Freedom Of Speech

Nomination Of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson To Supreme Court A Homerun! :)

Ronald Leave a comment

President Joe Biden has hit a homerun with the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court vacancy created by the soon to be retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.

Jackson has exceptional credentials, and already has been approved by a bipartisan vote last year to sit on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where other justices have been members, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Jackson has excellent educational credentials, as well as impressive judicial and legal experience.

But of course, the white supremacists and racists are attacking her appointment, since Jackson will be the first black female Justice in American history to sit on the Supreme Court, a long overdue development.

Her appointment will not affect the right wing conservative balance on the Court, but her age of 51 means she will be likely to serve on the Court for a generation or more, and will witness, hopefully, a more balanced Supreme Court down the road!

Jackson has demonstrated her understanding of the issues of disabiled people, workers, immigrants, freedom of speech, and the concept that a President is NOT a King, regarding Donald Trump!

This is another of the great developments that the Presidency of Joe Biden has brought the nation!

Evil Fox News Channel Hosts Tucker Carlson And Laura Ingraham Promote Nativism Against Afghan Refugees!

admin Leave a comment

Evil Fox News Channel Talk Show hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are spreading fears about the move to save Afghan interpreters and other Afghans who worked for the United States during the Afghanistan War, and now face retribution from the Taliban monsters who have gained control of Afghanistan again.

They feel no loyalty to those who sacrificed their safety to help the US military, and they feel no compassion for the women and girls who face horrifying treatment from Taliban soldiers and the government, who want to destroy all the gains women have made in the past 20 years.

These two monsters have no compassion, no empathy, no sense of loyalty to those who made a difference to American soldiers for the past generation.

The concept that such despicable, disgraceful hatemongers are allowed access to influence nativism, racism, and Islamophobia, and be so well paid as they promote hate and division, is an example of freedom of speech gone amuck!

Journalism Essential Protection To Preserve American And Foreign Democracy From Authoritarianism

Ronald Leave a comment

Journalism is an honorable profession, and the promotion and protection of the institution and the people who spend their lives promoting truth and facts is essential, in order to preserve American and foreign democracies from authoritarianism.

Of course, there are those journalism sites and individuals who choose to use their influence to peddle lies and mistruths, (such as Fox News Channel, Newsmax, One America Network), but it will not take away the validity and reality that major news sites ARE reliable, no matter how much naysayers claim otherwise.

All human beings make mistakes, and no journalism source is 100 percent accurate, but history tells us that reliable journalism sites are correct more than 90 percent of the time.

When one sees the shutdown of the Hong Kong democracy newspaper, and the crackdown on all expressions of truth, facts, and democracy in many nations around the world, it makes the defense of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to vote ever more urgent into the future.

So the struggle against authoritarianism requires recognition in America of such news sources that have proved their value and accuracy over the long haul, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and a multitude of other news sources!

Corporations And The Republican Party: Double Standard On Freedom Of Speech

Ronald Leave a comment

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party in Congress and the states loves getting financial support from corporations, and loves that the Supreme Court in 2013 said corporations are people in Shelby County V Holder, which did great harm to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But now, when corporations, including Major League Baseball and Delta Airlines and Coca Cola take a stand against Georgia putting barriers in the way of the right to vote, because the Republicans lost Georgia in the Presidential Election of 2020 and both Georgia Senate Seats, Republicans no longer believe in freedom of speech for corporations, and want to punish corporations that support voting rights.

So the Republican Party has a double standard on freedom of speech, and exude hypocrisy, so what else is new in Republican Party politics?

Donald Trump Should Be Held Accountable For Provoking Anti Asian Hatred And Violence!

Ronald Leave a comment

The murder of Asian women in Atlanta has brought more attention to the growing hatred and violence being faced by Asian Americans all over America, and Donald Trump has provoked this by his insistence on calling the COVID 19 Pandemic the “China Flu” constantly for the past year.

It is time for Donald Trump to be held accountable, and be prosecuted for his hate speech, as he is inciting his followers to bloodshed and violence.

If we do not prosecute him, he could next use his rhetoric to threaten Jewish Americans, Latino Americans, African Americans, gay and lesbian Americans, disabled Americans, or any other group, and in reality, his attacks on Latinos has been part of his modus operandi since he announced for President in June 2015.

