- cross-posted to:
- lefty_news@ibbit.at
- cross-posted to:
- lefty_news@ibbit.at
cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/78177
President Donald Trump bragged that his administration “took the freedom of speech away” from protesters who burn the American flag during a rant against anti-fascists on Wednesday. While speaking about “antifa-inspired terror” in a meeting on the anti-fascist movement, Trump touted his recent executive order instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi to find ways to prosecute people who burn the…
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A man who delights in sexual assaulting women and wiping his ass with the rule of law, enjoys having the power to deny Americans their most sacred rights? Shocking.
What’s shocking is that all the self-professed free speech and anti-tyranny loudmouths vote for him and support him.
Not really, the loudest are always like that. They’re either smart and cruel or stupid and selfish.
I wonder how many people will eventually realize they became fascists. I wonder how many people will ever feel bad about it. I wonder about the world. I really do.
As an American: a truly depressing proportion of my countrymen treat our (deeply fucking imbecilic) politics like (American) football teams. The players and coaching may change, but they will ALWAYS support “their guys”. It’s so fucking stupid and it’s probably going to kill us all. I suppose the silver lining is that it’s going to kill the stupid people too.
like (American) football teams
Also WWE. The concept of “heel” and “face”.
rEpUBlIcAnS fReEd tHe sLaVeS
Back when they were liberal, before the “switch”.
I’m praying daily for the asteroid
There’s historical precedent, although I’ve never looked into how many Nazi supporters after WWII convincingly claimed they regretted what they did, if any.
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Surprisingly many people are down for Nazi stuff.
Right up until it starts happening to them.
Problem with Naziism is you eventually run out of outsiders to murder and you have to close ranks every now and then to push a few people out.
It’s 'Murica
It’s not surprising at all
Quite a few people were rather fond of Hitler, but that gets conveniently ignored
There’s a reason the US didn’t join the war until Pearl Harbor.
Yeah, I’ve been listening to some history stuff recently and while I know the whole idea of nations had shifted since the 1930s it’s still surprising just how much people were willing to put up with and how far the Nazis got before they encountered real global resistance. Also how many incidents went right for them that could have maybe broken the regime.
Watching these glazed over people justify whatever their pedofile king does has been terrifying.
Not many. At best if the movement is destroyed they will move on and just not think about it anymore.
Burning a flag is a jailable offense now? Really?
Oh dear… - is the Departmet of War now telling Americans to break the law?
No. The executive order (which is illegal) only aims to criminalize disrespectful burning. The supreme court case which makes flag burning legal explicitly points out that the laws criminalizing it are specifically targeting the speech and not the act of burning.
It’s almost like he has no respect for law or reasoning and can’t read.
What happened to that one vet who burned the flag The day of that proclamation?
Looks like you pled not guilty to practically unrelated charges, no other updates
I’m not sure why the article says the charges aren’t relating to burning the flag when the charges are about lighting the flag on fire. The charges don’t say the word flag on them, but it is the flag burning they are charging him with.
They’re charging him for starting a fire on federal property. The flag part is legally irrelevant to the charge.
You can’t separate the two things like that. Lighting a flag on fire is political speech and the administration has said they will charge people who light the flag on fire. The fact that the thing he lit on fire on federal property was the flag is absolutely legally relevant here. It will be a major part of his defense, as they will try to argue that the law he has violated is placing an undue burden on his freedom of speech. It will be the thing the entire case hinges on.
This is important because it’s fairly easy to make laws against all the things involved in a protest and then say “oh we aren’t charging them for protesting, we are charging them for obstructing the view by holding a sign.”
You can absolutely separate the two. Things don’t suddenly stop being a crime just because the flag is involved. If he had done this anywhere else other than property where it’s specifically illegal to start fires, this would be a different conversation.
Like, I can’t go into the California woods and start a fire whenever I want, regardless of whether the thing that’s burning is the flag.
All that being said, this is absolutely the trump administration punishing him for burning the flag, because any other president would have just ignored it.
No. You cannot.
The act explicitly was done in protest. As an act of first amendment protected speech, as flag burning was explicitly determined to be by the supreme court.
The application of these laws is purely political. Used solely because the object burned was the flag. Intent is always included in prosecuting criminal acts. It is often the determining factor in whether laws even apply.
Burning a flag a California forest is a false equivalency. And for the most part, yes, you could go out into the forest and burn a flag. It would be stupid and you would be liable for any damages you caused if it started a wildfire. You wouldn’t be prosecuted just for burning the flag.
The entire premise on first amendment speech applying here is super important, because if you can make it criminal to do something related, like starting a fire at all, you have, in effect, made that act of free speech illegal. This is crucial. Fundamental.
Alrighty, I’m going to go burn a flag in the movie theater in protest tomorrow. Surely the judge will throw out the charge.
sounds like trump double speak 101
I believe he died from the part where he set himself on fire.
That will play well in court when he gets sued, one of his slimy lawyers gets to try and explain why he’s arguing that it’s not violating freedom of speech when he’s bragging about violating their freedom of speech, in public.
Supreme Court said the president can do anything they want and the only recourse is impeachment. Unfortunately for Americans, it doesnt matter
For the legal actor that is the president themself. Not the legal actor that is the U.S. government or the administration.
Presumably you can sue the government then if he’s “acting in an official capacitance”. Not that I think that would go any better. I dunno I’m not a lawyer and laws don’t mean shit anymore
Benedict Arnold wasn’t this bad.
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They also didn’t bother talking about how Vermont fought in the revolutionary war but didn’t want to be part whole USA thing
Trump, has it ever occurred to you that the American people can only take so much abuse before they take away your right to life?
Fully 1/3 of our population is rabidly supporting him and this whole agenda, because they’re extremely stupid, racist, and hateful people.
I am absolutely fucking done dancing around the fact that so much of my fellow countrymen are categorically heinous and mind-bendingly hypocritical shitgoblins. This is modern American society.
This is what we’ve become. And the vast majority of the rest of us are too timid and/or financially insecure to do literally anything about it - especially the career government workers who’s fortitude appears to extend to simply resigning in protest.
