#silencingdissent — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #silencingdissent, aggregated by home.social.
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Trump Goes After Anonymous Email Provider in Italy. The Real Target Is Free Speech in the U.S.
Trump designated an Italian web-hosting provider as a foreign “terror” group. It could take #antifascist sites in the U.S. offline.
Matt Sledge
August 28 2026"In the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the left, the U.S. government’s designation of a popular antifascist webhosting provider as a terror group could shutter a swath of radical websites in the U.S.
"Secretary of State #MarcoRubio and Treasury Secretary #ScottBessent announced Wednesday that they were targeting the Italy-based A/I Collective with terror sanctions. Federal law gives the Treasury Department broad discretion to apply the terror label to foreign groups.
"A wide array of #anarchist, antifascist, and #FarLeft groups in the U.S. and abroad use the privacy-minded collective’s offerings, including an anonymous email service and its popular noblogs.org blogging platform.
"The practice of designating an internet platform and service provider as a terror group — rather than those pursuing violence themselves — has 'huge' implications for the future free speech on the internet, warned Jillian York, the director of international freedom of expression at the #ElectronicFrontierFoundation.
" 'They are going after the messenger,' York said. 'I don’t think that the members of the group would necessarily condone the actions of the people that they hosted. What they do condone is the freedom to host, the ability to be anonymous, the ability to be private.'
"The A/I Collective told The Intercept that it is exploring its legal options to fight the sanctions, which block U.S. citizens and companies from providing the group with financial support.
"In an unsigned statement, the group said that it denies the U.S. government’s allegations.
" '#Antifascism and #anticapitalism are not #terrorism ,' the group said. '#Protesting is not terrorism. And everyone has the right to speak out and to struggle for #humanity.' " [And #MotherEarth ! ]
Source:
https://theintercept.com/2026/08/28/trump-antifa-terrorist-websites-free-speech/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/4ETk2#FreeSpeech #AutisticiInventati #Solidarity #USPol #WorldPol #SolidarityWithAutisticiInventati #FreedomOfExpression #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#US Manufactured Crimes and Spied on Peaceful #Protesters During #Minneapolis Metro Surge, New Court Filing Reveals
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 14, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS -- "While #Dakotas were praying at a #SacredSpring for those held in federal detention at the #WhippleBuilding in Minneapolis -- the U.S. government was spying on, and stalking, the #WhippleWatchers, a new court document reveals.
"The government is refusing to release all of its documents on its surveillance of those watching the Whipple building. The Whipple building is on the site of a former concentration camp, where Dakota and Ho Chunk were imprisoned, suffered and died.
" 'The government admits withholding at least five #ProjectWhippleShield #ROIs (Reports of Investigation) from the initial disclosures,' the court filing states.
"In the current case, the court document for discovery filed yesterday describes how the U.S. government spied on and tracked peaceful protesters during the #resistance to #OperationMetroSurge.
"Not only were peaceful protesters spied on, #stalked and #doxxed, but the #surveillance was carried out to #ManufactureCrimes when none existed, states the court document filed by a defense attorney for one of the government's targets."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/08/us-manufactured-crimes-and-spied-on.html#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent
#CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left
#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant
by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.
" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.
Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#Activist charged with felony after giving border agent #DuressCode that wiped his phone
The government says destroying his own data during an airport interrogation was illegal.
Ryan Whitwam – Jul 27, 2026
"In early 2025, Atlanta resident #SamuelTunick was on his way home following a trip abroad. After landing in the US, customs agents demanded access to his Pixel phone, which was running an alternative version of Android called #GrapheneOS. Rather than hand over his data, Tunick used a clever feature of the software to delete everything. Now, he’s facing federal charges.
"The first hearing in this case happened last week, according to The Guardian, during which government attorneys and agents claimed that Tunick was subjected to a standard secondary interrogation at an international airport. During that encounter, agents were 'looking for anything that’s prohibited.' However, Tunick’s legal team alleges he was targeted for his #activism.
"Tunick was involved with a group called #DefendTheAtlanta Forest, which opposed the construction of an enormous law enforcement training facility in the area often known as #CopCity. What Tunick didn’t know, according to his lawyers, was that he’d been placed on a watch list for his actions and that Customs and Border Protection had discussed over email plans to detain him upon his arrival back in the US for 'suspected terrorism activities.'
"During the interrogation, #CBP agents told Tunick they wanted to search his phone for evidence of child sexual abuse, and if he didn’t unlock the device, it would be confiscated. The government has long asserted broad authority to examine and seize electronic devices at the border for virtually any reason. Tunick claims he was never read his rights and requested legal counsel several times, but the requests were denied."
#Fascism #DefundCBP #DefundICE #HomelandInsecurity #USPol #SilencingDissent #StopCopCity #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #DefendTheForest
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#RightToProtest is under attack in #England and #Wales, reports warn
#HumanRightsWatch and Justice say recent legislative changes have had a chilling effect and should be repealedby Haroon Siddique
Thu 8 Jan 2026"The right to protest is under attack in England and Wales with laws trampling over human rights protections and more oppressive restrictions in the pipeline, two major reports have warned.
"Both Human Rights Watch and the cross-party law reform organisation Justice say recent legislative changes have created a chilling effect on lawful protest and should be repealed. Their reports, simultaneously published on Thursday, also say that proposals for more curbs should be halted.
"They highlight the arrest of Republic #AntiMonarchy protesters during King Charles’s coronation, charges and arrests of #ProPalestinian demonstrators and long sentences for #ClimateProtesters as examples of the crackdown on the right to peaceful dissent.
"Fiona Rutherford, chief executive of Justice, said: 'Year by year, we see police powers grow, as our fundamental right to protest is treated more like a privilege. The law in this area has become dangerously unbalanced, empowering the state to silence voices it should be safeguarding. Reversing this trend is essential to restoring trust, protecting rights and preserving a healthy democracy.'
"Lydia Gall, a senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: 'The UK is now adopting protest-control tactics imposed in countries where democratic safeguards are collapsing. The UK should oppose such measures, not replicate and endorse them.'
"Both reports say that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the #PublicOrderAct 2023 were watershed moments, criminalising large amounts of previously lawful protest activity and placing a greater emphasis on preemptive containment of protest through criminal law.
The 2022 law granted police authority to impose conditions on public assemblies on grounds such as causing 'serious unease' or being 'too noisy', described by Human Rights Watch as 'vague and subjective'.
"Members of the public can be arrested for carrying items – described as innocuous by Justice – including cable ties, bike locks or glue, on suspicion that they may be used for 'locking‑on'."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/KORuE#CriminalizingProtest #SilencingDissent #EnvironmentalActivists #GazaGenocide #HumanRights #AntiProtestLaws
#RightToProtest #ACAB #UKPol #JustStopOil #PalestineAction -
#SilencingDissent: The Crackdown on #PeacefulProtest in #Europe
In our recently published Rule of Law report, Liberties’ members reported an increase in restrictions on the right to peaceful protest in all countries.
by Flore du Teilleul
April 10, 2025"The right to peaceful protest is essential to our democracies, allowing people to come together with a unified voice to support or oppose key issues. It serves as a powerful mechanism for individuals to hold their governments to account and is often the last resort when prior messages go unheard. However, politicians often perceive this right as a threat, especially when force of numbers demonstrates support for an issue.
"In our recently published Rule of Law report, Liberties’ members reported an increase in restrictions on the right to peaceful protest in all countries - from bans on individual protests to the disproportionate use of force by the police and legislative changes. A widespread trend emerged of restricted #ProPalestine protests and #EnvironmentalDefenders receiving particularly harsh penalties.
Bans on Protests
"Restrictions on various protest movements justified on public safety grounds were documented in many member states. In #Germany, the Berlin Assembly Authorities implemented a temporary blanket ban targeting pro-Palestine demonstrations. Initially, the ban targeted celebrations of the mass murder and pro-Hamas demonstrations but later extended to all pro-Palestinian protests. Similarly, in #Latvia, an unregistered #FreePalestine movement protest was banned after an assessment by the state security service that the event would, among other risks, harm the country’s international interests.
"The #Estonian police banned a protest in support of Palestinians, which was later declared unlawful by the administrative court. In #Hungary, Prime Minister #ViktorOrbán publicly prejudiced support for Palestinians by linking it with #terrorism, equating solidarity with civilians victims to threats to the public order. As the fifteen attempts to organise protests were successively banned, the government and the Prime Minister re-asserted their power by deciding what can be demonstrated for, namely, topics in line with their political interests."
Read more:
https://www.liberties.eu/en/stories/rule-of-law-2025-protests/45384#Sweden #Belgium #Netherlands #Estonia #ExtinctionRebellion #EnvironmentalDefenders #CriminalizingProtest #EnvironmentalActivists #FreePalestine #GazaGenocide #HumanRights #RightToProtest #ACAB #Europe #WorldPol #EuroPol
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From 2022: #NSW Police Use #AntProtest Laws to Monitor Tour Groups
by Paul Gregoire & Ugur Nedim,13 Oct 2022
Excerpt: "#SilencingDissent
"Back in 2014, then NSW premier Mike Baird told a NSW mining industry dinner that his government was going to 'crackdown' on those who choose to break the law when they protest. And he singled out '#protesters who unlawfully enter #mining sites.'
