Slashdot Mirror
Citizenfour Director Sues To Find Out Why She Was Detained Every Time She Flew
An anonymous reader writes: Since the 2006 release of My Country, My Country, Laura Poitras has left and re-entered the U.S. roughly 40 times. Virtually every time during that six-year-period that she has returned to the U.S., her plane has been met by DHS agents who stand at the airplane door or tarmac and inspect the passports of every de-planing passenger until they find her (on the handful of occasions where they did not meet her at the plane, agents were called when she arrived at immigration). Each time, they detain her, and then interrogate her at length about where she went and with whom she met or spoke. They have exhibited a particular interest in finding out for whom she works.
you do realise that all these detentions happened years before the Snowden leaks?
So... Don't question the state, or you will be harrassed? Everything is fine just as it is? Great country you have there!
So you not only didn't RTFA or even TFS, you couldn't even bother to read the FIRST SENTENCE of the summary. And yet you think you're competent to have an opinion on the matter. That takes a special kind of stupid.
...does she have the right answers? IE:
1. I am an American citizen, and I have the right to enter my country.
2. I plead the fifth.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Or it could be this.
"Poitras has been subject to monitoring by the U.S. Government, which she speculates is because of a wire transfer she sent in 2006 to Iraqi doctor Riyadh al-Adhadh, a suspected Sunni insurgent"
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
...are pretty much zip, because he knows if he does so, he'll be the next one to find himself mysteriously assigned a 400/400 threat rating.
Replace US with USSR and DHS with FSB and I wouldn't have blinked twice at it - par for the course. And increasingly so for the USA, apparently.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
Can we get someone to explain how its OK for the IRS to harass people hoping to change policy but it's bad for DHS to harass people hoping to change policy?
Or do you all still feel that "since they weren't charged, it wasn't really a problem?"
(If you do, you might want to ask a person of color about traffic stops some time.)
I'm pretty sure she still carries the wire transfer on her every time she boards a plane. ;-)
Ezekiel 23:20
Oh...I would like to hear the other side. One that will defend this action. One that will say it's no where near those other nation states, that harass their citizens.
Waiting.
It turns out that keeping the authorities under control is hard to do.
I get the same treatment every time I cross international borders into the US. As I'm a permanent resident, they threaten to take my visa and deport me. I get interrogated, questioned about everything and anything, delayed, miss flights, miss connecting flights and then have to fend for myself - and I'll tell ya, it's pretty creepy when you realize basic questioning has turned into an interrogation when they start using cyclical questioning and questions intended to trick you up. You have no idea when they'll let you go - they don't have to tell you - you just land in a lawless zone - I called my consulate from my mobile phone as I was walking with ICE once and they told me that even for British Nationals - really the only ally the US has these days (five eyes be damned) - things are pretty bad once you're "in the system" and that all you can do is limit the amount of travel you do and to always, if possible because you aren't guaranteed any outside communication, but if you can, let someone on the outside know what's happened in case you drop off the radar - because that happens too.
I'm just thankful I'm white - not to be racist - but because if I was brown and worshiped the wrong god I'd be totally f'd!
And how is your Democrat President working out?
* Guantanamo (Still open).
* Afghan (Still going).
* Iraq (Complete disaster with the war "ended" when all the military leaders said don't).
* Prisoner swap (One Deserter for multiple enemy Leaders).
* Racism (Fires stoked daily to keep the miscreants mad at each other instead of facing the real issues... but #BlacklivesMatter(Unless killed by other blacks) and #RacistFlagsMustGo(except for Black Power flags)).
* Economy (out of recession... with record # on welfare, foodstamps, out of the working pool, stagnant wages).
* War on Women (Pays his female staff less than male counterparts... same as 'Liary.)
* Illegal Immigration (Who cares about some white woman dead? lets go visit a jail where another criminal can become The Presidents Son)
But sure... blame it on the Republicans. That dam Bush. He'll still kill us all.
It's simple: She's an American citizen. Don't answer a goddamned question. They can't deny her entry into the country, since she's a US citizen.
If she's saying so much as "hello" to these chuckleheads at this point, she's an idiot.
