This Week In Techdirt History: May 31st - June 6th
from the history-hasn't-stopped dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2015, one court was apparently forgetting the First Amendment exists while ordering a newspaper to delete an article, while the Supreme Court was punting on an important 1A question. The USA Freedom Act was marching forward with Mitch McConnell trying to destroy it with amendments with all failed. The House passed an amendment on another bill, in order to block funding for undermining encryption, while on top FBI official was claiming that preventing encryption should be the first priority of tech companies.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2010, a Michigan politician was trying to regulate journalists and choose which ones are trustworthy, while the FTC was trying to "save journalism" but only in the form of old newspapers, and a Senator in France was trying to outlaw anonymous blogging. Copyright trolls were teaming up and getting cooperation from Verizon.
Meanwhile, while on court was giving border patrol permission to take people's laptops, we took a look at how cops and courts abuse wiretapping laws to arrest people for filming the police.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2005, we learned about the startling lengths copyright defenders would go to, such as the recording industry operating private round-the-clock surveillance of the owner of Kazaa and the MPAA pitching in to help fund surveillance cameras in downtown Los Angeles. We were also seeing some early battles and tactics around manipulating Google's memory of the past, and the emergence of citizen journalism happening in the comments sections of newspaper websites.
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I had, in fact, worried a bit that history had stopped. I am glad to know that it has not. Thanks for all the hard work during the week, as well as the weekend review.
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Trump
In the wee hours of the morning on Nov. 9, 2016, Donald Trump cemented his improbable victory by capturing enough electoral votes to secure the presidency. For me, watching the results come in at his home in Southern California, the only thing Trump’s unlikely victory secured was a speedy trip to the bathroom.
“When the media outlet I was watching projected that he would win, I threw up,” I told s Just The News.
Three years of Trump has made it even worse. I just can’t watch the president on television anymore.
“It's hard for me to deal with yes,” I admitted.
My story of mental and physical anguish has become all too common since Trump took office.
“The presidency of Donald Trump has affected my mental health,” Fred Robbins from New Jersey tells Just The News. “I have cut back on watching and reading news articles because anything about Trump is upsetting."
Robbins is ready to do just about anything to make sure this president is removed from office. “I'd crawl across broken glass and vote for a tuna fish sandwich over Trump,” Robbins says.
On social media, the anti-Trump vitriol and griping reaches new heights. A cursory recent stroll through Twitter saw President Trump painted as “worse than Hitler” or “The White Devil,” one person losing sleep over him, and another even wanting to see the president drop dead and die of a massive stroke.
Sound Familiar?
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Prairie Fire
Focused attacks are coming. Attacks by the Weather Underground have been focused and specific. These actions were a catalyst for thousands of politically-directed armed actions between 1970 and 1972, almost all of which complemented mass struggles.
These bombings were carried out by the Weather Underground:
—To retaliate for the most savage criminal attacks against Black and
Third World people, especially by the police apparatus:
Haymarkct police statue, Chicago, October 1969 and October 1970;
Chicago police cars, following the murder of Fred Hampton and
Mark Clark, December 1969;
New York City Police Ileadquaters, June 1970;
Marin County Courthouse, following the murder of Jonathan
Jackson, William Christmas and James McClain, August 1970;
Long Island City Courthouse, in Queens, in solidarity with prison
revolts taking place in New York City, October 1970;
Department of Corrections in San Francisco and
Office of California Prisons in Sacramento, for the murder of
George Jackson in San Quentin, August 1971;
Department of Corrections in Albany, N.Y., for the murder and
assault against the prisoners of Attica, September 1971;
103rd Precinct of the New York City police, for the murder of
10-year-old Clifford Clover, May 1973 . . .
Stay tuned. We're back. Read the book.
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Re:
Had courts got their clearance to punish and imprison people for filming police misbehavior we'd all be in deeper shit right now. It's important to remember - the authorities are not there to protect you. They're there because plenty of insecure dipshits who would piss themselves if there wasn't a jackboot to lick.
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What the hell is going on in here?
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rogs found his crack pipe.
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Terrorist Designation
To Whom It May Concern,
This web site has been reviewed by the US Department of Justice, Security Division. We have determined that you are actively promoting violence and crimes against the American Public, and as such, you have been designed a Terrorist Association, specifically, in a RICO relationship with ANTI-FA/The Weather Underground.