"A little over a year later, the Coalition government followed through with the premier’s promise when it passed a series of harsh #AntiProtestLaws, under the Inclosed Lands, Crimes and Law Enforcement Legislation Amendment (Interference) Bill 2016.
"The legislation created the new offence of aggravated unlawful entry on inclosed lands. Section 4B of the #InclosedLand Protection Act 1901 provides that interfering, or attempts to interfere, with the conduct of a business on enclosed land can land a #protester with a fine of up to $5,500.
"Under the provisions of the bill, police were provided with additional powers to stop, search, detain, and seize the property of protesters, as well as being given the power to shutdown a peaceful protest if it is #ObstructingTraffic.
"And the bill also inserted a definition of #mine into section 201 of the #CrimesAct 1900, so that the offence of interfering with a mine includes #coal seam #gas exploration and extraction sites. This offence carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"The #WilpinjongThree
"Bev Smiles, Bruce Hughes and Stephanie Luce are the first people to be up on protesting charges since the laws were changed. In April last year, the three were arrested for protesting outside the #Wilpinjong #CoalMine in #Wollar.
"The three are up on charges of rendering a road belonging to a mine useless and hindering the working equipment belonging to a mine. These are both offences that carry the penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"When the trio appeared at Mudgee Local Court on February 9, the presiding magistrate rejected police claims that the Wollar-Ulan Road, where the defendants were arrested, actually belonged to the mining company.
" 'They have pleaded not guilty, and are awaiting a judgment on the case,' Mr Phillips explained. 'The outcome of that case will be important.” If the three have 'the book thrown at them' then it’s likely to discourage the protesting of coal mines in NSW."
#AustraliaPol #AusPol #CriminalizingProtest #NoMining #CoalMines #UraniumMines #Australia #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #LandBack
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Why Isn’t News of #Trump Building Vast #ConcentrationCamps Being Treated as a #NationalEmergency?
History shows us that once a nation builds a #MassDetention apparatus, it never remains limited to its original targets. Wake up, people.
by #ThomHartmann, Feb 05, 2026
Excerpt: "The British originated the term '#ConcentrationCamp' to describe facilities where '#rebel' or 'undesirable' civilians were held in #SouthAfrica during the #SecondAngloBoerWar (1899–1902) to control and punish a #rebellious population.
"They were facilities where the 'bad elements of society' were 'concentrated' into one location so they could be easily controlled and would lose access to society and thus could not spread their messages of #resistance against the #BritishEmpire.
"Future generations of Americans—our children and grandchildren—won’t ask us whether #ICE followed civil detention statutes: they’ll want to know why we allowed concentration camps to exist in America at all.
"The Germans adopted the term in 1933 when #Hitler took power and created his first camp for #communists, #socialists, #UnioLleaders, and, by the end of the year, Hitler’s #PoliticalOpponents. They Germanized the phrase into '#Konzentrationslager' and referred to the process of their incarceration as 'protective custody.'
"The first camp was built at #Dachau just weeks after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, and by the end of the year there were around 70 of them operating across the country."
#USPol #WakeUpPeople #HistoryRepeats #Fascism #Authoritarianism #DetentionCenters
#PrivatePrisons #CriminalizingDissent
#SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
[Podcast] The return of Erik Prince - The comeback of America’s most infamous mercenary
Nov 1st 2025
"Erik Prince, America’s most infamous mercenary, is back.
"Mr Prince rose to prominence during the war on terror as the founder of #Blackwater, a private military company. The firm earned over a billion dollars providing armed personnel to various branches of the US government before becoming implicated in a number of scandals. In 2007 its contractors killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a nine-year-old child. The massacre made Mr Prince the face of the Iraq fiasco. He sold the company and disappeared from the public eye.
"But in recent months Mr Prince has reemerged. He has popped up in some of the most dangerous, contested places in the world, from Ukraine to Haiti to the DRC. They are places the Trump administration is interested in too.
"For the Weekend Intelligence the Economist’s Africa Correspondent, Tom Gardner, flew to Cape Town to meet with Prince, the mercenary in CEO’s clothing. Prince is defiant after his years in the political wilderness. And he’s spying some big opportunities. The global mercenary business is on the brink of a new boom. States, across Africa and beyond, are fracturing. The international system is fraying. With UN peacekeepers drawing down, from Mali to Congo to Lebanon, mercenaries of different stripes can expect to fill the void."
Read more / listen:
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2025/11/01/the-return-of-erik-princeArchived version:
https://archive.ph/YYhBY#Blackwater
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism
#ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism
#Fascism #Trump #ChristoFascist
#CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #Activists #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent
#CrackdownOnProtests #AntiProtestLaws #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #Academi #TripleCanopy #SilencingDissent #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal -
#ICE boosts weapons spending 700%
A Popular Information investigation reveals tens of millions in new ICE spending on #guns, #ChemicalWeapons, and explosives.
Judd Legum
Oct 20, 2025Excerpt: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sharply increased its spending on weapons in 2025, according to an analysis of federal government contracting data by Popular Information. Records from the Federal Procurement Data System reveal that ICE has increased spending on 'small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing' by 700% compared to 2024 levels.
"New spending in the small arms category from January 20, 2025, the day Trump was inaugurated, through October 18, totaled $71,515,762. Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and 'guided missile warheads and explosive components.'
"On September 29, 2025, ICE made a $9,098,590 purchase from #GeisseleAutomatics, which sells #SemiAutomatic and #AutomaticRifles. The total spending by ICE in the small arms category between January 20 and October 18, 2024, was $9,715,843."
https://popular.info/p/ice-boosts-weapons-spending-700
#USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully
#SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism -
WTF! #Navajo Reporter #MarleyShebala Violently Arrested by #NavajoPolice, After Filing Ethics Complaint on Navajo President #BuuNygren
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, October 16, 2025
WINDOW ROCK, Navajo Nation -- "Navajo Police were sent today to evict Marley Shebala, Dine' Zuni Pueblo reporter, from her home. Marley, 73, screamed in pain as she was arrested by police. Marley had filed an ethics complaint against Navajo President Buu Nygren, and was reporting on the ongoing #corruption in the Navajo tribal government.
" 'I am 73 years old, and they have me handcuffed in my home with my daughter, our Navajo police, to
serve and protect' Marley says, as she continues to livestream. Navajo police used a locksmith to enter her home, before the violent arrest."Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/10/navajo-reporter-marley-shebala.html#Diné #Dineh #ACAB #Journalists #ReaderSupportedNews #Journalism #BuuNygrenSoldOutHisPeople #UraniumMining #NavajoNation #IndigenousNews #SilencingDissent #CoalMining #TrumpSucks #BeautifulCleanCoal #Cancer #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #EnergyFuels
#Dineteh #NukingTheNavajo
#Havasupai #UraniumMines
#EnvironmentalRacism #WhiteMesaMill #NukingTheNavajo #NukingTheUte #Ute #Paiute #Hopi #BidiiRoots #DineCARE #PinyonPlainUraniumMine #AirIsLife #UraniumMine #UraniumTransport #RadioactiveDust #RememberKleeBenally #BigCoal #DishonoringTheMemoryOfKleeBenally
#HaulNo #NoMiningWithoutConsent -
#PrivatePrison Companies Set to Make Billions Reopening #Jails for #ICE
“There’s a private interest behind the #detention and the incarceration of our community,” said an #activist #protesting the facilities.
by Sophie Hurwitz, March 6, 2025
Excerpt: "Late Wednesday afternoon, private prison company CoreCivic announced it would be reopening a notorious family detention center in South Texas, under an amended contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The facility, first built in 2014, will house up to 2,400 people, including children. It had been shut down last year to save costs, after years of reports suggesting poor treatment, including a report of one toddler who died due to a lack of medical care.
"The reopening is part of a trend. CoreCivic isn’t the only company bringing back facilities. We are at the beginning of what looks like a private prison boom, as the groups profit off President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. They are set to make billions. As the Washington Post reported, the GEO Group and CoreCivic stand to benefit in particular from #Trump’s immigration plans—the companies hold at least 16 vacant facilities that can be reopened within months for mass detention and deportation.
"The GEO Group announced in late February that it would be reopening #DelaneyHall in #NewarkNJ, as a “massive” immigration detention center with 1,000 beds. In California, ICE is considering repurposing and reopening the women’s prison #FCIDublin, closed last year due to mass #SexualAbuse, for #ImmigrantDetention. In Baldwin, Michigan, ICE and the GEO Group have expressed interest in reopening #NorthLake Correctional Facility, a former private prison shuttered in 2022. (A Biden administration order directed the Department of Justice to allow contracts with private prison groups to expire.) In #LeavenworthKS, CoreCivic looks likely to partner with ICE to reopen yet another shuttered private prison, documents obtained by the #ACLU revealed.
"As of February 27, ICE held 43,759 detainees, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data-gathering organization. Trump is putting pressure on ICE to increase the number of arrests per day. His administration has already fired one ICE director, ostensibly for not deporting enough people.
"In the communities surrounding these new jails for migrants, activists and politicians are fighting back. In Newark, where the GEO Group stands to make $1.2 billion by reopening Delaney Hall, the immigrant rights organization Make the Road is planning a rally against the jail March 11."
