Tag Archives: #FreedomofAssembly

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Democrats really hate #FreedomOfSpeech! More precisely, they hate your Freedom of Speech, but not their Freedom of Speech!

Laura Kavanagh, via Twitter. Have you ever seen a face which looks more like she just stepped in dog poop?

It should have been obvious that bringing in New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has been trying to persecute former President Donald Trump, was a hugely political move to have at what was supposed to be a promotion ceremony for the Fire Department of New York City, FDNY. That some of the rank-and-file firefighters would see it that way, and the fact that firemen are working-class people who are a major part of Mr Trump’s coalition, was too obvious to have penetrated the brains of Democratic political appointees like Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh:

FDNY boss hunts down staffers who booed NY AG Letitia James, cheered for Trump at promotion ceremony

By Susan Edelman and Rich Calder | Saturday, March 9, 2024 | 6:51 PM EST

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh is hunting down smoke-eaters and other staffers who mercilessly booed New York Attorney General Letitia James – and cheered in support of Donald Trump – during a department promotion ceremony this week, The Post has learned.

There are other forms of protest, not as loud as the ones the firemen used, but which show even greater disrespect. One famously used in the past is to turn their backs to the speaker, and that, too, would make the news and anger the Empire State’s Attorney General even more. But the firemen chose to do what they did, and I see it as within their freedom of speech.

But the Powers That Be within the city are taking this protest in full-Geheime Staatspolizei-mode!

FDNY Chief of Department John Hodges fired off an email to other agency honchos warning a reckoning led by the department’s Bureau of Investigation and Trials was coming over the chorus of boos and chants of “Trump” that James received at Thursday’s event.

“BITS is investigating this, so they will figure out who the members are,” Hodges wrote FDNY chiefs Saturday in the letter obtained by The Post.

“I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the commissioner it will be better for them if they come forward and we don’t have to hunt them down,” he continued.

“(H)unt them down”? Perhaps Chief Hodges might have worded that better, because the way he put it sure sounds like the zeal of the Department of Justice in hunting down the Capitol kerfufflers, tremendous effort to seek out hundreds of protesters, the vast majority of whom were allowed to plead down to a single misdemeanor count, and very little, if any, time in jail.

Actually, it pretty much sounds like the real Gestapo, diligently searching for Jews hiding from the Nazis.

“The [deputy chiefs] shall direct the captain of the company to make a list of those who come forward and send it directly to [FDNY operations]. I realize members might not come forward but they should know that there is clear video of the entire incident and they will be contacted by BITS if they don’t,” he wrote.

A list of talking points for deputy chiefs doing the investigation obtained by The Post said:
“We want the members to come forward. They will come to headquarters to be educated why their behavior is unacceptable.”

“(T)o be educated,” huh? In other words, a serious talking to, that I would hope most would ignore. This is the kind of thing which will generate more sympathy for Mr Trump, not less. The Democrats and the left keep telling us that Mr Trump is an fascist, a Nazi, an authoritarian wannabe dictator, but then those leftist Democrats are the ones trying to exercise authoritarian, dictatorial power over any form of dissent.

I saw, on my Twitter feed, this from Lexington Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves:

Before you do something like assault an effigy of a public official or attack a public building, stop and ask yourself, “Would I be proud if my children saw a video of me doing this?” And make sure the answer is “No.” ^JC

The Editorial Board of what my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal were naturally aghast when conservatives protested at the state Capitol:

Then to top off this tragicomedy of errors, House officials announced a panel to take up articles of impeachment against Beshear as a bunch of armed thugs circled the state Capitol. This is the same kind of militia movement that earlier this year hung an effigy of Beshear outside the governor’s mansion.

This must stop.

Armed thugs, huh? According to the dictionary, a thug is defined as “a violent person, especially a criminal.” Yet the article the Editorial Board linked bears no mention of any shots being fired. An accompanying photograph shows three state senators, one of whom was a Democrat, walking past the “armed thugs” without an apparent care in the world.

“The same kind of militia movement that earlier this year hung an effigy of Beshear outside the governor’s mansion”? Hanging the hated in effigy has a long history in America, as noted in The Hill:

Americans have a long history of citizens committing violence against president effigies to voice political dissent.

