14, 2024
A Georgia woman was arrested and accused of allegedly endangering her son — all because the unsupervised 10-year-old walked less than a mile away from home, officials said.
Brittany Patterson, 41, had taken another son to a doctor on Oct. 30, and she became mildly annoyed — but not at all worried — when the Fannin County Sheriff’s Department called to say her son Soren had wandered from their rural home in Mineral Bluff and into town.
“It’s not a super dangerous or even dangerous-at-all stretch of road,” Patterson told NBC News in an interview that aired Wednesday. “I wasn’t terrified for him or scared for his safety.”
Deputies drove Soren, now 11, home and that was that, or so Patterson thought.
But then hours later, the sheriff’s department went back to the family’s home near the North Carolina border, where Patterson was handcuffed, arrested, booked on suspicion of reckless conduct and forced to post $500 bail.
“It was anger and frustration, of course, because my children were having to witness that all,” she said. “They asked me to put my hands behind my back and all that stuff, and I realized what was going on.”
Authorities have offered to drop the charge if Patterson signs a form that outlines a safety plan guaranteeing that her children would always be under a watchful eye, she and her lawyer said.
Patterson refuses to sign the form and said she’ll contest the charge, which carries up a year behind bars.
“This is not right. I did nothing wrong,” she said. “I’m going to fight for that.”
Patterson’s lawyer, David DeLugas, rhetorically asked whether mothers and fathers now have to know the precise locations of their children at all times.
“Are all parents going to have to put GPS on their child?” he said. “The parents get to decide for their children unless it is unreasonably dangerous.”
A representative for the district attorney in Fannin County could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
MSNBC commentator Jonathan Capehart claims that NPR and Huffington Post were lying when they said Kamala Harris put Cheree Peoples in jail because her daughter missed school when she was in the hospital.
Here’s the MSNBC video where Jonathan Capehart claims that NPR and Huffington Post were both lying when they said Kamala Harris put Cheree Peoples in jail because her daughter missed school when she was in the hospital:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=towOnvRcLxs
And here are the links to the original claim by both NPR and Huffington Post:
Indoor pets don’t get rabies. The government murdered Peanut, and they lied about why they did it.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1853508688100667571
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1853508688100667571
According to NPR and Huffington Post, California Attorney General Kamala Harris put a black mother named Cheree Peoples in prison because her chronically sick child, who was in the hospital, missed too many days of school.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
November 4, 2024
According to NPR and Huffington Post, California Attorney General Kamala Harris put a black mother named Cheree Peoples in prison because her chronically sick child, who was in the hospital, missed too many days of school.
Sources:
You can read my tweets, buy my books, and donate to me at the following three links:
Pastor arrested after commenting on Islam, saying sex is binary: ‘That he was arrested, held in police custody for 13 hours and had his property destroyed is appalling’
Pastor arrested after commenting on Islam, saying sex is binary
‘That he was arrested, held in police custody for 13 hours and had his property destroyed is appalling’
October 15, 2024
A Christian pastor was arrested after he made comments about Islam and the binary nature of sex while street preaching outside Bristol University.
In response to a question from a Muslim member of the public, Dia Moodley said he believed there were differences between the moral standards of the God of Islam and the Christian God.
During his preaching he also expressed the belief that God made humans male and female and that this truth should not be denied.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF UK), which is supporting Moodley, said he was arrested and detained for 13 hours by Avon and Somerset Police in March.
The organization said that Moodley was pushed off his short stepladder and had a sign snatched from his hands before being arrested by attending officers.
Four of his signs were handed to staff at Bristol University, who disposed of them under the instruction of the officers.
Reacting to the incident, Moodley said, “Two-tier policing is sadly not a fiction or some conspiracy theory, it’s a reality that Christians in the U.K. have been experiencing for years.
“It shouldn’t be for the state to decide which religions and ideologies must not be discussed or critiqued in the public street. The result is the normalization of a two-tier society where some beliefs and ideologies are valued and protected, while others are undermined and outlawed.
“The world is looking at the dismal state of free speech in the U.K. with shock. What happened to me reflects a wider trend of increasing state censorship in the U.K. and across the West.”
ADF UK is supporting Moodley in pursuing a complaint against Avon and Somerset Police. He has already received an apology for the disposal of his signs.
An officer wrote in an email to Moodley: “I’m sorry to advise that the signs were handed to … the UoB [University of Bristol] for them to dispose of. I cannot comment as to why this decision was made (as I was not present at the time), however I would like to apologiae on behalf of my colleagues. … Again, I am sincerely sorry that this action [sic].”
ADF UK described Avon and Somerset Police’s actions as surprising, noting that they had previously settled with Moodley after admitting that restrictions preventing him from “passing comments on any other religion” besides Christianity were “disproportionate.”
Barrister and legal counsel for ADF UK, Jeremiah Igunnubole, said, “We are glad Avon and Somerset Police dropped their investigation into Pastor Dia.
“But the fact that he was arrested, held in police custody for 13 hours, and had his property destroyed with the encouragement of Avon and Somerset police is objectively appalling. Nobody should be subject to discriminatory treatment for peacefully and lawfully sharing their core beliefs.
“In this case, Pastor Dia was himself a victim of crime, including assault, aggressive harassment and criminal damage and yet, perversely, he was the one treated as a criminal for peacefully exercising his fundamental rights.
“Everyone must be treated equally under the law. Freedom of speech cannot be the preserve of those expressing socially progressive ideals. In a democratic society, everyone must have the right to peacefully express their core beliefs, even when those beliefs are considered controversial or criticize other religions and belief systems.”
‘Totally illegal’: Trump escalates rhetoric on outlawing political dissent and criticism
‘Totally illegal’: Trump escalates rhetoric on outlawing political dissent and criticism
“This is out of the autocratic playbook. As autocrats consolidate their power once they’re in office, anything that threatens their power … becomes illegal,” historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat said.
By Sahil Kapur
October 13, 2024
Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric depicting his political rivals and critics as criminals, while dropping a long trail of suggestions that he favors outlawing political speech that he deems misleading or challenges his claims to power.
In a speech Friday in Aurora, Colorado, the Republican presidential nominee blasted the immigration system and lobbed a rhetorical grenade at his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“She’s a criminal. She’s a criminal,” said Trump, who was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his New York hush money trial. “She really is, if you think about it.”
It’s a pattern of messaging that has long been part of Trump’s stump speeches but has escalated significantly in his 2024 candidacy. In the final stretch to the Nov. 5 election, the former president has developed a tendency to claim that speech he disapproves of is illegal, even if it is protected by the First Amendment.
A questionable cut of a “60 Minutes” Harris interview? “Totally illegal,” Trump wrote on X, saying it makes Harris look better and that CBS should have its broadcast license revoked.
The Harris campaign editing headlines in paid Google ads? “Totally Illegal,” he wrote, vowing that Google “will pay a big price” for it.
Democrats are trying to “illegally hide” part of his statement calling on rioters to be peaceful on Jan. 6, he claimed this month.