#USPol #TrumpSucks #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBill #PrisonState #SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters #CoreCivic #GEOGroup #ResistICE #Resistance
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'Full force if necessary,' Trump says he's sending troops to Portland, #Oregon to protect ICE
#Trump said on social media he's sending troops to #PortlandOR to protect immigration facilities
Mayor #KeithWilson: “We did not ask for them to come. If the federal government isn’t here to lend us a hand, take a hike…it’s just a big show. The president has sent agents here to create chaos and riots in Portland. [Trump] wants to induce a violent exchange. Let’s not grant him that wish…Say no to an #authoritarian president.”
by Sarah D. Wire, September 27, 2025
" 'At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security [Secretary] #KristiNoem, I am directing Secretary of War, #PeteHegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our #ICE Facilities under siege from attack by #Antifa, and other #DomesticTerrorists,' Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social Saturday. 'I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' "
Read more:
https://www.rawstory.com/portland-2674047457/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/qfDTr#USPol #authoritarianism #Clampdown #SilencingDissent #TrumpIsAFascist #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Make Ready: Safeguarding Our Movements against Repression
How to Respond to Donald Trump’s Threats
#CrimethInc, 2025-09-18
"In a post on Truth Social yesterday, Donald #Trump declared that he is designating '#Antifa' as 'a major terrorist organization.' What does that mean? How can we prepare to weather the storm? Everyone should read this guide.
"It’s always difficult to tell how seriously to take Trump’s performative declarations. He makes wild statements to see what plays to his audience, throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, and then doubles down wherever there is no pushback. But this time around, his administration has stuck very close to the classic fascist playbook, with one supporter going so far as to declare without any irony that the shooting of #CharlieKirk 'is the #AmericanReichstag fire.' The obvious next step in that playbook is to expand from targeting immigrants to go after #anarchists, #leftists, and other opponents of the #regime as well.
"Yes, Trump has previously declared that he would designate 'Antifa' a 'terrorist organization,' most famously at the outset of the #GeorgeFloydRevolt. But at that time, the rest of the federal government largely acted as a brake on his impulses — whereas today, the entire executive branch of the federal government is comprised of toadies and sycophants who are incapable of distinguishing their interests from his.
"Granted, there is no law authorizing the president to designate domestic terrorist organizations. But even without new legislation or an executive order, Trump has direct control over the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and other federal agencies. What he says on social media is probably indicative of what he will direct his underlings to do.
"The fact that 'Antifa' is not an organization at all, but rather a nebulous category that could include virtually anyone who disapproves of Trump’s #autocratic agenda, is convenient for Trump.
"This means that, regardless of who you are or what you do, you, too, could become a target. That’s why everyone should review the following suggestions, whether or not you think they apply to you. Rather than spreading panic, preparing ourselves in concrete ways will enable us to approach this situation calmly and effectively.
"While no 'domestic terror organization' designation currently exists — and nor does any obvious mechanism to establish one — far-right prosecutors already have a track record of groundlessly pressing trumped-up terrorism charges as a means of terrorizing activists and supporters of social movements. Trump has explicitly called for the use of #racketeering charges to suppress his critics. #FarRight Republican senators are already sponsoring a bill that would add rioting to the list of offenses that the Justice Department can use as part of a probe under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations [#RICO] Act.
"There are obvious precedents for how this might go. Two years ago, a wide range of defendants in #AtlantaGA were randomly charged under the RICO act as part of the repression of the #StopCopCity movement. The cases have been endlessly delayed—and earlier this month, a judge dismissed most of the charges on a technicality.
Under Donald Trump, many federal agencies are disorganized and focused chiefly on managing perceptions. This precisely describes the authorities who brought the haphazard RICO charges in #Georgia two years ago. If the trajectory of the Stop Cop City RICO case offers any indication of how other RICO persecutions of accused activists might go, the chief threat may not be that the crackdown Trump is calling for will send people to prison, but rather that the charges will discourage and immobilize people, creating the conditions for the Trump administration to eventually supersede this form of repression with something worse.
"It remains to be seen how seriously the administration will carry out Trump’s threats, and whether they will start by attacking #grassroots groups or proceed from the top down, targeting massive liberal institutions and fundraising platforms. In either case, our long-term prospects will depend on whether we can enable large numbers of people to act in solidarity with each other, taking up the kind of grassroots direct action tactics that can be effective regardless of whether the people who control the state wish to listen.
"We all live in Atlanta now.
"Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself and your community, proceeding from the immediate to the general."
#SolidarityIsPower #Solidarity #Authoritarianism #TrumpIsAFascist #NoDAPL #Resistance #SilencingDissent #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #ResistICE #ResistFascism
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New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let #Rubio Strip #Passports from #USCitizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
Stephen Prager
Sep 13, 2025"#FreeSpeech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State #MarcoRubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
"The bill, introduced by Rep. #BrianMast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
:Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
"The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine 'has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.'
"Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of #ProPalestine views, describing them as '#Hamas supporters.'
"These include Columbia protest leader #MahmoudKhalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and #RumeysaOzturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from #Israel.
"Mast—a former soldier for the #IsraelDefenseForces who once stated that babies were 'not innocent Palestinian civilians' — has previously called for 'kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,' speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
"Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-thought-policing-bill#ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FreeMahmoud #FreeRumeysa #WaterProtectors #FreePalestine #LandDefenders #SilencingDissent #Fasicsm #Authoritarianism
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New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let #Rubio Strip #Passports from #USCitizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
Stephen Prager
Sep 13, 2025"#FreeSpeech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State #MarcoRubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
"The bill, introduced by Rep. #BrianMast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
:Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
"The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine 'has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.'
"Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of #ProPalestine views, describing them as '#Hamas supporters.'
"These include Columbia protest leader #MahmoudKhalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and #RumeysaOzturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from #Israel.
"Mast—a former soldier for the #IsraelDefenseForces who once stated that babies were 'not innocent Palestinian civilians' — has previously called for 'kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,' speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
"Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-thought-policing-bill#ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FreeMahmoud #FreeRumeysa #WaterProtectors #FreePalestine #LandDefenders #SilencingDissent #Fasicsm #Authoritarianism
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New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let #Rubio Strip #Passports from #USCitizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
Stephen Prager
Sep 13, 2025"#FreeSpeech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State #MarcoRubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
"The bill, introduced by Rep. #BrianMast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
:Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
"The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine 'has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.'
"Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of #ProPalestine views, describing them as '#Hamas supporters.'
"These include Columbia protest leader #MahmoudKhalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and #RumeysaOzturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from #Israel.
"Mast—a former soldier for the #IsraelDefenseForces who once stated that babies were 'not innocent Palestinian civilians' — has previously called for 'kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,' speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
"Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-thought-policing-bill#ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FreeMahmoud #FreeRumeysa #WaterProtectors #FreePalestine #LandDefenders #SilencingDissent #Fasicsm #Authoritarianism
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New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let #Rubio Strip #Passports from #USCitizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
Stephen Prager
Sep 13, 2025"#FreeSpeech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State #MarcoRubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
"The bill, introduced by Rep. #BrianMast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
:Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
"The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine 'has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.'
"Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of #ProPalestine views, describing them as '#Hamas supporters.'
"These include Columbia protest leader #MahmoudKhalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and #RumeysaOzturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from #Israel.
"Mast—a former soldier for the #IsraelDefenseForces who once stated that babies were 'not innocent Palestinian civilians' — has previously called for 'kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,' speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
"Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-thought-policing-bill#ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FreeMahmoud #FreeRumeysa #WaterProtectors #FreePalestine #LandDefenders #SilencingDissent #Fasicsm #Authoritarianism
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New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let #Rubio Strip #Passports from #USCitizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
Stephen Prager
Sep 13, 2025"#FreeSpeech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State #MarcoRubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
"The bill, introduced by Rep. #BrianMast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
:Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
"The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine 'has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.'
"Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of #ProPalestine views, describing them as '#Hamas supporters.'
"These include Columbia protest leader #MahmoudKhalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and #RumeysaOzturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from #Israel.
"Mast—a former soldier for the #IsraelDefenseForces who once stated that babies were 'not innocent Palestinian civilians' — has previously called for 'kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,' speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
"Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-thought-policing-bill#ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FreeMahmoud #FreeRumeysa #WaterProtectors #FreePalestine #LandDefenders #SilencingDissent #Fasicsm #Authoritarianism
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YIKES! Please read and share this!
via @UnicornRiot
"We’ve been forced to spend around $55,000 to date because of Energy Transfer’s legal campaign against our freedom of the press.
"We’ve only raised back $38,916 of this so far.
"Your donation helps us keep operating despite corporate attempts to silence us"
https://donorbox.org/unicorn-riot-nodapl-legal-defense
#EnergyTransfer #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #MutualAid #LegalDefenseFund #SilencingDissent #Resistance #CorporateColonialism #Oiligarchy #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Authoritarianism #EnergyTransfer #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux #IndigenousResistance #IndigenousAllies #DAPL #NorthDakota #StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPsLawsuits #FossilFuel #BigOilAndGas #Academi #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #PrivateSecurity #BigOil #KelcyWarren #Oiligarchy #WaterProtectors #CorporateFascism #StandingRockReservation
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Not weaponized...yet!
#DHS Flew #PredatorDrones Over #LAProtests, Audio Shows
by Joseph Cox, Jun 10, 2025
"The Department of Homeland Security (#DHS) flew two high-powered Predator surveillance drones above the #AntiICEProtests in Los Angeles over the weekend, according to air traffic control (ATC) audio unearthed by an aviation tracking enthusiast then reviewed by #404Media and cross-referenced with flight data.
