November 11, 2017


News and Views


I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT THERE IS REAL POWER CENTERED OUTSIDE OF WASHINGTON, ESPECIALLY ON THE CITY OR COUNTY LEVEL. THE ARTICLE STATES THAT THERE ARE EVEN SOME BUSINESSES ACTIVE IN THIS LEAGUE FORMED AROUND CONTROLLING POLLUTION AND THEREFORE THE CONSTANT INCREASE IN GLOBAL TEMPERATURES. IN THE AREA WHERE I WENT TO COLLEGE AT CHAPEL HILL, NC, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, STATE UNIVERSITY AT RALEIGH, NC AND DUKE UNIVERSITY AT DURHAM ARE KNOWN AS THE RESEARCH TRIANGLE, AND PROBABLY DO HAVE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS INVOLVED IN THAT SOLIDIFYING THEM IN COMMITMENTS, SO IT HAS ALREADY STARTED.

IN UNIVERSITY TOWNS, THE ATMOSPHERE WILL MOST PROBABLY NOT BE AS CLOSED-MINDED, UNDEREDUCATED AND RACIST, SO THERE WILL BE SUPPORT FOR FOSTERING A HIGHER KIND OF COMMUNITY OF THAT TYPE. THEY COULD CREATE OTHER PROJECTS AS WELL TO WORK TOWARD, AS THEY SEE FIT. I WONDER IF THAT NY/CA ALLIANCE MIGHT ENLARGE ITSELF TO ADD OTHERS SUCH AS THE NORTH CAROLINA RESEARCH TRIANGLE AREA AS ONE OF THOSE IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT. I HOPE SO. THE MORE THE MERRIER, AND IT WILL PROBABLY BRING IN NEW BUSINESS TO THE AREAS WHO PARTICIPATE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cities-states-defy-trump-on-paris-deal/
AP November 11, 2017, 12:20 PM
Cities, states defy Trump on Paris deal

President Trump concludes his announcement to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement in the Rose Garden at the White House on June 1, 2017. GETTY

BONN, Germany (AP) — A group of U.S. states, cities, businesses and universities said Saturday they are still committed to curbing global warming even as President Trump's administration is walking away from the Paris climate accord.

But the alliance, which has an economy larger than Japan and Germany combined, says it won't be able to achieve the necessary cut in greenhouse gas emissions without some efforts at the federal level. Mr. Trump announced he is pulling the U.S. out of the deal in a June announcement in the White House Rose Garden.

"It is important for the world to know, the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but the American people are committed to its goals, and there is nothing Washington can do to stop us," former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a global climate meeting in Bonn, Germany.

Gov. Jerry Brown of California echoed those comments.

"In the United States, we have a federal system, and states have real power as do cities. And when cities and states combine together, and then join with powerful corporations, that's how we get stuff done," he said.

His speech was briefly interrupted by anti-coal and anti-fracking protesters, who held up banners and shouted "We're still in! Trump's still out!"

The group calling itself "America's Pledge" said states, cities and private groups have been taking considerable steps to reduce emissions by promoting renewable energy use and climate-friendly transportation systems.

"This is a pledge, and it's a pledge that you can cash, because it's real," Brown said. "We are doing real stuff in California."

In a report, however, the group said that "we cannot underscore strongly enough the critical nature of federal engagement to achieve the deep decarbonization goals the U.S. must undertake after 2025."

Climate change report says humans "extremely likely" to blame for global warming

Daniel Firger, one of the report's contributors, said it was intended to show that many in the U.S. aren't prepared to wait for Mr. Trump to change his mind on climate change again or wait for the next administration to tackle the issue.

"The good news around Trump's announcement to withdraw is that it has galvanized a groundswell of bottom-up support from all corners of the U.S. economy," Firger told The Associated Press.

Cities, regions and businesses in other nations around the world could look to the group for inspiration and support, he said, noting that the lessons learned by local authorities and businesses in the U.S. could be applied elsewhere.

