#civilliberties — Public Fediverse posts

America After 9/11: 25 Years of Fear, War, Surveillance and Permanent Emergency

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.pressenza.com/2026/09/america-after-9-11-25-years-of-fear-war-surveillance-and-permanent-emergency/

America After 9/11: 25 Years of Fear, War, Surveillance and Permanent Emergency

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.pressenza.com/2026/09/america-after-9-11-25-years-of-fear-war-surveillance-and-permanent-emergency/

America After 9/11: 25 Years of Fear, War, Surveillance and Permanent Emergency

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.pressenza.com/2026/09/america-after-9-11-25-years-of-fear-war-surveillance-and-permanent-emergency/

America After 9/11: 25 Years of Fear, War, Surveillance and Permanent Emergency

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.pressenza.com/2026/09/america-after-9-11-25-years-of-fear-war-surveillance-and-permanent-emergency/

Twenty-Five Years of “Temporary”: How the Patriot Act Became Permanent

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — September 11, 2026

Twenty-five years ago today, the United States experienced the deadliest foreign attack on its soil in modern history. The September 11, 2001 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and shocked the nation into a state of collective fear and urgency. In Washington, that fear translated into speed. Within weeks, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act, a sweeping expansion of federal surveillance and law-enforcement authority described at the time as temporary, emergency legislation.

A quarter-century later, most of those powers remain in force.

This article examines where the Patriot Act came from, how it moved so quickly, and how every administration since 2001—across both parties—has contributed to its endurance.

A Law That Predated the Crisis

Despite its association with September 11, the Patriot Act was not created from scratch after the attacks. Its core provisions had been debated in Washington for at least five to ten years prior.

Throughout the 1990s, federal agencies repeatedly sought expanded authority to conduct wiretaps across multiple devices, share intelligence between law enforcement and intelligence agencies, monitor financial transactions more closely, and standardize identity and address records for people living outside traditional housing structures. These proposals regularly stalled in Congress due to civil-liberty concerns and the absence of political urgency.

September 11 provided that urgency. Proposals that had previously failed were rapidly consolidated into a single bill, introduced on October 23, 2001, and passed three days later. Many lawmakers later acknowledged that they had not read the full text before voting.

The Bush Administration: Emergency Powers Become Law

Under President George W. Bush, the Patriot Act was framed as a wartime necessity. The administration argued that extraordinary threats required extraordinary tools and assured the public that the measures were temporary.

The law expanded federal authority to conduct surveillance under Section 215, allowed delayed-notification searches, broadened access to business and banking records, and lowered barriers between intelligence and law enforcement databases. Sunset clauses were included, reinforcing the claim that these powers would expire once the emergency passed.

For many Americans, the impact was indirect but real. Financial institutions tightened compliance rules. Address databases were standardized. People living in mobile-home parks, rural communities, and other nontraditional housing arrangements saw their records altered without notice. Missed bank statements, disrupted accounts, and bureaucratic errors became common side effects of a system designed to prioritize traceability over continuity.

No comprehensive mechanism was created to address or remedy these disruptions.

The Obama Administration: Normalization and Limited Reform

When Barack Obama took office in 2009, the surveillance framework was already embedded in federal practice. Rather than dismantle it, his administration treated it as a baseline reality.

Key Patriot Act provisions were reauthorized, and surveillance programs were defended in court as lawful and necessary. The Justice Department argued that the authorities had become integral to national security operations.

Meaningful change came only after the 2013 disclosures by Edward Snowden. In response, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act in 2015, which ended some forms of bulk data collection and added modest transparency requirements. Certain data storage responsibilities were shifted from the government to private companies.

These changes narrowed the scope of specific programs but left the broader surveillance architecture intact. Emergency authority had become routine governance.

The First Trump Administration: Rhetoric Without Rollback

Donald Trump entered office in 2017 denouncing the “deep state” while inheriting its tools. During his first term, surveillance authorities were renewed with minimal reform. Foreign intelligence programs that incidentally collected Americans’ data continued to expand.

Public criticism of intelligence agencies increased, but structural oversight did not. The result was continuity rather than change. The surveillance state remained intact, accompanied by louder political rhetoric.

The Biden Administration: Quiet Continuity

From 2021 to 2024, the Biden administration maintained existing authorities with little public debate. Surveillance programs were renewed, and civil-liberties language returned to official statements, but no major structural reforms were pursued.

By this point, the Patriot Act and its successor authorities were no longer discussed as emergency measures. They were treated as permanent components of federal infrastructure.

Trump’s Return and the Risk of Repurposing

With Donald Trump’s return to the presidency in 2025, the long-term implications of the Patriot Act have become clearer. The law was written with the assumption that institutional norms and good-faith restraint would guide its use.

Those assumptions are increasingly fragile. Authorities created for counterterrorism can be repurposed for immigration enforcement, protest monitoring, political surveillance, or media pressure. The risk lies not in new powers, but in the continued availability of old ones.

The Permanence of “Temporary”

From the outset, Americans were told the Patriot Act was temporary. That it would expire once the emergency ended. Instead, sunset clauses were repeatedly extended, reauthorizations became routine, and each administration passed expanded authority to the next.

Twenty-five years later, the emergency persists not because the original threat remains unchanged, but because emergency power is easier to retain than to relinquish.

A Quarter-Century Reckoning

September 11, 2026 marks twenty-five years since the attacks that reshaped the United States. It also marks twenty-five years of a legal framework that quietly altered daily life, often without notice, consent, or effective recourse.

