Archive for the First Amendment Category

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Graduation Advice:  Find The First Amendment (May 15, 2023)

Posted in First Amendment, Graduation Advice on May 15, 2023 by e-commentary.org

.  .  .

K          “Find the First Amendment.  Don’t quit until you find it.  It may be hidden under a rock.  If you quit and don’t find it, we may get stoned for what we say.”

.  .  .

K          “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’23 . . . find the First Amendment. . . .  If I could offer you only one tip for the future . . . find the First Amendment.  You have been studying and partying and extracurricularing at a frantic and frenetic pace.  Now is the time to . . . find the First Amendment.  The assault on the First Amendment is coordinated and unrelenting by just about every large public and private and quasi public/private institution in America.  We all love it in theory but have a hard time applying it in practice, at least to others.  Sentiments such as the First Amendment and Due Process require a level of emotional intelligence and maturity sorely lacking today particularly among the parvenu PMC caste who were expensively school and yet lightly educated. As you join the company of educated men and women, find the First Amendment.”

. . .

K          “Wear sunscreen.  Wear hearing protection; listen attentively.  Wear chainsaw safety chaps; cut with care.  Eat dessert: First.  Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie).  Stop, pause, think.  Eschew fear.  Transcend:  Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude).  And find the First Amendment.”

. . .

[See “High Court Declines Arkansas Case on Boycotting Israel” by Marjorie Cohn in “Consortium News” dated March 2, 2023 discussing the one case more than any other case that should have been reviewed and reversed by the Court (the “Illegitimate Institution”?) without delay or hesitation.  See the e-commentary at Senate Repeals Constitution.  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 18, 2019) and House [Also] Repeals Constitution.  Oh, And Happy Civic Holiday In Canada! (August 5, 2019) and the entire Boycott Category.  For good measure, see “Biden’s DOJ Indicts Four Americans for Their Political Views on Russia” by Dave DeCamp in www.antiwar.com dated April 19, 2023.]

[See the original “Sunscreen Column”, the Wikipedia article “Wear Sunscreen” and listen to “Everbody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.]

[See the e-commentary at The Möbius Loop Of Stupidity, Dishonesty, Hypocrisy, Incompetence, Indifference, Arrogance, . . .  Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 25, 2019), Graduation Advice:  Transcend:  Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude) (May 16, 2022), Graduation Advice: Eschew Fear (May 10, 2021), Graduation Advice:  Stop, Pause, Think (May 18, 2020), Graduation Advice:  Learn To Tie a Bowline (And A Bow Tie) (May 13, 2019), Graduation Advice:  Eat Dessert.  First. (May 14, 2018), Graduation Advice:  Wear Chainsaw Safety Chaps; Cut With Care (May 15, 2017), Graduation Advice:  Wear Hearing Protection; Listen Attentively (May 16, 2016) and the advice to youth at Go East, Young Person (August 25, 2014).] 

Bumper stickers of the week:

Wear sunscreen.  Wear hearing protection; listen attentively.  Wear chainsaw safety chaps; cut with care.  Eat dessert:  First.  Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie).  Stop, pause, think.  Eschew fear.  Transcend:  Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude).  And find the First Amendment.

Find the First Amendment

Flee the Mobius Loop

Make 2024 the “Year Of The First Amendment”

“Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine.  As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”  Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“I disapprove of what you say, but [I] will defend to the death your right to say it.”  Voltaire

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Eighth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2023 (May 8, 2023)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, First Amendment, Journalism, Pushitzer Prize In Commentary on May 8, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

            “The envelope please.  . . .  This year’s Pushitzer Prize in Commentary is awarded to . . . Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and Bari Weiss . . . for their work exposing the alliance between Twitter and other Big Tech Behemoths and Big Government that coordinates efforts to suppress and censor free speech.  For their exposure of 51 foreign policy types who knowingly and actively interfered in the 2020 election in support of Biden.  And for their efforts stirring the pot, asking hard questions, demanding answers, rejecting lies, spotlighting uncomfortable truths, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.  And being journalists.”