© 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



THE TYPE OF EVENTS THAT HAVE OCCURRED UNDER TRUMP SHOW A DIFFERENT SIDE OF HIM FROM THE BUMBLING AND EXTREMELY ROWDY PERSONALITY THAT WE USUALLY SEE. THIS WOULD-BE KIDNAPPING IS MORE DANGEROUS AND COLD. OF COURSE, TRUMP ISN’T ACCUSED OF DOING THAT, BUT SO MANY OF HIS APPOINTEES HAVE A RANGE OF INAPPROPRIATE TO SHOCKING ASPECTS ABOUT THEM THAT I AM BECOMING DISCOURAGED FOR THE FUTURE. IT MAKES ME WONDER WHY HE KNOWS AND HAS ALIGNED HIMSELF CLOSELY WITH SO MANY DARK CHARACTERS. HMMMMM.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-flynn-robert-mueller-turkey-ties/
By JEFF PEGUES CBS NEWS November 10, 2017, 7:19 PM
Is special counsel Robert Mueller trying to get Michael Flynn to cooperate?

WASHINGTON -- President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn is not only under scrutiny for his dealings with Russia -- special counsel Robert Mueller is also reportedly investigating whether Flynn was involved in a plot to kidnap a Turkish cleric.

In the weeks before he became national security advisor, the Wall Street Journal reports that Flynn met with representatives of the Turkish government to discuss a plan to forcibly return a cleric legally living in the United States to Turkey. In exchange, the Journal says, Flynn and his associates would receive up to $15 million.

60 Minutes: Who is Fethullah Gulen? The cleric -- Fethullah Gulen -- has been blamed by Turkey's president for a failed coup in July 2016. Gulen denies being involved.

That December meeting was at least the second between Flynn and Turkish representatives.

pegues-michael-flynn-2017-11-10.jpg
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. CBS NEWS

"I needed to say something about it," former CIA Director James Woolsey told CNN in March.

Woolsey said he was at another meeting in September 2016 when the forced removal of Gulen was also discussed. He says he has been in touch with the special counsel's office.

"I'm not claiming there was a concrete plan that was being fleshed out at the meeting, but there was a good deal of discussion of that general direction," Woolsey said.

In a statement, Flynn's attorneys said the allegations "ranging from kidnapping to bribery" are "outrageous" and "false."


But in a recent federal filing, Flynn confirmed the September meeting and that his consulting firm was paid $530,000 by a company with ties to the Turkish government.

Bill Mateja, a former federal prosecutor, says special counsel Robert Mueller's team may be trying to get Flynn to cooperate.

"Hypothetically, they're going to get the benefit of his knowledge and knowledge at very high levels within the campaign and the administration," Mateja said.

In January and February, Mr. Trump urged FBI Director James Comey to drop the Flynn investigation. Those conversations led to Comey's eventual firing and the appointment of the special counsel.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



“HE TOLD VULTURE THAT HE FLIRTED WITH TEICH BUT IS NOW "HORRIFIED AND BEWILDERED TO DISCOVER THAT IT WASN'T CONSENSUAL." RICHARD DREYFUSS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE COMIC ACTORS. I DON’T EVER CONDONE WHAT HE IS ACCUSED OF DOING, BUT THIS MAKES ME REALLY SAD. THERE IS A LOT OF SICKNESS IN THIS COUNTRY.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/richard-dreyfuss-accused-sexual-harassment-jessica-teich/
CBS/AP November 11, 2017, 5:02 PM
Actor Richard Dreyfuss accused of exposing himself to writer

Photograph -- Richard Dreyfuss seen June 9, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. GETTY

NEW YORK -- A writer who worked for Richard Dreyfuss on a TV comedy special in the 1980s said he sexually harassed her for years and exposed himself to her in a studio lot trailer.

Jessica Teich told the New York magazine blog Vulture.com that the actor made continual, overt and lewd comments and invitations after they met at a theater where she worked and Dreyfuss appeared.

Dreyfuss' agent Barry McPherson on Saturday denied the actor ever exposed himself to Teich but that he acknowledged to Vulture other encounters Dreyfuss now realizes were inappropriate.

The revelations were among fresh developments in the sexual harassment scandal that has rolled through Hollywood and other industries.

In 1987, when Teich was working for Dreyfuss on development of an ABC show script, she said she was summoned to his trailer on the set of one of his films and he exposed his genitals to her.

Dreyfuss, 70, said he thought the two were involved in a playful "consensual seduction ritual." He told Vulture that he flirted with Teich but is now "horrified and bewildered to discover that it wasn't consensual."

Teich said she decided to speak out after Dreyfuss tweeted support for his son, Harry, after the younger Dreyfuss went public with accusations that Kevin Spacey groped his crotch when he was 18.