The Patriot Act did not endure by accident. It survived because fear moved faster than democratic deliberation—and because no administration, Republican or Democratic, chose to fully unwind what crisis had built.

The question now is no longer how it began, but whether Americans are willing to confront the reality that “temporary” has lasted a generation.

For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com

This essay will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.

References

American Civil Liberties Union. (2021). Surveillance under the USA PATRIOT Act.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/surveillance-under-patriot-act

Greenwald, G. (2014). No place to hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. surveillance state. Metropolitan Books.

USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114–23, 129 Stat. 268.

USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107–56, 115 Stat. 272.

"The Home Office and police were criticised in the aftermath of the weekend for failing to take a hard line on the #FarRight. #Environment campaigners and #CiviLliberties groups have complained that there appears to be a “two-tier” approach, with peaceful climate protesters prosecuted more aggressively than far-right agitators."

#UKPol #Policing #Immigration #Protest

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/10/shabana-mahmood-home-secretary-police-curb-far-right-anti-migrant-protests

"The official record remembered the delegates, not the men who served them."

📜✨ A snippet from THE VALET'S WITNESS by ROHN HEIN is live on the blog today! This thought-provoking work of historical fiction recovers the hidden stories of those who served the powerful, weaving civil liberties and social justice into the fabric of American history. 💫

Head over to the blog to read the snippet!

#TheCoffeePotBookClub #BlogTour #HistoricalFiction #CivilLiberties #SocialJustice
https://archaeolibrarian.wixsite.com/website/post/the-valet-s-witness-by-rohn-hein

AI Bans Are Here. I Told You So. Now Let’s Talk About Why This Is Bad.

https://theinterfaithintrepidart.com/2026/06/13/ai-bans-are-here-i-told-you-so-now-lets-talk-about-why-this-is-bad/

#MissTrial

#BradLander on his illegal arrest by #ICEThugs and his trial, after standing up for #immigrantsrights

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sddv9Wg4d5o

#law #USLaw #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #AbolishICE #AbolishDHS #NY #NYC #NewYorkCity #NewYork

Battle of The Beanfield

There are certain moments in modern British history that seem to sit just beyond the edge of official memory. Events that everybody vaguely remembers, yet somehow never quite make it into the comfortable national story we tell ourselves.

The Battle of Orgreave is one. The miners’ strike is another. The poll tax riots. Hillsborough. Brixton. They linger in photographs, old television footage and the memories of those who were there, carrying the uncomfortable reminder that Britain is not always as civilised, measured and orderly as it likes to imagine itself to be.

The Battle of the Beanfield belongs firmly in that category.

Forty years on, it remains one of the most controversial policing operations in modern British history. More than 1,300 police officers confronted a convoy of around 600 New Age Travellers attempting to reach Stonehenge on 1 June 1985. By the end of the day, dozens of people had been injured, hundreds had been arrested and an entire way of life had effectively been marked for destruction.

What happened in that Hampshire beanfield has never been the subject of a full public inquiry. Yet for many people who witnessed the decline of Britain’s traditional industries during the Thatcher years, the images remain painfully familiar.

I grew up in Yorkshire through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. I watched pit villages hollow out. I watched steelworks close. I watched communities that had existed for generations suddenly find themselves described as obstacles to progress. There was a language that emerged during those years. Certain groups became “the problem”. Miners. Trade unionists. Travellers. Alternative communities. Anyone who stood outside the increasingly rigid idea of what Britain was supposed to become.

That is one reason the Battle of the Beanfield still matters.

To understand the confrontation itself, we first need to understand the strange, colourful and often misunderstood world that produced it.

The Stonehenge Free Festival began in 1974. It emerged from the wider countercultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining music, environmentalism, spiritual exploration, political activism and communal living. Over the following decade it grew steadily, becoming one of the largest free gatherings in Britain. By the early 1980s thousands of people travelled to Stonehenge each summer to celebrate the solstice. The festival attracted an eclectic mix of punks, bikers, druids, musicians, environmental campaigners, anarchists, hippies and families living on the road.

The people who became known as the Peace Convoy were not a single organisation. They were a loose collection of travellers, festival-goers and alternative communities who spent much of the year moving between free festivals, protest camps and temporary settlements. Some were escaping unemployment. Some rejected consumer culture. Others simply wanted a different way of living. Many travelled in converted buses, coaches, ambulances and vans that doubled as homes.

To their supporters they represented freedom, creativity and resistance to conformity.

To their critics they represented disorder.

By 1984 tensions were reaching breaking point. The Stonehenge festival had become enormous. Estimates suggested attendance reached around 100,000 people. Concerns were raised about damage to the archaeological landscape, litter, unauthorised trading and open drug use. English Heritage, which had recently taken over management of the site, came under increasing pressure to act. Local authorities and police forces were equally determined that the gathering should not continue in its existing form. A High Court injunction was obtained to prevent the 1985 festival from taking place. The state had drawn a line.

On the morning of 1 June 1985, the Peace Convoy left Savernake Forest and began moving towards Stonehenge. Around 140 vehicles carried approximately 600 people. Many were families. Children were travelling alongside adults who had spent years living on the road. They knew there would be police opposition. Few appear to have anticipated what was waiting for them.

Police had prepared extensively.

The miners’ strike had ended only months earlier. During that bitter industrial conflict police forces had developed new methods of coordination, rapid deployment and large-scale public order operations. Senior officers later openly acknowledged that lessons learned during the strike had informed preparations for dealing with the travellers.