In August, Trump told a crowd in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that criticisms of judges who have ruled in alignment with him should be banned. “I believe it’s illegal what they do,” Trump said. “I believe they are playing the ref. They’re constantly criticizing our great — some of our greatest justices and a lot of great judges. … Playing the ref with our judges and our justices should be punishable by very serious fines and beyond that.”
‘This is out of the autocratic playbook’
An expert who studies authoritarianism and fascism said Trump’s rhetoric about criminalizing dissent is familiar, and could carry serious implications for the country if he’s elected president.
“This is out of the autocratic playbook. As autocrats consolidate their power once they’re in office, anything that threatens their power, or exposes their corruption, or releases information that’s harmful to them in any way becomes illegal,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and professor at New York University who wrote the 2020 book “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present.”
“He’s actually rehearsing, in a sense, what he would be doing as head of state, which is what Orban does, Modi is doing, Putin has long done,” she said, referring to the leaders of Hungary, India and Russia, respectively. “Just as there’s a divide now because of this brainwashing about who is a patriot and who is a criminal about Jan. 6, right? In the same way, telling the truth in any area — journalists, scientists, even people like me, anybody who is engaged in objective inquiry, prosecutors, of course — they become criminal elements and they need to be shut down.”
Some Harris voters say Trump is channeling dictators.
“He reminds me of Hitler and the rise to power,” said Dan Geiger, a retired Pittsburgh resident. “The more he lies the more it’s accepted by his faithful followers.”
Trump has suggested investigations involving his conduct are illegitimate under the law and vowed revenge against the prosecutors who oversee them. He has also claimed, with no evidence, that President Joe Biden directed those prosecutions, even the state indictments he has no authority over.
Upon early revelations of his New York indictment, Trump said the prosecutor “ILLEGALLY LEAKED” it. And the probe into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia? “They illegally spied on my campaign.”
Trump voters have mixed views on revenge
Trump rallied a raucous crowd Wednesday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, launching personal attacks on Harris and drawing jeers and boos from a sea of red MAGA-hatted supporters as he spoke of the “enemy from within” — government officials with whom he’s clashed. He mentioned as one example Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., which sparked a “lock him up!” shout from one supporter.
But some of Trump’s own voters told NBC News they disapprove of the revenge-based themes in his campaign while still planning to support him because of their concerns about the economy and immigration.
Walter Buckman, a Scranton native, said he’s supporting Trump because of his views on immigration and the economy. But the self-described Catholic is “absolutely not” on board with his rhetoric about exacting revenge and getting even.
“The way to get even with anybody is to change the economy. Getting even should not be in the playbook,” he said. “Is revenge a good thing? It’s not a good thing.”
Debbie Hendrix, a Pennsylvanian who attended the Trump rally donning a “MAGA” hat, said she’s excited to vote for Trump a third time. But even she is put off by his talk of retribution.
“I don’t agree with that. I think people like ‘Drain the swamp,’” she said, but in her view that doesn’t mean personally going after his critics. “I don’t think he should sink to their level.”
Sometimes, Trump launches the claim of illegality plausibly. In October 2023, he said advocates in Colorado are trying to “illegally remove my name from the ballot” over his role in Jan. 6, a case he fought and won at the U.S. Supreme Court. More recently, he has said people who get caught cheating in the election will be prosecuted, essentially restating existing law.
Fetterman: ‘A menu of dumb s—’
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who is campaigning in conservative rural areas for Harris, said Trump is no stranger to “bizarre ramblings,” but warned that it doesn’t demotivate his voters.
“That’s just a menu of dumb shit that he always says,” Fetterman said. “I don’t even pay attention to those kinds of things. Most people don’t really take it at face value or whatever.”
It’s important for everyone who’s troubled by it to turn out and vote for Harris, he said, criticizing the “uncommitted” movement, supporters of perennial Green Party nominee Jill Stein, and others who abhor Trump but could waste their vote.
“If you are not 100% voting for Harris, then you are either directly or indirectly helping Trump,” Fetterman said. “Go ahead and try that again. That’s what happened in 2016 when people threw their votes away on that dope Jill Stein.”
Trump has responded to criticisms of his authoritarian rhetoric by repeatedly claiming Democrats are the real fascists and accusing them of “weaponizing” the government against him. His campaign didn’t return messages seeking comment for this article.
If he’s elected, could Trump actually succeed at centralizing power for himself, in a system built on checks and balances that was often successful at restraining him during his first term.
“That’s the big question,” Ben-Ghiat said, adding that it depends partly on his ability to impose party fealty, intimidate critics and install competent bureaucrats who are effective at using levers of power to advance his personal aims.
“It is about criminalizing dissent,” she said. “There is a method to his madness in that he has taken people on a journey of indoctrination.”
Trump: “These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-ignores-first-amendment-says-150421407.html
Trump ignores the First Amendment and says those who criticize the Supreme Court should be tossed in jail
By Ariana Baio
September 24, 2024
Donald Trump scolded those who critique the Supreme Court at a rally on Monday, saying people should be jailed for “the way they talk about our judges and our justices” – despite the First Amendment allowing people to criticize the government.
The former president, who has invoked his First Amendment right to launch a bevy of attacks against federal and state judges, suggested it should be “illegal” to rebuke judicial decisions or try and advocate in favor of a certain decision.
“It should be illegal, what happens,” Trump told a crowd in Pennslyvania. “You know, you have these guys like playing the ref, like the great Bobby Knight. These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.”
The former president was referring to the backlash the Supreme Court received after overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022. He called the court “very brave” for making a decision that “everybody wanted” – an unfounded claim.
Under the First Amendment, people have the right to complain about government officials and decisions.
Trump himself has been safeguarded by this rule when during his New York criminal trial, Trump called Justice Juan Merchan “highly conflicted.” When a gag order was placed on him, Trump violated it at least 10 times and then utilized his allies to launch more attacks against the judge.
In his federal election interference trial, the former president claimed District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan was “highly partisan” and “VERY BIASED & UNFAIR” because she warned him not to make inflammatory statements about the case.
Trump has also criticized federal appeals courts, he once called the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals “a complete & total disaster” with a “horrible reputation” and claimed the judges were “making our Country unsafe.”
Those statements, made in 2018, were in response to Chief Justice John Roberts rebuking Trump’s assertion that an “Obama judge” ruled against his asylum policy.
Yet, the former president stood in front of a crowd of supporters on Monday evening to insinuate it is not appropriate to criticize the Supreme Court – which is comprised of lifetime appointed, not elected, justices.
Trump also criticized Democrats’ desire to “pack the court”, or appoint more judges, to balance the conservative-to-liberal ratio. He claimed Vice President Kamala Harris wants to make the court 25 justices – it is unclear where that figure originated.
Harris supports President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court reform proposal which would authorize a president to appoint a new justice every two years to serve for 18 years. However, given Congress would need to approve the addition of justices, it is unlikely to happen.