It's not about not being able to make an educated guess she'd bet on, but getting the official reason. At that point, it's possible to make a case that the reason is unconstitutional.
That's really what all of this is about: Government action without oversight, and it's hard to sue to change that without proof of harm. She has proof of harm right there: All she needs now is a target to use that hammer against.
Pretty sure there's a freedom of association clause in the Constitution.
Hell, I get detained every time I fly because I had the audacity to ask for a damage report form when one of their "professionals" broke my glasses while inspecting them.
It doesn't take much to get you on the "mess with this person" list.
Don't be daft. This is the unelected bureaucracy. The statist government drones with little to no oversite from elected officials. If you vote for democrats, you're voting for this just as much as if you voted republican. The D vs R thing is a dog a pony show that keeps people like you distracted.
Way to spoil a tradition /. meme
it's not a book, it's a movie, well a documentary
Translation: Bad things are great when they happen to people I don't like.
The tradition which has been spoiled is America being a free country, instead of ran by fascists to ignore the Constitution.
Face it, America is pretty much fucked at this point.
Okay, sure. The US is nowhere near those other nation states that harass their citizens. It's a matter of degree, and the degree is pretty significant. It's easy to find an interested group and then compare and contrast the complaints against various repressive regimes.
By that logic, ever defense attorney - even public defenders, should be treated to equal or greater scrutiny as they primarily associate with people believed to be guilty - and go the extra mile to convince the public and the powers that be that they are NOT guilty.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Sorry for not answering your question, but your statement, "Since they weren't charged, it wasn't really a problem" actually gets to the heart of what's happening here and was worth commenting on.
There is a legal gray area here, though one of a different sort. Cops cannot legally stop and detain "suspicious people" just because they look suspicious. But they do it all the time, because no one will take the time to sue for an unlawful Terry Stop. It's unpractical; the unlawful action may be a demoralizing inconvenience, but that's better than getting yourself involved in a lawsuit.
But in this circumstance, the DHS can detain anyone they want. The gray area here is that the individual is being detained in an international zone. Until one passes through customs, he/she is not legally on U.S. soil and U.S. law does not apply. The DHS is technically welcome to detain her, you, and any other U.S. Citizen for as long as they want. My wife personally went through it on one occasion and sat in a locked room for about two hours before they mysteriously just let her go. She asked why she was held and got the "We're not at liberty to say" line in return.
So, what hypothetical threat are the DHS agents protecting America from? I would note that, in all 40 instances, she was eventually allowed into the country, and in none of those instances did she commit a crime before leaving again. Perhaps the first time, her associations overseas might raise questions. But hopefully, somewhere in those multiple hours, they worked out that she is a journalist, and that communicating with people is part of her professional work.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
Who cares what other people posted at some other time? Respond to what I said, not some mythical personified slashdot. You're making a false category error in your thinking.
Oh, I already face that, but just because the US isn't a functional republic anymore, there's no reason not to have a sense of humor.
Pretty sure there's a freedom of association clause in the Constitution.
It took me forever to find, but there it is, right next to the freedom of the press clause, in a whole section about this, right at the top of the Bill of Rights. Very easy to gloss right over that.
You gotta make an effort!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/06...
Another blatant case of government employees trying to get even with people they don't agree with.
Works for me. How many criminals are you associated with, through family relationships, work, sports/hobbies, education, church, etc?
Please step through the red door, Comrade, where my freinds and I can get acquainted with you.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Actually, it is easy to do, de-authorize the authorities. Without authority, they can't abuse it. ;)
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
A corporate oligarchy isn't a fascist state. Fascism tightly controls and regulates private businesses, trade organizations, and banking interests, and provides social programs for it's citizens (free medical care, free university level education, public health programs, universal old age pensions, etc.), and that is coupled with strong nationalism, and in the case of the German fascists, virulent racism and aggressive expansion. Not much of that is characteristic of the emerging corporate oligarchies. They both suck, but they aren't the same.
Willkommen auf er neuen nationalsozialistischen USA
more cowbell
You must be new here.
It's not about not being able to make an educated guess she'd bet on, but getting the official reason. At that point, it's possible to make a case that the reason is unconstitutional.
Wow, what a laugh, as if this is a reason to get those in authority to respond with answers, or even respond at all.
