Trump rallies are known to be divisive events, each one full of Trump supporters and protesters alike. Police heavily patrol the events in an attempt to deter violence, but it’s not always effective.
Dallas Frazier, 29, is being held on a $10,000 bond after assaulting a 61 year old anti-Trump protester. Video of the incident shows Frazier exiting a vehicle and punching the older man several times before being summarily arrested by a nearby police officer.
The Pentagon is testing large, unmanned blimps in order to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats ” on US soil, according to a recent “experimental temporary authorization” published by the FCC. The solar-powered balloons are similar to a prototype craft that crashed in Pennsylvania in 2015, after escaping the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a military installation in Maryland, and would provide the government with perpetually powered, high-definition coverage of large geographic areas. Even more invasive, perhaps, than spy satellites.
“Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.” writes The Guardian. “The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.”
The US has a touchy relationship with mass surveillance, despite it largely having become the norm in the rest of the world. This isn’t surprising to Americans, who have largely opposed domestic surveillance and spying, even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, which saw the bipartisan passing of the 2001 Patriot Act, a bill that greatly expanded the powers of law enforcement agencies in investigating domestic terrorism under US President George W. Bush. The bill received public criticism for also compromising the security and privacy of innocent Americans. Components of the bill were granted a four year extension in 2011 by US President Barack Obama.
In 2004, then-FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III defended the controversial act, stating “the Patriot Act has proved extraordinarily beneficial in the war on terrorism and has changed the way the FBI does business. Many of our counterterrorism (sic) successes, in fact, are the direct results of provisions included in the Act…”
17 years later, American citizens’ fears about the Patriot Act, and further mass surveillance, have largely been realized. In 2013, ex-CIA systems administrator Edward Snowden, leaked a substantial amount of data on secret, government spy programs that he felt the American public deserved to know. This includes previously unknown capabilities like the “bulk collection of phone and internet metadata from U.S. users, spying on the personal communications of foreign leaders including U.S. allies, and the NSA’s ability to tap undersea fiber optic cables and siphon off data.” As well as “releasing computer viruses, spying on journalists and diplomats, jamming phones and computers, and using sex to lure targets into ‘honey traps.'”
These balloons are the latest in the continuing trend of growing mass surveillance in the US. Ex-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter describes use of similar devices in the Middle East nearly ten years ago: “You can spot someone burying an IED or setting up a checkpoint on a road near you; you can catch someone about to mortar your base; you (can) check whether the market is open in a nearby village.”
In the present day, more advanced models will be tested and utilized on US soil to, officially, better track and prevent drug trafficking shipments from entering the US. Naturally, citizens worry about what else they’ll be used for. In the past, new and invasive surveillance technologies have been abused, and some worry this latest development will be no different.
“We do not think that American cities should be subject to wide-area surveillance in which every vehicle could be tracked wherever they go,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Even in tests, they’re still collecting a lot of data on Americans: who’s driving to the union house, the church, the mosque, the Alzheimer’s clinic,” he said. “We should not go down the road of allowing this to be used in the United States and it’s disturbing to hear that these tests are being carried out, by the military no less. …if they decide that it’s usable domestically, there’s going to be enormous pressure to deploy it.”
Mark Harris, The Guardian
While public opinion of the practice is low in the US, the facts remain contentious. Some say surveillance makes us less safe and opens citizens up to dangerously dystopian realities already in effect in other parts of the world. But the technology has proven useful at times. The UK utilized its massive CCTV network to track Russian operatives who entered the country and poisoned a former Russian military operative with a deadly nerve agent, from the moment they stepped out of the airport. The attempted assassination had unintended casualties and has furthered Western tensions with Russia.
Despite public uneasiness, testing of the new surveillance balloons is predicted to move forward unimpeded.
The Climate Emergency is introducing humanity to our new, hellish reality with frightening speed. We had every warning possible, but we did not listen. Now, humanity must reap what it has sewn. “The global warming caused by human activities has resulted in a climate emergency that … demands a national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the resources and labor of the United States at a massive-scale.” reads Ocasio-Cortez’s draft of the Climate Emergency resolution.