Gab founder Andrew Torba: “One of the more ridiculous foreign data requests that Gab received (and turned down) from Germany was when they wanted us to dox a user for calling a female politician fat.”
https://x.com/BasedTorba/status/1827481697354707071/
https://twitter.com/BasedTorba/status/1827481697354707071/
This is great news for people who love giant corporations and hate small businesses.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/minnesota-grandma-jailed-defying-walz-153321382.html
Minnesota grandma jailed for defying Walz COVID lockdown orders warns ‘you do not want tyranny at this level’
By Danielle Wallace
August 13, 2024
Lisa Hanson, a former wine and coffee bistro owner thrown into jail for violating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s lockdown orders, told Fox News Digital that the now Democratic vice presidential candidate essentially “shut down and destroyed” her small business, warning Americans, “You do not want tyranny at this level.”
A mother of eight children and soon to be 18 grandchildren, Hanson said besides a speeding ticket she received as a teenager, she had always been a law-abiding citizen and owned businesses with her husband for more than 30 years. At the time the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing in 2020, Hanson said The Interchange Wine & Coffee Bistro in Albert Lea, about 90 miles south of Minneapolis, had been open for eight years.
Her wine and coffee bistro initially complied with the shutdown ordered that March. However, Hanson said she watched for months afterward as Walz never fully re-opened the state when it came to businesses deemed non-essential, such as the bars, restaurants, gyms, dance studios and hair salons. By contrast, the governor never shut down liquor stores, the “big box stores” or even strip clubs.
“He shut down a lot of the mom-and-pop shops, those folks that were just trying to make a living and provide a great product and a great service,” Hanson told Fox News Digital. “In contrast, he allowed big box stores, etc. to stay open. Really incredible, an incredible use of tyranny against the people.”
Hanson eventually decided to re-open her business and defied Walz’s renewed shutdown order for bars and restaurants six times between December 2020 and January 2021.
She was convicted in December 2021 on misdemeanor charges and received the maximum sentence of 90 days and a $1,000 fine. Hanson ended up serving two-thirds of her sentence, 60 days.
“This is the story that America needs to hear, that Tim Walz is not some cuddly, joyful coach, like all the things that the MSMs are calling him,” Hanson told Fox News Digital. “That is not who this man is. This man would like to take your rights away. He will take your rights away. Because what happened to me could have happened to anybody. What happened to me will happen to you.”
“My family has paid a dear price. While I was in jail, I missed out on Christmas with my family, I missed out on my wedding anniversary, and I also missed out on the birth of one of my grandchildren,” Hanson said. “I can never have that time back. That time was stolen from me. My business was destroyed. My business is gone. After everything that happened, Tim Walz and Keith Ellison destroyed my business. They wrecked my life.”
“I’ve heard some people say that Tim Walz is a real nice guy. Yeah, well he’s not. Take my word for it,” Hanson said. “Through this whole process, I’ve gotten to know other people. Similar things have happened to them when they were trying to run their business and survive. Mostly women, by the way. So Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison really like to go after women. They’re bullies.”
“They’re bullies. And they like to go after women and torment and destroy women’s lives. This is what they have done in the state of Minnesota. So let America know you do not want Tim Walz as vice president. You do not want tyranny at this level,” she continued. “I have seen firsthand. We, the people of Minnesota, have seen what Tim Walz, the type of evil he orchestrates if he is elected as vice president of this country. He, in lockstep with Harris, who is also evil, will perpetuate this same type of evil on the American people. We do not want that. So this is the truth about Tim Walz.”
“I would like to see Tim Walz impeached. I would like to see him prosecuted for the crimes he has committed against the people of Minnesota,” Hanson said.
When Walz issued a November 2020 executive order that again shuttered dine-in services 100% for both indoor and outdoor bars and restaurants in the state, Hanson said she joined a group of nearly 200 fellow business owners called “Open Minnesota,” believing the governor, supported by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, was operating “in a rogue fashion outside the law.”
“We had God-given, constitutionally protected rights to be open. There was no statute. There was no law that allowed Gov. Walz to do what he did. He really did step outside of statutory law. But even more important, constitutional law,” Hanson said. “Because we have that right to be able to run our businesses and conduct our lives as we see fit, of course, staying within the rule of law.”
“We have a corrupt government that’s coming against us and saying, ‘you do not have the right to run your business,'” she said. “That is not a republic. That is not how a republic acts. It’s a dictatorship.”
Hanson described to Fox News Digital the moment she learned Walz had been selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
“Honestly, my feelings should not have been a surprise. But because of what I know about Tim Walz, because of the tyrant that I know he is. He’s wrecked so many lives in the state of Minnesota. He’s not done wrecking lives. He’s going to continue to wreck lives,” Hanson said. “I don’t use that word loosely, ‘evil.’ But the evil person that he is, it’s no wonder that the evil, Harris picked him to be her running mate,” Hanson said.
“Tim Walz has accomplished a lot of horrific things in the state of Minnesota in a very short amount of time,” she said.
Regarding the massive riots after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Hanson asked, “Where was our governor? Where was our governor when there was the looting and the burning down? A fellow business owner – their businesses being burned down. Where was our governor?”
“I have not been to Minneapolis since that took place,” Hanson told Fox News Digital. “I don’t need to go up there. I’ve seen what Tim Walz allowed to happen to Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Minnesota. That man is a wrecking machine. He needs to be stopped.”
Within 24 to 48 hours of first reopening her wine and coffee bistro in December 2020, Hanson said “the state came down on us with a vengeance,” siccing the health department on her business and eventually bringing about a half dozen civil and criminal cases against her. During her trial, Hanson claimed she was denied due process and blamed “rogue judges,” the attorney general, and Walz for operating in “lockstep.”
“They employed all of their resources against We the People, just trying to run a company, serve a cup of coffee to a willing customer. And they said, ‘nope, you can’t do that,'” Hanson said. “And mind you, there was never an injury. There was never an infection of COVID-19, nor was there ever a death that occurred because I had my doors open and willing customers came in to patronize me.”
Incurring tens of thousands in legal fees and fines, Hanson said eventually her business was forced to close while under intense pressure from the government.
“What happened to me was no accident, and they absolutely wanted to make an example, right?” Hanson said. “It was like literally living a nightmare.”
Hanson, who voted for former President Trump in 2016 and 2020, said she is not convinced she will support the Republican nominee in the 2024 election, citing what she has learned about Operation Warp Speed and Trump taking credit for the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Though she absolutely would not support the Harris-Walz ticket, Hanson argued against the two-party system of government altogether.
“Donald Trump is not going to save America. We certainly know Biden’s not going to save America, and Harris is not going to save America. The people need to get involved,” Hanson said.
Hanson, who briefly ran for state Senate unsuccessfully in 2022, encouraged citizens, parents especially, to get involved in school systems and local government.
“Electing Donald Trump is not, in my opinion, is not the way to go. For so many reasons,” Hanson said. “We need to change the two-party system. Otherwise, we’re just headed for some big words here: socialism, communism. And I know a whole lot of people that would say we’re already there, just not full-blown yet.”
New York City Criminal Courts Judge Abena Darkeh: “Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.”
Amateur Gunsmith Told by N.Y. Judge the Second Amendment ‘Doesn’t Exist’ in Her Courtroom Gets 10 Years in Prison
Dexter Taylor came face-to-face with a judge who said the Second Amendment ‘doesn’t exist’ in her courtroom.