In other words, take a number and get in fucking line. Most of the police-state actions our government takes these days is blatantly unconstitutional.
And there's not a fucking thing you can do about it. Those days are long gone.
If you can be reasonably certain that your laptop will be seized and searched then you might as well have some fun.
1) Get a brand new hard disk.
2) Load OS and common software.
3) Apply full disk encryption if possible supported by hardware TPM.
4) Fill disk with pointless and uninteresting files (kitten videos, boring sales brochures for catering equipment, vast datasheets for common microprocessors etc etc).
5) Generate a little script which goes through and encrypts each file with a different randomly generated key (obviously run scipt from external media which you don't take with you).
6) For added fun, install a publicly available unencrypted movie (perhaps one you have made if you happen to be a film maker, otherwise something like Dumbo) and then use steganography to hide something inoccuous in it (e.g. the complete works of Shakespear).
7) Don't expect to ever get the laptop back.
Obviously this will take a fair bit of work, but that will be nothing compared with the huge effort expended by your tormentors in trying to work out what it all means!!
Unfortunately, USA is starting to be redefined as "Unswervingly Socialist America".
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
If fewer people had your attitude and pressed for change, things would change. That's the only way they change.
By that logic, TSA agents should expect to be shot in the face for spending all day molesting strangers.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I make sure I fart every time a TSA agent has to hand check me. It's my little way of protesting. It's a stupid system.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I don't know since the Patriot Act makes that largely a black hole. I don't agree with the DHS or government policy but I'm sure she clicks quite a few of the check marks. Also remember law enforcement does and can harass you, this also includes Customs agents and unfortunately for all of us the Supreme Court has upheld this premise multiple times. It doesn't make it right but I still stand by the fact that regardless of your profession, your associations may make your activities suspicious.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
The social policies are not a core component of fascism. They're a blend of fascism ans socialism. The Fascists were Italian, not German. The Germans were Nazis.
But you are right in that in Fascism the government is the dominant party even though working hand-in-glove with the corporations. Also that as time went on the Fascists adopted many of the policies of the Nazis (and, to a lesser extent, conversely).
That said, Mussolini didn't really like violence, he just considered his ends important enough to justify it.
Then there's Spain. Spain was also called Fascist, and under Franco and I don't know of any other reasonable term for it, but in effect it appears to have been mainly a dictatorship. I can't really take their claims of Syndicalism seriously. But, again, there the government was the dominant party (or, more precisely, the dictator was the dominant party).
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Like her, I am that Randomly chosen to be searched person every time i go through tsa. im white, 26, and 5'7".... 13 out of the last 15 times ive flown (DFW-LAX) in either direction from 2002-current...
Sorry!
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
So how is this person like a defense attorney exactly?
Scum has the right to be defended in a court of law by a lawyer. That's a bit different than making yourself look like you are participating in their crimes. Although even mob lawyers can run afoul of the law.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
With a still amazingly unequal (and inaccessible) health care system, large wealth differences and general lack of social security, I wouldn't call USA "socialist" by any means. Leaning towards totalitarian, certainly. But without the socialist things like equality (seems like the super-rich are more catered for). Note that I mostly compare with the "socialist" North European countries. The USSR sure called themselves "socialist" too, and was a very non-agreeable place to live in ...
(not a socialist myself)
It's well known that Putin funds both far-right and far-left extremists to increase social divisions in the West. Cuba has also funded or blackmailed American activists before. Anyone notice how Alex Jones hates the US military, for someone who calls himself a conservative patriot?
Liberal weenies love to crow about Obamacare but all it really did was to provide corporate welfare for the insurance industry. It didn't actually provide care. It didn't even make health insurance terribly affordable. It certainly didn't improve deductibles and other out of pocket expenses.
Insurance is not "health care". I cheap or free clinic is health care.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
So all former and current members of Congress who served with any of the people on this list should be subject to the same level of scrutiny every single time they travel?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
40 detentions by DHS and Laura still travels with her camera full of pictures, her notebooks full of notes and likely a cellphone full of contacts. Please! Someone tell Laura about the Cloud.
Y'know, you could've sprinkled a few extra facts into the summary, such as the connection to Snowden.