A four-mile exclusion zone had been established around Stonehenge. Roadblocks were prepared. Officers from multiple forces were assembled. Some estimates place police numbers at around 1,300. Others suggest even higher figures by the end of the operation.

The convoy encountered its first major roadblock near Shipton Bellinger, several miles from Stonehenge. According to police accounts, some traveller vehicles attempted to push through the blockade and rammed police vehicles. Travellers and independent witnesses tell a very different story. They describe a convoy seeking negotiation before finding itself trapped and surrounded.

Whatever happened during those first moments, the situation rapidly escalated.As vehicles attempted to leave the road and move into adjacent fields, police began smashing windows and making arrests. The convoy became scattered across farmland. Families were separated. Children became lost in the confusion. What followed would become one of the most infamous confrontations in modern British policing.

Television footage remains difficult to watch even now.

Officers in riot gear strike vehicle windows with truncheons. People are dragged from buses and vans. Terrified children can be seen inside shattered vehicles. Journalists and witnesses described police hitting men and women indiscriminately. Several accounts alleged pregnant women and individuals carrying babies were assaulted during the operation. Numerous vehicles that functioned as homes were systematically damaged.

The Earl of Cardigan, whose family owned Savernake Forest and who had followed the convoy on a motorcycle, later provided testimony that proved deeply damaging to official police narratives. He described officers rushing vehicles with drawn truncheons, shouting at occupants and creating scenes of intimidation and violence that contradicted many early police claims.

Journalists present that day reported similar concerns.

ITN footage captured scenes that shocked many viewers. Photographer Alan Lodge later described the event as an ambush rather than a battle. Others argued the very name “Battle of the Beanfield” created a misleading impression of two evenly matched sides. One side possessed riot shields, command structures, communications systems and overwhelming numerical superiority. The other consisted largely of civilians living in vehicles.

By the end of the operation, 537 people had been arrested. It remains one of the largest mass arrests of civilians in modern British history. Most of the charges eventually collapsed or were dismissed.

That fact alone raises uncomfortable questions.

If hundreds of supposedly dangerous lawbreakers had been lawfully apprehended while carrying out serious criminal acts, one might expect hundreds of successful prosecutions to follow. Instead, much of the legal case simply evaporated.

Years later, travellers successfully pursued civil actions against Wiltshire Police. Damages were awarded for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and property damage. One police sergeant was convicted of actual bodily harm arising from the events of that day.

Yet despite these outcomes, there has never been a full public inquiry.

Perhaps that is because the Battle of the Beanfield was about more than Stonehenge.

Looking back now, it feels impossible to separate it from the wider atmosphere of Britain in the mid-1980s. This was a country being transformed at extraordinary speed. Traditional industries were disappearing. Unemployment was soaring in many regions. Entire communities were fighting for survival. Alternative lifestyles increasingly found themselves portrayed as threats to public order rather than expressions of individual freedom.

For many people in mining and industrial areas, there is a recognisable pattern.

First comes the language.

A group is described as troublesome, outdated or undesirable.

Then comes the media narrative.

Then comes the justification.

Then comes the force.

That does not mean every traveller was a saint, any more than every miner was. Human beings are messy. Large gatherings bring problems. Some attendees at the Stonehenge festivals undoubtedly caused damage. Some individuals within the traveller movement undoubtedly committed crimes. A serious historical assessment has to acknowledge that reality. The archaeological concerns surrounding Stonehenge were genuine. Local residents had legitimate complaints. Authorities were entitled to seek solutions.

But none of that explains the scale of what happened on 1 June 1985.

The images of smashed homes, frightened children and riot police advancing across fields continue to disturb because they seem wildly disproportionate. They suggest a state determined not merely to enforce an injunction but to send a message.

And the message was received.

The traveller movement never fully recovered.

Legislation introduced during the following years increasingly restricted nomadic lifestyles and unauthorised gatherings. The Public Order Act 1986 and later the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 created new powers that made life significantly harder for travellers, free festivals and eventually the emerging rave culture.

In many ways the Beanfield became a blueprint. The same language used against travellers would later be applied to ravers, squatters, protesters and environmental activists. Alternative communities were increasingly framed not as citizens exercising freedoms but as public order problems requiring management.

Yet the legacy of the Beanfield refuses to disappear.

Songs were written about it. The Levellers turned it into a folk-punk anthem that introduced a new generation to the story. Hawkwind referenced it. Writers, filmmakers and activists kept returning to it. Every summer solstice the memory resurfaces among those who remember what happened.

Perhaps that is because the Battle of the Beanfield sits at the crossroads of so many larger questions.

Who gets to occupy public space?

Who decides what constitutes a legitimate way of living?

How much power should the state possess when dealing with communities that reject mainstream norms?

And perhaps most importantly of all, what happens when governments begin to see certain groups not as citizens but as enemies?

Forty years later those questions feel remarkably current.

The travellers who set out for Stonehenge in 1985 were not trying to overthrow the government. They were trying to reach a festival. They were trying to celebrate a solstice. They were trying, in their own eccentric and imperfect way, to live differently.

Many paid a heavy price for that.

For those of us who grew up watching pits close, furnaces go cold and communities written off as inconvenient relics of the past, the Beanfield feels like part of the same story. Different people. Different landscape. Different politics perhaps. But the same underlying lesson.

When power decides a group no longer belongs, it rarely begins with dialogue.

It begins with exclusion.

Then comes the roadblock.