By Matthew Rice
May 13, 2024
A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to ten years in state prison for legally purchasing gun parts and assembling weapons in his home, his lawyer tells the Sun. Dexter Taylor began assembling firearms as a hobby during the pandemic.
“This defendant allegedly acquired a massive arsenal of homemade ghost guns that are as real and dangerous as traditional firearms,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said when Taylor was arrested in 2022. In total, Taylor had built 13 firearms in his home and had in his possession at the time of his arrest several magazines, as well as casing, bullets, and gunpowder.
“It was excessive,” Taylor’s lawyer, Vinoo Varghese, tells the Sun of his client’s ten year sentence. Taylor was found guilty by a jury on April 22 on multiple charges, including second-degree criminal possession of a loaded weapon, four counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, five counts of criminal possession of a firearm, and second-degree criminal possession of five or more firearms, among other things.
“The D.A. asked for ten years,” Mr. Varghese said. Of the judge, he added: “She could have sentenced him to three-and-a-half.”
The jurist in the case, Judge Abena Darkeh, famously said during Taylor’s trial that his lawyers could not make arguments based on his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Mr. Varghese told RedState that Judge Darkeh said at one point: “Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.”
Taylor began assembling the firearms in his spare time as a hobby. He is professionally a software engineer and previously was a member in good standing at the Westside Rifle and Pistol Range in Manhattan, according to a fundraising page for Taylor’s legal defense fund that has raised nearly $175,000.
In an interview with RedState, Taylor said he was not amassing weapons as the prosecution alleged. Rather, he is a hobbyist who was fascinated by the intricate workings of firearms.
“I found out that you can actually legally buy a receiver and you can machine that receiver to completion, and you buy your parts and you put them together and you’ve got a pistol or a rifle,” he said.
“And once I saw that I was hooked,” he added. “I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever. This is the most cool thing you could possibly do in your machine shop.’”
Cuban authorities sentence young mother to 15 years in prison for live streaming protest
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article288144795.html
Cuban authorities sentence young mother to 15 years in prison for live streaming protest
By Nora Gámez Torres
April 30, 2024
A young mother has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for transmitting videos on Facebook of a protest in Cuba, the latest example of the communist government’s heavy-handed policies to crack down on growing dissent amid worsening economic conditions.
Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, 23, was charged with “sedition” and disseminating “enemy propaganda” for publishing videos of a protest in the city of Nuevitas, in the central province of Camaguey, in August 2022. Another 12 demonstrators received sentences between 4 and 14 years in prison under similar charges, according to court documents shared by the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos, a human rights organization based in Madrid, over the weekend.
A year after anti-government protests spread throughout the island on July 11, 2021, the residents of Nuevitas took to the streets again during an electricity blackout, chanting, “Turn on the lights,” “Freedom,” and “The people are tired,” independent news outlet 14ymedio reported at the time.
Shortly after, Rodríguez Prado and other participants were arrested and detained for several months without charges. She is the mother of a toddler and was 21 at the time of her detention.
Most of the original videos posted by the Nuevitas demonstrators have been deleted.
“The harsh sentencing this week of up to 15 years in prison for Cubans who peacefully assembled in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous,” said Brian Nichols, assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs at the U.S. State Department. “The Cuban government’s continued repression of Cubans striving to fulfill their basic rights and needs is unconscionable.”
The Cuban government prosecuted hundreds of people, including several mothers, seniors and minors, who participated in the July 11 demonstrations, meting out sentences of up to 30 years in prison. Despite an international outcry and diplomatic efforts, Cuban authorities have declined to release them, claiming they are not political prisoners.
The harsh sentences for the Nuevitas demonstrators, coming after more recent protests in Santiago de Cuba over the worsening deteriorated, suggest Cuban authorities are steadfast in their determination to crack down on opposition and civil unrest despite the backlash, out of fears the protests might continue.
Cuban independent journalists have also been targeted.
José Luis Tan Estrada, an independent journalist from Camaguey province, who had covered the detention of the Nuevitas demonstrators and revealed the poor conditions of healthcare facilities in that province, has been detained in Villa Marista, the Cuban state security prison in Havana, since Friday. Tan Estrada, a former professor at the University of Camaguey who was expelled for criticizing the government, was warned in April that he would be arrested if he continued reporting. At the time, an Interior Ministry official showed him a file with his posts on social media.
In recent years, the Cuban government has approved legislation turning what has been for decades a zero-tolerance policy for dissent and criticism of the government into law. As the government was finally forced to expand internet access on the island in recent years, it also made sure it could spy on people’s phones with the help of Chinese technology and made criticizing the government on social media a crime.
Decree-law 370, passed in 2019, makes it a crime to publish “information contrary to the public interest, morality, good manners and the integrity of the people” on social media. Two decrees passed in 2021 by the Ministry of Communications treat using social media to criticize the government as cyberterrorism. The new penal code approved in 2022 calls for prison sentences for people using vulgar language against top officials or publishing “fake news” and “propaganda against the Constitutional order.”
In its 2023 annual report on human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department said Cuban law “criminalized freedom of expression online, allowed the government to flag for removal social media posts critical of the government or government officials, listed criminal incitement through social media as an ‘aggravating circumstance”’to allow for harsher sentences, and increased penalties for slander and the use of social networks to organize protests.”
Brussels area Mayor Emir Kir is a fascist and a communist.
Instead of locking up violent serial criminals like Edward Johnson (who has been arrested and released 65 times), New York City is bringing in the National Guard
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
March 7, 2024
Edward Johnson is a violent serial criminal who has been arrested and released 65 times.
His favorite crime is to assault female health care workers.
Instead of keeping violent serial criminals like him locked up, New York City has brought in the National Guard.
I do not understand the so-called “logic” behind this.
Why not just lock up the violent serial criminals like Edward Johnson?
Why bring in the National Guard for something that should be done by the local police, district attorney, and judges?
New York will send National Guard to subways after a string of violent crimes
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
March 6, 2024
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans Wednesday to send the National Guard to the New York City subway system to help police conduct random searches of riders’ bags for weapons following a series of high-profile crimes on city trains.
Hochul, a Democrat, said she will deploy 750 members of the National Guard to the subways to assist the New York Police Department with bag checks at entrances to busy train stations.
“For people who are thinking about bringing a gun or knife on the subway, at least this creates a deterrent effect. They might be thinking, ‘You know what, it just may just not be worth it because I listened to the mayor and I listened to the governor and they have a lot more people who are going to be checking my bags,’” Hochul said at a news conference in New York City.
The move came as part of a larger effort from the governor’s office to address crime in the subway. She also floated a legislative proposal to ban people from trains for three years if they are convicted of assaulting a subway passenger and said officials would install cameras in conductor cabins to protect transit workers.
The deployment of the National Guard would bolster an enhanced presence of NYPD officers in the subway system. The governor said she will also send 250 state troopers and police officers from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency, to help with the bag searches.
Hochul has tried to mount a more aggressive public safety messaging strategy after Republicans campaigned on crime concerns and performed well in House races around New York City in the 2022 elections.