But I guess that's what you get when you accept submissions wihch are just copy-pasted partial paragraphs from the article - and the paragraph itself is a quote, within the article, from 2012.
Keep up the shitty work, editors!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The retroactive immunity came much later.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
This person is actually a little more important than a defense attorney. It's her job to tell people what their government is doing. And by all accounts (except the government) she's doing an excellent job.
You are welcome on my lawn.
#RacistFlagsMustGo(except for Black Power flags)
For the record, there actually was never a civil war where one side fought for the right to own white people under the banner of a "black power" flag. Also, there is not to this day (nor was there ever) a state that still flies that flag of white oppression.
That does not make it right. I *hope* that is the contention here.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Additionally, judging by their reaction she must be doing an excellent job.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I'm not convinced it's even "the administration" doing these things to Ms Poitras. More likely, it's our Military/Intelligence apparatus that has existed outside of civilian government oversight.
When President Trump takes over, we'll see if journalists stop getting hassled. What do you think?
You are welcome on my lawn.
This is /. you know. The subject can be anything in the article and the summary. We will devolve into raging about an OS, a terminal, a text editor, or a person. None of which had a greater than 5% chance of actually even being tangentially related to the subject of the article or summary.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The press in its various forms (blogs, newspapers and some filmmakers) are the defense attorneys of a free country. The Founding fathers wrote at length how the press and freedom of speech on its own was one of the major impediments to a government sinking into corruption & totalitarianism.
"The last right we shall mention regards the freedom of the press. The importance of this consists, besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated into more honourable and just modes of conducting affairs."
Continental Congress, 1774
This woman isn't some random person hanging out with "scum", she's an award winning documentary filmmaker. She also helped create the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Unfortunately the press has to hang out with various groups of morally/legally questionable people in order to get to what is important, most of those people reside in our various halls of government.
Come on, folks, let's cheer with the AC "We're number one better than China! We're number one better than China!"
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Might be. I wonder if the CIA/DOD/executive branch folks who helped armed ISIS are also on a list like that.
I was searched five times once while changing planes. Two of them were in sight of each other (either end of a hallway). Every time they said it was a "random check."
I've yet to see anything from O'Keefe that would suggest he's a conspiracy nut.
The guy who got famous by dressing up as a pimp to fabricate proof that a housing organization for the poor was involved in a conspiracy to promote underage prostitution?
The same guy who broke into a senators office, to wiretap her phones, to prove that she wasn't "listening" to her constituents?
And the same guy who recently lost a libel lawsuit against that same senator, claiming that she implied he committed a felony. (His plea bargain reduced the charges to a misdemeanor instead of being a felony)
The same guy who filmed himself illegally entering the country, smuggling people and material, to prove that ISIS terrorists are also sneaking across? And then after publishing video of himself smuggling, is outraged that Customs agents see him as a potential smuggler?
Everything he does suggests he's a conspiracy nut..
last time I checked the presumption was one of innocence. OK, that's a rose-tinted view but it is the ONLY presumption that is in full conformity to the Constitution of the United States.
If you have suspicion that someone is breaking the Law, have your evidence ready before publicly airing it, and be absolutely prepared to defend your statement when you do.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
A simple trip to wikipedia would have give you that definition. Or the nazi's 25 point plan. And yes, I realize that much modern rhetoric paints fascists as ultra-right wing, but what fascists actually did in the 20s-40s where about heavy governmental control and social programs, and a lot of the rhetoric was about the evil international corporate and banking interests (usually with jewish controlled thrown in for good measure). Any corporation that told the fascists to stick it found themselves nationalized in no short time.
if you're not on a Government Watchlist, you're not doing it right.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
but why she kept coming back?
Mainstream media are dripfed propaganda by the Government with explicit instructions that define their conditions of operation in the jurisdiction: that they print what is given them and nothing more.
Examples: GMP leaked emails to Channel 5 and the BBC to change their stories regarding the Barton Moss anti-fracking protests. The same Police Authority emailing Channel Four News and the Dispatches programme instructing them not to show raw footage of police activity (including footage of assaults on the public by police officers) at the site. the privately owned quango calling itself ATVOD (the Authority for Television On Demand, formerly the Association~) threatening action against independent journalists including the UKColumn and others for being "unauthorised news media organisations(!)" and "Too television-like", and even going to such lengths as threatening to prosecute under copyright legislation for using common word combinations in broadcasts and in print.