. . .

[See “Post-Decency Politics:  House Democrats Use Hearing to Attack Both Free Speech and a Free Press” by Jonathan Turley in “JonathanTurley.org” dated March 13, 2023 and “Why Do Mainstream Democrats Hate Matt Taibbi?” by Yves Smith, the recipient of the Seventh Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2022 (May 9, 2022), in “Naked Capitalism” reprinting “Democrats vs. Democrats – One of Them Will Lose” by Thomas Neuburger in “neuburger.substack.com” dated April 6, 2023.]

[See the blatant dishonesty, hypocrisy and cowardice of the corporate stenographers who masquerade as journalists in America and cover for each other but disregard one of the world’s most courageous journalists in the proclamation “Journalism Organizations Call On Administration To Prioritize Reporters Taken Hostage [But Not Real Reporters Such As Julian]” dated April 14, 2023.  And not a word about Gonzalo Lira today.]

[See the e-commentary on the ongoing international crime at The Persecution Of Assange And The Feckless MSM (September 21, 2020).]

[See the e-commentary on the Commentary Award and previous recipients at Seventh Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2022 (May 9, 2022), Sixth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2021 (June 7, 2021), Fifth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2020 (May 4, 2020), Fourth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2019 (April 15, 2019), Third Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2018 (April 16, 2018), Second Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2017 (April 10, 2017), First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016) and Pulitzers Are Pro-War?  Pressing The Pushitzers (April 22, 2013).]

[Please send your nomination for the Pushitzer Prize in Commentary for 2024 and a supporting letter by January 21, 2024 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make journalism great again

Make journalism journalism again

Knowledge is not power, but ignorance is powerless

“First they came for the journalists.  We don’t know what happened after that.”

“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.”  George Orwell

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The Elections Clause And The Independent State Legislature Theory Confront Sound Logic And Settled Practice (December 12, 2022)

Posted in Constitution, Elections, First Amendment, Sports, Supreme Court on December 12, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “I had the good fortune to listen to the debate from the perspective of someone who has not been inside an American law school.  As I recall from inside an American high school, Federalist Paper Number 78 courtesy of Alexander Hamilton discusses the role, albeit limited, of the judiciary.   Fourteen years after the drafting of the Constitution in 1789, the Supreme Court in 1803 in Marbury v. Madison advanced a doctrine of robust judicial review.  The federal courts have the solemn task of determining whether acts are constitutional and what must be done if acts are contrary to the Constitution.  Even a hard-core Originalist who looks only at the text of the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and possibly other then contemporary publications does not dispute that robust judicial review is part of the settled analytical framework of the Constitution.  The Elections Clause language vests the decision in the state legislatures.  The Petitioners argue that the analysis stops there.  However, the Elections Clause language does not preclude judicial review by any court.  In addition, the analytical framework of the United States Constitution includes robust judicial review as a matter of settled practice in the Republic.  Nothing in the Elections Clause precludes a state supreme court from following the same analytical framework allowing for robust judicial review of the state’s legislative action.  The Petitioners sought . . . judicial review by the United States Supreme Court of the North Carolina Supreme Court’s . . . judicial review of actions taken by the North Carolina legislature.  Petitioners did not challenge the actual decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court, only the decision to decide.  Dismiss the petition as contrary to the text, logic, structure and history of the Clause and the Constitution, I say.”

K          “I had the good fortune to attend the show in person and from the perspective of someone who kept everything in perspective while in an American law school.  That is also my take.  The specific provision is neither incomplete nor unartfully drafted.  It says what it says on the topic but need not and does not need to say anything more.  John Marshall’s statue dominates the inside of the Court.  Any true conservative would affirm his great contribution to the development of the American court system.  The acts by state legislatures pursuant to the Clause are subject to state judicial review.”      