Her subway plan is “another unfortunate example of policymaking through overreaction and overreach,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
“Sound policy making will not come from overreacting to incidents that, while horrible and tragic, should not be misrepresented as a crime wave and certainly don’t call for a reversion to failed broken windows policies of the past,” she said, referring to the policing theory that going after smaller crimes can help stem greater disorder.
Overall, crime has dropped in New York City since a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, and killings are down on the subway system. But rare fatal shootings and shovings on the subway can put residents on edge. Just last week, a passenger slashed a subway conductor in the neck, delaying trains.
Police in New York have long conducted random bag checks at subway entrances, though the practice has been applied sporadically. Passengers are free to refuse the searches and leave the station. Critics have often raised questions about whether the searches are an effective policing tactic in a subway system that serves over 3 million riders per day.
The American Museum of Natural History has just canceled its Native American exhibits
https://www.amnh.org/about/statement-new-nagpra-regulations
Beginning this Saturday, we will be closing two halls dedicated to Indigenous cultures of North America, the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls, to visitors and staff. Both Halls display artifacts that, under the new NAGPRA regulations, could require consent to exhibit. The number of cultural objects on display in these Halls is significant, and because these exhibits are also severely outdated, we have decided that rather than just covering or removing specific items, we will close the Halls. In addition to closing these two Halls, we will be covering three cases just outside of the Hall of Eastern Woodlands and two cases in the Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples, which display Native Hawaiian items. In addition, two cases in Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall also will be covered.
One immediate effect of these closures will be the suspension of school field trips to Eastern Woodlands, which for years has hosted local students as part of their social studies curriculum.
I very much oppose Trump’s plan. It sounds quite fascist.
Trump and allies plot revenge, Justice Department control in a second term
By Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, and Devlin Barrett
November 6, 2023
Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.
In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, according to people who have talked to him, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Trump has also talked of prosecuting officials at the FBI and Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said.
In public, Trump has vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family. The former president has frequently made corruption accusations against them that are not supported by available evidence.
To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions, his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. Critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional.
“It would resemble a banana republic if people came into office and started going after their opponents willy-nilly,” said Saikrishna Prakash, a constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia who studies executive power. “It’s hardly something we should aspire to.”
Much of the planning for a second term has been unofficially outsourced to a partnership of right-wing think tanks in Washington. Dubbed “Project 2025,” the group is developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act, according to a person involved in those conversations and internal communications reviewed by The Washington Post. The law, last updated in 1871, authorizes the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement.
The proposal was identified in internal discussions as an immediate priority, the communications showed. In the final year of his presidency, some of Trump’s supporters urged him to invoke the Insurrection Act to put down unrest after the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, but he never did it. Trump has publicly expressed regret about not deploying more federal force and said he would not hesitate to do so in the future.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung did not answer questions about specific actions under discussion. “President Trump is focused on crushing his opponents in the primary election and then going on to beat Crooked Joe Biden,” Cheung said. “President Trump has always stood for law and order, and protecting the Constitution.”
The discussions underway reflect Trump’s determination to harness the power of the presidency to exact revenge on those who have challenged or criticized him if he returns to the White House. The former president has frequently threatened to take punitive steps against his perceived enemies, arguing that doing so would be justified by the current prosecutions against him. Trump has claimed without evidence that the criminal charges he is facing — a total of 91 across four state and federal indictments — were made up to damage him politically.
“This is third-world-country stuff, ‘arrest your opponent,’” Trump said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire in October. “And that means I can do that, too.”
Special counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Biden have all said that Smith’s prosecution decisions were made independently of the White House, in accordance with department rules on special counsels.
Trump, the clear polling leader in the GOP race, has made “retribution” a central theme of his campaign, seeking to intertwine his own legal defense with a call for payback against perceived slights and offenses to right-wing Americans. He repeatedly tells his supporters that he is being persecuted on their behalf and holds out a 2024 victory as a shared redemption at their enemies’ expense.
‘He is going to go after people that have turned on him’
It is unclear what alleged crimes or evidence Trump would claim to justify investigating his named targets.
Kelly said he would expect Trump to investigate him because since his term as chief of staff ended, he has publicly criticized Trump, including by alleging that he called dead service members “suckers.” Kelly added, “There is no question in my mind he is going to go after people that have turned on him.”
Barr, another Trump appointee turned critic, has contradicted the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election and called him “a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s.” Asked about Trump’s interest in prosecuting him, Barr deadpanned, “I’m quivering in my boots.”
“Trump himself is more likely to rot in jail than anyone on his alleged list,” said Cobb, who accused Trump of “stifling truth, making threats and bullying weaklings into doing his bidding.”
Milley did not comment.
Other modern presidents since the Watergate scandal — when Richard M. Nixon tried to suppress the FBI’s investigation into his campaign’s spying and sabotage against Democrats — have sought to separate politics from law enforcement. Presidents of both parties have imposed a White House policy restricting communications with prosecutors. An effort under the George W. Bush administration to remove U.S. attorneys for political reasons led to high-level resignations and a criminal investigation.
Rod J. Rosenstein, the Trump-appointed deputy attorney general who oversaw the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election, said a politically ordered prosecution would violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under law and could cause judges to dismiss the charges. That constitutional defense has rarely been raised in U.S. history, Rosenstein said.
“Making prosecutorial decisions in a nonpartisan manner is essential to democracy,” Rosenstein said. “The White House should not be meddling in individual cases for political reasons.”
But Trump allies such as Russ Vought, his former budget director who now leads the Center for Renewing America, are actively repudiating the modern tradition of a measure of independence for the Department of Justice, arguing that such independence is not based in law or the Constitution. Vought is in regular contact with Trump and would be expected to hold a major position in a second term.
“You don’t need a statutory change at all, you need a mind-set change,” Vought said in an interview. “You need an attorney general and a White House Counsel’s Office that don’t view themselves as trying to protect the department from the president.”
A fixation on prosecuting enemies
As president, Kelly said, Trump would often suggest prosecuting his political enemies, or at least having the FBI investigate them. Kelly said he would not pass along the requests to the Justice Department but would alert the White House Counsel’s Office. Usually, they would ignore the orders, he said, and wait for Trump to move on. In a second term, Trump’s aides could respond to such requests differently, he said.
“The lesson the former president learned from his first term is don’t put guys like me … in those jobs,” Kelly said. “The lesson he learned was to find sycophants.”
Although aides have worked on plans for some other agencies, Trump has taken a particular interest in the Justice Department. In conversations about a potential second term, Trump has made picking an attorney general his number one priority, according a Trump adviser.
“Given his recent trials and tribulations, one would think he’s going to pick up the plan for the Department of Justice before doing some light reading of a 500-page white paper on reforming the EPA,” said Matt Mowers, a former Trump White House adviser.
Jeffrey Clark, a fellow at Vought’s think tank, is leading the work on the Insurrection Act under Project 2025. The Post has reported that Clark is one of six unnamed co-conspirators whose actions are described in Trump’s indictment in the federal election interference case.
Clark was also charged in Fulton County, Georgia, with violating the state anti-racketeering law and attempting to create a false statement, as part of the district attorney’s case accusing Trump and co-conspirators of interfering in the 2020 election. Clark has pleaded not guilty. As a Justice Department official after the 2020 election, Clark pressured superiors to investigate nonexistent election crimes and to encourage state officials to submit phony certificates to the electoral college, according to the indictment.