This is an official notice that Monday morning, June 8, 2020 we will serve multiple search warrants on your premises, and you must not destroy any evidence prior to that search, or you will face additional Federal charges. We are at this time performing contact tracing on every visitor to this web site and your audience is on notice that you have been designated a Terrorist Organization, until such time as a new determination is made.
Just kidding.
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Hamilton is not happy about the recent spate of people who think black people shouldn't be killed by cops, apparently.
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It's not about black people and cops. Look, it's easy to understand what's going on. There is a small fraction of society, too small to vote their will, that wants to impose a "new world order". They have their ideas, they think they are good, and they're more than willing to impose violence to get them. Their strategy is to feed race hatred and gay hatred into a fire that will ignite enough citizens to overcome the police. Then they rule. That's simple. That's AntiFa. That's TechDirt. That's the whole story. Enough said.
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…Republicans.
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Right. Republicans like Tom Cotton. What a moron you are.
This a democrat thing, an Obama thing:
• Ayers and Obama worked together for years on a school reform program called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
• Ayers and Obama also served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a separate charity organization.
• Obama had his political coming-out party in William Ayers' home.
• Ayers mentions Obama by name in a book he wrote in 1997, and mentions that the two are very close neighbors.
• Obama gave a short glowing review of that same Ayers book for the Chicago Tribune.
• Obama and Ayers were both presenters together on a panel about juvenile justice (organized by Michelle Obama).
• Both Obama and Ayers were close friends with the same person, Rashid Kalidi.
• There are also several unverified rumors swirling around that have not been documented: That Ayers may have helped to write part (or all) of Obama's autobiography; that Obama and Ayers shared an office space together for three years, on the same floor of the same building in Chicago; and that Ayers and Obama may have known each other as far back as 1981.
Read the 10 step plan! It's all down in WRITING! VIVA DEE REVOLUTIONAR
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You are not much for original thinking, are you, Stephen?
Read this, and then tell me that it doesn't describe EXACTLY what you promote here:
https://www.sds-1960s.org/PrairieFire-reprint.pdf
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This is essentially your philosophy, right, Stephen?
Some on the left dissociate mass struggle from revolutionary
violence and condemn any act of public militancy or armed struggle as
adventurist. This is characteristic of oppressor-nation movements where
violence is raised to a question of abstract principle, and the illusion is
fostered that imperialism will decay peacefully: "Violence turns people off,"
"It's too early," "Violence only brings down repression."
develop parallel strategies, openly support the thrust and political content of
revolutionary armed actions, claim and spread the message of struggle, help
create the "sea" for the guerrillas to swim in. Don't talk to the FBI. Resist
grand jury probes of revolutionary struggles. Laying the basis for armed
struggle is also the responsibility of mass organizers.
-From the very beginning of guerrilla action, mass armed
capability develops. Its spontaneity will be slowly transformed into the
energy of a popular armed force.
-Many levels of clandestine propaganda (Techdirt) action can be carried out
which spread the consciousness of action and give people a way to learn.
Spray-painting, rip-offs of corporate files, blood on the murderers. We have
done these types of action ourselves, including stink bombing a Rockefeller
appearance in N.Y.C. and doing the same to the mouthpieces of the Chile
junta when they travelled in the US after the murder of Allende. Build a
people's militia
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This sounds like the kind of shit you’d find in a right-wing nutjob’s ammo bunker after he’s carried out a few “Second Amendment remedies” against his enemies.
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Right. Right wing. Can you spell "Obama"? He's Ayer's biggest promoter and funder. Watch. Idiot.
And you, Techdirt. Alas "let it burn". How about a new thought, not a recycled one from the Weather Underground?
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Techdirt's Platform:
Sound Familiar?
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Here's one. Shiva Ayyadurai didn't invent email.
Oh snap!
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Duh. Ayers and Obama are great friends and co-conspirators to Destroy America.
Look here:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122212856075765367
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers
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And just a side note, Stephen - you are fucking pathetic. You clearly endorse all the same revolutionary strategies as outlined in Prairie Fire. You just don't have the guts to claim YOUR OWN ideology. How pathetic is that? Conservatives are proud. Leftists might be crazy (like Ayers) but they're not shy and they don't hide their own convictions. It's just sleazy creepy sexually maladjusted pussies like you that hide in the cracks and crevices of denial and deflection. Your own group hates you. The opposing group (conservatives) hate you. How sad and pathetic. Ayers might be nuts, but he owns it. What a pussy you are. You believe in nothing, and cower in the face of anonymous cowards. Loser.
