Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): The Biden administration's Department of Justice has just charged four members of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) for conspiring to act as agents of Russia by using speech and political action in ways the DOJ says "weaponized" the First Amendment rights of Americans.
The hypocrisy of it all is too extreme and flamboyant to even be parodied, not even by a Mel Brooks. Satirizing the United States or any segment of it has become pointless. Even buttered popcorn can't save this shitshow.
“I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton
I'm old enough to remember Code Pink, the anti-War movement against American military adventurism in Iraq, the release of the proof of torture in Abu Ghraib:
I'm old enough to remember Bernie Sanders vacationing in the Soviet Union for his honeymoon during the height of the Cold War - when both the US and USSR had thousands of nuclear warheads aimed at each other and had multiple proxy wars against each other around the world:
I'm even old enough to remember when Jane Fonda became known as Hanoi Jane for her visit to North Vietnam as a tool of propaganda used by an enemy of the US in the middle of a hot war in order to express her antiwar beliefs:
Along with the rest of antiwar activists at the time like John Kerry.
All of these figures used, "weaponized" their First Amendment rights, conspired to act as agents of nations hostile to US interests, arguably more hostile then than Russia is today. Because we're Americans and have a right to debate and disagree with any administration. In ways that exceed anything these four Americans have been charged over. This cannot stand. All of the propaganda and censorship, weaponization of politics that's been turned up exponentially since 2020 is evil, hallmark of totalitarianism. The blinders are off. They're not even making a pretense of respecting free speech in the US anymore.
If US does not want the rest of the world to interfere in its elections, it should stop interfering in other countries' affairs. Otherwise, US government should be elected by ALL countries where it meddles. Otherwise, it's the worst form of Taxation without Representation. People do not have a legal way to avoid being attacked, bombed and looted.
I'm from the Tampa Bay area and Omali has been a civil rights activist here for over 50 years, and though I don't agree on everything with him, he is definitely NOT a Russian agent....
I CAN'T add anything better! > ". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them." - Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery...
Seems like they’re saying if Russians can’t have first amendment rights in Russia, then neither can Americans in the US. 👏👏👏 (ironic clapping) No wonder Biden’s favorability is about the same as Putin’s, for Americans, that is.
And they jailed someone on the right for making a meme . . .
You all (right, left, middle, off the spectrum) have to set aside your differences and agree that the First Amendment can't be eroded and you're going to have to make common cause and become single issue voters for people who work to protect the right to free speech, because without the right to speak, we have nothing.
Taking Russia-gate thru its natural (dis)course, just like Al-Qaeda/ISIS before it. This is yet another confirmation that the US govt has only one playbook. Create an enemy du jour, and ram it through all possible angles in the run-up to every “election” cycle.
My, my, my - the Dems must be working on quite an interesting "election" process in 2024 - it seems like they almost literally spend at least 80 or 90 percent of their time worrying about the next "election". Their other issues are Ukraine, Ukraine, coming up with divisive campaign issues, and Ukraine. Which is, I believe, the name of a huge bloody laundromat in Europe.
"Now you can be arrested for not agreeing that America is the greatest country in the world? Indicted for “sowing discord” ? WTF I assume all you people on here... are next on the list."
Anytime anything happens that the government doesn't like, it is "weaponized".
The hypocrisy of it all is too extreme and flamboyant to even be parodied, not even by a Mel Brooks. Satirizing the United States or any segment of it has become pointless. Even buttered popcorn can't save this shitshow.
https://youtu.be/aXl7Cu-IWVU
“I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton
I'm old enough to remember Code Pink, the anti-War movement against American military adventurism in Iraq, the release of the proof of torture in Abu Ghraib:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29280937
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib
I'm old enough to remember Bernie Sanders vacationing in the Soviet Union for his honeymoon during the height of the Cold War - when both the US and USSR had thousands of nuclear warheads aimed at each other and had multiple proxy wars against each other around the world:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190503122508/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-bernie-sanderss-1988-10-day-honeymoon-in-the-soviet-union/2019/05/02/db543e18-6a9c-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html
I'm even old enough to remember when Jane Fonda became known as Hanoi Jane for her visit to North Vietnam as a tool of propaganda used by an enemy of the US in the middle of a hot war in order to express her antiwar beliefs:
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/How-Jane-Fonda-s-1972-trip-to-North-Vietnam-12205532.php
Along with the rest of antiwar activists at the time like John Kerry.
All of these figures used, "weaponized" their First Amendment rights, conspired to act as agents of nations hostile to US interests, arguably more hostile then than Russia is today. Because we're Americans and have a right to debate and disagree with any administration. In ways that exceed anything these four Americans have been charged over. This cannot stand. All of the propaganda and censorship, weaponization of politics that's been turned up exponentially since 2020 is evil, hallmark of totalitarianism. The blinders are off. They're not even making a pretense of respecting free speech in the US anymore.
If US does not want the rest of the world to interfere in its elections, it should stop interfering in other countries' affairs. Otherwise, US government should be elected by ALL countries where it meddles. Otherwise, it's the worst form of Taxation without Representation. People do not have a legal way to avoid being attacked, bombed and looted.
“The successor to politics will be propaganda”, Marshall McLuhan
Ambient political conditioning is the water we swim in .
I'm from the Tampa Bay area and Omali has been a civil rights activist here for over 50 years, and though I don't agree on everything with him, he is definitely NOT a Russian agent....
I CAN'T add anything better! > ". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them." - Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery...
"weaponized free speech" is the whole point of free speech!
Seems like they’re saying if Russians can’t have first amendment rights in Russia, then neither can Americans in the US. 👏👏👏 (ironic clapping) No wonder Biden’s favorability is about the same as Putin’s, for Americans, that is.
And they jailed someone on the right for making a meme . . .
You all (right, left, middle, off the spectrum) have to set aside your differences and agree that the First Amendment can't be eroded and you're going to have to make common cause and become single issue voters for people who work to protect the right to free speech, because without the right to speak, we have nothing.
Man, I thought the felony charges agains the Cop City protesters was as low as they could possibly go - but this is far worse.
These people are very dangerous - this must be stopped. If US people can't rise up to shut this down, we're doomed much faster than I thought.
Taking Russia-gate thru its natural (dis)course, just like Al-Qaeda/ISIS before it. This is yet another confirmation that the US govt has only one playbook. Create an enemy du jour, and ram it through all possible angles in the run-up to every “election” cycle.
My, my, my - the Dems must be working on quite an interesting "election" process in 2024 - it seems like they almost literally spend at least 80 or 90 percent of their time worrying about the next "election". Their other issues are Ukraine, Ukraine, coming up with divisive campaign issues, and Ukraine. Which is, I believe, the name of a huge bloody laundromat in Europe.
Spot on Caitlin!
Found on internet:
"Now you can be arrested for not agreeing that America is the greatest country in the world? Indicted for “sowing discord” ? WTF I assume all you people on here... are next on the list."
Dissent is Patriotic