"The use of Predator drones highlights the extraordinary resources government agencies are putting behind surveilling and responding to the Los Angeles protests, which started after ICE agents raided a Home Depot on Friday. President Trump has since called up 4,000 members of the National Guard, and on Monday ordered more than 700 active duty Marines to the city too.
" 'TROY703, traffic 12 o'clock, 8 miles, opposite direction, another 'TROY' Q-9 at FL230,' one part of the ATC audio says. The official name of these types of #PredatorBDrones, made by a company called #GeneralAtomics, is the #MQ9 Reaper.
"On Monday #404Media reported that all sorts of agencies, from local, to state, to DHS, to the military flew aircraft over the Los Angeles protests. That included a DHS Black Hawk, a California Highway Patrol small aircraft, and two aircraft that took off from nearby March Air Reserve Base."
Read more:
https://www.404media.co/dhs-flew-predator-drones-over-la-protests-audio-shows/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/lqELF#UAVs #PredatorUAVs #ICE #CBP #PredatorClassDrone #ArmedDrones #USPol #PoliceDrones #DroneWeaponization #MilitaryState #ACAB #USPol #GlobalPol #Orwell #NineteenEightyFour #SilencingDissent #Autocracy #Fascism #surveillance #SurveillanceState #PoliceState #WeaponizedDrones
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#UCLA #Gaza #Protesters Sue #Cops for Shooting Them in the Head With #RubberBullets
Protesters were being attacked by a #ProIsrael mob when cops showed up and fired at them with rubber bullets — whose use is restricted by law.
Akela Lacy
May 5 2025Police conspired to violently attacks anti-genocide protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles last year, according to a suit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
At the height of the school’s encampment against Israel’s war on Gaza last spring, one of hundreds across the country, a mob of pro-Israel protesters attacked pro-Palestine protesters for more than four hours. On the night of April 30, 2024, police stood by and watched as counter-protesters aimed and shot fireworks, sprayed chemical agents, harassed, and sexually assaulted pro-Palestine protesters, students and faculty alleged last month in a separate, ongoing lawsuit.
Related
NYU Demands Law Students Renounce Protests or Be Barred from Sitting Final Exams
The day after the melee, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, UCLA administrators, and seven different law enforcement agencies laid plans to dismantle the school’s encampment for good.
UCLA invited multiple outside police forces to campus to clear the encampments on May 1. More than 700 police officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol, the University of California Police Department, and private security were on campus the night of the raid.Protesters are now suing the state of California, which oversees California Highway Patrol, and the city of Los Angeles, which oversees the LAPD, for violence against the demonstrations. The police fired more than 50 rounds of rubber bullets at protesters, striking several people in the head; some of the injuries sent demonstrators to the hospital.
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/05/ucla-gaza-protesters-sue-cops-rubber-bullets/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/j4Duj -
#NYU Demands #LawStudents Renounce #Protests or Be Barred from Sitting #FinalExams
By Schuyler Mitchell, May 5, 2025
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/03/nyu-law-students-protests-gaza-palestine-israel/
#SilencingDissent #FreePalestine #FreeSpeech #NYUCapitulates #TrumpIsABully #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliWarCrimes
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From 2023: Explainer: What are your rights to #protest in #Australia?
by Amal Naser
"Which states have criminalised protest and what forms of protest are criminalised?
"#HumanRights organisations have been increasingly critical towards some Australian states over new legislation which seemingly targets #EnvironmentalProtests in the midst of a global #Climatecrisis.
"There are dozens of protest regulations across many states, with five (#NSW, #Queensland, #SouthAustralia, #Tasmania and #Victoria) introducing forms of #AntiProtest regulation most recently. South Australia's new laws, passed just last month, increase maximum fines from $750 to $50,000 along with potential jail time, and were prompted by disruption of an #OilAndGas conference by protestors in early May.
"In the aftermath of protests which sought to block port operations and shut down economic action to draw attention to demands for climate action, the NSW Parliament passed legislation which could see protestors face up to a $22,000 fine and/or prison for a maximum of two years. The legislation targets individuals who block major roads and new tunnels and/or disrupt #port operations in major ports such as #Newcastle and #PortBotany.
"In 2022, Tasmania passed anti-protest laws by way of the Police Offences Amendment (Workplace Protection) Bill 2022 under the guise of protecting Tasmanian workers. Under these laws, any protestor who obstructs a workplace during protests could face up to 12 months in prison, the Human Rights Law Centre reported:
" '…community member protesting the destruction of #OldGrowthForests on a forestry site could face a penalty of over $13,000 or 2 years in prison; and An organisation supporting members of the community to protest could be fined over $45,000.'
"Similar laws were also passed in Victoria. #AntiLogging protestors who 'hinder, obstruct or interfere with timber-harvesting operations' can face up to 12 months in prison and/or a $21,000 fine. PVC and metal pipes which are often used in protest activities are now prohibited in working sites, with additional powers provided to police to search suspect individuals who are 'reasonably suspicious'.
"In 2019, on public safety grounds, Queensland passed legislation which bans locking devices as modes of civil disobedience. These are tactics used to make it difficult for police to remove protestors and are often used by protestors to lock themselves to property and #pipelines to prevent construction of environmentally-harmful projects. Protestors face up to two years in prison and/or a $6,000 fine. It was rationalised on the basis of activists lacing devices with 'butane canisters' and other devices which were harmful for law enforcement. However, there is no evidence of the use of these devices."
Read more:
https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/explainer-what-are-your-rights-to-protest-australia
#PipelineProtestors #BigOilAndGas #BigLogging #ACAB #RightToProtest #SilencingDissent #ProtectTheForests #AustraliaAntiProtestLaws #RisingTide -
Private groups work to identify and report #StudentProtesters for possible #deportation
“Now they’re using tools of the state to actually go after people,” said a Columbia graduate student from South Asia who has been active in protests and spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about losing her visa. “We suddenly feel like we’re being forced to think about our survival.”
By ADAM GELLER, March 29, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — "When a protester was caught on video in January at a New York rally against Israel, only her eyes were visible between a mask and headscarf. But days later, photos of her entire face, along with her name and employer, were circulated online.
"'Months of them hiding their faces went down the drain!' a fledgling technology company boasted in a social media post, claiming its #FacialRecognition tool had identified the woman despite the coverings.
"She was anything but a lone target. The same software was also used to review images taken during months of #ProPalestinian marches at U.S. colleges. A #RightWingJewish group said some people identified with the tool were on a list of names it submitted to President Donald #Trump’s administration, urging that they be deported in accordance with his call for the expulsion of foreign students who participated in 'pro-jihadist' protests.
"Other #ProIsrael groups have enlisted help from supporters on campuses, urging them to report foreign students who participated in protests against the war in #Gaza to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency."
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-students-campus-gaza-protests-deportation-9e2d4abc1c158454da1f68c01062c9ef
#ICERaids #ICEDetentions #ICEArrests #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #MahmoudKhalil #RumeysaOzturk, #YunseoChung #BadarKhunSuri #MomodouTaal #ResistICE #Fascism #Project2025 #ProjectEsther #Authoritarianism #TurdReich -
#Trump takes aim at foreign-born college students, with 300 visas revoked
Some students have been picked up off the street by immigration agents and held in detention centers, sometimes a thousand miles away from their homes, with little warning
By Daniella Silva, Chloe Atkins, Julia Ainsley and Abigail Williams, March 27, 2025
"Secretary of State #MarcoRubio said Thursday the State Department has revoked 300 or more #StudentVisas, as the White House increasingly targets foreign-born students whose main transgression seems to be #activism.
"Rubio warned that the administration was looking out for 'these lunatics.' Around the country, #scholars have been picked up, in some cases by masked immigration agents, and held in #DetentionCenters, sometimes a thousand miles from their homes with little warning and often with few details about why they were being detained.
"'It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,' Rubio said at a news conference in Guyana, where he was meeting with leaders.
"Many of those rounded up by Trump officials attended or were part of the pro-Palestinian movement that swept college campuses last year, and while the administration hasn’t said publicly why these students are being singled out over others, at least one sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appeared on lists made by far-right pro-Israel groups as targets for deportation.
"And Trump allies, many in government again, telegraphed for months before he took office that they’d seek to deport students who openly advocated for Hamas or other U.S.-designated terrorist groups or after they participated in an unauthorized campus #protest and were suspended, expelled or jailed.
"The detentions are a signal of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to clamp down on the actions of legal permanent residents, student visa holders and others who live and work legally in the United States, one that threatens to undermine a fundamental American right to #FreeSpeech and to assemble, experts and advocates said."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-takes-aim-immigrant-students-rcna198346?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#USPol #ThoughtPolice #Authoritarianism #Orwellian #CharacteristicsOfFascism #Clampdown #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingActivism #RightToAssemble #FirstAmendment #USPol -
#StandingRock Chair on #Greenpeace Verdict -- False, Self-serving Narrative in Insulting Lawsuit
"If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about #SiouxNation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble."
By Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire, via #CensoredNews, March 27, 2025
"As Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I take offense to the jury verdict in the #EnergyTransfer #SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace. We expect more from #NorthDakota judges and members of the jury from our neighboring communities.