These examples all follow close on the heels of the complete farce that was the Leveson Inquiry.
But, don't take my word for it. Take a look at what other (nonlocal mainstream and/or independent sites like RT, the New York Community Media Alliance, Namac, IFP, the UKColumn, and PieNMash Films) outlets have to say on the subject of soft censorship. They've all had to deal with attempted Government influence on their output, to which their unanimous retort: "I refer you to the response given in Arkell v Pressdram."
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
If you have suspicion that someone is breaking the Law, have your evidence ready before publicly airing it, and be absolutely prepared to defend your statement when you do.
yeah we'd have to disqualify every republican presidential candidate who has accused obama of breaking the law
In Soviet Russia, tradition /. meme spoils you!
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
[placeholder for linkage to evidence that the UK is harassing not only its own citizens by abducting the children and selling them for profit on a seller's market, they're doing it to citizens of other countries as well].
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
No doubt government is always attempting to co-opt the press to portray only what makes them look good and they have been successful to a degree. But the various leaks, corruption/waste stories and abuse of power pieces over the last decade or so have show that there are some holdouts that scoff at the government line. Also to a degree the internet has taken over for some of the "shaming" of "oppressive officers" that was once predominantly taken care of the press, with blog stories, Debt clocks & internet video/audio.
I'll just gas up and fly my own jumbo jet
Private aircraft are still subject to governmental inspection.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
$ Yeah? Well your OS is made by a stinky doo-doo head! And I echoed this from the terminal.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Hassling her a few hours is just an inconvenience. But the No Fly list is a real weapon. How is she going to make her unpatriotic films if she cannot go anywhere! There ain't no getting off the No Fly list, even if you were put on by mistake. That would teach her and her ilk.
Think about what it is like to be a DHS agent. You have attended countless meetings detailing just how much threat we are under. You *know* it is true. You work hard to keep Americans safe. And then someone like Poitras comes along. Scum of the earth.
Not, it's not easy. De-authorizing usually involves guns and a whole lot of people dying.
-- Will program for bandwidth
The solution is to simply say that you can't retroactively immunize someone for violating the constitution, it is by definition as illegal and invalid as the original act.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
That's because you have an insurance system with a health system as an afterthought. Efforts to change that at the base level from Nixon to Clinton failed so you ended up with a bandaid on top just so you've got something that may work after the leeches in the middle have taken their cut.
Conservative politics is about not changing much, and it's hard to find someone more conservative than a constitutional lawyer by training.
They are protecting America from all those unspent tax dollars! I wonder what the wages bills from those 40 stops would add up to? Would it buy a Mercedes? Two? More?
And with this post it becomes official: "whining" now exclusively means "I can't point out any logical or factual errors in that position I don't like, but boy howdy I sure can't bring myself to admit that!". Congratulations on being the one to bring it past the tipping point!
For the record, there actually was never a civil war where one side fought for the right to own white people under the banner of a "black power" flag. Also, there is not to this day (nor was there ever) a state that still flies that flag of white oppression.
For the record. the Civil War was not about one side fighting for the right to own black people under the banner of a "white power" flag, either.
The slavery issue was used in recruiting, convincing normally anti-war religious factions to drop their opposition (or even support it) under the "just war" doctrine, and eventually as a tactic near the end of the war to try to promote a slave revolt in the Confederacy. But the original fight (like the American Revolution, the "occupy" movement, and the RIAA/MPAA inspired draconian copyright regime) was about a crony capitalists / government axis using tariffs and laws to keep a large segment of the population as captive customers for overpriced monopoly products, suppressing both their trade with suppliers in other countries and their ability to make their own, lower-priced, replacement products.
It was the north's "1%" against the south-as-ghetto.
(Note that I say this as a descendant of a number of people who fought on the Union side.)