James Madison, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter were all burned in effigy during their presidencies. And each time this happened, the offending party leaders repudiated the distasteful and disrespectful actions of their constituents.

President Obama was hanged in effigy, and Kathy Griffin posted a picture of her holding President Trump’s severed head.

The Editorial Board again:

But Republicans in Frankfort and Washington, D.C., who have played pattycake with these kinds of extremists for years, have got to stop this wing of the party from hijacking them literally, it seems, and on policy. They have got to become grown-ups and stop with these silly games that end in not so silly ways.

Did the hanging of Governor Beshear in effigy last spring end in violence? It seems that no one was harmed, other, perhaps, than the feelings of his supporters. Did the armed demonstration on January 9th result in injuries, damage or death? If it did, the Herald-Leader had nothing about that.

The Editorial Board appear to be like Twitter and The New York Times and others: they don’t like freedom of speech when it isn’t speech with which they agree.

There was, of course, plenty of freedom of speech exercised by the left when Mr Trump was in office. He was regularly hanged in effigy, the Usual Suspects rioted with frequency, including during his inauguration, but somehow, some way, the left had no problem with that. Heck, they didn’t say much during the “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” during 2020’s summer of hate following the left wing riots in protest of the unfortunate death-while-resisting-arrest of the methamphetamine-and-fentanyl-addled previously convicted felon George Floyd. It’s only when conservatives protest that the left yell for people to shut up, and want to punish them when they don’t.

So, what’s going to happen to the FDNY members who do not turn themselves in “to be educated why their behavior is unacceptable,” and have to be ‘hunted down’ by BITS? Are they, too, just going to get the stern talking to, or are they going to be further punished for exercising their freedom of speech? It would be amusing to see none of the firemen turn themselves in, and then have their union defending them in arbitration. The FDNY employs over 11,000 uniformed firefighting and 4,274 uniformed EMS employees, and the consequences of a union action would be drastic.

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Government-enforced shutuppery

The Biden Administration keeps going after the Capitol kerfufflers, and is now charging Stephen M Baker, a sometime-journalist, with the same four offenses used against the vast majority of the protesters.

Musician and libertarian writer who works for ‘The Blaze’ arrested on Jan. 6 charges

Steve Baker, who led a David Bowie tribute band and started working for Glenn Beck’s website in 2023, said he “100%” approved of the Capitol attack, the FBI said.

By Ryan J. Reilly | Friday, March 1, 2024 | 2:45 PM EST |4:19 PM EST

WASHINGTON — The former lead singer of a David Bowie tribute band who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, licensed his footage to media outlets, and now works as a writer for Glenn Beck’s “The Blaze” website has been arrested on misdemeanor Capitol attack charges after turning himself into federal authorities in Texas.

Steve Baker, a musician and libertarian writer who was a frequent presence at the federal courthouse in Washington during the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial and other Jan. 6 cases, faces the same four standard misdemeanors as many lower-level Capitol riot defendants.

A copy of a FBI affidavit, provided to NBC News by defense attorney William Shipley, indicates that federal prosecutors will focus on comments from Baker that show he was sympathetic to the mob, including when he referred to Nancy Pelosi as a “b—-” after talking about the mob raiding the former House speaker’s office, and a comment in which he said he regretted that he didn’t steal government property during the attack.

There’s more at the original.

The FBI Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant tells us just how politically motivated the prosecution is:

24 – Witness 2 was subsequently interviewed by FBI, during which time Witness 2 stated he/she had known BAKER for approximately 10 years. Witness 2 had previously observed BAKER live-streaming video to multiple platforms under the name, “Stephen Ignoramus.” These platforms included YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Bitchute, Brightyon, Dlive.tv, Twitch, and Periscope. Witness 2 had previously observed videos by BAKER and had been alarmed by the content which Witness 2 described as including advancement of conspiracy theories and mockery of minority groups. Witness 2 further advised that one of BAKER’s YouTube channels had been banned by YouTube in or about December 2020.

Mr Baker was clearly documenting the Capitol kerfuffle as it was ongoing, and his stream was picked up by the credentialed media. While working as an occasional freelancer at the time, Mr Baker has been an accredited journalist subsequently. Of course, the government doesn’t like the freedom of speech that Mr Baker has exercised, using as part of the FBI agent’s affidavit that he, horrors!, “advance(d) conspiracy theories” and “engaged in “mockery of minority groups.”