"#EnergyTransfer’s claims in this case were ridiculous. They were wholly disrespectful of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe, our ancestors, and our youth, who started the movement in 2016 to protect our water from an oil spill from #DAPL. Neither Greenpeace nor anyone else paid or persuaded Standing Rock to oppose DAPL.
"Our young people and our elders urged us to protect our water and #UnciMakah (grandmother earth). That is what happened, and is happening still. Energy Transfer’s false and self-serving narrative that Greenpeace manipulated Standing Rock into protesting DAPL is patronizing and disrespectful to our people.
"We understand that many Morton County residents support the #OilIndustry, even out-of-state #pipeline companies such as Energy Transfer. But we are your neighbors, and you should not be fooled that easily. Energy Transfer does not know us. They don’t know who we are – an Indigenous Nation that has survived every attack because our ancestors are with us.
"Greenpeace did not manipulate Standing Rock, but #EnergyTransfer has manipulated #MortonCounty. DAPL crosses our Treaty and aboriginal land for hundreds of miles.
"Our ancestors occupied this land for thousands of years before #NorthDakota came into existence. The land between the Heart and Missouri River are our #unceded Treaty lands under the 1868 and 1851 Fort Laramie Treaties. Our aboriginally-occupied territories extend east to the James River and beyond. That is a historical truth. If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about Sioux Nation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble."The construction of Fort Rice on our northern boundary in 1864 was a violation of the Fort Laramie Treaties. This required our Tribe to be vigilant. No one should be surprised that warrior society burials are found in this area, near the pipeline route.
"And do not insult our cultural experts, who have wisdom over matters most residents of Morton County or bureaucrats at the State Historical Society know absolutely nothing about. Energy Transfer and its lawyers should be ashamed of themselves. Everyday North Dakotans on the jury should know better.
"When it comes to the excessive police and private security response to the generally peaceful protests at #CannonBall, believe your eyes. The scenes of guard dogs menacing Tribal members are reminiscent of the violence of #WhiteSupremacists in the #DeepSouth during the 1950’s and 60’s, but it was in North Dakota, in this day and age. It was on the news and on the internet.
"Many of the protesters were Native American veterans of the United States armed forces. Energy Transfer used attack dogs against peaceful protesters and war heroes. But the jury sided with the out-of-state, unlicensed security with the attack dogs, instead of North Dakota veterans who supported Standing Rock.
"A Texas oil company has come to North Dakota, and its lawyers and propaganda machine are weaving stories about how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and our supporters have lied, and how the poor pipeline company, a trillion dollars richer than in 2016 when this all started, should receive extra millions from non-profit organizations. It’s a funny thing about liars – they always accuse everyone else of lying. The Greenpeace trial was marked by secrecy.
"The court is not making the transcript public. The documents obtained by Greenpeace about Energy Transfer’s terrible safety record are protected by a secrecy order and are not available to the public. The judge exhibited so much bias in favor of Energy Transfer that a team of international human rights lawyers felt compelled to monitor the trial. One prominent monitor stated 'In my six decades of legal practice, I have never witnessed a trial as unfair as the one against Greenpeace that just ended in the courts of North Dakota.'
"Standing Rock has tried to work for greater transparency on DAPL. It is our experience with the Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer that all documents relating to DAPL pipeline safety are heavily redacted, and kept secret. What are they hiding? Who is looking out for the communities that may be affected by an oil spill? And why didn’t the North Dakota court allow Greenpeace to address these questions at the trial?
"DAPL is a dangerous pipeline. It crosses our unceded Treaty and aboriginal land. Energy Transfer destroyed Tribal burials as identified by our cultural experts, and committed violence against our people. That is the history that North Dakota and Morton County must reckon with. After the Greenpeace verdict, that day seems farther off than ever."Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/standing-rock-chair-on-greenpeace.html
#StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPsLawsuits #SLAPPs #FossilFuel #BigOilAndGas #Academi #EricPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #PrivateSecurity #BigOil #KelcyWarren #Oiligarchy #CorporateColonialism #WaterProtectors #StevenDonziger #EnvironmentalRacism #ReaderSupportedNews #CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #StandingRockReservation -
Trump allies circulate #MassDeportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and a private citizen ‘#army’
The group, led by #Blackwater veteran #ErikPrince, has close #Trump ties.
By Dasha Burns and Myah Ward
02/25/2025 05:55 AM EST"Prince declined to comment, and the other contractors and former immigration officials listed as key personnel in the document also declined to comment or could not be reached.
"The founders of the new special entity called #2USV have a long history with the U.S. government. Blackwater was formed by Prince in 1996 to provide training services to law enforcement, military personnel and other government agencies. It gained widespread attention for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing security services for U.S. officials and military personnel, with critics viewing its rise as a result of the U.S. military’s overextension in the Middle East.
The military contractor came under scrutiny in 2007 following the #NisourSquareMassacre, when #Blackwater contractors opened fire and killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 others — raising questions about oversight and accountability of private contractors. Several contractors were charged with manslaughter, and four were convicted in 2014. Trump pardoned them at the end of his first term in December 2020.
"Trump’s pardon was just one example of the influence of Prince’s family during the first Trump administration. #BetsyDeVos, Prince’s sister, served as the president’s #Education secretary, while Prince used his Trump connections as he chased business ventures in the U.S. and abroad.
"In 2018, he reportedly helped raise money for an effort to spy on progressives and Democratic organizations opposed to Trump." [As well as #DAPL #WaterProtectors!]
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/documents-military-contractors-mass-deportations-022648
#Blackwater
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism
#ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism
#Fascism #Trump #ChristoFascist
#CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #Activists #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent
#CrackdownOnProtests #AntiProtestLaws #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #Academi #TripleCanopy #SilencingDissent #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal -
The War on #Masks Has Taken on a New Meaning
This time, the masks have nothing to do with #COVID19.
By Henry Grabar
Feb 05, 20254:57 PM"Last month, state legislators in New York introduced a bill that would create a new crime: 'masked harassment.'
"That, the law explains, is when you wear a mask 'for the primary purpose of menacing or threatening violence against another person' or 'placing another person or group of persons in reasonable fear for their physical safety.'
"If that seems like a bit of a niche offense—threatening violence is already a crime, after all—it’s because the language has been watered down to attract political support. It’s a sign of New York Democrats’ cautious new approach over masks in public life, and a retreat from last spring, when anti-Israel protests, on top of a widespread urban crime panic, pushed leaders from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to consider mask bans.
"In its original form, the New York bill would have banned masks at public assemblies entirely. But the outcry from #DisabilityRights advocates, #CriminalJustice reformers, #HealthCareWorkers, and #CivilLiberties groups was swift, and so New York wound up with this bill on 'masked harassment' instead.
"Elsewhere, the pandemic-era leniency on masking in public is over. #NorthCarolina Republicans overrode a gubernatorial veto last summer to once again #BanPublicFaceCoverings, except to stop the spread of contagious diseases. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost dusted off an old law to threaten #StudentProtesters with #felonies. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked the state’s Senate to consider a bill to #unmask #protesters this year.
"For Republicans, it’s a chance to kill two birds with one stone. They can strike back against the perceived overreach of pandemic-era #HealthDirectives and make it easier to arrest #demonstrators at the same time.
"In #Ohio and North Carolina, the original statutes were written in the 1950s to stop demonstrations by the #KuKluxKlan, but had been ignored or suspended during the #pandemic and the #GeorgeFloydProtests. Many lawmakers have cited the recent demonstrations in defense of #Gaza as a reason to crack down again. Defending the proposed mask ban in New York, Anti-Defamation League [#ADL] president Jonathan Greenblatt said the demonstrators were using '#KKK tactics' to intimidate Jewish New Yorkers.
"That instinct was bolstered by the sense among many city residents and elected leaders that widespread masking was a factor behind the pandemic-era crime spike. That led to #Philadelphia banning #SkiMasks in parks, on trains, and in public buildings. A more recent, high-profile example came in December with the Midtown Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO #BrianThompson by a #MaskedAssassin, which prompted New York Mayor Eric Adams to call for cab drivers and business owners to ask customers to remove their masks. The new New York bill has won over the liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who endorsed the 'tailored' approach. As the police say: #NoFaceNoCase.
"For what it’s worth, there are too many confounding variables and too little data to be sure if mask-wearing is associated with crime, said Ernesto Lopez at the Council for Criminal Justice, which collects crime reporting statistics from various cities. 'From a theoretical statement it makes sense that could occur, but it has not been demonstrated that’s the case,' he told me.
"But if all that weighed in favor of more mask bans, there was also widespread resistance. Disability advocates mobilized to defend the right to mask; North Carolina had to write a medical exemption into their bill at the insistence of a GOP House member. #PoliceReformers observed that #MaskBans have often been used for pretextual #policing and racial profiling against #BlackAmericans. (#AtlantaGeorgia tabled a mask ban for that reason.)
"What looms largest, as the second Trump administration begins, is the role of protest. As Semafor’s Dave Weigel has noted, masks have become a badge of left-wing protest culture. That’s in part an extension of politicized COVID-era concerns about health and civility, but at this point it is mostly a tactic to preserve anonymity in an era of #FacialRecognition, streaming video, and #doxing. Last year, the anonymous #ProIsrael website the #CanaryMission posted photographs of hundreds of students and faculty at campus protests and posted their names and photos online, labeling some as supporters of terrorism.
