On the morning of January 21st, Democrats all over the country are going to wake up and suddenly realize they care about civil rights.
We've handed Don't Trump the most terrifying, Orwellian surveillance state in history.
Danish electronics outlet Elgiganten is promoting inclusivity in its advertisement for this holiday season.
Update with breaking news: The trial for these 10 defendants has been postponed until January 31 and Feb. 1 because the prosecution had not turned over evidence to the defense in a timely manner.
[The judge] also deferred ruling on [the prosecutor's] motion to exclude issues of tribal sovereignty, the concerns about the Dakota Access Pipeline and "any other social or political cause." She wrote in her order that the defendants did not have adequate time before trial to respond to the motion, which was filed Dec. 12. [Prosecutor] Erickson could raise objections if such issues arose at trial, she wrote.
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The first criminal trials of some water protectors begin today, December 19, in Bismarck. The best coverage has been (again) by Jordan from TYT. He interviewed Kelli Love, one of the people arrested, who lays out the situation clearly and eloquently in the video below. There appear to be numerous civil rights violations and problems with due process, including new charges being added at the last minute (after pleas had already been entered) and motions by the prosecutor to forbid any video evidence and to forbid any mention of environmental damage, treaty rights, or any of the other reasons that the water protectors were where they were, doing what they were doing.
I revised my essay "What Admitting My Wife to the Hospital Taught Me About What's Wrong With America" into a longer, and I hope better version of what I wanted to say originally but failed to do. That is all.
Steve
We need to understand what the liberals already know but are unwilling to admit publicly; liberalism is in a deep crisis. The liberal wing of the ruling class has caught itself on the horns of a dilemma.
On the one hand, the Liberals serve the interests of capitalism, in that sense the shift from Keynesian Liberalism to Neoliberalism comes about due to the economic crisis following the demise of Keynesianism due to stagflation in the 1970s.
I met up with a good friend of mine this past weekend at a local dive bar. As the liquor loosened his tongue, he took a moment to complain about the wealthy elites he works for. Or as he put it, "those rich f*cks".
Restrictions on free speech are all the craze now in Western Democracies (Demockrazies?). In the US, we’ve got the various “protect the people from fake news” initiatives. Of course, the self-appointed and designated “protectors” are Corporate and Government entities, mixed with billionaires who think they are as good and wise as Buddha, Solomon, and all the Saints. (Said blessing comes with one’s first billion dollars, apparently.)