Had Mr Baker expressed other views, saying something like, “Oh, this is terrible,” he’d never have been charged with anything. The government like when journalists express liberal views!

Mr Baker now faces the same charges as the majority of the Capitol kerfufflers:

  • 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1) – Knowingly Entering or Remaining in any Restricted Building or Grounds Without Lawful Authority. Since Mr Baker not accused of harming anyone or carrying a deadly weapon, the maximum punishment under (b)(2) is a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, in any other case.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(2) – Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds. Since Mr Baker is not accused of harming anyone or carrying a deadly weapon, the maximum punishment under (b)(2) is a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, in any other case.
  • 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(D) – Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building: utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; The penalty for violating 40 U.S.C. §5104(e)(2) is a misdemeanor conviction punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 fine or up to six months in prison, or both.
  • 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(G) – Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building; The penalty for violating 40 U.S.C. §5104(e)(2) is a misdemeanor conviction punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 or up to six months in prison, or both.

The majority of the earlier convicted kerfufflers pleaded guilty to a single count of Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing, receiving sentences ranging between probation and a six months. Several of them already had time served, since many had been arrested and, at least initially, denied bail. It was simple: hammer down on charges, to ‘encourage’ the kerfufflers to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor. After all, if convicted on all four charges, and with judges who had already expressed displeasure that those who have pleaded guilty have done so to such a minor charge, those convicted could be sentenced to three years and possibly crippling fines. That Attorney General Merrick Garland, who hates Republicans because the GOP denied him a seat on the Supreme Court, has allowed his minions to offer pleas on only one misdemeanor charge, is indicative of the fact that this ‘insurrection’ wasn’t much of a much.

Also on this topic: William Teach, “Brandon Admin Arrests Journalist For Reporting On J6

“The government was trying to get the kerfufflers to issue apologies for their behavior, which Anna Morgan-Lloyd, the first convicted, did, but, the day after her sentencing, Mrs Morgan-Lloyd pretty much walked back everything she said in her ‘tearful’ apology.

The real issue is probation: if the government attaches probation to any of the convictions, then the (not very) guilty will be under government supervision of some sort for the length of his probation. Mr Baker is no fan of the government in general, or the Biden Administration in particular, and probation could be used to shut him up.

And that’s really what the dummkopf from Delaware and his fascist-inspired minions want. With an arrest on February 29th, they can keep him quiet, by revoking bail, until after the election.
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Also posted on American Free News Network. Check out American Free News Network for more well written and well reasoned conservative commentary.

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I guess that Marc Rowan will keep his checkbook closed

Our constitutional rights under the First Amendment include the right of peaceable assembly, and this demonstration on the University of Pennsylvania campus in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia has been reported to be completely peaceful. But, in speaking their piece, the demonstrators, which included some Penn faculty, have exposed themselves to criticism of their message, and, unfortunately for the supporters of the Palestinians and Hamas terrorists, some of that criticism could come from deep-pockets donors. We have covered the backlash of deep-pockets donors against the outbreak of anti-Semitism on our college campuses, as recently as yesterday, but some people just don’t listen. From The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s student newspaper:

Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine hosts College Hall protest, blocks main entrance

Continue reading →

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The only way to end protests which stop traffic is to not stop traffic for protesters.

The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal came up with an absolutely brilliant idea, but one which will not work:

Tort Law vs. the Anti-Israel Protesters

If DAs won’t prosecute, victims can sue for false imprisonment.

By The Editorial Board | Thursday, December 28, 2023 | 6:49 PM EST

Idiots block traffic near LAX to demand Gaza ceasefire.

Normally we wouldn’t wish trial lawyers on our worst enemy. But as anti-Israel demonstrations grow increasingly lawless, the plaintiffs bar could help. Why not hit protesters who break the law and keep Americans from getting to their destination with a tort liability suit for false imprisonment?

On Wednesday anti-Israel protesters blocked access to JFK and LAX airports in New York and Los Angeles, respectively. The laws of New York and California, like most states, recognize the tort. While there is no precedent applying this tort to road-blocking protesters, it fits the offense. The purpose of these demonstrations is to block the road to keep people from getting to the airport — deliberately and against their will.