Loughborough University climate scientist Dr. Tom Matthews discusses our new frightening world in The Conversation. Dr. Matthews presents to us the disturbing science of “wet bulb” temperatures. In essence, when it’s both too hot and too humid, the body becomes incapable of producing sweat and thus cannot cool itself. Once this temperature is achieved, death will occur in hours unless you can escape to cooler locations.
“The wet bulb temperature includes the cooling effect of water evaporating from the thermometer, and so is normally much lower than the normal (“dry bulb”) temperature reported in weather forecasts,” He writes. “Once this wet bulb temperature threshold is crossed, the air is so full of water vapour that sweat no longer evaporates,” Dr. Matthews elaborates on the consequences, “Without the means to dissipate heat, our core temperature rises, irrespective of how much water we drink, how much shade we seek, or how much rest we take,”
While humans are currently spared from wet bulb temperatures (having only been measured in the warmest regions of the planet), the animals we share the Earth with are not so lucky. Recently, more than 200 reindeer were found dead in the arctic of starvation. Why’d they starve? The Svalbard reindeer are some of the first victims of the Climate Emergency. The Guardian reports:
“Ashild Onvik Pedersen, the head of the census, said the high degree of mortality was a consequence of climate crisis, which according to climate scientists, is happening twice as fast in the Arctic as the rest of the world. ‘Climate change is making it rain much more. The rain falls on the snow and forms a layer of ice on the tundra, making grazing conditions very poor for animals,’ she said. In winter, Svalbard reindeer find vegetation in the snow using their hooves, but alternating freezing and thawing periods can create layers of impenetrable ice, depriving the reindeers of nourishment.”
The Guardian
As the Earth spirals into potentially irreversible chaos, governments and corporations alike are telling us to calm down. China is on track to meet its climate change mitigation goals, and many other countries are celebrating small successes as well. But scientists say it’s simply not enough.
Even so, CEO of BP, the infamous oil company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon incident, Bob Dudley thinks climate activists are being too polarizing. He told CNBC “I don’t think it helps anything to demonize companies or groups. It gets society polarized and it is really hard to move through big complex problems when you set that up.”
So, as we reach deadly wet bulb temperatures, please do remember not to trouble the billionaires too much. We wouldn’t want to make their lives difficult.
Today Jay! Tomlinson and the award-winning Best of the Left podcast are covering Trump’s war on journalism and journalists. Multiple times the nation’s 45th President has labelled journalists the “enemy of the people.” He frequently derides news outlets like the New York Times and CNN.
The President is a known fan of Fox News, a popular conservative news corporation. That has changed in recent weeks as Fox has begun taking shots at Trump, much to his displeasure.
Take a listen to this podcast and consider contributing to their Patreon. The Best of the Left podcast is a treasure-trove of leftist knowledge.
It’s always good to reach across the aisle. I’m a firm believer in communication, even with your opponents. Without it, the world is doomed to slip into chaos. I also believe in our right to free speech. Our right to criticize our government, our law enforcement, our friends, and our enemies. In the worst fascist states, criticizing your government can land you dead in a ditch, in more civil places it can still land you a petty fine.
Recently I commented on a fellow WordPress user’s blog post, Rancid Ravioli, who runs the page But I’m Always Right. I encourage you to check out his posts and maybe leave a comment. Engaging with one another is how we make progress. It’s a notably right-leaning blog, but I find it’s important to stay informed on the thoughts and happenings of both sides of the American political spectrum.
My point is that suppression of conservatives on social media isn’t some nefarious, globalist persecution of all people right-of-center. It’s that the right has a lot skeletons, and they aren’t in the closet. They’re dancing in the streets wearing MAGA hats like some perverted twist on Cinco de Mayo, and that users of social media don’t want to experience the hate that they commonly spread online. Therefore it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that users, moderators and administrators on the internet have a tendency to remove or prevent what they view as vitriolic opinions from their sites.