Richard wrote on Twitter how proud he is of Harry:

Richard Dreyfuss ✔@RichardDreyfuss
I love my son @harrydreyfuss more than I could explain with all the words in the world. And I am so incredibly proud of him right now. https://twitter.com/harrydreyfuss/status/926921864139517953 …
7:34 PM - Nov 4, 2017
947 947 Replies 9,788 9,788 Retweets 57,408 57,408 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Harry recounted his experience in an article published on BuzzFeed News.

On Saturday, "Star Trek" icon George Takei took to Twitter to deny he ever knew a struggling actor and model who has accused him of sexual assault in 1981.

"The events he describes back in the 1980s simply did not occur, and I do not know why he has claimed them now," the 80-year-old Takei said in a series of tweets.

George Takei ✔@GeorgeTakei
Friends,

I'm writing to respond to the accusations made by Scott R. Bruton. I want to assure you all that I am as shocked and bewildered at these claims as you must feel reading them. /1
8:01 AM - Nov 11, 2017
1,929 1,929 Replies 2,077 2,077 Retweets 10,209 10,209 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Scott R. Brunton told The Hollywood Reporter he was 23 at the time, living in Hollywood and working as a waiter when he met Takei at a bar. They exchanged numbers, he said, speaking by telephone from time to time, when Takei invited Brunton to dinner, the theater and back to his condo for drinks soon after Brunton had broken up with a boyfriend.

He said he grew dizzy and "must have passed out," awaking to his pants around his ankles and Takei groping him. He said he extricated himself and left.

The Hollywood Reporter said Friday it spoke to four longtime friends of Brunton who said he had confided in them about Takei years ago.

George Takei
Actor George Takei seen June 27, 2011. GETTY

Takei said on Twitter that right now, it's a "he said/he said situation" and that those who know him "understand that non-consensual acts are so antithetical to my values and my practices, the very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful."

Also Saturday, a clip of audio surfaced from Takei's appearance on Howard Stern's radio show last month. The interview was recorded less than two weeks after sexual assault accusations against fallen film mogul Harvey Weinstein were made public. Stern and Takei were discussing the "irony" of the Weinstein case and the audiotape of President Trump boasting about grabbing women's genitals years ago, when Stern asked Takei whether he had ever grabbed a man's genitals against their will.

Takei, a staunch Mr. Trump opponent, initially was silent, then said "uh oh" and laughed. Stern asks again and Takei said "Some people are kind of skittish, or maybe, um, uh, afraid, and you're trying to persuade."

Stern and his co-host, Robin Quivers, persisted, asking Takei whether he ever held a job over somebody for sex and he said no.

Quivers asked if he did "this grabbing at work." Takei said "It was either in my home. They came to my home."

In another development in the barrage of sexual assault, harassment and rape allegations to rock the entertainment and other industries, Massachusetts prosecutors will meet with the son of a former Boston TV news anchor who said Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted the teenage boy at a Nantucket restaurant.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe told The Boston Globe on Friday the meeting "will occur soon."

Heather Unruh told reporters Wednesday that Spacey stuck his hand down her then-18-year-old-son's pants and grabbed his genitals while the two of them were at a restaurant in July 2016. Unruh said Spacey ultimately left to use the bathroom and when he was out of sight, her son ran away.

Spacey's lawyer didn't immediately return an email seeking comment Saturday.

Last month, in an interview with BuzzFeed, "Star Trek: Discovery" actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey befriended him while they both performed on Broadway shows. Rapp was 14 when he attended a party at Spacey's apartment in 1986, he said. At the end of the night, an inebriated Spacey picked him up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, Rapp said.

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
Anthony Rapp plays Lt. Stamets in "Star Trek: Discovery" on CBS All Access. CBS

Rapp confirmed to CBS News the account published on BuzzFeed and said he had come forward, "standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out, to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me."