Further Reading

Andy Worthington, The Battle of the Beanfield

Christopher Chippindale, Stoned Henge: Events and Issues at the Summer Solstice, 1985

Emma Hallett, BBC News, Summer Solstice: How the Stonehenge Battles Faded

Tony Thompson, The Observer, Twenty Years After, Mystery Still Clouds Battle of the Beanfield

English Heritage, Stonehenge 1977–85: A Dig in Time and a Confrontation

Copyright © Mysterious Times 2026. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from Mysterious Times, except in the case of brief quotations used for review, criticism or scholarly reference.

A quotation from Henry Commager

Who are those who are really disloyal? Those who inflame racial hatreds, who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech and of the press and of assembly. Those who press for special favors against the interest of the commonwealth. Those who regard public office as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civil. Those who for selfish and private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to the ruin of war.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 3, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168

More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #henrycommager #America #civilliberties #civilrights #corruption #demagoguery #democracy #disloyalty #division #firstamendment #freepress #freespeech #freedomofreligion #freedomofspeech #freedomofthepress #injustice #jingoism #justice #loyalty #loyaltyoath #military #patriotism #publicoffice #religiousfreedom #unAmerican #usvsthem #votersuppression #votingrights #war #warmongering

A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

We do not move forward by curtailing people’s liberty because we are afraid of what they may do or say. We move forward by assuring to all people protection in the basic liberties under a democratic form of government, and then making sure that our government serves the real needs of the people.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1940-02-10), “Fear is the Enemy,” The Nation, Vol. 150, No. 6

More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/62…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #censorship #civilliberties #civilrights #democracy #dissent #generalwelfare #government #liberty

Why #GiorgiaMeloni's '#AntiProtest' law has divided #Italy

Italy’s new security law, pushed through by PM Giorgia Meloni’s #RightWing government, is stoking nationwide outrage. From harsher protest penalties and a ban on cannabis light to legal cover for police, critics warn it criminalises dissent and threatens #CivilLiberties. Protests, international concerns and Senate drama have all followed

FP Explainers
June 5, 2025

"A new security decree introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition government has divided Italy.

"Approved by the Senate with 109 votes in favour, 69 against, and one abstention, the legislation has sparked a backlash from opposition lawmakers, human rights bodies and legal groups, who argue that it undermines fundamental freedoms and disproportionately punishes marginalised communities.

"The decree expands legal authority for law enforcement, imposes stricter penalties on demonstrators, and introduces a variety of criminal provisions touching on #protests, public order, #cannabis regulation, and social #housing.

"While the government insists the law is a necessary measure to safeguard security, critics see it as a repressive attempt to #CriminaliseDissent and curb civil liberties in one of Europe’s major democracies."

Read more:
https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/meloni-anti-protest-law-divides-italy-security-decree-controversy-explained-13894615.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/n6clN

#WorldPol #ItalyPol #CriminalizingProtest #SilencingDissent #Authoritarianism #Fascism #HistoryRepeats? #AntiProtestLaws

How tight is the #RightToProtest?

From 418 arrests in 1977 to fresh clashes in Sydney: Debate over #Australia’s right to protest continues

"What many may not realise is that the right to protest in Australia is not protected by one simple law. It’s implied in the constitution under freedom of political communication and exists under international human rights law, which Australia has agreed to uphold. Only #Queensland, #Victoria and the #ACT explicitly protect the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of association and freedom of expression. And laws protecting the right to peaceful protest in Australia can be limited."

By Rhiannon Stevens
Sat 14 Feb, 2026

" 'The day of the political street march is over,' Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared. 'Don’t bother to apply for a permit. You won’t get one. That’s government policy now.'

"A few weeks later, thousands of people defied then-Queensland premier Bjelke-Petersen’s proclamation and gathered in Brisbane for an #AntiUranium march.

"Ian Curr remembers an intense, unrelenting heat on that day nearly 50 years ago. It was 'boiling hot', the long-time #AntiNuclear activist says. So hot that when protesters sat on the road, arms linked in passive defiance, it was 'not very pleasant' because the tarmac was scorching. Other memories emerge from the haze: lines of police, three and four deep, surrounding protesters; a woman with tears streaming down her face who had just heard her partner was arrested.

"Fear swirled up spines and into the air. These were the years after the #Springbok tour #AntiApartheid protests had been violently suppressed.

"That afternoon in October 1977, 418 people were arrested and Queensland’s 'RightToMarch' movement quickly entered a new era. #CivilLiberties demonstrations continued until the ban — originally enacted to curb a growing anti-nuclear movement — was lifted two years later.

"Ross Gwyther was exhilarated seeing some 5,000 anti-nuclear marchers turn out that day. But the sensation was tempered by an 'intense fear because there’d already been many cases of #PoliceBrutality'.

"These were extraordinary times, as the Fitzgerald Inquiry would later attest. For Gwyther and many of the #ratbags, #activists and #CivilLibertarians of Queensland it was a defining moment. That era in Brisbane radicalised a lot of people, Gwyther says, who embarked on a lifetime of 'political activism, both through parliamentary politics or by grassroots politics'.

"These moments mark you, Curr says, turning to the events in Sydney this week. 'The people who saw that violence in Sydney, in 40 or 50 years, they will not forget it. In the same way I do not forget police brandishing batons and punching and throwing people into paddy wagons. It’s something you do not forget.'

"In the aftermath of last Monday’s protest against Israeli President #IsaacHerzog’s visit in #Sydney, shaky, chaotic videos began to emerge online. A man lies on tram tracks, restrained by officers who punch him 18 times. #Protesters are pushed, they struggle to their feet, crowds stumble around them. Men bowed in prayer are wrenched from their worship by police. A grandmother is in hospital with a spinal injury. She says she feared being suffocated in a stampede as she lay on the ground in agony. She alleges she was pushed over by police."

Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-15/right-to-protest-fragile-police-powers-gaza-herzog/106331356

#ACAB #AustraliaPol #AusPol #CriminalizingProtest #Australia #AntiProtestLaws #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #UraniumMines #WorldPol #IsraeliWarCrimes

EFFecting Change: Get the #Flock Out of Our City

Flock contracts have quietly spread to cities across the country. But Flock #ALPR erode #civilLiberties from the moment they're installed. While officials claim these #cameras keep neighborhoods safe, evidence tells a diff story. The data reveals how Flock has enabled #surveillance of people seeking #abortions , #protesters exercising #FirstAmendment #rights , & communities targeted by #discriminatory policing
#privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/effecting-change-get-flock-out-our-city

"You were born gay, and you 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘤𝘵 gay" seems very antithetical to the whole purpose of the LGBTQ movement: increased sexual/marriage freedom.

#civilLiberties #LGBTQ #progressivism #sexualOrientation

https://youtu.be/Fshsk8MCAf4?si=Y82RJ-2N2yKnkMr3

An open-source, non-custodial Bitcoin wallet built to protect user privacy. Now Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez is headed to prison.

Prosecutors argue that promoting privacy tools shows criminal intent. If developers can be jailed for writing code, open source and digital privacy are in danger. — watch the full interview.

#OpenSource #Privacy #FreeSpeech #PrivacyMatters #DigitalPrivacy #CodeIsSpeech #CivilLiberties #HumanRights #PrivacyIsARight

I have long criticised #libertarians for being willing to compromise #civilliberties for lower #taxes. But recent years suggest I was grossly underestimating the issue.

Turns out if a blatant fascist ran on a platform of ending all freedom, establishing a #dictatorship and doing a few genocides with a 10% tax rate, and an opponent ran on maintaining #democracy and civil liberties but with a 10.1% tax rate, every bloody libertarian will not only vote for but actively campaign for the fascist.

The Holiday Odor Trap

Filed Under: Odor Politics

Most people assume the holiday rush is measured in miles, delays, and crowded kitchens. The truth is uglier. From Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve, the country sees a spike in traffic stops that begin with the same old claim, that an officer “smelled marijuana.” Courts have spent years separating odor from impairment, yet the loophole stays wide open. It gives law enforcement a way to turn ordinary travel into a fishing expedition.

Some states have ruled that smell alone cannot justify a search, while others treat it as fair game. The public rarely knows the difference. Drivers heading to see family pass through counties where a scent on a jacket is enough to escalate a stop. Officers use it because it works. It softens the ground for questioning, it expands their authority, and it moves the conversation away from what actually matters, which is whether the driver is safe.

Most holiday travelers are not impaired. They are tired, stressed, and trying to get where they are going. cannabis lives in homes and clothes the same way kitchen spices do. A single smoked joint on Thanksgiving Eve can leave a jacket scented for days. Officers know this. Courts know this. Yet people still get pulled aside because the scent is treated like a confession.

The pattern is predictable. The officer leans in, mentions odor, then asks questions that have nothing to do with driving. People feel cornered and start explaining things they never needed to explain. That is the moment a simple stop becomes a long delay on the side of the road.

Holiday traffic and police practice collide in a way that punishes normal life. The country is filled with legal markets. People buy edibles and flower for the same reason they buy wine. They visit friends. They share a moment on the porch. The plant is legal in half the country, but its scent is still treated like probable cause.

The holiday season should not require a legal strategy, yet that is where the country stands. Smell is treated as suspicion even in states that claim to respect legalization. People drive through a patchwork of laws that shift from town to town. What protects a driver in one county is ignored in the next.

The courts may eventually close the gap. Legislatures may force consistency. Until then, drivers are left with common sense and preparation. The safest choice is to remove the excuse entirely. Officers cannot prove what they cannot smell, and they cannot escalate what they cannot justify.

Practical Tips For Holiday Drivers Who Want To Avoid The Odor Trap

Keep jackets and bags outside the smoking area. Most odor claims come from clothing, not the person.

Use clean gear during travel days. People who vape during the holiday tend to switch to something low profile. This is where PAX vaporizers fit naturally because they keep the ritual clean and contained.

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F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E

N.Y. CANNABIS SCANDAL

New York’s cannabis market suffered a public collapse after regulators dropped a major case against Omnium Canna and forced out acting executive director Felicia A. B. Reid. The scandal revealed a system unable to enforce its own rules and a legal market left vulnerable to illegal competition, political pressure, and structural failure.

WHY WEED SHOPS DON’T HIRE HEADS

Weed shops profit from cannabis culture while refusing to hire the people who shaped it. Insurers, compliance officers, and corporate rules punish cannabis users even in legal states. Testing myths, background screening, and liability fear filter out anyone with real experience. The result is a workforce designed to exclude the culture that keeps the industry…

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Do not store old flower containers or ash in the car. Empty jars and forgotten tubes hold scent long after they are cleaned.

Seal anything with a smell. A simple airtight pouch prevents the easiest excuse an officer can use.

Travel clear headed. Some readers prefer relief without impairment during long drives. Endoca CBD has become a steady choice because it stays consistent.

Know the rules in the state you are driving through. Odor is not probable cause in some states, yet it remains a tool in others.

Keep conversations simple and respectful. You do not need to explain your holiday habits.

Remember that odor is not evidence of impairment. Courts have split them apart. Officers blend them because it expands their authority.

