We need to talk about Donald: cursing and swearing allowed

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 04881.html

Takes the biscuit don't you think?

[Brian Peacock]

Mr Bannon saw himself as a nationalist warrior, speaking for the president’s blue-collar, white-skinned electoral base against the Beltway establishment. Although he boasts that he will be even more powerful outside the White House, this is bluster. His departure weakens the administration’s nationalist radicalism on issues like trade, immigration, and the economic stimulus that candidate Trump promised. Relations with China, which preoccupied Mr Bannon so much that he rang a liberal journalist last week to announce that “to me the economic war with China is everything”, may ease. But the opposition he voiced to military action against North Korea or Syria may also give way to a more interventionist approach from the generals – including national security adviser HR McMaster and defence secretary James Mattis – who have forced him out.

An equally important example on the domestic front is tax reform. Gen Kelly was reported this week to see tax as the way to rebuild the administration’s ties with congressional Republicans and to repair relations with business after Mr Trump disbanded three presidential business councils last week. But the congressional leaders do not want the spending on jobs and infrastructure that Mr Trump campaigned for. They only want tax and budget cuts, plus tax breaks for business to go alongside the scrapping of rules on the environment and consumer protection.

The immediate reason Mr Trump is in trouble is because of his terrible response to the Charlottesville protests. But his deeper crisis is that he actually shares many of the congressional party’s priorities. The voters who rallied to his (and Mr Bannon’s) nationalist appeal a year ago are getting it. Support for Mr Trump in states that he won in 2016, like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is down to between 34% and 36%. That reflects not just Charlottesville but the fact that in practice this president is less concerned with jobs and workers and more concerned with corporate interests – not least his own. Mr Trump isn’t an outsider but an insider. And increasing numbers of Americans can see this, even in the dark.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... _clipboard

[Brian Peacock]

Trump: "I know who you are, and where you live!"

A brewing fight between the Justice Department (DOJ) and a technology firm over visitors to an anti-Trump website is stirring alarm among privacy and civil liberties advocates.

DreamHost, a Los Angeles-based web hosting provider, is challenging a federal request for records, files and other information on a website that was used to organize protests against President Trump on Inauguration Day.

While prosecutors are seeking the information in connection with inauguration riots, privacy advocates describe the request as overly broad and one that, if honored, could have a chilling effect on free speech.

“This to me on its face looks like a fishing expedition,” said Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. “It cannot be in this democracy that simply going to a website is [indicative] of criminal or suspicious activity.”

DreamHost says that complying with the request would result in the company turning over roughly 1.3 million visitor IP addresses to the website disruptj20.org.

That data could reveal when people visited the site, what webpages they looked at and even what operating systems they were using. DreamHost is also being asked to hand over email content related to the site, which could identify people who corresponded with the website’s owners.

Jennifer Daskal, an American University law professor, said that the lack of information about the effort makes it impossible to known the full scope of what the Justice Department is doing. However, she agreed that the request for data appears questionable.

“It seems quite concerning and extremely overbroad — raising both First and Fourth amendment concerns,” Daskal said. “It's targeting anyone who visited a site used to organize a protest, in a way that seriously risks chilling speech and associational rights.” She noted that searches are supposed to be “particularized based on individualized suspicion.”...

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity ... gers-alarm

[L'Emmerdeur]

Yeah, not a particular surprise that 'smarmy grand-dad who'd happily see you in a chain gang' Sessions is overseeing a Department of Justice that would try to pull off this sort of shit.

[Jason]

But #FuckFreeSpeech, right?

[Brian Peacock]

Yeah, not a particular surprise that 'smarmy grand-dad who'd happily see you in a chain gang' Sessions is overseeing a Department of Justice that would try to pull off this sort of shit.

There's something quite unwholesome about a government using its position as the custodian of State resources to identify people who are critical of its operations and operators.

Free speech is not a freedom to say whatever you like, wherever you like, to whomever you like, about whoever you like, without regards to effect or consequence, it's a freedom to say whatever you like about the government without them carting you off to work camps or sending in a drawn-swords cavalry charge. I really think Trump is over-stepping the mark here.

[Sean Hayden]

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Lose the records.

[Brian Peacock]

You're a sly one. Remind me never to play poker with you.

[Jason]

Yeah, not a particular surprise that 'smarmy grand-dad who'd happily see you in a chain gang' Sessions is overseeing a Department of Justice that would try to pull off this sort of shit.

There's something quite unwholesome about a government using its position as the custodian of State resources to identify people who are critical of its operations and operators.

Free speech is not a freedom to say whatever you like, wherever you like, to whomever you like, about whoever you like, without regards to effect or consequence, it's a freedom to say whatever you like about the government without them carting you off to work camps or sending in a drawn-swords cavalry charge. I really think Trump is over-stepping the mark here.

Free speech is freedom to express opinion provided the expression of that opinion isn't an incitement to imminent lawless action. It is not otherwise constrained and freedom of persecution for expressing those opinions is also guaranteed.

[Brian Peacock]

OK. What I said, but shorter.

[Sean Hayden]

You're a sly one. Remind me never to play poker with you.

The problem is that when you're dealing with this government, they've already got the records, and they're asking to maintain the appearance of playing by the rules. Stop tracking your customers period in these instances.

-too cynical?

[Brian Peacock]

Not for me. Not cynical enough for Galaxian though.

[Sean Hayden]

By this government, I meant the puppets of the lizard overlords -obviously.

[Animavore]

First they came for the subscribers of donaldtrumpisatwat.com, and I did not speak out -
Because I was not a subscriber of donaldtrumpisatwat.com.

...

[Brian Peacock]

That domain name is still available if you want to start a whip round?
donaldtrumpisanidiot.com has already gone though.