"'The concern takes on new urgency as Donald Trump pledges to revoke the visas of pro-Palestine protesters, and the Trump-Musk GOP embraces the naming and shaming of otherwise private citizens. A conservative group called the American Accountability Foundation has begun circulating lists of federal workers, many of them Black, who should be
'targets' for their alleged involvement in #DEI initiatives at work."Clearly, the masked protest does not always sit well with an older generation, many of whom cut their teeth in the protests of the pre-internet age. As Georgetown professor Michael Kazin told the New York Times last year: 'I do think if you are going to demonstrate, and it’s something you feel deeply about, you should be willing to stand up and be counted.'"
Source:
https://slate.com/business/2025/02/mask-bans-new-york-los-angeles-crime-protests-criminalize-face-coverings.html?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#Fascism #AuthoritarianRule #BigBrother #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #SurveillanceState #SilencingDissent -
#NuclearColonialism v. #RedPower
"The world has no shortage of #PoliticalPrisoners – or of environmental martyrs and heroes– but 80-year-old #LeonardPeltier, a #Lakota and #Anishinaabe AIM member, is arguably the most famous, the legal lynching he underwent so outrageous, and his incarceration in a 'maximum security' prison so protracted. Even former FBI agents have themselves essentially contended that Pelter was scapegoated by the FBI for the lethal shooting of two agents–Jack Coler and Ronald Williams– on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Michael Apted’s 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala, narrated by Robert Redford, is a good place to start if you’re new to this history. But if you’re looking for insights into the role that #UraniumMining played in the conflict, you’d be better off checking out #PeterMatthiessen’s book #InTheSpiritOfCrazyHorse: Leonard Peltier and the #FBI’s War on The #AmericanIndian ovement. To hear a first-hand account, check out Peltier’s memoir #PrisonWritings: My Life Is My Sun Dance.
"Despite well-documented prosecutorial misconduct powerfully depicted in Apted’s documentary, Peltier’s conviction has yet to be overturned. And in the face of decades of global, high-profile pleas for clemency for Peltier, including by James Reynolds, a “senior US attorney who was involved in [his] prosecution,” no president up until now has been willing to free Peltier. Given that he’s in increasingly poor health, time is running out, and the same president who just pardoned his own son may be Peltier’s last shot at clemency. If you haven’t yet done so, check out the Amnesty International petition– and Amy Goodman’s and Denis Moynihan’s recent column–making the case for his release. The Red Nation media collective also has an extensive playlist of podcasts focused on Peltier’s case and the long struggle to free him.
"Peltier, arguably the world’s most visible casualty of nuclear colonialism, was only three years into his sentence when Santee Dakota organizer John Trudell, his contemporary in AIM, delivered a searing 1980 speech at the Black Hills International Survival Gathering. As Zoltan Grossman has documented, 'Multinational mining companies, such as #UnionCarbide and #Exxon, proposed the development of the #BlackHills for energy resources, including #coal mines, #uranium mines, and coal slurry #pipelines.' The Black Hills gathering brought together a global convergence of more than 10,000 Indigenous activists and non-Native allies to hold the line against a repeat of the 1950s, which, per Grossman, had 'result[ed] in the extensive irradiation of the southern Black Hills community of #Edgemont.'"
Read more:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/11/tis-the-season-to-talk-climate-collapse-nuclear-colonialism-and-freeing-leonard-peltier/
#FreeLeonardPeltier #ClemencyForLeonardPeltier #ACAB #AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #SilencingDissent #NoUraniumMining -
#ArmedDrones and Ethical Policing: Risk, Perception, and the Tele-Present Officer
Christian Enemark, June, 2021
"On 29 May 2020 a #PredatorClassDrone diverted south from its routine patrol of the US–Canadian border and then circled in the sky above the city of Minneapolis for around three hours. Public protests were under way there following the killing of George Floyd by local police officer Derek Chauvin four days previously. The remotely controlled aircraft, operated by US Customs and Border Protection (#CBP), carried no weapons, but it had a mounted camera for transmitting video footage of events on the ground. It was reportedly deployed to Minneapolis to 'aid in situational awareness' at the request of 'federal law enforcement partners.'
"Later, however, thirty-five members of Congress criticized this use of a military-grade drone to surveil protesters inside the United States, arguing that such surveillance could be unduly intimidating and could have an unwelcome 'chilling effect' on participation in public life.
"The deployment for a law enforcement purpose of such a large drone (capable of bearing heavy payloads and flying at high altitudes for long periods) was nevertheless exceptional. Usually, in the United States and elsewhere, a 'police drone' means a small, short-range, multirotor aircraft of the kind produced by civilian manufacturers and widely available commercially. But the use of these drones has generated concerns about the intrusiveness of police surveillance and its impact on individual privacy and freedoms, too. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, police agencies in several countries used drones equipped with cameras (and sometimes loudspeakers) to monitor and enforce public compliance with social distancing rules. Sometimes, this prompted accusations that aerial surveillance in locked-down societies was breaching people's privacy rights and exacerbating a 'police state' atmosphere. The intrusiveness and privacy implications of (unarmed) drone use is an important and well-canvassed ethical issue on its own. It arises in the context of numerous other technological developments with policing applications including, for example, closed-circuit television, long-range audio sensors, and online financial transaction monitoring.
"In this article, however, the focus of attention is the potential use by police of small drones equipped with weapons as well as cameras, and the concern for human rights extends to the right to life which underpins ethical principles restraining police use of force. During the last two decades, armed drones have been extensively deployed over foreign territories, mainly by the US government. Drone strikes involving guided missiles have been carried out as part of armed conflicts in, for example, Afghanistan and Iraq. In this war paradigm, principles of military ethics (which underpin international humanitarian law) are applicable and these traditionally afford a broad moral permission for killing. By contrast, in non-war situations, where state violence is instead wielded within the peacetime paradigm of law enforcement, a more stringent morality based on human rights is applicable. According to several analyses of foreign drone use, the intentionally lethal use of armed drones 'outside armed conflict' is likely to offend those rights, because the conventional restrictions on using force for law enforcement purposes are difficult to satisfy.
"In a domestic context, too, a drone-based targeted killing carried out by a government would likely be an abuse of human rights in the form of an extrajudicial execution. However, even if the violent use of a drone to perform a punitive law enforcement function is impermissible for this reason, it remains to be considered whether an armed drone could properly be used as part of a state's protective (policing) effort to enforce the law. When former US president Barack Obama insisted that none of his successors should 'deploy armed drones over U.S. soil,' he was probably envisaging large (Predator-sized) drones launching Hellfire missiles with deliberately deadly effect. This differs, though, from a scenario in which a police officer's intention is not (or not solely) to kill and where they are using a drone armed, for example, with weapons not designed to be lethal. In such circumstances, it is worth asking: how (if at all) might the use of an armed drone satisfy the ethical principles that guide police use of force? And when (if ever) might it be morally permissible for police to use an armed drone against a criminal suspect or to protect public safety?
"This article explores such questions by first describing the utility of drone technology for police purposes and then outlining the ethical principles that traditionally guide and restrain police use of force. These principles inform the subsequent discussion of ethical challenges an officer is likely to face when remotely controlling an armed, camera-equipped drone. Drone use promises to reduce police exposure to danger, and this seems likely sometimes to yield the benefit of reduced risk of harm (caused by fearful officers) to criminal suspects and innocent bystanders. Weighing against this benefit, however, is the increased risk to the latter associated with any perception problems experienced by distanced police officers, as well as the risk that police remoteness might make public cooperation with policing efforts more difficult to achieve. At the time of writing, there have been no reports of armed drones being violently deployed by police anywhere in the world. Even so, as the next section shows, the requisite technology already exists, and some corporations, legislators, and non-government organizations have begun to anticipate the advent of police drone weaponization."
Read more:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8367046/#DefundCBP #PoliceDrones #DroneWeaponization #MilitaryState #ACAB #USPol #GlobalPol #Orwell #NineteenEightyFour #SilencingDissent #Autocracy #Fascism #BLM #GeorgeFloydProtests #surveillance #SurveillanceState #PoliceState #ArmedDrones #WeaponizedDrones
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It's not over yet... A pox on #Harris for not speaking out against #IsraeliWarCrimes and alienating #ArabAmericans!
House #GOP Moves to Ram Through Bill That Gives #Trump Unilateral Power to Kill #Nonprofits
Dozens of #Democrats still support the bill — giving the Republican-controlled House plenty of breathing room to pass it next week.
Noah Hurowitz
November 15 2024"A controversial '#nonprofit killer' bill is back on track after it was blocked earlier this week.
"A majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives rejected the bill on Tuesday out of fear that it could grant President-Elect Donald Trump legal tools with which to target his ideological foes, but Republicans are swiftly pressing ahead.
"The #StopTerrorFinancing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which would empower the secretary of the Treasury to designate any #nonprofit as a '#terrorist supporting organization' and revoke its tax-exempt status, is set to go before the Committee on Rules on Monday for a hearing that could tee up the bill for a new floor vote.
"The hearing was announced Thursday evening, just two days after 144 Democrats and one Republican voted against the bill as part of a fast-track parliamentary procedure that required a two-thirds majority.