©2025 Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This content is the exclusive property of Pot Culture Magazine and may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews.

Affiliate Disclosure: Pot Culture Magazine may receive commissions from purchases made through affiliate links such as Cheech & Chong and Endoca. This helps support our independent journalism without affecting our editorial standards.

F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E

BAD SEEDS IN WASHINGTON

Federal lawmakers quietly inserted language into a budget bill that could criminalize countless cannabis seeds based solely on the THC profile of the parent plant. The move threatens growers, breeders, medical cultivators, and the genetic diversity that built modern cannabis culture. This seismic shift puts control of the plant’s future in the hands of federal…

Reefer Report Card Vol. 26: Nov 29-Dec 06

This week’s Reefer Report Card exposes the scromiting panic, Washington’s latest hemp crackdown, and the Supreme Court inching toward a decision that could rewrite prohibition. Patients and veterans stayed stuck in outdated systems while global reform moved forward with hesitation. Panic got headlines. Weed got scapegoated. The world kept smoking anyway.

THE SCROMITING SCAM

American newsrooms turned a simple overuse incident into a nationwide scare. Scromiting headlines exploded overnight, burying real CHS facts under panic and misinformation. Pot Culture breaks down what actually happened, why the media keeps confusing overuse with syndrome, and how fear travels faster than truth when cannabis is involved.

Omaha Tribe Legal Cannabis vs Nebraska Prohibition

Nebraska still criminalizes cannabis, yet the Omaha Tribe has built a legal system with real rules, licensing, and a working industry on sovereign land. This update shows how the Tribe keeps moving forward while the state stays rooted in prohibition. The border is now the flashpoint. Step across it with cannabis and everything changes.

Virginia Is For Tokers

Virginia just greenlit its long-delayed cannabis market. But is the launch plan built to last, or is it already showing cracks? The blueprint promises equity, protection from corporate takeover, and sustainable access. Advocates say it could be the first real test of Southern legalization. Pot Culture breaks it all down with facts, receipts, and no…

Holiday Survival with Cannabis, Not Chaos

The holidays hit harder than they should. Travel turns messy, families spark arguments, and the season demands cheer nobody actually feels. Cannabis becomes the counterweight, steadying people through the noise while alcohol keeps causing wreckage. This feature cuts through the lies, the pressure, and the culture, showing how the plant helps people survive December without…

#blackFriday #cannabis #cannabisCommunity #cannabisCulture #cannabisRights #cannabisSmell #cannabiscommunity #carSearches #civilLiberties #consumerSafety #courtRulings #crime #holidayTravel #lawEnforement #legalMarkets #marijuana #marijuanaNews #odorLaws #odorPolitics #police #policeStops #potCultureMagazine #roadsideEncounters #search #searchPractices #smell #thanksgiving #trafficStops #travelPrep

2025 #Elections : #Voters Came Out in Record Numbers to Defend Key #CivilLiberties Issues Across the Country

Across the country, voters took to the ballot box to make their voices heard on Tuesday. The results overwhelmingly demonstrate that voters want leaders who will push against the #Trump administration’s cruel policies and abuses of power and work to make life better for the American people.
#2025elections

https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/2025-elections-voters-came-out-in-record-numbers-to-defend-key-civil-liberties-issues-across-the-country

Always watching: How ICE’s plan to monitor social media 24/7 threatens privacy and civic participation
#Trump #USA #ICE #SocialMedia #PrivacyRights #Politics #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalFreedom #AntiInjustice #HumanRights #GlobalJustice #The14
https://the-14.com/always-watching-how-ices-plan-to-monitor-social-media-24-7-threatens-privacy-and-civic-participation/

#Texas just gutted #FreeSpeech on #college #campuses. Is your state next?

New laws in the Lone Star State will silence dissent and undermine #faculty authority.

By Laura Benitez and Jonathan Friedman
July 14, 2025

"As thousands of students return to college campuses this fall, they will find themselves stepping into an environment reshaped by political and ideological mandates. Across the country, state legislators have been racing to exert new influence over free expression in higher education. Now, Texas has surged to the forefront, closing its 2025 legislative session by passing two alarming laws that take effect Sept. 1.

"Signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in June, the new laws amount to a stunningly aggressive legislative crackdown on campus protest (#SB2972) and academic shared governance (#SB37) at public colleges and universities. The laws will not just silence dissent and undermine faculty authority in Texas; they provide a blueprint for how to dismantle academic freedom and chill speech on campus state by state.

"Only a few years ago, conservative lawmakers railed against college 'free-speech zones,' arguing that liberal administrators were muzzling students on the rest of campus. In 2019, Texas legislators joined other states in taking action by declaring all outdoor spaces on public campuses open for protest and speech by students, employees and the general public.

"Now, some of the same legislators have done an about-face. The campus protest law actually directs public colleges and universities to implement a version of free-speech zones and adopt sweeping limitations on protests. #Encampments? Banned. #Megaphones or #speakers during 'class hours'? Forbidden — if anyone claims your 'expressive activity' is one that 'intimidates others' or 'interferes' with an employee’s duties. Even wearing a mask during a protest — something many do for safety — could land a student or employee a disciplinary hearing resulting in 'sanctions.' And any expressive activity between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. is off-limits altogether."