Continue reading →

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The ‘Wise Latina’ says the quiet part out loud.

At the annual Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at UC-Berkeley in 2001, Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Those words were fished out after President Barack Hussein Obama nominated her to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. What can those words mean other than, as a jurist, Hudge Sotomayor would take her decisions, at least in part, based not on the law, but on her race, sex, and ethnicity.

She backed away from that statement in her confirmation hearings, “declaring it ‘a rhetorical flourish that fell flat’ and stating that ‘I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment,'” and she was ultimately confirmed, 68 to 31.

Well, today Associate Justice told us, once again, that it isn’t what is written in the law, or the Constitution, that is important, but people’s feelings! In her dissent in 303 Creative v Elenis, she wrote:

The meaning of our Constitution is not found in any law volume, but in the spirit of the people who live under it.[1]303 Creative v Elenis, , page 38 of dissent, page 70 of the .pdf file.

This is rather remarkable. The Justice, utterly horrified by the decision that a Colorado web designer could not be compelled to create a website for a same-sex ‘wedding,’ cited precedent after precedent telling us that the government could, and has, gotten away with both restricting and compelling various forms of commercial speech, along with dozens of citations of laws and court cases concerning equal access to commerce and commercial enterprises. Yet, after all of that long dissent, she broke down and told us that what was written in the law just flat didn’t matter. What mattered, according to our ‘wise Latina,’ is how the people who live in the United States feel about things.

This is a hugely dangerous position, but one which is hardly unexpected. Justice Sotomayor voted against religious freedom in the cases of Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley v. Sisolak and South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, but railed against the decision, this time supporting the freedom of religion and assembly in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v Cuomo. The cases were all about the same thing: the states forcing churches to close, due to the COVID-19 penicdemic, and Justice Sotomayor believed that the virus trumped the Constitution of the United States.

The good Justice also saw nothing wrong with restricting our Second Amendment rights in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen and McDonald v City of Chicago, or upholding equal protection under the law in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The plain words of the Constitution meant nothing to Justice Sotomayor, or the other liberals on the Court, as they went through all sorts of contortions to say that somehow, some way, the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution just didn’t matter when it came to liberal policies.

The liberals on the Court are hardly the only ones who want to massage the words of the Constitution to mean something other than what they say. The Editorial Board of The New York Times opined:

In striking down affirmative action in higher education on Thursday, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority said it had to do so because the Constitution forbids any form of racial distinction. With a single opinion, the justices overturned decades of precedents that upheld race-conscious admissions policies as consistent with the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and ignored the reality of modern America, where prejudice and racism endure.

The Editorial Board spend many words telling us why Affirmative Action is so desperately needed, yet never manage to give us a reason as to how it fits under the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Thursday’s ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by all of the Republican-appointed justices, takes a long time to make a simple — and simplistic — point: There is no real difference between the centuries of racial discrimination against Black people and targeted race-conscious efforts to help Black people. Both are equally bad, in this view.

Left unaddressed was one of the Chief Justice’s points, that, in the context of university admissions, which are a zero-sum game, helping black applicants has another effect, hurting white and Asian applicants.

There is so much more that could be said, but, in the end, it boils down to this: the left have programs in mind which elevate the programs of the government over the rights of individuals, and today’s left are fine with that. And that is why sensible people must fight the left, fight for our rights, because the left won’t help us.

References

References
↑1 303 Creative v Elenis, , page 38 of dissent, page 70 of the .pdf file.
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Our Freedom of Religion vindicated!

St Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, where I attend Mass

We were critical, from the very beginning, of the authoritarian dictates of so many of our nation’s governors when the COVID-19 scare first erupted.

On March 19, 2020 Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) unconstitutionally ordered all churches closed in the Bluegrass State. That order covered the Easter holiday, the most important day in the Christian calendar. When a couple of churches ignored the Governor’s order, he sent the Kentucky State Police to record license plates and vehicle identification numbers on vehicles in church parking lots, on Easter Sunday!

Two federal judges ruled against the Governor, allowing churches to reopen, but they did not rule until May 8, 2020.

Then, on July 24, 2020, he asked church leaders to suspend services for two Sundays, which most declined to do, and again on November 19th made another request that churches close, for “three or four weeks,” a request that would have taken them through Thanksgiving. Fortunately, that request was denied as well.