He said he had no intention of making any further comment on the three-decade old incident.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



THERE HAVE BEEN STORIES OF THIS KIND OF THING FOR DECADES, BOTH IN FICTION AND IN THE NEWS. I’M GLAD THAT HE HAS BEEN CHARGED, IF THEY HAVE GOOD EVIDENCE OF IT. I CAN’T REALLY SEE ON THE VIDEO WHAT THEY SAID OCCURRED, BUT THE AUTHORITIES MUST THINK THEY CAN PROVE IT. OFFICERS HAVE TO HAVE A CERTAIN NUMBER OF ARRESTS, IN LOTS OF CASES, AND IT IS KNOWN THAT THEY JUST MAKE IT UP SOMETIMES. THAT’S WHAT THE “SPEED TRAPS” IN THE RURAL COUNTRYSIDE ARE ABOUT. IT’S LIKE THE BUSINESS OF COPS CARRYING AN UNREGISTERED GUN WITH THE SERIAL NUMBER SCRATCHED OFF IN CASE THEY SHOOT SOMEONE, AND THEN THEY “DROP” THE GUN NEAR THE SCENE, CLAIMING THE DECEASED WAS CARRYING IT. MAYBE WE’LL HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS IN THE FUTURE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lapd-opens-investigation-after-officer-accused-planting-drugs-on-suspect/
CBS/AP November 11, 2017, 5:52 PM
LAPD opens investigation after officer accused of planting drugs on suspect

Still shot -- Bodycam footage from the LAPD. CBS LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Police Department has opened an investigation into allegations that an officer planted drugs on a suspect after CBS Los Angeles showed bodycam footage of the incident contradicts the officer's claims.

The segment from investigative reporter David Goldstein aired earlier this week. Footage from 12 body cam videos obtained by Goldstein show what appears to be LAPD Officer Samuel Lee picking up small bag that later tested positive for cocaine and placing it Ronald Shields' wallet. Shields, 52, had been stopped for a hit-and-run in April of this year and was subsequently charged on that felony and possession of cocaine, CBS Los Angeles reports.

After the investigation aired, the LAPD said in a statement: "The LAPD takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and, as in all cases, will conduct a thorough investigation."

Mayor Eric Garcetti also released a statement, saying the mayor "expects the highest integrity from everyone who wears the badge."

Lee and fellow officer identified as "Gaxiola" were called to testify in a pretrial hearing as Shields' attorney challenged evidence to be used at trial.

This is the first time bodycam video used in a case has been obtained by the media.

Lee is seen searching the suspect. He testified in court, as in the police report, that the cocaine was found in Shields' left front pocket. But the videos shows a different story.

In video from another angle, Gaxiola picks up Shields' wallet from the street and shows it to Lee, who points to the suspect as if to say it's his. He then puts it back down, steps to the street, bends over and picks up a small bag with white powder. It eventually tested positive for drugs.

Gaxiola goes back onto the sidewalk, picks up the wallet, motions to Lee and appears to put the bag into the wallet.

The officer may not have known that the previous 30 seconds are automatically saved without audio after turning on the bodycam.

Gaxiola hasn't testified and had nothing to say Thursday. In the video, after he collects the wallet, he brags about it to the other officers. "He has a little bag of narco in here," he says on the video. He says it three times.

Lee says the bag of drugs fell out of Shields' pocket. Levine has another theory and believes it proves Gaxiola planted the drugs.

"There's a little white square here in his hand," Levine said about one point in the video. "I believe the video shows the drugs were in his right hand and transfers to his left hand."

The hearing will continue in December.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



AMERICAN FASCISM IN HISTORY UPDATED

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/08/american-roots-donald-trump-fascism-170828100440138.html
OPINION/UNITED STATES
The American roots of Donald Trump's fascism
by Andrew Mitrovica
31 Aug 2017

Photograph -- American fascism has finally taken up residence in the Oval office, writes Mitrovica [Lucas Jackson/Reuters]
READ MORE: Trump's America - Where activists face felony charges*
LISTENING POST: Charlottesville: White supremacy and the White House (25:46)
OPINION: Is this really how fascism takes hold in the US?
OPINION: The Invention of the White People
WATCH: Trump pardons convicted ex-sheriff who racially profiled Latinos (2:49)

All along, the truth was there - plain and neon-bright - for those willing to see and accept.

The truth, of course, is that Donald Trump doesn't simply "flirt" with fascism at the margins, but embraces it not only rhetorically, but as the governing ethos of his perverse regime.

A coterie of writers and historians has long understood that Trump is indeed a fascist, while the centrist-hugging commentariat vacillated and quibbled about whether he is or isn't.