In one conversation described in the federal indictment, a deputy White House counsel warned Clark that Trump’s refusing to leave office would lead to “riots in every major city.” Clark responded, according to the indictment, “That’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.”
Clark had dinner with Trump during a visit to his Bedminster, N.J., golf club this summer. He also went to Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday for a screening of a new Dinesh D’Souza movie that uses falsehoods, misleading interviews and dramatizations to allege federal persecution of Jan. 6 rioters and Christians. Also attending were fringe allies such as Stephen K. Bannon, Roger Stone, Laura Loomer and Michael Flynn.
“I think that the supposedly independent DOJ is an illusion,” Clark said in an interview. Through a spokeswoman he did not respond to follow-up questions about his work on the Insurrection Act.
Clark’s involvement with Project 2025 has alarmed some other conservative lawyers who view him as an unqualified choice to take a senior leadership role at the department, according to a conservative lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks. Project 2025 comprises 75 groups in a collaboration organized by the Heritage Foundation.
Project 2025 director Paul Dans stood by Clark in a statement. “We are grateful for Jeff Clark’s willingness to share his insights from having worked at high levels in government during trying times,” he said.
After online publication of this story, Rob Bluey, a Heritage spokesman, said: “There are no plans within Project 2025 related to the Insurrection Act or targeting political enemies.”
How a second Trump term would differ from the first
There is a heated debate in conservative legal circles about how to interact with Trump as the likely nominee. Many in Trump’s circle have disparaged what they view as institutionalist Republican lawyers, particularly those associated with the Federalist Society. Some Trump advisers consider these individuals too soft and accommodating to make the kind of changes within agencies that they want to see happen in a second Trump administration.
Trump has told advisers that he is looking for lawyers who are loyal to him to serve in a second term — complaining about his White House Counsel’s Office unwillingness to go along with some of his ideas in his first term or help him in his bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
In repeated comments to advisers and lawyers around him, Trump has said his biggest regrets were naming Jeff Sessions and Barr as his attorneys general and listening to others — he often cites the “Federalist Society” — who wanted him to name lawyers with impressive pedigrees and Ivy League credentials to senior Justice Department positions. He has mentioned to several lawyers who have defended him on TV or attacked Biden that they would be a good candidate for attorney general, according to people familiar with his comments.
The overall vision that Trump, his campaign and outside allies are now discussing for a second term would differ from his first in terms of how quickly and forcefully officials would move to execute his orders. Alumni involved in the current planning generally fault a slow start, bureaucratic resistance and litigation for hindering the president’s agenda in his first term, and they are determined to avoid those hurdles, if given a second chance, by concentrating more power in the West Wing and selecting appointees who will carry out Trump’s demands.
Those groups are in discussions with Trump’s campaign advisers and occasionally the candidate himself, sometimes circulating policy papers or draft executive orders, according to people familiar with the situation.
“No one is opposed to them putting together ideas, but it’s not us,” a campaign adviser said. “These groups say they’ll have the whole transition planned. Some of those people I’m sure are good and Trump will appoint, but it’s not what is on his mind right now. I’m sure he’d be fine with some of their orders.”
Trump’s core group of West Wing advisers for a second term is widely expected to include Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration policies including family separation, who has gone on to challenge Biden administration policies in court through a conservative organization called America First Legal. Miller did not respond to requests for comment.
Alumni have also saved lists of previous appointees who would not be welcome in a second Trump administration, as well as career officers they viewed as uncooperative and would seek to fire based on an executive order to weaken civil service protections.
For other appointments, Trump would be able to draw on lineups of personnel prepared by Project 2025. Dans, a former Office of Personnel Management chief of staff, likened the database to a “conservative LinkedIn,” allowing applicants to present their resumes on public profiles, while also providing a shared workspace for Heritage and partner organizations to vet the candidates and make recommendations.
“We don’t want careerists, we don’t want people here who are opportunists,” he said. “We want conservative warriors.”
The German government has threatened to arrest anyone who shares this video. Therefore, it is my obligation to post the video right here.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 28, 2023
The German government has threatened to arrest anyone who shares this video.
Therefore, it is my obligation to post the video right here:
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1703294436875120650
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1703294436875120650
And I’d like to remind everyone what Wikipedia has to say about the Streisand effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead backfires by increasing awareness of that information. It is named after American singer and actress Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to suppress the California Coastal Records Project’s photograph of her cliff-top residence in Malibu, California, taken to document California coastal erosion, inadvertently drew greater attention to the photograph in 2003.
“Image 3850” had been downloaded only six times prior to Streisand’s lawsuit, two of those being by Streisand’s attorneys. Public awareness of the case led to more than 420,000 people visiting the site over the following month.
In Mississauga, Ontario, a public high school library removed every book that had been published in 2008 or earlier, under the justification of “inclusivity,” “anti-racism,” “equity” and “diversity”
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 15, 2023
In Mississauga, Ontario, a public high school library removed every book that had been published in 2008 or earlier, under the justification of “inclusivity,” “anti-racism,” “equity” and “diversity.”
Gee, I always thought that the word “inclusivity” was about including things, not excluding things.
And I always thought the word “diversity” meant there should be more choices, not fewer.
And I’m not sure how getting rid of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank contributes to the fight against racism.
You can read about it in this article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/peel-school-board-library-book-weeding-1.6964332
‘Empty shelves with absolutely no books’: Students, parents question school board’s library weeding process
Books published in 2008 or earlier removed from school library amid confusion around new equity-based process
September 13, 2023
Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Those are all examples of books Reina Takata says she can no longer find in her public high school library in Mississauga, Ont., which she visits on her lunch hour most days.
In May, Takata says the shelves at Erindale Secondary School were full of books, but she noticed that they had gradually started to disappear. When she returned to school this fall, things were more stark.
“This year, I came into my school library and there are rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books,” said Takata, who started Grade 10 last week.
She estimates more than 50 per cent of her school’s library books are gone.
I am publicly asking the Washington Post to please investigate this article by the Gateway Pundit to see if it is true or false. They are claiming that January 6 prisoner Ryan Samsel is being held with no trial, no toilet, no bed, and lights on 24 hours a day. Their article includes these photographs.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
August 17, 2023
The Gateway Pundit is claiming that January 6 prisoner Ryan Samsel is being held with no trial, no toilet, no bed, and lights on 24 hours a day.
The Gateway Pundit article includes these photographs.
I am publicly asking the Washington Post to please investigate this article by the Gateway Pundit to see if it is true or false.
A NATIONAL DISGRACE: Photos Leaked of Horrific January 6 Prisoner Abuse – Tortured 5 Months in Isolation in a Closet Room with Light on and a Bucket for a Toilet — Where are the ACLU, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch?
By Jim Hoft
August 17, 2023
A NATIONAL DISGRACE: January 6 prisoner Ryan Samsel pictured in the closet room he was held in for 5 months in isolation.
January 6 political prisoner Ryan Samsel has been held in prison without trial now since January 2021.