Unfortunately, the actual history of the conflict has been largely suppressed. IMHO the current anti-confederate-battle-flag move is both an attempt to finish off the suppression of the history of the conflict and to pre-emptively propagandize against any move by southern border states to take their own measures against what they perceive as a massive invasion across the southern border.
"Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it." applies here - even if the history isn't studied because books about it are suppressed (e.g. removed from book stores and libraries because they contain the "evil racist flag").
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
"in at least one instance she was denied the use of a pen to take notes after being told she might use it as a weapon"
Haha, spot on, Sherlock. She IS using her pen as a weapon. She is a journalist.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
if you're not on a Government Watchlist, you're not doing it right.
In this case she seems to be on a Government Harresslist. And those should not exist in the first place. She is doing U.S. citizens a patriotic service by dragging them out in the open. The sad thing is that nobody will bother enough to make the government stop this.
But at least she is doing her part of making the U.S. stop and reconsider being such an abomination upon the free world.
he's entirely too much like his Republican Predecessor.
Congratulations on admitting the obvious. Anyone who claims to hate GWB, but still supported Obama after he signed his first extension of the PATRIOT act, is and idiot or a goddamned hypocrite.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Journalists have a tendency to try to get people to break the law to get the story.
A lot of the time when there is a "No comment" it isn't because they don't want to give their side it is because they are not allowed to.
Say a case where a school teacher had injured a student. The teacher or other school employees can't state to the media that the "victim" was a known gang member, or was high on drugs and normal means wouldn't work. If they stated any of that to the media they would be fired.
Same things she you try to interview a hospital about the status of a patient. They won't give you any details because of HIPAA.
However journalists will often lie "HIPAA doesn't cover Criminals/public figures" trying to get get the person to give the information.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Made by a stinky doo-doo head ? Aaah, he must be using NetBSD.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
> Notably, not a single one mentions corporations or businesses, nor any mention of socialist programs
You must have not searched very far.
“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.” - Musolini, who was himself quoting Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile.
There is some doubt about the exact wording (which libertarians have stretched to "he never said that" in their usual spurious approach to dealing with inconvenient facts) but there is absolutely not doubt that Musolini believed and repeatedly expressed the sentiment. Indeed, anybody sufficiently familiar with the history of Italy during the Musolini years will confirm it.
It's interesting how few Americans know anything about that, the only part of fascism they learned about was "autocratic rule" with no idea of the mechanisms or economic system it used (indeed, most Americans believe it was socialist which is flat out false - both Hitler and Musolini despised socialism and communism with a hatred that would have made McCarthy look like a liberal - that's WHY Hitler invaded Russia, Hitler used the socialists to get into power and kicked them out in his very first speech after he achieved it).
Funny story - the LAST time I mentioned this quote and history an incredulous American gave me a very long rant about how it couldn't possibly be true (utterly devoid of any actual facts as rants tend to be) - and then an Italian slashdotter, who obviously learned his own country's history in rather more detail than Americans do (much like most people outside America only know the highlights reel of US history - but without the extra stuff learned from the endless self-glorification of Hollywood movies) replied to confirm what I said. Facism is just another name for corporatism - an ultra-capitalist state known not for it's heavy regulation but rather for massive deregulation of favored industries, and choking regulation only on disfavored competition.
Frankly the ONLY difference between the US of today and the Italy of 1930 is that Italy in 1930 didn't pretend to have elections.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
> I can't really take their claims of Syndicalism seriously
Spain was never syndicalist but parts of Spain, notably Andalusia was for a long period (roughly 2 decades in the early 20th century). Though their use of syndicalism is the same one Noam Chomsky uses - a synonym for anarcho-socialist or socialist-libertarian. Interestingly Andalusia was despised by Spanish capitalists and communists alike. The former for being socialists and the latter for being anarchists rather than state-socialists.
As a result most of their 20-year existence was spent in a brutal civil war with BOTH the above (which to an extent they only lasted so long in because their two enemies were equally busy fighting one another).
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
>When President Trump takes over, we'll see if journalists stop getting hassled. What do you think?
Talk about the Joker being the Trump card...
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
You know, the biggest mistake the Republican party ever made was to dump all this hatred on Obama. Obama was the greatest gift the democrats ever gave the republicans ! A black DINO of first order. A republican in blue clothing through and through.