"The bill, also known as #HR9495, has come under withering criticism from a broad coalition of organizations that say its sponsors are pushing it as a means of cracking down on free speech — particularly speech in support of #Palestine. In a joint statement earlier this week, a coalition of #ArabAmerican and #MuslimOrganizations pledged to continue to fight the bill.
"'This bill was designed to #criminalize organizations and #activists who oppose the U.S.’s unconditional support of #Israel’s #genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of #Lebanese civilians,' read the statement, which was signed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and others. 'We will continue to stand firm in protecting all organizations’ freedom to speak and operate without fear of political retribution.'
"Offices for the chair and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, through which the bill must pass, did not respond to requests for comment.
"With #ProIsrael groups lobbying for the bill, it gained popularity among House Democrats, in part due to a provision providing tax relief to Americans held hostage abroad.
"The reelection of Trump, however, galvanized opponents, including Rep. #LloydDoggett, D-Texas, who led the charge to reject the bill on Tuesday. Doggett doubled down on Thursday after learning of the newly scheduled Rules Committee hearing.
"'In this mislabeled bill, House Republicans are hiding behind hostages,' Doggett said in a statement to The Intercept. 'Their rush to reconsider this bill is solely to offer Trump more and more power, while Trump’s nominees for key #NationalSecurity posts this week indicate how he will be using it.'"
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2024/11/15/nonprofits-trump-bill-gop-republicans/#StopHR9495 #CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem #Blackwater #ErikPrince #Fascism #Autocracy #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #AntiWarActivists #FirstAmendment #WaterProtectors #PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #ClimateActivists #Protests #StandWithStandingRock #GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide
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So, this article outlines what the nominee for director of #HomelandSecurity has planned for #SilencingDissent in the US...
From 2019: South Dakota Governor #KristiNoem Caves on Attempted Efforts to Silence #PipelineProtesters
ACLU, October 24, 2019
"South Dakota’s governor and attorney general today backed down from their unconstitutional attempts to silence pipeline protestors. In response to a lawsuit we filed alongside the ACLU of South Dakota and the Robins Kaplan law firm, the state has agreed to never enforce the unconstitutional provisions of several state laws that threatened activists who encourage or organize protests, particularly protests of the #KeystoneXL [#KXL] pipeline, with fines and criminal penalties of up to 25 years in prison.
"The settlement agreement reached today and now headed to the court for approval is an important victory for the right to protest. It comes soon after a federal court temporarily blocked enforcement of the pieces of the laws that infringed on First Amendment protected speech, and makes the court’s temporary block a permanent one.
"The laws include the #RiotBoostingAct, which gave the state the authority to sue individuals and #organizations for 'riot boosting,' a novel and confusing term. The court warned against the laws’ broad reach, noting that the laws could have prohibited:
- Sending a supporting email or a letter to the editor in support of a protest
- Giving a cup of coffee or thumbs up or $10 to protesters
- Holding up a sign in protest on a street corner
- Asking someone to protest"Under the First Amendment, that is impermissible.
"The court rightly recognized the stakes of this case. And it put these #AntiProtest efforts in perspective, asking 'if these riot boosting statutes were applied to the protests that took place in Birmingham, Alabama, what might be the result?' The answer: 'Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference could have been liable under an identical riot boosting law[.]'
"Indeed, South Dakota’s unconstitutional anti-protest efforts echoed the suppression of past social movements. From the start, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem called on 'shut[ting] down' 'out-of-state people' who come into South Dakota to 'slow and stop construction' of the pipeline. Her harmful calls were reminiscent of government attempts throughout our history to delegitimize and minimize significant #SocialMovements as the work of 'outside agitators,' including Reverend #MartinLutherKingJr.
"South Dakota’s quick and costly retreat (they’ll have to compensate plaintiffs for attorney’s fees under the settlement agreement) should serve as a lesson for other legislatures considering similar efforts to silence dissent.
"In the last few years, we have witnessed a legislative trend of states seeking to criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail freedom of association. These bills appear to be a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to some of the most effective tactics of those speaking out today, including water protectors challenging pipeline construction, Black Lives Matter, and those calling for boycotts of Israel. These legislative moves are aimed at suppressing dissent and undercutting marginalized and over-policed groups voicing concerns that disrupt current power dynamics.
"But the First Amendment guarantees people the right to voice their opposition. This includes our clients — four organizations (the #SierraClub, #NDNCollective, #DakotaRuralAction, and the #IndigenousEnvironmentalNetwork - #IEN) and two individuals (#NickTilsen with NDN Collective and #DallasGoldtooth with Indigenous Environmental Network) — all of whom are protesting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and encouraging others to do the same.
"Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline may be imminent. Pre-construction activities resumed this month, and a hearing on the new Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the pipeline, which will serve as the basis for approval of any future permits, is coming up next Monday.
"With the laws we challenged proclaimed unenforceable, protesters and protectors no longer have to worry about incarceration or fines as they protest against the construction. That is, at a minimum, how democracy should work."
#WaterProtectors #CriminalizingDissent #BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism #Fascism #DefendTheSacred #IndigenousActivists #StandWithStandingRock #FirstAmendment
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From 2020: #War Contractor #ErikPrince Has Close Ties to [#Trump] White House & Report Reveals His Dirty Tricks for Trump
"So, there are direct ties and connections between Trump, the Trump White House and #ProjectVeritas and #JamesOKeefe. And here’s Erik Prince, brother of the secretary of education, a shadow adviser to the White House, who now finds his efforts to help Project Veritas are going towards targeting the paper that exposed Erik Prince’s secret meetings in the #Seychelles, for instance, and a potential back channel between the incoming Trump administration and the #Putin government at the time."
Read more / listen:
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/10/war_contractor_erik_prince_has_close#Blackwater #ErikPrinceColonialism #SilencingDissent #USElections #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism #ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism #Fascism
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#Trump tested the limits on using the military at home. If elected again, he plans to go further
“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
By STEPHEN GROVES
Updated 1:01 PM EDT, October 13, 2024WASHINGTON (AP) — "During his first term as president, Donald Trump tested the limits of how he could use the military to achieve policy goals. If given a second term, the Republican and his allies are preparing to go much further, reimagining the military as an all-powerful tool to deploy on U.S. soil.
"He has pledged to recall thousands of American troops from overseas and station them at the U.S. border with Mexico. He has explored using troops for domestic policy priorities such as deportations and confronting civil unrest. He has talked of weeding out military officers who are ideologically opposed to him.
"Trump’s vision amounts to a potentially dramatic shift in the role of the military in U.S. society, carrying grave implications for both the country’s place in the world and the restraints that have traditionally been placed on domestic use of the military."
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-military-border-civil-unrest-domestic-use-a136c69cc85184b07f161c4c09b46c50
#Election2024 #USElections #Elections2024 #Project2025 #SilencingDissent #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #ErikPrince #Blackwater #CriminalizingActivism #ClimateEmergency #ClimateProtestors #Crapitalism -
And how much economic damage is from climate change and pollution from #FossilFuels? #BigOil is the real criminal here!
#ClimateProtesters are taking action against Big Oil. UK courts are handing them prison terms akin to rapists and thieves
By Kara Fox, CNN
September 14, 2024London CNN — "As #RightWing rioters attacked communities with #racist violence across parts of the UK last month, 22-year-old #ClimateActivist #CressieGethin sat in a prison cell.
"Her crime? Organizing a disruptive protest against new government-granted licenses to drill for oil — a planet-heating #FossilFuel — in the #NorthSea.
"In late July, a London court found #Gethin and four other members of the #JustStopOil activist group guilty of 'conspiring intentionally to cause a #PublicNuisance,' after recruiting protesters to climb structures along the M25 — a major ring road around London — bringing traffic to a standstill in parts over four days in November 2022.
"Prosecutors alleged that the protests, organized over a #ZoomCall, disrupted more than 700,000 drivers, caused economic damage of over £760,000 ($980,000) and racked up £1 million ($1.3m) in policing costs.
"Now Gethin and three others — Louise Lancaster, #DanielShaw and #LuciaWhittakerDeAbreu, who planned the disruption on the call — are serving four-year jail terms, while Just Stop Oil co-founder #RogerHallam was given five years. All are appealing.
"The sentences are believed to be the longest in the UK’s history for #nonviolent protest and were delivered under two new controversial laws that supercharged #policing powers to crack down on disruptive protests, even when they are peaceful.
"They place the act of planning a 'public nuisance' event, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, on a similar footing as #ViolentCrimes like robbery, for which punishments range from community service to 12 years’ jail, or rape, which is four to 19 years.
"The judge — who in court referred to the activists as '#extremists' — justified the long jail terms because all five activists had previously been convicted of one or more offenses in relation to direct action protest. Each were on bail for another set of proceedings when the Zoom call took place. He also noted people missed important doctor’s visits and funerals because of the protest.
"But activists like Gethin say their demonstrations are proportionate to the problem at hand — a rapidly warming world that threatens to transform life as we know it, through deadly #ExtremeWeather events and by pushing #ecosystems to their brinks. They are now battling the bolstered powers of the #police and courts to get their point across.
“'A very harsh sentence like this doesn’t make sense morally or legally — but it does make sense politically,' Gethin told CNN in a handwritten letter from HMP Bronzefield, a women’s prison just south of London’s Heathrow Airport.
"The laws have drawn criticism from the UN’s special rapporteur on #EnvironmentalDefenders, #MichaelForst, who said not only do they criminalize peaceful protest, but they are being enforced in 'punitive and repressive' ways."