During his two-and-a-half years without trial Ryan has been moved around to 17 different facilities. Ryan has been beaten, abused, tortured, and neglected since his arrest in January 2021.
Earlier this week The Gateway Pundit received exclusive photos from Ryan Samsel’s prison cell at the FDC in Philadelphia. The cell was a size of a closet with a light on all of the time. The cell had a thin blue mattress, no sheets or blankets, no clothing, and he was kept here for five months straight.
The photos are just shocking. This is taking place in America today. This is who we are.
Ryan told The Gateway Pundit in a conversation this week, “I was kept in … a hard cell. And in that particular cell about five, six months. I even told you what was happening is the judge was actually calling, trying to get in contact with me because I wasn’t in a named cell. They were missing me and they were saying I wasn’t showing up to court. They were saying I wasn’t showing up to medical. But they were pretty much keeping me in there… Like I said, it was cold, the light was on, there’s zero window. And that followed me from Virginia. When I was in Virginia, it was the same exact conditions.”
Ryan described the same situation in Virginia, “It was Central Regional Virginia Jail (CVRJ). I was kept in and they called it booking hard cell, which is you get zero phone, zero commissary, zero clothing because they think that you’re going to hang yourself and you’re on constant surveillance. You’re under surveillance constantly. The light has to be on 24/7. You’re locked in a cell. There is no getting out. The windows in Virginia were covered by a black mat, so you weren’t able to see. And it’s constant nothing. It’s deprivation of everything.”
Ryan told The Gateway Pundit that there are no books allowed, no letters, no photos. Nothing. The yellow bucket was his toilet.
Ryan believes the government tortured him for months so he would rat out the Proud Boys. They even beat Ryan numerous times and kept him locked down so he couldn’t communicate with anyone.
This torture is taking place in America today.
Where is the Republican Party?
Where is the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch?
Ryan is not alone. Numerous January 6 prisoners have been held for months in torturous conditions, dozens have been sentenced to extreme sentences for non-violent crimes. This is a horrible chapter in American history. It must be confronted.
In Florida, Republican snowflakes and crybabies are using cancel culture to try to ban Shakespeare
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/15/law-limits-florida-school-books/70414412007/
To be or not to be on the shelf? New Florida school book law could restrict even Shakespeare
By Douglas Soule, Ana Goñi-Lessan, and Jeanine Santucci
July 15, 2023
To be or not to be on the shelf? That’s the question school districts across Florida are asking themselves as they figure out how to apply a new book-challenge law.
In Leon County, home to the state’s capital, school-media specialist Kathleen Malloy says “The Bard,” William Shakespeare, could be at risk. Shakespeare’s works have already been restricted for certain grades in Orange County, which includes Orlando.
Schools are having to ditch long-established methods for choosing what books to purchase and teach. Since the new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis took effect July 1, if a school district finds material that contains “sexual conduct,” under the state’s definition, it must “discontinue use of the material for any grade level or age group for which such use is inappropriate or unsuitable.”
Malloy said she used to go by a system called the Miller Test, a three-prong method established with Supreme Court rulings to determine whether material was obscene. No longer.
“Even Shakespeare is suspect,” Malloy said.
State law goes into effect over ‘sexual conduct’ in books at schools
Malloy and other media specialists around the state are interpreting the new legislation, HB 1069, to mean that districts could be breaking the law if they do not pull media containing “sexual conduct.” That includes many books needed to take the College Board’s Advanced Placement literature exam and dual-enrollment classes.
Malloy said that could even apply to books that overall are “very valuable as a piece of literature,” with just one or two small scenes that fall under the “sexual conduct” definition.
Districts are awaiting training from the Florida Department of Education on how to proceed, and some have put their review processes on hold to wait for state guidance, including Brevard and Hillsborough.
In the meantime, book-access advocates are disputing how districts are interpreting the “sexual conduct” provision, and committees are leaning toward “erring on the side of caution” – something the state Department of Education advises media specialists to do when considering what books to keep in their libraries.
“It is overly cautious,” said Stephana Ferrell, co-founder and director of research and insight for the Florida Freedom to Read Project.
Parents who disagree with a school board’s final decision on a book challenge can now also request a special magistrate from the state to review the decision, on the school district’s dime, which Ferrell said could encourage groups to pressure school districts without actually filing book challenges – and potentially forcing districts to cave to avoid the challenge costs.
And, school districts must remove any book challenged because it includes pornography or sexual conduct within five days until the complaint is resolved.
The Department of Education did not respond to a media request.
What does ‘sexual conduct’ mean?
The state’s definition of “sexual conduct,” includes actual or simulated intercourse, exhibition of or physical contact with genitalia, or any depiction of “sexual battery.”
In Brevard County, the district’s book review committee voted to remove three texts by poet Rupi Kaur because of sexual content.
Committee member Michelle Beavers said her favorite poem is from “The Sun and All Her Flowers,” one of the texts under review, but she was still in favor of removing the book. The book includes drawings depicting outlines of naked bodies.
“It’s against statutes. We’re done. That’s it,” she said, holding up copies of the drawings.
While a review process is ongoing in Orange County Public Schools, four Shakespeare plays are listed as approved for only grades 10 through 12, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Also on the temporarily rejected list are books that had been frequently taught in county high school classes, including “The Color Purple,” “Catch-22,” “Brave New World” and “The Kite Runner.”
The common rationale: “sexual conduct.”
And in the Tampa area, Pinellas County school officials, while choosing books for their annual Battle of the Books competition, voiced concern about relationships and sexual situations mentioned in the texts, which could make them off limits under the new law.
The pushback on book bans
DeSantis, who is vying for the Republican nomination for U.S. president, signed the law on the same day he signed three other bills that critics say target transgender people and the LGBTQ community.
DeSantis has maintained that the idea of book bans across Florida, which have made headlines across the nation, is a “hoax.” He has bashed books that have been recently removed or restricted from public schools as pornographic, violent or otherwise inappropriate.
Those restrictions and removals have swelled in Florida over the last two years with legislation signed by DeSantis and a push by conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty, armed with lists of offending excerpts from targeted books.
In Leon County, the school district is contemplating delaying the checking out of books at all schools at the beginning of the school year until they can make sure they’re abiding by state statute, said Superintendent Rocky Hanna.
“I’m not banning books, I am not that guy,” Hanna said. “I also, because of this new law, do not want to be found in violation of the law and targeted by the DOE and the governor.”
Earlier this week, Hanna pulled five books that he deemed were in violation of state statute following proddingfrom a local chapter of Moms for Liberty.
We will not do more than the law requires,” he said.
Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read project at PEN America, said the removal was an example of an activist group “intimidating” school administrators by using “overly vague” Florida law to label content as pornography.
“This framing has become an increasing focus of activists and politicians to justify removing books that discuss sex, include LGBTQ+ characters, or feature characters of color: books that do not remotely fit notions of ‘harmful ideology and overt sexualization,’” Meehan said in a statement.