Read more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/14/texas-campus-free-speech/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/2LuBD

#TexasProtestLaws #ProtestLaws #ProtestLawsTexas #Project2025 #AntiProtestLaws #Authoritarianism #SilencingFreeSpeech #Censorship #AcademicFreedom #AntiMaskLaws #Fascism #USPol #CivilLiberties #Texas

A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt

We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Letter (1940-01-09) to William Allan Neilson

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #fdr #franklinroosevelt #citizenry #civilliberties #civilrights #divisiveness #equalprotectionunderthelaw #equalrights #hatred #immigrants #injustice #intolerance #oppression #prejudice #racism #unity

#anncavoukian #CanadianCharter #CanadianConstitutionFoundation #canadianlaw #civilliberties #constitutionalrights #digitalsurveillancecanada #distracteddriving #dominicnaimool #dronepolicing #dronesurveillance #joshdehaas #KingstonPolice #lawenforcementtechnology #legalchallenge #personalprivacy #policedrones #policetechnologyethics #privacyrights #publicsafety #Section8 #surveillancecontroversy #trafficenforcement #unreasonablesearchandseizure

https://miltonmarketing.com/?p=69158

#Congressional #Librarians Tell #Trump 'Appointees' To Wrong Branch Of #Government To Get F*cked. And welcome to your new master #librarian, Trump's personal #criminal defense attorney, and this horse. Just saying - #librarians - all librarians - respect and defend the #truth, unfettered #access to #knowledge for all, and an uncompromising belief in #democracy and #civilliberties - #books do not #hate or #discriminate https://www.wonkette.com/p/congressional-librarians-tell-trump #trump #maga #corruption #lc #books #reading #freedom

#HaymarketBooks | #Trump's Hammer, Our Hope

"Join Naomi Klein, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Astra Taylor, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for an emergency town hall on the continuing attacks on both marginalized communities and on #freeSpeech at the hands of the current administration."

https://youtu.be/9vP5p_oTmZU
#USpol #USpolitics #MAGA #stateRepression #civilLiberties #civilRights #USleft #AmericanLeft #activism #leftActivism #leftOrganizing #antifascism #antiracism

Building secure and privacy protecting mobile phones

https://fifthdimensionnews.substack.com/p/upwardly-mobile

#EFF #Rayhunter #IMSI #CitizenLab #Deibert
#mobile #mobian #Debian #KaliNetHunter #PostMarketOS #Jolla #SailfishOS #Finland #EU #Pine64 #OnionMobileDev #TOR #GuardianProject #press #Journalism #FDE #RFERL #GrapheneOS #Whonix #phone #encryption #CivilLiberties #FirstAmendment #FourthAmendment #USA #Development #FreedomOfThoughtandExpression

Neoliberal/fascist people in positions of public power never say - Violence isn't the answer - when they give more raises to state mercenaries to buy more weapons of state funded violence & militarized/armored vehicles & to beat up nonviolent citizens exercising their rights to public #dissent & peaceful #protests.

I'm uninterested in bootlicker responses. I will block those who choose to commit bootlicking offenses on my timeline - on sight.

#ACAB #AntiFascist #DefundThePolice #PoliceReform #AbolishPoliceUnions #AbuseOfAuthority #AbuseOfPower #NoTransparency #DemandAccountability #TaxFundedStateViolence #Unethical #Immoral #StateTerrorists #StateViolence #YourTaxDollars #Taxpayers #CivilLiberties #HumanRights #DemocraticRights #Dissenters #CitizensUprising

Got up early to draw hot bath for Mom.
I'm having morning tea & going to start watching the #documentary film, Where the Oilve Tree Weeps, now.

You can donate to view it. There is also a free option for folks who are financially strapped.

[ Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the #Palestinian people under #Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.

We follow, among others, Palestinian #journalist and #therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots #activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We also witness Dr. Gabor Maté offer #TraumaHealing work to a group of women who were tortured in Israeli prisons.

Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.

This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty? ]

https://whereolivetreesweep.com/en-home/

#Israel #Palestine #SettlerColonialism #Apartheid #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #RightOfReturn #RightToLife #EthnicCleansing #DocFilm #ZionismIsACult #Humanitarians #InternationalLaw #WatchAndLearn

⚫ 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 #𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲:

𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘌 𝘞𝘐𝘓𝘓 𝘉𝘌 #𝘋𝘌𝘈𝘛𝘏.

This is how complex systems learn. It will take a decade to play out, but this will ultimately be a hollow victory for those who are currently ascendant. Because the rout is so complete, every branch of government, they (𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦) will indulge themselves without limits, and ultimately own every odious action, forever.

A generation from now, after I am dead, no one will freely admit they were enthusiastically part of this.

𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧.

So we have no other choice but to go through it. Do what you need to do to survive this and preserve as many vulnerable people as you can.

Some of us will need to leave, yet will be unable to. If I did not superficially resemble the favored image of a #RealAmerican perfectly, I would certainly have to escape. I talk too much. If I were young, I would be out of here within months.

#DEATH, the great teacher. We WILL learn. We will overlearn. We will be #PTSD for at least 2 generations and do some foolish things because of it, but #WeWillLearn.

𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨.

But Death does more than teach. It removes possibilities. 20 years from now, when this psycho-drama has fully played out, will there be an authentic #democracy again? #CivilLiberties? A #FunctionalEconomy that benefits the common citizen? Will there even be basic #Peace? Will #TheEnvironment fall off a cliff? Will #christofascism prevail?

All, some, or possibly even none of those losses will come to pass. The future beyond this impending administration is simply unknowable.

But we can be certain of this: Death will come.

𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙪𝙨.

Death will teach us, and our progeny a lesson that hopefully will get used immediately after. Or at least someday.

This is obviously a #hingepoint in #WorldHistory.

We, the #progressive-minded, long ago made the fatal (Yes! Fatal!) mistake of believing our values were 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹, 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 and 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨.