Freedom of speech should not be totally uncontrolled, when one uses its in a public position recklessly!

Points To Ponder As Second Impeachment Trial Of Donald Trump Begins

Ronald 1 Comment

As the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins today, some points to ponder are worth considering.

Donald Trump lied incessantly over a fixed election when 60 court cases unanimously agreed the election in the various states being contested was totally fair, and lacking any corruption, as compared to 2016 and other earlier electionss.

Donald Trump was gleeful, enjoying the Capitol Insurrection, and unconcerned about the harm being done to the building, and the occupants, including many members of both houses of Congress, and Capitol Hill Police and staff members.

Donald Trump was inciting violence against his own Vice President, Mike Pence, and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the two people in line of succession after himself, and had no concern about their welfare.

Donald Trump did not call in National Guard reinforcements promptly, forcing Mike Pence to assert himself finally after four years of being obsequious.

Donald Trump has never expressed any sense of sorrow over the loss of life of a Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, and the other four victims of the Capitol Insurrection.

Donald Trump incited the mob by his language, and cannot claim that what he said was not promoting violence and destruction.

Donald Trump is like any citizen, not above the law, accountable for his behavior and actions, and does not have the constitutional right to promote insurrection and sedition, which is not part of freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

Donald Trump should be convicted as a warning to future Presidents that such abuse of power and promotion of violence and destruction will not be tolerated, and that politics is not the issue, but the survival of American democracy, and the regulation of executive power in the Presidency!

Donald Trump, The Fascist Wannabe: Attacking Conservative Support Of States Rights, And First Amendment Right To Freedom Of Speech And Assembly

Ronald 3 Comments

Donald Trump is demonstrating how he is a Fascist Wannabe, and in so doing, he is attacking conservatives who support states rights, and attacking all decent people who uphold the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Trump’s sending of military forces incognito to Portland, Oregon to use tear gas and rubber bullets against mostly peaceful demonstrators calling for change in race relations and for accountability of police, has not been called for by the Oregon state government or the Portland city government, but two night ago, even the Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was personally tear gassed by these unaccountable forces unleashed by Trump! And Trump ridiculed Wheeler on Twitter, making fun of him, after he was assaulted with tear gas!

There is no breakdown of law and order, and there is no right of the President to send in what is best described as storm troopers, without name plates or identifying, to detain people and kidnap them from the scene. The local police are in charge of anything that has to be dealt with, not a secret, unaccountable force authorized by Attorney General William Barr, who is the most abusive and corrupt leader of the Justice Department in its history!

Conservatives with principles are up in arms about the violation of states rights on this matter, and it reminds many of the Nazi storm troopers who abused people and brought about Nazi absolutism under Adolf Hitler. Conservatives, but also anyone interested in promoting freedom, are alarmed by this going on in not just Portland, but now the threat of it also showing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Seattle; Chicago; Detroit; Philadelphia; New York and other cities.

Republican groups, such as the Lincoln Project, are condemning what Trump is authorizing, as unlawful!

The job of keeping order is up to local and state authorities, and only when they call for federal intervention, does the US government have authority to intervene.

And the right of freedom of speech and assembly, and ability to call for redress of grievances in a peaceful manner, is inscribed in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

This alone, forgetting for the moment all of the other multitude of violations of law, would be enough to impeach and remove both Donald Trump and William Barr, for corruption and abuse of power in office!

The Department of Homeland Security and its subsidiary, Customs and Border Patrol, is breaking the Constitution, with the approval of Trump and Barr.

If this is not a move toward Fascism, then nothing is so!

Donald Trump Should Be Banned From Twitter, As He Undermines Foreign Policy And Domestic Stability By His Constant Lies And Utterances

Ronald Leave a comment

This blogger and author is a true believer in freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

Having said that, there is the urge to try to, somehow, ban Donald Trump from Twitter, as our President undermines foreign policy and domestic stability by his constant lies and utterances on Twitter.

Trump shows all of his worst characteristics on a daily basis, and Twitter has banned some people who promote hate and division, but will not do so for Trump.

Of course, if he was, somehow, banned, it would cause such a ruckus, and Twitter would have to reverse itself.