. . .

K          “Nice to be agreeing on something again.”

J          “I am pleased you see it my way.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary involving the goal of the Beautiful Game discussed at Expanding The Goal In Soccer (July 18, 2022).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Beau jeu

The Twitter Files Are The Pentagon Papers Of Today

Moore v. Harper:  Say what?

Free Assange

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The War On Truthful Journalism Marches On;  U.S. Carpet Bombing Propaganda And Censorship Campaign Rages On (August 1, 2022)

Posted in Censorship, First Amendment, Propoganda on August 1, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The U.S. is being the U.S. again and funding a ‘blacklist’ of journalists and commentators who ask hard questions and demand honest answers.  The U.S./Ukraine ‘Enemies List’ list includes individuals who are on the short list for a Pushitzer Prize and for the highly coveted Cameo In Courage Award.”

J          “I disapprove of what they say, but I will defend to the death their right to say it.”

. . .

[See the “US Should Not Fund Ukrainian ‘Blacklist’” reprinted in “Consortium News” dated July 27, 2022 by Scott Ritter.]

[Take some time reading and reflecting on the e-commentary six years ago on the concerted attacks on independent journalists at A “Journalist” Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016) and Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New “Nixon’s Enemies List” (December 5, 2016).  See the propaganda war waged by even NPR at N. Propaganda R. Transcribed:  “Get Vaccinated.  Attack Russia.”  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 21, 2022) and Washington Wants War In The Worst Way:  Dust Off The IOSAT Or Return To The Status Quo Ante Bellum? (January 24, 2022).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“I disapprove of what you say, but [I] will defend to the death your right to say it.”  Voltaire

“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”  Henry Kissinger

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Korematsu Two; And The ACLU Endorses It! (September 6, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, First Amendment, Vaccine on September 6, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “We never see it at the time.  Few see it now.”

J          “Few see what?”

. . .

K          “When the ACLU goes mad, you know that we have all gone mad.”

J          “It is the Age.  The Age of Madness.  We are obligated to go mad.  Mad is obligatory.”

. . .

K          “Otherwise level headed people have lost their sense of judgment and perspective and are demanding that those who refuse to take the ‘vaccine’ be rounded up and jabbed.  The same folks also support the systematic and systemic censorship of information that challenges the Narrative about Covid-19(84).  And few see it.”

J          “I see it.  I still see the need for vaccines even for forced vaccines.”

. . .

[See “Censored Again by YouTube!” in “Peak Prosperity” dated August 28, 2021 by Chris Martenson who was the recipient of the “Fifth Annual “Cameo In Courage” Award For 2020 (July 6, 2020)” and “NPR trashes Free Speech. A Brief Response” in “TK News” dated August 31, 2021 by Matt Taibbi.]

[See the e-commentary at “Fourth Annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence (October 21, 2019)” and “[Don’t] Support Public Media? (June 10, 2019)” and a year earlier at “National People’s Radio?; National Public Radio?; National Petroleum Radio?; National Propaganda Radio? (June 11, 2018)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:       

According to the ACLU:

Far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties.  They protect the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated and communities of color hit hard by the disease.

Vaccine requirements also safeguard those whose work involves regular exposure to the public, like teachers, doctors and nurses, bus drivers and grocery store employees. And by inoculating people from the disease’s worst effects, the vaccines offer the promise of restoring to all of us our most basic liberties, eventually allowing us to return safely to life as we knew it, in schools and at houses of worship and political meetings, not to mention at restaurants, bars, and gatherings with family and friends.