The internet is not America; websites are under no obligation to tolerate your opinion. In my opinion, a lot of conservative content online is in fact spiteful, disrespectful, often factually dubious, and far too reactionary. It plays on emotion rather than reason; what feels good and not what is true. That’s a bit of hyperbole, but what the hell? This is the opinion section of the website. Ravioli has some critiques on my line of thought, and that of other leftists that I want to publicize and explore here. Let’s just run down the list. The following are taken directly from his blog post, wherein he declares that he “could easily demolish [my] argument”
1. Tasking him to specify what is “so much” and to provide at least 10 examples in the last 2 and a half years.
So here he’s asking for “10 examples in the last 2 and a half years” for conservative’s being responsible for, as I said, “so much death and violence.” So, since February 2017. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
2. I could point to all the massive ugly history Democrats have in dealing with black people which includes their record on slavery and their creation of the KKK.
You could, except the only issue with that is what a Democrat was, historically. From its creation in 1828 until the 1930’s, the Democratic Party was made up of Southern conservatives. The Party didn’t become pro-big-government, pro-social programs, and begin its Northward shift until FDR in the 1930’s. So when you hear Republicans espouse the motto “Party of Lincoln,” it’s a big falsehood. They were the “Party of Lincoln” in name only.
I could point out how fascism actually has deep historical ties to leftist ideology such as socialism and communism. In fact it is a natural evolution of those ideologies.
I’m lumping my response into the next quote’s.
I could point out how those very leftist ideologies have been responsible for the most disturbing and violent regimes in history. Stalin was a Leftist, Hitler was a fan of leftist ideology, and so much more throughout history. Research it.
I’m actually not going to deny Ravioli’s initial statement. Like every bourgeois regime in human history, leftist ideologies have been adopted by dictators and authoritarians alike to oppress and control populaces. The only caveat I’d add is that this isn’t a problem with leftist ideology, it’s a problem with the bourgeoisie (a catch-all term for the wealthy elite who end up controlling the populace and government in any given society). In the past there have been violent regimes of both leftist and conservative ideology. There are even militant Buddhists. Anyways, I do want to set the record straight on Hitler and Stalin’s dubious relationships with socialism:
“Whatever interest Hitler had in socialism was not based on an understanding of socialism that we might have today — a movement that would supplant capitalism in which the working class would seize power over the state and the means of production. He repeatedly pushed back efforts by economically left-leaning elements of the party to enact socialist reforms, saying in a 1926 conference in Bamberg (organized by Nazi Party leaders over the very question of the party’s ideological underpinnings) that any effort to take the homes and estates of German princes would move the party toward communism and that he would never do anything to assist “communist-inspired movements.” He prohibited the formation of Nazi trade unions, and by 1929 he outright rejected any efforts by Nazis who argued in favor of socialistic ideas or projects in their entirety.”
Vox, “Adolf Hitler Was Not A Socialist”
“Stalin’s personal character is not the dominating factor of Soviet history since 1914. Far greater forces have been at work. But if Lenin’s individual gifts were on the side of progress to Socialism, Stalin touched only to corrupt. Of political economy he was, and to a great extent is, quite ignorant; in Marxism he and his henchmen are to-day capable of errors that a raw Social Democrat would not be guilty of. These things will be proved in their place. For the moment it is sufficient to give some significant incidents in his early history.”
C.L.R. James, “World Revolution” 1937
On to the next…
How Antifa is running around Canada and the US assaulting people they don’t like simply because those people have an opinion they don’t like. Antifa also distributes information on how to commit violent crimes and how to get away with it. http://destructables.org/about
Ravioli, once again I have to say you’re right… kind of. Anti-fascism is on the rise in the US. Anti-fascists have assaulted people, and sometimes unnecessarily. And yes, anti-fascists do have websites where they share tactics and methods for combating fascism. On the note of “distributing information” I will point out that the right-wing also keeps a public database of people they deem the enemy because they “have an opinion they don’t like,” or as they call us: “subversive politicians, activists, communists, agitators and out and out traitors”
It’s admittedly hard to keep all ‘members’ of ‘antifa’ accountable, because antifa does not exist as some national organization like the Proud Boys or Three Percenters. “It is impossible to know how many people count themselves as members. Its followers acknowledge that the movement is secretive, without official leaders and organized into autonomous local cells.” writes the New York Times “It is also only one in a constellation of activist movements that have come together in the past few years to oppose the far right.”