Not burdened by such equivocating sensibilities, other, more astute observers, instantly recognised a profoundly hazardous man who, on the incessant, winding road to the White House - wittingly or unwittingly - channelled the spirit, words and deeds of his avowedly fascist American political and cultural ancestors, including the prewar evangelical anti-Semitic huckster, Father Charles Coughlin*; the rabid 1950s Communist-hunting Congressman, Joseph McCarthy; and the slick, 1960s segregationist Alabama governor, George Wallace.

Like Trump, each of these fanatics - separated only by a few generations - attracted a legion of equally fanatical followers who converted popular support into great power and influence, which not only emboldened them, but also fuelled resistance to their odious racial edicts and modus vivendi.

Cloaked in Roman Catholic vestments and scripture, Coughlin's blatant racism and anti-Semitism had the patina of profundity and eloquence that Trump's spontaneous, sputtering expressions of white, Christian nationalism lack.

Still, beyond history, what binds these intolerant charlatans is the conviction that young, torch-wielding anti-Semites - wearing brown or polo shirts - are patriots who warrant approbation, not condemnation.

Like McCarthy, Trump claims crudely that America is infected by a lengthy list of concocted enemies who allegedly pose an existential threat to its exceptionalism and patrimonial purity.

Trump's brand of fascism pilfered from the not-so-distant past and was refashioned for broadcast on modern, establishment media that treated the brash, ubiquitous, let's make-a-deal reality star as an entertaining, harmless diversion.

Trump's malignant ledger extends from Mexican "rapists", terror-prone Muslim fifth columnists to "sick" journalists that he alone is determined to root out and vanquish to restore America's faltering "greatness".

This same messianic impulse to defend besieged white America from the insidious "others" inside or outside its geographic and ancestral borders, prompted Governor Wallace to declare: "in the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth … I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever" and personally block an entrance to the University of Alabama in a futile, but symbolically charged bid to bar black students from attending.

(Buoyed by his popularity, Wallace also ran for president several times, before denouncing segregation on the eve of his death.)

It's unlikely that Trump will ever experience a similar transformative epiphany since he, and the foaming acolytes who populate his hysterically reactionary administration, have, in effect, not only appropriated and resurrected Wallace's bigoted epitaph, but consider it a political imperative to assuage their feverishly xenophobic "base".

Every instructive measure of this sordid American history was, as I said, apparent long before Trump assumed the presidency. Trump's brand of fascism pilfered from the not-so-distant past and was refashioned for broadcast on modern, establishment media that treated the brash, ubiquitous, reality star as an entertaining, harmless diversion.

The nadir of this revolting coddling of America's latest and most egregious incarnation of fascism was, I suppose, late-night talk-show host Jimmy Fallon's memorable appeasement of a celebrity fascist, which culminated in his tussling of Trump's orange mane on national TV just weeks prior to the presidential election.

Fallon was not alone. Far too many others were prepared to play along - figuratively and literally - with the menace from Manhattan. Still more learned types dismissed the use of the blunt, sharp word fascism in the context of Trump's ascendancy as a facile simplification, as well as an irresponsible, hyperbolic "label" that did a disservice to the victims of "real" fascism.

The hesitancy and semantic evasions quickly evaporated after a young, courageous woman didn't debate competing interpretations of who or what constitutes a fascist, but chose instead to confront the army of fascists who descended on Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month to raise their arms in Neo-Nazi salutes and pledge "blood and soil" allegiance to their philosophical leader, Donald Trump.

Heather Heyer was murdered by one of the loathsome locust of fascists who were, as we know, defended as "very fine people" by a president who re-confirmed his well-established white supremacist credentials in the immediate aftermath of her horrific death and has, since then, reiterated repeatedly in appalling, unambiguous language that he would gladly walk among them, tiki-torch and hateful vitriol readily at hand.

Remember too, the exculpatory line proffered by journalists and politicians who insisted that Trump's initial appeal and subsequent electoral success had more to do with rampant "economic anxiety", rather than his rampant racism.

That canard was exposed emphatically by a recent poll (pdf) that found that nine percent of respondents - the equivalent of 22 million Americans - believe that holding Neo-Nazi or white supremacist views is "acceptable". A slightly higher number acknowledged supporting rancid racists - euphemistically dubbed the "alt-right".