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Google The Gatekeeper Wall (June 28, 2021)

Posted in First Amendment, Google, Monopoly, Technology on June 28, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I was at Firefox to avoid the Google fist and simply sought to duck over and go to duckduckgo.  Das ist verboten.  Google monitors all requests and demands another step in its monitoring of Internet traffic.  When the desired website is one of the sites blocked by Google, the demand appears.  The Behemoth blocks.  But Google does not block a search of nyt.com or msm.com.  Google has offered absolutely no reason why it needs to determine whether the request is coming from a robot.  The one thing its AI knows is that the request is not coming from malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests but rather is coming from a very sentient and sapien human being.”

J          “Not only are they monitoring your searches, they want you to know that they are monitoring your searches.  They are brazen because they can be brazen.”

. . .

K          “I went to Firefox to search for ‘Mother Teresa’ and the request was sent over from Firefox to Google and then deemed suspicious.”

J          “Search for ways to promote world peace or cure cancer and your service may be terminated.”

. . .

K          “The CAPTCHA security measure is a clever acronym.  Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.  Alan Turing’s legacy endures.”

. . .

J          “The Internet is evil.  There may be a dozen solid reasons why the Internet has improved our lives, but in the final analysis, it is evil.  Google’s hip motto was an ironic and prescient admission of just what Google and the Internet would do.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Should You “Friend” The Tech Beasts And Behemoths? (October 23, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

About this page

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it’s really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop. In the meantime, solving the above CAPTCHA will let you continue to use our services.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may be asked to solve the CAPTCHA if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

IP address: 97.73.244.131
Time: 2021-06-18T19:52:05Z
URL: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=duckduckgo

Yes, indeed, it is really me trying to discern Truth.

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Oh, And Happy May Day And World Press Freedom Day! (May 3, 2021)

Posted in First Amendment, Freedom / Liberty, Newspapers, Press/Media on May 3, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Let us also proclaim it National Irony Days.  I cannot remember a time when there were more restrictions and road blocks by public and private entities on free speech.  The technology makes it so easy to throw a switch and disconnect a citizen.”

J          “Exercising your right of free speech if exercised to challenge those in power jeopardizes your personal freedom and threatens your life.  These actions are not just having a ‘chilling effect’ on free speech, they are ‘deep freezing’ free speech.”

. . .

K          “The threat to one’s life and the possibility of being suicided is very real and a clear and present danger.”

J          “And unreal.  Anyone raising a serious and fundamental challenge to the system knows that he or she risks his or her life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary on “Third Annual “Cameo In Courage” Award For 2018 (April 9, 2018)”, “Alex J. / J. Assange And The First Amendment (August 13, 2018)” and “The Persecution Of Assange And The Feckless MSM (September 21, 2020)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Free the press

Antony Blinken Hypocrisy Award coming soon!

Low inventory!  This gear won’t last — Due to global supply chain issues we’re having trouble keeping gear in stock.

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RIP: 2020: Vestigial Democracy; 2021: Free Speech (March 1, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Elections, First Amendment on March 1, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “At the end of the year, they scroll through pictures of folks we lost in the past year.  In 2020, the year of the Virus, we may have lost ‘Vestigial Democracy’ and in 2021, the year of the Vaccine, we have already lost ‘Free Speech’ without recognizing either loss.  We are off to a terrible start.”

J          “I disagree about the lost democracy.  It was clean or clean enough for me in the real world of dirty politics.  Free speech is another thing.  The First Amendment protects against government intrusion, but now the ‘governments’ are private sector Behemoths who are beyond regulation.  However, I am not totally against bans on speech that is akin to yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

K          “These private sector bans will come to haunt us.”

. . .

[See “YouTube Censors Senate Testimony From Doctor On Possible Covid Drug” by Jonathan Turley dated February 4, 2021.]

[See the e-commentary at “YouTube:  Your University:  America’s Community College (December 8, 2014)” at a time when it seemed a more benign platform.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Did they make it Amendment One for a reason?

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The “D” Division Invades The Swamp. The War On America Is On In America (January 25, 2021)

Posted in Bideni, First Amendment, O'Bama, Presidency, Trumpi, Wall Street, War, War and Wall Street Party on January 25, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The ‘D’ Division rolled into Fort Swamp last Wednesday without much genuine fanfare or even many fans.  Attendance at the Emperor’s coronation looked like a Bideni campaign rally last fall.”