And, of course, if that happened, that Trump was off Twitter, he could still do what he is best at, disrupt the American people with his rants and raves to the media outside the White House, which has become his new method of personal communication, rather than the formal press conferences, which became a joke and a disaster under Sarah Huckabee Sanders for two years.

So, in reality, the dream of silencing Donald Trump is just that, a dream, a nightmare, that will not end until Donald Trump is out of the Presidency.

Donald Trump’s “Witch Hunt” Against “Anonymous”, Calling Him/Her Engaged In “Treason And Sedition” A Dangerous Move That Must Be Rejected By Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Ronald Leave a comment

Donald Trump is furious over the New York Times “Anonymous” article published last week, just as news of Bob Woodward’s new book on the Trump Presidency, due out tomorrow, started to leak out a week before the official date of the book, September 11.

Trump wants to find out who in the government published this article in the New York Times, as he has accused that person, him or her, as engaged in “Treason and Sedition”.

This is a preposterous charge, as whether Trump likes it or not, the issue here is warning the American people of the danger of Donald Trump in the White House, by someone who knows the inside information on the mental instability of the 45th President.

It is an issue of freedom of speech, and no one can be prosecuted for doing what this person did, as we are not a dictatorship, where people are prosecuted for their thoughts and statements.

And yet, Trump has indicated that he plans to ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions to begin an investigation at Trump’s demand. Sessions already has been bitterly condemned and ridiculed by Trump, more than any cabinet member in history, since Sessions recused himself from the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017, and it would seem that Sessions will refuse to do what Trump wants.

And it is also likely that FBI Director Chris Wray will also refuse to use the FBI as a political weapon against whoever published the New York Times article.

So we are likely to see ever more crazy behavior coming out of the White House, as Trump explodes in rage, and likely will finally fire both Sessions and Wray, creating a more serious constitutional crisis than the initial firing of former FBI head James Comey in May 2017.

So the Trump Presidency is in a new stage, as Trump goes further berserk, and stretches the Constitution beyond its norms, as he continues to obstruct justice.

The Urgent Democratic Platform For 2020: 30 Goals For The Next Decade

Ronald 10 Comments

What MUST be part of the Democratic Party platform in 2020, no matter who is the Democratic Presidential nominee?

In no special order, it MUST include:

Medicare for all Americans of all ages
$15 minimum wage by 2022 everywhere in America and Paid Family Leave
Free public university and college tuition for the first two years or 60 credits of higher education
Wiping out of college debt which prevents many young people from marrying, having children, buying a home, having a future
Repeal of Citizens United, which has allowed corporations to be called people, and destroy political campaigns with large donations, and instead promote public financing of campaigns
Responsible Gun Control legislation
Protection of Women’s Rights, including abortion rights
Enforcement of gay and lesbian and transgender rights
A responsible immigration reform program, reversing the damage done by Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, John Kelly, Kirstjen Nielsen, Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan
Revival of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties that have been curbed by Donald Trump
Protection of the Social Safety Net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
Labor Rights promoted, including prevention of “right to work” laws
Environmental regulations revived and strengthened
Consumer Rights revived and strengthened
Investment in infrastructure across America
Condemnation of violations of human rights in other nations, including Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines and elsewhere
Revival of NATO alliance and other alliances that have been weakened in the Trump Presidency
The end of protectionist tariffs, which undermine the American economy
Strengthening of relations with Cuba, and attempts to overcome strains and tensions with Iran, and revive the Iran Nuclear Deal
Promoting total separation of church and state, with religion not being promoted by government
Reenactment of responsible corporation and Wall Street reforms
Protection of Native American lands and properties
Criminal Justice Reforms for those not involved in violent Crimes
National restoration of Voting Rights to former convicts who have paid their debt to society
Decriminalizing Drug Use and Sales, so as to overcome the Opioid Crisis, and allow Medicinal Marijuana without penalty
Promoting funding for the Arts and Culture across America
Dealing with poverty and homelessness in America
Hurricane Relief for Puerto Rico and move toward statehood as the 51st state
Tax Reform to require a fair and equitable tax system for all, not just the wealthy
Reviving respect for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press

Would all of these 30 “planks” be successfully accomplished in the term of the next Democratic President from 2021-2025? Most certainly, highly unlikely, but these must be the goals of the next Democratic administration, as we attempt to recover from the disaster and tragedy of the Donald Trump nightmare!