Thursday, February 2, 2017

King Donald J. T (-witter) rump: Free Speech My Way, No Pay, or Highway

Do I Look Like Your Savior or Not 
(Yes, and I am a Greek-born Brit Seeking American Rights)


More on this story and radical Breitbart-sponsored speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos from here.

The Main Post for Today: 

A speech by conservative firebrand and Greek-born British ultra-right Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled at UC Berkeley amid violent protests that sparked a fire in a campus plaza. University officials called off the event about two hours before Yiannopoulos was to speak at the student union, where more than 1,500 people had gathered outside. Some hurled metal barricades and others smashed windows at the student union.
“This is not a proud night for this campus, the home of the free speech movement,” said Dan Mogulof, a Berkeley spokesman, noting that the vandalism interfered with the ability of the College Republicans — who hosted Yiannopoulos — to exercise their 1st Amendment rights.
Background: In late 2015, Yiannopoulos began a campus speaking tour called “The Dangerous Faggot Tour” encompassing U.S. and UK universities where many say Yiannopoulos spews hatred and bigotry and not much else. A number his scheduled speeches in Great Britain were cancelled.
Other campus disruptions in the US include:

1.  Rutgers University: February 9, 2016,
2.  University of Minnesota: February 17 2016.
3.  DePaul University: May 24, 2016.
4.  UCLA: May 31, 2016.
5.  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: December 13, 2016.
6.  UC Davis: January 13, 2017.
7.  University of Washington: January 20, 2017, Josh Dukes age 34, was shot while protesting the event, and was put into intensive care at a hospital in Seattle, having suffered from life-threatening injuries for using pepper spray before he was shot – shooter still at large. 1

WHITE HOUSE REACTION VIA TWEET – NATURALLY:
President Trump threatened to cut off Federal funding to Berkeley tweeting: 
“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” 6:13 AM - Feb 2, 2017

My Notes: I believe all this is carefully planned and designed and scheduled for the sole purpose to cause protests and trouble on campuses by whipping up anger that leads to rioting and protests then they blame the protesters and colleges. Worse, all the while they try to come across as victims and innocents.

Keep in mind that this is classic Breitbart and “Alt-Right” strategy: That is to push things to their limits and plead innocence along the way.

But keep in mind that all of this is much more than free speech or proper display of decency – it is raw politics and it is ugly. Surprisingly, it is exactly what the “right” says they are against. That is a tactic they use to convince voters to put them in office and keep them in office, plus all the while it is their precise goal to sustain precisely the turmoil they generate while weakly appearing innocent like a bystander. Worse, they have the unmitigated gall to blame the “left and their media tools” as culprits.

How ironic is that point since the GOP-Rightwing has mastered the PR game and boy are they skilled at it and without ever admitting they are skilled in avoiding the  truth as they plead total innocence while blaming all others in site – that is except themselves.

That is the irony and skill of the GOP. Paramount is even thought all of that  is carefully designed to whip up a frenzy just like Justice Holmes once quipped to “falsely shout fire in crowded theater” and watch the mayhem that follows is illegal and protected speech per se, they still push that approach. That is neither free nor protected speech, cite:

That Holmes quip: To falsely shout fire in a crowded theater” is a very popular metaphor for speech or actions made for the principal purpose of creating unnecessary panic cited in the opinion of Schenck v. United States (1919), which held that the defendant's speech in opposition to the draft during World War I was not protected free speech under the First Amendment of our Constitution – he handed out flyers protesting the and advocating dodging the draft.
Holmes' opinion highlights the principle that speech which is dangerous and false is not protected as opposed to speech that is dangerous but also true is protected.
And, here we are today and that First Amendment holding in Schenck was later partially overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), which limited the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot) and that I believe applies here with the speeches across all the campuses listed above designed to disrupt and cause riots and possible violence.
Brandenburg was a landmark United States Supreme Court case based on the First Amendment. The court in that case held that government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action,” Specifically, it struck down Ohio's criminal syndicalism statute, because that statute broadly prohibited the mere advocacy of violence.

In the process, Whitney v. California was explicitly overruled, and doubt was cast on Schenck v. United States, Abrams v. United StatesGitlow v. New York (1925), and Dennis v. United States.

The bottom line: I believe that Colleges and Universities have the right: moral and legal and obligation to cancel or postpone such events and speakers from any on-campus event to protect all students and their safety and not just for the sponsors of the “Alt-Right” speakers to be happy or miss a chance to spew more of their hatred.

The other campuses shown above show that a “clear and present danger” applied in this case at Berkeley and that they acted accordingly... Breitbart with their so-called “Alt-Right” messages and agenda are pushing the envelope...  And, guess who is close to Mr. Trump from Breitbart? Yep, Stephen Bannon who has his ear and stands at his elbow. 

Hope this post was helpful. Thanks for stopping by. 



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