And all this hatred, all these attempts to paint him as the liberal he never was - all it did was to show all the liberals in the country how NOT a liberal he actually turned out to be. The only real outcome out of 6 years of republican obstructionism and bold-faced lies was to make the truth so apparent that liberals took a sour taste of Obama.
And what that means is NOT in fact good for republicans or conservatives, what it means is that Bernie Sanders is going to do a LOT better than he otherwise would have - the one guy running who has an actual solid liberal track record and has not once voted on the wrong side (read - the conservative side) of any issue. Not once.
I don't know if Sanders can win - his odds are actually far better than they looked at first, and a LOT better than Ron Paul ever had, but it may still not be enough, but even if he doesn't -his presence is forcing Hillary Clinton to actually remember who her base is supposed to be. She can't possibly get the nomination now without actually moving way to the left.
She'll probably move back closer to the middle after the primaries if she gets it, but she won't be able to move all the way back to where she is now - and lets face it, the republicans have spent so much time badmouthing her that trying to appeal to conservatives will be a wasted effort.
The one thing Republicans and Fox news have achieved in the past 6 years - is to actually create the possibility of the first REAL liberal US president since FDR. It is still just a possibility of course, but that possibility didn't even exist for the past 40 years.
So er... thanks Fox News ?
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
Oh, you didn't hear ?
Normal citizens and the GOVERNMENT should be subject to the same restrictions and held to the same standards... You know because rights like freedom of speech was created for government and only shared with citizens out of kindness !
In the real world of course - no such equal standard have ever or should ever exist as it would be the most illiberal idea you could possibly imagine. It's exactly why the burden of proof is so much heaver in criminal than in civil courts - because in criminal courts, one party is the government and are supposed to be held to a higher standard.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
>For the record. the Civil War was not about one side fighting for the right to own black people under the banner of a "white power" flag, either.
That's complete bullshit, that's been spread way too widely but utterly fails to match the facts.
1) The confederates were NOT fighting for states' rights, exactly the opposite in fact, they wanted to get RID of states' rights. 3 of the declarations of secession state that a fundamental reason for their secession was their anger at states like Maine for refusing to return runaway slaves or allow slave transit. In other words - they opposed the right of Maine and New York to NOT support the slave trade.
2) The confederacy was formed by a declaration which all the confederate states had to sign - much like the US was originally formed by the declaration of independence. The very FIRST article in that declaration bound all the member states to a promise to never, under any circumstances, now or in the future, ban slavery or inhibit it in any way.
3) The various declarations of secession ALL discussed slavery at length and repeatedly stated that the single most important reason for the secession was that the abolitionists in northern states threatened what they saw as the proper and natural state of the world: one where whites could own blacks as slaves.
4) Non-slave owning whites in the South did NOT in fact support the war or the secessions - that vast majority very vocally and visibly opposed it. So severe was the opposition that on multiple occasions General Lee had to threaten to burn towns to the ground before they would allow him to feed his horses or buy food for his soldiers there ! In Tennessee this happened twice !
The real heroes of the South are those citizens, who supported abolition - who despised the slave owning minority (a ruling class that tended to mistreat poorer whites pretty badly as well) and actively opposed the war to the extent that the confederate army had to threaten their lives just to buy supplies !
In fact, there isn't a single official contemporary document by any of the Southern states governments, the confederate government or any of their leaders or generals that does not repeatedly say that the war is about preserving the right to own slaves.
EVERY claim to the contrary appeared AFTER the war, in a desperate attempt to white-wash the history of why that war happened.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
It DID ! When it was still called Romneycare !
It only became evil when a democrat implemented this republican plan, thought up by the Heartland Institute and first instituted by a republican governor (who would run for president against Obama a few years later) and even then it pretty much only became evil because the democrat who did it turned out to be a black guy.
It's also exactly why all the REAL liberals are hoping against hope for Sanders to be the surprize swing-vote.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
It didn't actually provide care. It didn't... It certainly didn't....
Sorry I'm not American, but hasn't Obamacare only been in force 2 years? The whole concept of universal healthcare can't be measured in just a few years, this will take a generation before you start to see benefits. Come back in 20 years and then we'll see if it can be called a success or not.