Why the Alliance between Stalin and Hitler Must Never Be Forgotten
Also see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarete_Buber-Neumann
https://fee.org/articles/why-the-alliance-between-stalin-and-hitler-must-never-be-forgotten/
Why the Alliance between Stalin and Hitler Must Never Be Forgotten
Stalin’s intentional silence and inaction during World War II allowed the Holocaust to unfold without any meaningful resistance or counteraction.
By Benjamin Williams
July 23, 2023
World War II was one of the most catastrophic periods in human history, marked by unprecedented violence, genocide, and destruction. Yet, while the war’s narrative is dominated by the Axis and western Allied powers, the role of the Soviet Union, particularly under Joseph Stalin, in indirectly supporting Nazi Germany’s campaign of terror and conquest, often goes underreported. Drawing on several historical excerpts, this article will unpack the Soviet Union’s involvement in Nazi war efforts and their failure to protect or inform their Jewish population of impending atrocities.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed in the early hours of August 24, 1939, in a surreal ceremony where swastikas fluttered alongside the hammer and sickle. The swastika flags purportedly came from a movie studio, where they had been used for anti-Nazi propaganda films. The ten-year non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany was accompanied by a secret protocol outlining the spheres of influence for each power in Eastern Europe, including the partition of Poland and the granting of the Baltic States and Bessarabia to the Soviets.
Stalin made a closing toast, stating, “I know how much the German nation loves its Führer; I should therefore like to drink to his health.” The toast was ironic considering the hostile stance the USSR had previously maintained towards Nazi Germany. Stalin’s first gift after the pact was awarding Germany around 600 German Communists, most of whom were Jews. He had them extradited to the Gestapo in Brest-Litovsk, a symbolic location steeped in historical implications. Among the extradited was Hans David, a gifted composer, who later perished in the gas chambers of Majdanek, a fate shared by many others. This process of handing over Jewish and/or communist prisoners to the Nazis persisted beyond 1939.
Margarete Buber-Neumann, a former communist turned staunch anti-communist, was one such individual transferred from Soviet imprisonment to the hands of the Gestapo in 1940. Surviving the brutal conditions of both a Soviet prison and a Nazi concentration camp, Buber-Neumann later penned the memoir “Under Two Dictators,” detailing the harsh realities of life under the totalitarian regimes of Stalin and Hitler.
In the initial stages of World War II, after signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany embarked on a diplomatic relationship that allowed for territorial expansion and political maneuvering. The two totalitarian socialist regimes formed an uneasy partnership characterized by economic cooperation, information withholding, and non-aggression. This alliance’s impact on the Jewish population, particularly in the Soviet-occupied zone of Poland, was severe and catastrophic.
The ideological calculus of Stalin’s foreign policy became apparent in his anticipation of the imminent German attack on Poland. Recognizing the inevitability of British and French intervention, Stalin saw a unique opportunity to advance the cause of communism. From his perspective, a protracted conflict between capitalist powers presented an ideal scenario, sowing discord and creating opportunities for the spread of Soviet influence.
Stalin was explicit in his machinations, expressing that the USSR, the Land of the Toilers, would stand to gain from a drawn-out war that would weaken both the Reich and the Anglo-French bloc. Fearing a swift conclusion to the war, Stalin stressed the importance of aiding Germany to ensure a long and costly conflict. Despite the ongoing tensions with Japan in the Far East, Stalin envisioned the USSR’s eventual entry into the European theater at a time most advantageous to Soviet interests. The Soviet leader’s strategic vision underlined a ruthless pragmatism and an uncompromising commitment to the communist cause.
The mass deportation of approximately one million Polish refugees initiated by Lavrentiy Beria’s NKVD in February 1940, half of whom were Jews, highlights the first disturbing aspect of the Soviet-Nazi collaboration. The deportees, categorized under various labels such as ‘The Jewish National Counterrevolution’ were sent to Siberia under horrendous conditions that led to many deaths en route. Notably, many Jewish leaders and activists were among the arrested, including Menachem Begin, a young Zionist leader, and Henryk Ehrlich and Viktor Alter, founders of the Polish Bund, Poland’s largest Jewish party. This mass deportation represented the “chief administrative method of Sovietization.”
At the same time, the Soviet authorities kept the Jewish population uninformed about the ongoing Nazi atrocities just across the border, maintaining a deliberate silence that enabled the Holocaust. As part of the non-aggression pact, Soviet organs did not report the genocidal massacres conducted by the Nazis between 1939 and 1941. Those aforementioned anti-Nazi films were no longer being produced. Soviet newspapers like Pravda scarcely even used the word “fascist” from 1939 to 1941. This silence continued even after the Nazis broke the pact and invaded the USSR, a move that precipitated the extermination of 1.5 million Jews in White Russia and Ukraine. In essence, Stalin’s silence and inaction allowed the Holocaust to unfold without any meaningful resistance or counteraction.
Moreover, Soviet complicity contributed to the normalization of Nazi violence. Jewish victims of mass executions were routinely referred to as “Poles” or “Ukrainians” in Soviet media, obscuring the specific anti-Semitic nature of the Nazi pogroms. The Soviet population, despite constant indoctrination, was not educated about Nazi anti-Semitism or their genocide plan, fostering ignorance that ultimately led to widespread collaboration against Jewish populations.
In tandem with these policies, the Soviet Union also provided economic support to Nazi Germany, which was instrumental in facilitating Hitler’s war of conquest. The importance of this assistance cannot be underestimated as the USSR supplied significant quantities of food and raw materials to the Nazis. For instance, during the invasion of France and the Low Countries, the USSR supplied the Reich with 163,000 tons of petroleum and 243,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat in May and June of 1940 alone. As German demand increased during critical battles, such as at Dunkirk, Soviet oil deliveries surged to meet the needs, effectively fueling Hitler’s conquest of Western Europe.
Publicly, the Soviet Union even supported the German invasion of France and the Low Countries. The French Communist Party was instructed not to resist the Germans, leading to a wave of defections and further weakening France’s ability to withstand the German onslaught. Despite internal dissension and resistance, the Soviets continued to propagate defeatist slogans, actively undermining the war effort against the Nazis.
In today’s discourse, there is a tendency among Soviet apologists to laud the USSR as the singular force that ultimately toppled the Nazi regime in 1945. This, of course, ignores the critical support that came from the US via Lend-Lease. Even Stalin admitted “Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war.” While the sacrifices made by millions of Soviet soldiers should not be forgotten or swept under the rug, it is vital for us to simultaneously illuminate the darker corners of this past.
We should resist the call to ignore the sobering reality of the Soviet Union’s complicity. One cannot forget that the initial alliance forged between Stalin and Hitler was rooted not in necessity but sprouted from the soil of Stalin’s socialist ideology. Such was the poison entwined within this political tapestry that, had Hitler not invaded the USSR in 1941, or had he chosen to altogether forgo this path, the Soviet Union might have continued to stand in silence and support. Their eyes turned away, they could have remained an observer and accomplice as the monstrous Nazi regime crept across Europe.
As we peer into the past, a shadow of sorrow is cast, an echo of lament for the once voiceless victims, resonating with a plea that history might not repeat its darkest hours. Our duty to memory requires us to hold these bitter truths close and learn from them if we are to honor the legacies of those who suffered and died under the shadow of totalitarian regimes.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 