Now comes yet another court ruling, telling us that the Constitution means what it says, and that state Governors cannot restrict our freedom of religion: Continue reading →

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The Patriot Front marches

Twitter was full of stuff on this march held by the Patriot Front.

Much was made of the marchers being masked, masked to conceal their identities rather than any submission to COVID-19 masking requirements, and it looked so staged that many though it had to be a joke, a set-up by the Lincoln Project or some other silliness group. The group marched in quasi military order, and they were carrying American flags. To the left, carrying the flag is apparently a hate symbol. That the marchers were masked led to cries of outrage by the left, the same left which thought nothing about antifa marching masked throughout 2020’s summer of riots.

The hand-written copy of the proposed articles of amendment passed by Congress in 1789, cropped to show just the text in the third article that would later be ratified as the First Amendment.

The First Amendment to the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

And that’s the point: the Patriot Front exercised their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and peaceable assembly. Unlike the left’s Mostly Peaceful Protests™ of last year, the Patriot Front was peaceful. They assaulted no one, and they set no buildings on fire.

The masks? Given how the feds were using facial recognition software to identify and prosecute people who took part in the January 6th Capitol kerfuffle, and have held some of the charged without bail, despite not having charged them with any violent offences, who can blame them? Antifa have largely gotten away with violence, mayhem, looting and arson by going masked, so why shouldn’t the Patriot Front use the same tactic during a peaceful protest. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the patriot Front as a white supremacist group, and tries to get members fired from their jobs, so yeah, it’s important to the members.

You don’t have to agree with the group’s message to support their right to speak and assemble as they please.

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Journolism at its finest: The Philadelphia Inquirer and one-sided reporting

We learned it in high school, if not earlier, how the Bill of Rights protected our rights as the citizens of a free republic. The First Amendment to the Constitution states:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The hand-written copy of the proposed articles of amendment passed by Congress in 1789, cropped to show just the text in the third article that would later be ratified as the First Amendment.

Over the course of our history, the Supreme Court has ‘incorporated’ most of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, to include protections for the people from actions by states and local governments, and Americans alive in the 21st century are all used to the concepts of freedom of speech.

We have, sadly, noted how some of our major media sources are no longer so adamant about protecting our First Amendment rights.

Now comes The Philadelphia Inquirer, with a very slanted article about how some people have exercised their freedom of speech, and freedom of peaceable assembly, and how horrible it is! Continue reading →

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It has come awfully late in the game, but at last it has come! Governor Beshear has been slapped down by the courts!

As we have frequently noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has been trying to run out the clock with his ’emergency’ decrees under KRS 39A. The Kentucky state Supreme Court, on April 16th, decided to hold a hearing on the disagreement between courts in Franklin and Scott counties over the Governor’s executive orders, and then set June 10th, a date then eight weeks into the future, for a hearing.

On May 6th, Governor Beshear announced that he would loosen the restrictions, but not eliminate them entirely, effective just before the Memorial Day weekend. Then, on May 14th, the Governor announced that almost all restrictions would be lifted on Kentuckians, including the hated mask mandate, even for those who are not vaccinated against COVID-19. He had, the previous day, followed the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations, and stated that “fully vaccinated” Kentuckians could dispense with face masks.

Well, today is June 8th, just two days before the state Supreme Court hears oral arguments, and three days before our dictatorial Governor will (supposedly) lift almost all of his emergency COVID-19 orders. But today, the Boone County Circuit Court declared the Governors actions to be illegal and unconstitutional.

THEREFORE, JUDGMENT IS HEREBY ENTERED in favor of Plaintiff and DECLARATORY RELIEF is GRANTED in that the Court finds and declares that all actions taken by Defendants, Hon. Andrew Beshear, as Governor, Mr. Eric Friedlander, as acting Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and Dr. Steven Stack, M.D., as Commissioner for the Department of Public Health, and all emergency orders imposed by said defendants, or that are being continued by said defendants, are unconstitutional, void and without any legal effect, to the extent that the same are in conflict with, or otherwise contrary to, House Bill 1, Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 2, and House Joint Resolution 77, as passed by the 2021 session of the General Assembly.

Here’s the decision:

Boone Circuit Court Order by Chris

This should have come at the end of March, not today, but it is at least a bit of a relief that it has occurred.