Anyone else try to look up the documentary "My Country, My Country" on IMDB? You can quite literally put in the full movie title and the only auto-complete search it finds for you is "My Cousin, Vinny". I've never seen that with any other movie on IMDB, no matter how obscure. Even foreign films. But if you actually force it to execute the search, you'll see that the title is on IMDB. I wonder if I am on the watch list, now? :P
I'd support that action. Although the list would probably double or triple in size in a matter of weeks.
Time to offend someone
I wonder what the wages bills from those 40 stops would add up to? Would it buy a Mercedes? Two? More?
No:
7.25/hr * 40 stops * 4hours per stop=$1160
Or what is probably around 1-2 months of payments on a Mercedes.
Time to offend someone
Combine that with her contacts with Snowden and yea I can see it.
It is not just one thing.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
It took me forever to find, but there it is, right next to the freedom of the press clause, in a whole section about this, right at the top of the Bill of Rights. Very easy to gloss right over that.
In all fairness, the Bill of Rights is hard to read--since it's covered in Dick Cheney's and Barak Obama's shit after they wiped their asses with it for 14 years.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
The feds view Snowdon as one of the biggest cases of treason in modern times and she was a link.
It might help you be taken a bit more seriously if you refrain from using vague epithets such as "raghead", fyi. There are far more accurate terms which can be used, and which won't taint your message.
It still is a republic, as the leader is not dynastic. It's close, but there are still elections. I think the word you meant was "democracy", as that is the only part which really matters - the people able to have their say, even if it's for which end of the shit sandwich they want to start at.
I never did get FreeBSD working properly. I did not take any time to bother with it. I installed it and got no desktop. I removed the VM pretty quickly. I am out of patience for that.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Well, you just said it, so everything should be fine and good from hereon in.
When someone is stopped a number of people spread over a range of pay grades are involved. Try adding a couple of orders of magnitude.
Remember back when travel to the US didn't include this level of harassment?
We've come a long way, brother! Today, it is common practice to have your property stolen with no legal recourse. Today, you're smart if you're scared to complain. And think about it: Laptops are harmless. Data isn't going to jump out and eat anybody while you're in flight.
The desire to know everything about you is indicative of an obsessive, sick need to control. The only thing more pathetic are those who welcome it; the folks beaten as kids for not being obedient enough or for thinking without permission.
So why aren't you birthers all over fucking Cruz? If this is truly important to you, and you truly believe what you are saying. Why does Ted Cruz get a pass?
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
Yep, I have frequently used the line "Obama is the best Republican President we have had in a long time."
I never understood the hatred. He continued nearly every conservative law, continued most Republican tax policies, enacted a conservative health care plan that had been defeated before, he seems to be the perfect Republican.
I am surprised and pleased to see Bernie making such a splash, my dream election: Donald Trump/Bernie Sanders. I might even begin to believe in God........
No flip flopping and I love that he calls himself a Democratic Socialist. Heads exploding everywhere. This may be a very entertaining election.
Don't forget to stock up on popcorn!
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
It's not right, but you stand by it? They say you meet some reprehensible people on the Internet, but holy cow. What other evil acts to you stand by?
Imagine how this would work out in your neighborhood: The guy down at #5 finds some dog poop on his step. He's seen you with dogs a lot, so he asks if it was your dog. You respond that you don't actually have a dog, but that as a veterinarian, you often see dogs. The situation here is the same as if your neighbor came and accused you of letting your dog defecate on his steps every time it happened, even though he knows that it couldn't have been you.
In the real world, all societies need defenders who will protect them from the wild. A free society is predicated on those defenders being able to differentiate that which is suspicious from that which is actually hostile or criminal.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
In this country, it involves elections and policy and more elections and lobbying and some more elections and discussions with elected officials and more elections and an electorate getting involved and expressing itself and that means learning what is going on which involves being capable of comprehending it and it is simply easier for most people here to make the compromise of sticking their head in the sand and pretending everything is fine because they have not been hauled off to Gitmo or rendered to Bosnia for enhanced interrogation. But the revolution or war you allude to is also popular with some people, mostly right wing congress people.
--- Say something clever. Pretend it was me. Thanks.