What we are about to experience, on the other hand, is 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹, should have been 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀, and was perhaps even 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

#Liberal society is not natural. It must be maintained. You can not, must not, ever stop dancing or it goes away. More than a marathon; the work is forever. We got tired & perhaps lazy, and now we & our opponents get to experience the lessons that Death will provide us.

There will be many #heroes and some of us will die.

𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚.

Who and what will survive will often be arbitrary and capricious. Like tornado damage.

As our #chaos spreads to the rest of the world, mostly through our strategic absence, there will be more #refugees than the #MAGA movement could ever imagine. Maybe we will take in some of the White ones.

We just elected #Trump (including the #PopularVote).

We will get destroyed.

......and we will deserve it.

𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙩.

It is my #StakeInTheGround. 🗡

#TheRegime will have to remove it. And if they do, it will mean they are afraid of it. I win either way.

When Death does come and does its thing, please pay attention, store it in your long term memory, and share it with future generations.

𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁. ⚫

Two years after #Roe’s overturn, there are more #abortions in #America — but they’re harder to get. #Abortion has become more diffuse, thanks to the rise of #telehealth and #abortionpills. Both are under fire in the courts and state #legislatures. #womenshealth #publichealth #reproductiverights #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt #courts #MAGA #GOP #HeritageFoundation #Project2025 #Trump #conservatives #civilliberties https://19thnews.org/2024/06/two-years-roe-overturn-abortions/

Temporary moratorium on use of #FacialRecognition tech in state schools is now a matter of law in #NewYork, following the conclusion of study that found potential rights violations outweighed safety benefit. The ban is the result of temporary moratorium placed on facial recognition tech in the state’s K-12 schools issued in December 2020 by former governor Andrew Cuomo. https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/state-of-new-york-makes-moratorium-on-facial-recognition-technology-in-schools-permanent/ #CivilLiberties Privacy #Suveillance #education #students #legalresearch

Will Potter on How the State and the Media Go After Radical Movements

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2MPVWHbhyw&ab_channel=GreenandRedPodcast

We’re in an unprecedented rollback of #CivilLiberties. States are passing laws to #OutlawProtests and #DirectAction, charging non-violent protesters with “#DomesticTerrorism” and #legalizing the #RunningOver of people blocking traffic. #StateSurveillance of activists has increased dramatically. Police budgets are getting astronomical increases to further militarize the state. In Atlanta, in the #StopCopCity campaign, police #assassinated a #ForestDefender, #Tortuguita, who had their hands up and then tried to claim self-defense.

To put this all in context, we talk with investigative journalist and author Will Potter (@will_potter). We discuss the #StopHuntington #AnimalCruelty campaign, the #EarthLiberationFront, the taming down of climate actions in the 2010s and how the police state ignored right wing terror groups in the same period.

We also discuss the role of the #FBI and the liberal #CorporateMedia in going after radical movements, how Cop City is shifting things and where popular culture fits into the story.

And this is Our America Now. #SCOTUS & #courts continue to subjugate #women & #girls - please support services in your area or elsewhere to assist all those working so hard to keep #open the path to #democracy #choice #CivilLiberties #WomensHealth #healthcare #ElevatedAccess #recruits #HobbyPilots to fly #abortion #patients out of states with #bans They offer a window into the increasingly scrappy tactics of #AbortionRights groups in a #PostRoe America remains #ProChoice https://www.kmuw.org/news/2023-03-21/abortion-pilots-planes-fly-state-bans-elevated-access

And this is Our America Now. #SCOTUS & #courts continue to subjugate #women & #girls - please support services in your area or elsewhere to assist all those working so hard to keep #open the path to #democracy #choice #CivilLiberties #WomensHealth #healthcare #ElevatedAccess #recruits #HobbyPilots to fly #abortion #patients out of states with #bans They offer a window into the increasingly scrappy tactics of #AbortionRights groups in a #PostRoe America remains #ProChoice https://www.kmuw.org/news/2023-03-21/abortion-pilots-planes-fly-state-bans-elevated-access

And this is Our America Now. #SCOTUS & #courts continue to subjugate #women & #girls - please support services in your area or elsewhere to assist all those working so hard to keep #open the path to #democracy #choice #CivilLiberties #WomensHealth #healthcare #ElevatedAccess #recruits #HobbyPilots to fly #abortion #patients out of states with #bans They offer a window into the increasingly scrappy tactics of #AbortionRights groups in a #PostRoe America remains #ProChoice https://www.kmuw.org/news/2023-03-21/abortion-pilots-planes-fly-state-bans-elevated-access

And this is Our America Now. #SCOTUS & #courts continue to subjugate #women & #girls - please support services in your area or elsewhere to assist all those working so hard to keep #open the path to #democracy #choice #CivilLiberties #WomensHealth #healthcare #ElevatedAccess #recruits #HobbyPilots to fly #abortion #patients out of states with #bans They offer a window into the increasingly scrappy tactics of #AbortionRights groups in a #PostRoe America remains #ProChoice https://www.kmuw.org/news/2023-03-21/abortion-pilots-planes-fly-state-bans-elevated-access

Brennan Center Report - Ending Fusion Center Abuses. The federal government provides state and local intelligence hubs with funding, personnel, and database access — all without adequate oversight. #FusionCenters #Surveillance #Privacy #CivilRights #CivilLiberties #FirstAmendment #EnvironmentalJustice #RacialJustice #Healthcare #AbortionCare #DHS DOD #FBI https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/ending-fusion-center-abuses