But, the whole point of anti-fascism is to stamp out fascism. Anti-fascism exists solely as a unified act of self-defense. Anti-fascists do not exist without fascism. We (oh yes, I am an antifa boogeyman) are all from different political sects, be it social democrats, democratic socialists, communists, anarchists, or centrists. But when fascism rears it’s ugly head in America, the nation that fought to save Europe from fascism just 70 years ago, we unite in our amelioration of the American spirit of freedom and liberty, against fascism. Faaaaascism. I feel like people have forgotten what fascism is and what it has done historically. Tell me if any of these characteristics of fascism sound familiar:
Not all of the links included here track with these tenets of fascism, but there have been hundreds of concerning trends in America that only become more prevalent each year. The right’s trend toward authoritarianism and fascism is not only factual, but the only people who actively deny it are the right themselves. Whether it’s willful ignorance or deliberately playing dumb to hide an agenda, American conservatives have doubled down on “their team.” Conservative politicians nakedly support fascistic principals that run contrary to the American spirit set forth by the Founders. Carrying on…
The reality is Cal is ignoring reality. Sure everyone can name Christchurch or the recent Garlic Festival attack. But how many more can anyone name from the last couple of years? Now google how many far leftist attacks occurred and you’ll find the Left’s argument of a rise in alt-right extremism is flawed. If there were such a massive increase you’d see alt-right assaults being reported in the Hate Media, such as CNN, every single day. Remember they will report every single alt-right attack no matter where in the world it occurs. But they will only report alt-left assaults when they have to.
Yes, there have been leftist attacks. I am in no way declaring leftists and anti-fascists incapable of violence. The anti-fascist movement, in fact, promotes violence when necessary to suppress fascism, which unsurprisingly includes modern Nazis.
I know this response was long-winded, but I hope you stuck around to the end. All of this is in the spirit of healthy and civil discourse. While I support the anti-fascist movement and its propensity for Nazi-beat-downs, I encourage violence only as a last resort and in self-defense. Fascism is a disease and has no place in the land of the free, where we believe in self-determination and personal liberty. As a proud leftist, I respectfully disagree with Ravioli’s characterization of the leftist movement, and encourage him to respond in kind.
Regards,
Cal Knight, WriteLeft
In the UK, worker’s rights are suddenly in danger after Theresa May’s recent resignation and replacement by conservative politician Boris Johnson and his cabinet. Johnson, who promises to ‘Brexit’ by Halloween 2019.
“The UK has a world-leading record in protecting workers’ rights, setting the highest standard, and a labour market we can be proud of, with more people in work than ever before. We are determined to maintain this record of leadership after we leave the EU, with or without a deal.” says a UK Government Spokesperson. But insiders are telling a different story.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady has delivered public remarks, warning of the dire straits that UK workers are now in: “Boris Johnson claims that he intends to enhance rights at work after Brexit. He and his advisers should be focused on delivering that promise.” O’Grady says. “But instead they’re threatening a catastrophic no deal, which would strip away existing legal protections and leave essential rights open to attack. Working people must not be dragged off this cliff edge without getting a Final Say.”
Johnson, a conservative and seemingly openly racist man, oddly evocative of the US’s own Donald Trump, has the nation worried about the future of social issues in the UK. The freshman PM has already announced plans to increase the size police forces and their powers. With the US already struggling with police brutality and false arrests, the UK’s future appears grim.
“The new Tory government will make life harder for black and Asian people, and migrants. One of Boris Johnson’s first announcements was a plan to hire 20,000 more cops and give them “greater powers to use stop and search”.
“Black people were nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people in England and Wales in 2017/18, according to government figures.”