J          “To the accompaniment of more centurions than the Empire acknowledges in its many overseas wars of choice.  A bleak and barren tableau against a desolate and deserted landscape with a rank and file of American flags made in China.  No citizens were on the National Mall and no shoppers were in the nation’s shopping malls.”

. . . 

K          “One crime family leaves and another crime family arrives.  I provoke all manner of perplexed responses when I observe that we are giving up an Ivy League President and getting someone who graduated something like 97th in a law school class of 58 at a regional law school.”

J          “Trumpi only got into an Ivy League school because he is from a second generation crime family.  The Bidenis are now an established second generation crime family and thus Hunter had a spot held for him in the Ivy League.” 

. . . 

K          “Bideni is a foot soldier for the neoliberals in domestic policy.”

J          “And an errand boy for the neoconservatives in foreign policy.”          

. . .

K          “Nothing ever changes.”

J          “Everything stays the same.”

. . .

K          “He was true to himself until the end and simply could not muster the courage and integrity to pardon Assange and Snowden and instead pardoned some stray punks and thugs.  He is a waste of protoplasm in a great wasteland.”

J          “He pardoned people who reminded him of who he is not who he wants to be.  He will always be the saurian beast until he slithers off this Planet.”

. . .

K          “Bideni promised that nothing will change; he will keep that one promise.  Day 6 is a modest improvement, but under the most optimistic scenario the country will only marginally improve under him/her/them.”

J          “Marginal is the best we can do in this country.  He will broadcast a few flashy but hollow and symbolic policies.  Few legitimate grievances will be addressed.  This is the third term of the O’Bama administration.  O’Bama spawned Trumpi.  He/she/they are the transitional Presidency to a new more slick and subtle Trumpi Version 2.0 in four years.”

. . .

K          “The war on America and Americans now begins in earnest.”

J          “The only way to grow and expand the war industry is to invade and colonize new territory.  America is just sitting there between the two vast sloughs waiting to be plucked and plundered.  America is the last frontier and the last battleground.”

. . .

[See ““Here Are the Superheroes To Come and Save Us”: Media Waste No Time Fawning Over Biden” in “MintPress News” by Alan Macleod dated January 22, 2021.]

[See the e-commentary at “The “War And Wall Street Party” Concludes Its Confabulations (August 31, 2020)”, “The Choice:  Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate v. Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate (April 13, 2015)”, “The ‘War and Wall [Street] Party’ On The War Path (February 1, 2016)”, “The First Look At The ‘Second Political Party’ (January 3, 2011)” and “DNC:  ‘We’re Losers.  Vote for Us.’ (February 27, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Give war a chance

No hope and no change

Dissent is patriotic

Hank Aaron

There is something to and something about ivermectin that compels a closer look-see

?The Dow at 20,000 or less by Halloween?

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The Persecution Of Assange And The Feckless MSM (September 21, 2020)

Posted in Cameo In Courage Award, First Amendment, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media on September 21, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Most media outlets are not concerned about press freedom because they are completely free to say precisely what they are directed to say.”

J          “The only journalists commenting on the most critical freedom of the press case of our time are commentators such as award-winning Caitlin Johnstone and historian and human rights advocate Craig Murray, those at Consortium News, and a few other heroes, stragglers and renegades.”

. . .

K          “What would RBG say?”

J          “I respectfully dissent.”

. . .

[See “Empire’s mask slips at Julian Assange trial” in “The Asia Times” dated September 18, 2020 by Pepe Escobar.]

[See some of the e-commentary by typing “Assange” in the search box.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Have a peaceful International Day of Peace

“First they came for the journalists.  We don’t know what happened after that.”

Have a peaceful Equinox

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

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