So, if accurate, the poll suggests that, taken together, more than 50 million Americans have sympathy for Neo-Nazis and their ideological spawn.

The prevailing wisdom is that Trump has not only defamed American democracy, but bit by abominable bit, eroded the legitimacy of American democracy - perhaps beyond repair.

This cockeyed reasoning fails to acknowledge that Trump is not a historical outlier. His fascistic nature - which has been on routine and undeniable display - is not a new or surprising phenomenon, nor is the nationwide succour it attracts.

Today, American fascism has finally taken up residence in the Oval Office. Arguably, this sinister reality is a natural, inevitable consequence of America's foul, decidedly less mythical, and deeply entrenched past.

To be sure, as before, millions of enlightened Americans are repulsed by what they've seen, heard and experienced and are resisting in small and large ways - despite the often violent, sometimes deadly retribution exacted by Trump's thuggish torch bearers, incited by their thuggish commander-in-chief.

And yet millions of Americans remain faithful to, and exalt in, Trump's ugly modus operandi, as he deliberately and systematically goes about desecrating previously sacrosanct institutional and societal norms.

By pardoning fellow "birther" conspiracy theorist and disgraced former Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio - who was convicted in July of contempt of court for defying a judge's order to stop racially profiling Latinos - Trump has, true to his autocratic nature, rendered the rule of law hostage to his mercurial and arbitrary whims, while signaling to other racist, judicial-snubbing police, that he approves of their repugnant ways and means.

In so doing, Trump has exposed the seminal myth of American democracy - that it enjoys an inherent and rebar-sturdy immunity from fascism and the strongmen who personify it. Wrong. Fascism can and is happening in America, just as it has always been alive in America.

Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism instructor.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew MitrovicaAndrew Mitrovica
Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism instructor.

@ AndrewMitrovica



https://thinkprogress.org/felony-charges-mark-historic-crossroads-a6c7c4cb06bd/
Felony charges against inauguration protesters represent ‘historic crossroads’
Legal experts say Trump’s ‘law-and-order’ administration is emboldening authorities to crack down on protests in D.C. and beyond.
MARK HAND
MAY 19, 2017, 1:22 PM

Photograph -- POLICE STAND GUARD AS MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE ARE CORRALLED IN DOWNTOWN WASHINGTON, D.C. ON THE DAY OF DONALD TRUMP’S INAUGURATION. CREDIT: THINKPROGRESS/MARK HAND

With multiple felony charges brought against more than 200 people on Inauguration Day, police and prosecutors in the District of Columbia are putting activists on notice that legal protections ingrained in the Constitution may not apply to them, according to legal experts.

This new era of law enforcement is affecting policing tactics beyond Washington. The harsh treatment of protesters in the District since Donald Trump assumed the presidency — with a large number of people who did not engage in violence facing decades in prison for simply taking part in a protest — lets law enforcement officials across the nation know that a tough-on-dissent policy is acceptable, the experts said.

“The federal prosecutor’s office in D.C., by the influence and directives of the Sessions Justice Department, is now engaged in an all-out repression of dissent and sending the message across the country that we are going to crush you,” said Jason Flores-Williams, an attorney who is representing three people who were arrested in Washington on Inauguration Day.

Shortly after Trump took the oath of office on January 20, the official White House website published statements outlining the new president’s six top priorities, including one titled “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community.” The White House page explaining this priority said Trump’s administration “will be a law-and-order administration,” committed to ending the “dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America.”

Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, issued a memorandum last week in which he directed federal prosecutors across the country to charge suspects with the most serious offense they can prove. The memo was seen as a reversal of President Barack Obama’s policy shift toward fewer mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and a rethinking of how people charged with non-violent drug crimes are prosecuted and sentenced.

Federal prosecutors slap felony charges on more than 200 inauguration protesters

Break with D.C. tradition follows Trump pledge to check “the violent disrupter.”

The memo also aligns with how the Justice Department is ratcheting up its prosecution of protesters and could serve as a guide for how state and local jurisdictions treat expressions of dissent, according to Flores-Williams. “Under the Sessions DOJ, states are going to have carte blanche to pass whatever local ordinances they want to eliminate, outlaw, and make protests extremely difficult,” he told ThinkProgress.