SocialistWorker.co.uk
All is not lost. There are many in the UK who vehemently support the rights of the working-class, and are pushing heavily against these latest attempts to deregulate and strip workers of safeguards.
“And whenever other workers strike, we should raise solidarity with them. It won’t just help strikers—it will get people talking about walkouts in your workplace. The key opportunity for organising workers’ action is the global climate strike on Friday 20 September. Socialists should go into every union and staff meeting arguing for strikes, and try to organise unofficial walkouts on the day. Inaction by Labour and union leaders has relegated working class people to being spectators to the Tory crisis.”
“Action on 20 September could mark a break from this.”
SocialistWorker.co.uk
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of Cincinnati, Ohio shows thorough and unabashed support for Anthony Novak in a 3-0 decision to pursue several lawsuits over his 2016 arrest and later acquittal. Novak ran a Facebook page mocking a Cleveland police department.
Novak was unlawfully arrested for “disrupting public service” in March, 2016 as a direct response from Cleveland police over his parody Facebook page, lambasting the city’s police officers. The arrest is one of many cases leading to calls for increased police oversight as police violence and false arrests continue to make headlines.
“Novak’s page delighted, disgusted, and confused. Not everyone understood it,” writes Trump-appointed judge Amul Thapar, “But when it comes to parody, the law requires a reasonable reader standard, not a ‘most gullible person on Facebook’ standard. The First Amendment does not depend on whether everyone is in on the joke.”
Let’s not waste any time here. You can stream the debate live on CNN or on ABC’s Youtube channel.
Democrats and Republicans are tuning in tonight at 8 p.m. EST for the first of two debates taking place tonight and tomorrow. See below which issues are trending among voters.
The violence over the freedom of Hong Kong citizens is no longer limited to Hong Kong. Students numbering in the hundreds gathered on the campus of the University of Queensland, staging a sit-in to protest Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill, that if passed, would permit Hong Kong to extradite criminals to mainland China, a country with significantly fewer freedoms for citizens, and serious human rights issues.
During the protest, pro-Beijing counter protesters arrived on the scene, and “They drove us to the lawn and surrounded us for half an hour,” says student Christy Leung. Shortly after, she says the counter protesters began attacking the pro-democracy students.
No arrests were made in the Australian protest, but the students feel the need to express their resolute support for the citizens of Hong Kong who continue to be beaten, bloodied, and arrested in the streets. As the pro-democracy marches shift from weeks-long to months, China merely adds fuel to the fire, jailing a human rights activist for allegedly leaking state secrets to the world.
Huang Qi (黃琦) is a human rights activist and reporter from Chengdu, China who runs 64Tianwang, a website that popularly reports on the disappearances of Chinese citizens perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the nation’s ruling party. The site is blocked on the Chinese internet, accessible to residents of mainland China through use of a VPN.
Huang Qi is no stranger to Chinese detention. He’s been imprisoned by the government twice previously, both times under the color of vague espionage laws. Most recently the CCP has accused him of “leaking national state secrets and providing state secrets to foreign entities.” One sentence was dished out for “subversion” after Huang Qi and others reported and assisted victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed more than 69,000 Chinese citizens.
The activist was placed in detention from 2000 to 2005, and again in 2009 for similar crimes. This latest sentence of 12 years is the longest any “cyber-dissident” has been sentenced to yet. “Huang Qi, founder and director of Sichuan-based human rights website “64 Tianwang”, was secretly tried at Mianyang City Intermediate People’s Court on 14 January 2019 after being held in detention for more than two years.” Amnesty International reported in January of 2019. “…Pu Wenqing, his 85-year-old mother, was taken away by Sichuan police in December 2018 and only released after more than a month in detention.”
Many are concerned over this latest sentence given Huang Qi’s poor health after years in detainment. The activist and Cyberfreedom Prize winner suffers from heart disease and kidney disease. “The authorities are using his case to scare other human rights defenders who do similar work exposing abuses, especially those using online platforms,” says Reporters Without Borders researcher Patrick Boon.
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WriteLeft 