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And just a side note, Stephen - you are pathetic. You clearly endorse all the same revolutionary strategies as outlined in Ayer's book. You just don't have the guts to claim YOUR OWN ideology. How pathetic is that? Conservatives are proud. Leftists might be crazy (like Ayers) but they're not shy and they don't hide their own convictions. It's just sleazy creepy maladjusted stunted adults like you that hide in the cracks and crevices of denial and deflection. Your own group hates you. The opposing group (conservatives) hate you. Ayers might be nuts, but he owns it. What a pussy you are. You believe in nothing, and cower in the face of anonymous cowards.
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Well, considering that you are posting as an AC the only conclusion I can draw from that is it that you are too scared shitless to stand up for your opinions.
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Does this mean “dismantle the systems that value property before people and allow a select few people to unethically and immorally exploit the lower class for the sake of hoarding obscene amounts of wealth”? If so: Count me in.
Yes, that sounds so awful, the idea that a racially oppressed class of people should and could revolt against their oppressors as a means to find a better life~.
…seriously, have you never heard of “slave revolts”, or do you think those revolts were A Bad Thing?
Republicans already do this.
Republicans already do this, but they don’t even need to go outside the country. They need only lick a few corporate boots to make it happen.
Last I checked, God isn’t here right now, but if She wants to fight for Her throne, let Her come here and fight on equal terms with Her beloved creations.
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He doesn’t have opinions. He has right-wing propaganda disguised as opinions, and he does nothing but attack strawmen in an attempt to hide the fact that he can’t express a single cogent opinion in his own words and with his own unique spin on whatever ideas someone else put in his head.
I mean, look at his posts in this thread. All he’s doing is posting the Weather Underground shit without taking a critical eye to the text and exploring the ideas underneath. He’s yelling all about how Bill Ayers is evil and Obama is evil and I’m apparently evil for explicitly supporting Weather Underground (even though I’ve never read or explicitly endorsed anything by Ayers or Weather Underground). When has he actually said anything about why he and he alone thinks the idea of “destroy capitalism” is good or bad, or what the idea even means? (He hasn’t.)
Our “anonymous” coward believes only in right-wing propaganda — that anything even a millimeter left of the political center is evil and must be quashed (violently, if necessary) without mercy or regret. He can’t engage with anything we say on a level beyond strawmen, insults, and racial slurs. I recognize the futility in even responding to him, but I also like having a chance to sharpen some of my own arguments and ideas.
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Now now, it's important not to focus entirely on the negatives(what someone can't/didn't do) and focus on the positives as well.
In Shiva's case that would be an impressive ability to lose political races by positively stunning amounts, and while it's a rather 'unique' skill to be sure when someone's got nothing else of note to their name you take what you can get.
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To be fair, you are every bit as anonymous as any AC. That you chose to post as "Rocky" is no more identifying than my choosing to post as "Random Name". The style of posting is a better identifier in most cases than the name on the post.
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Am I really every bit as anonymous as any AC?! I'm afraid you are wrong about that, but I leave it up to you to figure out why.
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What's to stop any random poster from saying their name is Rocky?
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See the little icon next to the name?
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Re:
Just admit it, Stephen. You are a seditious traitorous rat bastard criminal, just like your hero, Barrack Obama and his hero Bill Ayers. This is the Leftist Screed of Revolution, Authored by Obama's personal friend, Bill Ayers, and you agree with EVERY SINGLE POINT.
Obama had his political coming-out party in William Ayers' home. Ayers wrote Prairie Fire. And you endorse it, publicly and in writing, as shown above. Right? Right? Right?
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There are also several unverified rumors swirling around that have not been documented: That Ayers may have helped to write part (or all) of Obama's autobiography; that Obama and Ayers shared an office space and a bed together for three years, on the same floor of the same building in Chicago; and that Ayers and Obama may have known each other as far back as 1981.
Obama loves Ayers. Ayers loves Obama. And you fucking revolutionary assholes can all go to hell! MAGA
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Lick your own butthurt, knuckle dragger.
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Impersonating a federal law enforcement official is a federal offense, last time I checked. 🤔
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Shiva Ayyadurai lost an election by 57 points to a woman he called a “fake Indian”. He also didn’t get Techdirt “cancelled”.
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