As the nation’s capital, “the District is a microcosm of what’s happening outside in the world at large,” said Ria Thompson-Washington, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild. Police in other parts of the country will take their cues from how the police in Washington act. If police in the nation’s capital are assuming an increasingly hard line stance against protesters, other jurisdictions will follow suit, she said.

“What I’ve seen is that police are feeling more empowered by the current administration,” she said.

States and localities are already passing measures to deter or prepare for protest activities. Individuals opposed to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota faced fierce attacks from police. In reaction to these protests and other actions against the fossil fuel industry, the state of Oklahoma adopted a measure designed to suppress protests.

Dozens of protesters demonstrating against the expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline wade in creek waters confronting local police. CREDIT: AP Photo/John L. Mone

DOZENS OF PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATING AGAINST THE EXPANSION OF THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE WADE IN CREEK WATERS CONFRONTING LOCAL POLICE. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JOHN L. MONE

Under the Oklahoma law, individuals will face a felony and a minimum $10,000 fine if a court determines they entered property intending to damage, vandalize, deface, “impede or inhibit operations of the facility.” The statute also targets any organization “found to be a conspirator” with the trespasser, threatening these groups with a fine “10 times” that imposed on the intruder, or as much as $1 million.

In Pennsylvania, a Republican state lawmaker invited North Dakota law enforcement representatives to provide lessons learned from the Dakota Access protests to government officials in Lancaster County, where a large movement has grown against construction of the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline.

The same state lawmaker is drafting a bill that would make people convicted of “rioting or public nuisance” pick up the tab for policing and other public costs from protests in the state.

In February, the Washington Post reported that since the election of Trump, Republican lawmakers in at least 18 states had introduced or voted on legislation similar to the Pennsylvania proposal that would increase punishments for protesters.

The police tab for Inauguration Day in Washington was huge, with estimates totaling $100 million. Officers from various federal police agencies, as well as National Guard members, joined a large number of militarized city police officers to patrol downtown D.C.

A portion of the inauguration security funds were spent on a wide array of weapons, many of them similar to the ones used against Dakota Access Pipeline protests a few months earlier. For several hours, D.C. police fired pepper spray, tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets on people gathered in the streets, giving it the look and feel of a war zone.

The vast majority of these people in the streets of Washington were not involved in smashing the windows of coffee shops or banks. And yet D.C. police still rounded up people indiscriminately, including more than a handful of journalists and legal observers, and arrested them.

The police corralling of the 200-plus people occurred well over an hour before a limousine was set on fire approximately four blocks away. The people spent the night in jail, with the bulk of them initially facing felony rioting charges that carry a possible penalty of 10 years in prison.

The D.C. police used a similar mass roundup tactic at 2002 World Bank protests in a downtown park. The District of Columbia ended up settling with nearly 400 protesters and bystanders — who sued over the mass arrests — for more than $8 million.

But this time, the police, along with prosecutors, are not backing off from their handling of the protests. “For the District, I have genuine concerns about the number of people who will be embroiled in litigation with regard to just exercising their First Amendment right to protest,” Thompson-Washington said.


North Dakota bills could strip Dakota Access Pipeline protesters of their rights

Standing Rock protesters face five new threats.

The new policing doctrine in Washington represents an effort by the Trump administration to “chill” a citizen’s right to engage in protest, Flores-Williams said. “They’re prosecuting people for their associations, which violates the First Amendment,” he argued.

Civil liberties activists are concerned by the lack of media attention — what Flores-Williams views as “radio silence” — on the multiple felony charges brought against the Inauguration Day protesters in Washington. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group, said the lack of media coverage of the federal prosecutors’ conduct “seems to be what’s holding together the government’s case for felony riot charges against some 214 people arrested en masse on Inauguration Day.”

Federal prosecutors dropped most of the charges against the journalists. But in a surprise move, the prosecutors in April, without providing any new evidence, filed new charges — what is known as a superseding indictment — against the protesters that included felony “inciting or urging to riot,” “rioting,” “conspiracy to riot,” “destruction of property,” and misdemeanor “assault on a police officer.”

The large group of people rounded up by D.C. police, or “kettled,” are now being hit with up to eight felonies and could end up facing up to 75 years in prison.

“Once that superseding indictment was issued, it was an historic crossroads moment,” Flores-Williams said. “If you’ve looked at what they’ve done, from the police all the way up to the prosecutor, this is a systematic attack on the First Amendment rights of these people at a time when the First Amendment couldn’t be more important.”