Read more:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/14/climate/uk-climate-protests-policing-laws-prison-intl/index.html#BigOilAndGas #ClimateActivists #ClimateProtest #SLAPPs #CorporateColonialism #WaterDefenders
#ClimateDefenders
#EnvironmentalActivists
#SilencingDissent #SLAPPs #ClimateActivists #CorporateColonialism
#EarthDefenders #CriminalizingDissent #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest #BiodiversityNecessityDefense
#EarthDefenders
#SLAPPs #Fascism #CivilDisobedience
#Activism #ClimateStrike
#HumanRights #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct #ClimateNecessityDefense #Corporatocracy #CorporateFascism #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe -
Japan asks Denmark to extradite anti-whaling activist #PaulWatson
Denmark announced Thursday that it has received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant. Watson, the 73-year-old founder of #SeaShepherd, is facing charges related to a 2010 confrontation with Japanese #whaling ships, raising concerns over his potential extradition and the motivations behind Japan's request.
Issued on: 01/08/2024
"#Denmark's justice ministry said Thursday that it had received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in #Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.
"Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over a 2010 altercation with Japanese whaling ships.
"Watson, who featured in the reality TV series '#WhaleWars', founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (#CPWF), and is known for #DirectAction tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
"'The Ministry of Justice received a formal extradition request regarding Paul Watson from the Japanese authorities yesterday,' the ministry told AFP in an email."
[...]
"'#Japan has a personal vendetta against #PaulWatson, and this so-called offence is the pretext for revenge against a man who defied and therefore humiliated them,' [Francois Zimeray] told AFP.
"He said an extradition to Japan would be a violation of the European Convention on #HumanRights, since 'the country does not respect international standards on fair trials and prisons.'"
#Greenpeace #Ecocide #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest
#CriminalizingDissent
#BiodiversityNecessityDefense
#EarthDefenders #Fascism
#CivilDisobedience #Activism #ClimateActivists #HumanRights #SilencingDissent #Corporatocracy #Article20 #HumanRightsViolations #DefendNature #Japon #SaveOurSeas #FreePaulWatson -
TY to @RadicalAnthro for making me aware of this!
Five #JustStopOil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for #nonviolent #protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause #PublicNuisance
Damien Gayle
Thu 18 Jul 2024 12.47 EDT"Gethin, who offered her own comments in mitigation, said: 'I want to remind the court once more that my reasons for taking action were not beliefs or opinions. Earth’s life-support systems are breaking down due to human activities, whether we believe it or not.
"'These are not beliefs or opinions and feeling strongly that this is wrong is greatly understandable, I would argue. I deeply regret that this action was necessary … I maintain that it was necessary and I stand by my actions as the most effective option available to me.'
"Supporters of the defendants expressed outrage at the sentences, which came after a two-week trial in which the judge denied them any of the defences in law for causing a public nuisance.
"Hehir ruled that the jury should not take into account evidence about #ClimateBreakdown, which the defendants wanted to point to as the key motivation behind their actions, and which they said provided them with a #ReasonableExcuse for them."
Read more:
#FreeSpeech #RightToProtest #CriminalizingDissent #BiodiversityNecessityDefense #EarthDefenders #SLAPPs #Fascism #SLAPPs #CivilDisobedience #Activism #ClimateStrike #ClimateActivists #HumanRights #SilencingDissent #Corporatocracy #EarthDefenders #Article20 #ExtremeProtestGroups #2023PublicOrderAct #ClimateNecessityDefense
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#Lawsuits Have Become the Weapon of Choice Against #Activists
Legal intimidation suits known as “#SLAPPs” are becoming the norm for private #corporations and #governments trying to silence those who speak out on matters of public interest.
by Katie Redford
July 17, 2023“On May 31, #Atlanta #SWAT teams with riot gear and battering rams broke down #MarlonKautz’s door. Police dragged Kautz and two colleagues to jail in their pajamas, charging them with #MoneyLaundering and charity fraud.
“Kautz, Adele MacLean, and Savannah Patterson, are volunteer board members of the #NetworkForStrongCommunities Inc., which was incorporated in 2020. Through it, they are able to raise funds for the #AtlantaSolidarityFund (#ASF). Since 2016, the fund has bailed out people arrested in #Georgia while exercising their First Amendment right to protest and helped them find legal help.
“Recently, the ASF has supported Atlanta activists who have been protesting a new $90 million police training center known as '#CopCity,' arguing that it will rob Atlanta of a #VitalGreenLung and increase inequality in surrounding neighborhoods. The state of Georgia, on the other hand, has charged dozens with 'domestic terrorism' for participating in largely peaceful protests.
“Georgia authorities claim that the money laundering charge is based on evidence of a fund transfer to another organization, but they haven’t shared any other details about their allegations. Magistrate Judge Altman, who presided over the bail hearing, described the state’s evidence as 'unimpressive,' reinforcing the defendants’ claims that the arrests are politically, not legally, motivated.
“Shortly after the arrest, Governor Brian Kemp announced that the state would go after everyone involved, and Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted that the funders of the bail and legal defense fund were next. As an executive director at a climate philanthropy who made charitable donations to the ASF for legal defense, I had to wonder: Was my door going to be battered down next?
“Some of the accused may have trespassed or destroyed property, but to charge protesters with 'domestic terrorism' and a legal defense fund with money laundering is a cynical political act that bears no relation to the misdemeanors alleged. Any American committed to democracy should be interested in making sure these charges lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.
“These charges seek to silence and stop opposition to an unpopular development project. They also telegraph a message to others in the state and nationwide: We will not tolerate lawful protest in Georgia. This strategy is known as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), which is an intimidation lawsuit, typically used by private corporations against those who speak out on matters of public interest. Various state governments are increasingly deploying this tactic, too.
“SLAPPs don’t usually win in court, but that’s not what they’re intended to do. Instead, they set out to threaten activists and drain the financial resources of social movements. They often unfold as years-long wars of attrition, where corporations and governments with disproportionately large resources grind down the financial, emotional, and legal capacities of activists. The threat of such a suit—typically brought against individuals or groups that confront powerful people or institutions—discourages free speech and association, chilling democracy itself.
“As a lawyer on the front lines of climate justice activism, I witnessed firsthand how a SLAPP was used to weaponize the law against free speech and association. During the mass protests by Indigenous water protectors and environmentalists campaigning against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, SLAPPs were used widely.
“As #StandingRock became a global cause célèbre, the pipeline’s owners brought a $900 million #racketeering case against individuals and #NGOs like #BankTrack and #Greenpeace, alleging a vast global conspiracy to damage the company’s reputation and bottom line through fraud and #defamation.
“A federal court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. But despite its eventual failure in court, the SLAPP tactic served its intended purpose: intimidation. #KrystalTwoBulls, one of the Standing Rock organizers that my organization represented, said that being sued tangled her up, practically and emotionally, in a legal battle that diverted her attention, taking her away from her work on the climate crisis and #Indigenous #LandRights.
“She began to #censor herself; she withdrew from her community and the movement, fearing that conspiracy allegations might extend to anyone she touched. And that, of course, is the point of these suits: to send out the message to either shut up or suffer the consequences.
“The case against #Kautz in #Atlanta similarly seeks to spark fear in activists and donors against supporting #FirstAmendment rights and legal defense. There is reason to believe that prosecutors may also be preparing #RICO charges against anti–Cop City activists, another dangerous use of the legal system to quell #grassroots movements.
“Since Standing Rock, over 20 states have passed '#CriticalInfrastructure' laws, which dramatically increase civil and criminal penalties related to protests at or near #FossilFuel projects. #DomesticTerrorism laws like that in Georgia have a similar intention: to weaponize the legal system against critics and stifle #DissentingVoices.
“I have no doubt that the majority of the domestic terrorism charges around Cop City will fail. But in the process, a political point will have been made, at the expense of the constitutional right to free speech. People protesting to protect the #environment and #climate will have been publicly accused of being harmful to America’s security, and they will have been forced to defend themselves—likely at exorbitant cost—against a 30-year jail sentence. Other potential activists will surely remember these charges when they consider whether it’s worth it to attend a concert, sit-in, or protest.
"The best strategy for stopping SLAPP suits in their tracks, whether they emanate from the private sector or are used by the state, is to keep speaking out, to support defamed activists, and to make the litigants pay a price. About 30 states have introduced legislation that protects against SLAPPs. And last year, #Jami Raskin introduced the #SLAPPProtectionAct of 2022 to #Congress. It must be reintroduced.
“My organization, #EquationCampaign, created a fund to provide lawyers and legal support for people who face this kind of legal retaliation for their environmental and climate work. I’m astonished at the wide range of people who need our help: from #farmers and ranchers to #journalists and #IndigenousActivists. All of them are on the receiving end of David vs. Goliath legal tactics that have long served powerful interests with near-endless resources.
“Absent federal protections, we all must be vigilant in the face of the egregious proliferation of #antiprotest laws and lawsuits.
“#Democracy and the future of this #planet require people to speak up. The law should serve—not silence—those of us who do."
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/slapp-legal-intimidation-activists/
#ForestDefenders #DefendTheForest #StopCopCity #DirectAction #Fascism #RICO #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #NoDAPL #DakotaAccess #StandingWithStandingRock