Federal charges dropped against journalist arrested on Inauguration Day

229 others, including five other journalists and numerous bystanders, still face felonies.

The protesters will have plenty of time to think about the extensive charges filed against them — and perhaps that is the prosecutors’ intention. The first trials are not expected to start until March 2018. “In my mind, that violates their right to a speedy trial,” Flores-Williams said.

“Having serious felonies like this hanging over you is an incredible burden on your life,” he said. “Chances are that at a certain point, they’ll either roll on each other or we’ll see plea agreements regardless of their guilt or innocence.”

However, many of the defendants have pledged to reject any plea deal offered by prosecutors. In a statement outlining the pledge, the defendants said: “The risk of imprisonment, fines, and probation is far less meaningful than giving even tacit legitimacy to these charges.”

Flores-Williams’ clients have no intention of accepting any possible plea deal. And he expressed great confidence his clients will prevail at a trial. “The government is going to have a hard time proving what they need to,” he said.



I SEARCHED GOOGLE FOR INFO ON FATHER COUGHLIN,* AND FOUND THIS GREAT HISTORICAL VIDEO ON THE CONDITIONS THAT EXISTED IN THE US
DURING THE DEPRESSION. RELIGION WAS FANATICAL AND DOGMATIC, PEOPLE WERE POOR, POOR, POOR AND EDUCATION WAS AT A VERY LOW LEVEL, AS IT IS IN SO MANY PLACES TODAY. THE RESULT IS FEAR, ANGER AND HOPELESSNESS, AND PEOPLE LOOK FOR SOMEBODY BESIDES THEMSELVES AND THEIR PEERS TO BLAME. THE RESULT IS NATIONAL HYSTERIA AND DEMAGOGUERY. WE NEED ANOTHER FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AGAIN.

IF HE CAN POSSIBLY GET ELECTED, SANDERS CAN VERY LIKELY FILL THE BILL. MANY PEOPLE SHOUT THAT HE CAN’T BE ELECTED BECAUSE OF HIS POLITICAL LABEL AS A SOCIALIST, BUT WHO KNOWS. WE SHOULD TRY IT AGAIN, THIS TIME AGAINST DONALD TRUMP. HE ISN’T “SOCIALIST” LIKE LENIN, ETC., BUT LIKE ROOSEVELT; AND WHEN HE SPEAKS ABOUT WHAT HIS SPECIFIC POLICIES WOULD BE, THEY MAKE A VERY GREAT DEAL OF SENSE. ONE OF HIS WEAK SPOTS IS THAT HE CHAMPIONS NO SPECIFIC ETHNIC GROUP. THAT HAS TURNED CERTAIN BLACK PEOPLE AGAINST HIM. IF THERE IS ANY OTHER REASON FOR THAT, I HAVE NEVER SEEN A REFERENCE TO IT. HE IS MAINLY ECONOMIC IN HIS FOCUS, THOUGH HE DOES SPEAK FOR CULTURAL FAIRNESS.

OTHERS IN THIS VIDEO ARE LESS WELL KNOWN TO US NOW -- HUEY LONG, THE REV. GERALD L K SMITH, DR. FRANCIS E TOWNSEND. THE POPULISM AND HYSTERICAL RANTING REMINDS ME VERY MUCH OF TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN SPEECHES, AND THE MIX OF POLITICS AND RELIGION WAS STRONG AS IT IS NOW. TRUMPISM IS NOT NEW. IT’S JUST THE LAST ITERATION OF THE LOWEST LEVELS OF THE AMERICAN IDENTITY. WE AREN’T DIFFERENT FROM EUROPEANS, BECAUSE WE BROUGHT OUR OLD IDEAS ALONG WITH US ACROSS THE OCEAN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyGs5qQXtQY
Fr Charles Coughlin The Radio Priest American Experience

This about Father Coughlin and fascism in the 1930s Depression, one of the inflammatory preachers and political operators in that time period.
Matt Cross
Published on Jan 26, 2016
SUBSCRIBED 461

“Can't seem to find this anywhere else in spite of much of the American experience series being freely available elsewhere. Contains some interesting historical background to his life.”

Category People & Blogs
License Standard YouTube License
Music Makin' Friends" by Kentucky Grasshoppers Listen ad-free with YouTube Red