Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

Pro-Life protestors are being sentenced to prison for over a decade thanks to the FACE Act

Posted: February 8, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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It is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention that the Biden regime has weaponized the Department of Justice against Americans who oppose the Marxist fundamental transformation begun by Barack Obama.  Pro-life protestors are the latest victims of this outright tyranny.  Republicans Renew Call to Repeal FACE Act After Pro-Lifers Found Guilty (breitbart.com)

Republican lawmakers have renewed their call to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act after six pro-life activists were found guilty this week for “conspiracy against rights” and violating the FACE Act in relation to a peaceful protest outside of a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021.

The FACE Act “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services,” while conspiracy against rights — a charge that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence — “makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States or because of his or her having exercised such a right,” according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

This unconstitutional farce is being used to criminalize the exercise of our most fundamental rights, those rights that are enshrined in the First Amendment.  The Biden regime has created a two tiered justice system.  Left wing darlings such as Black Lives Matters and ANTIFA are free to riot, burn buildings, and block freeways.  This is what happens to right wingers who simply protest:

“Free Americans should never live in fear of their government targeting them because of their beliefs. Yet, Biden’s Department of Justice has brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life,” Roy said in a statement at the time. “Our Constitution separates power between the federal government and the states for a reason, and we ignore that safeguard at our own peril. The FACE Act is an unconstitutional federal takeover of state police powers; it must be repealed.”

Roy’s office also noted at the time how the FACE Act made national news after pro-life activist Mark Houck was allegedly held at gunpoint and arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last year in front of his wife and children, citing the FACE Act in relation to a pushing incident outside of an abortion facility. Houck was found not guilty, with the judge in the case asking the prosecution whether the FACE Act did not “seem to be stretched a little thin here.”

Some pro-life activists were guilty of blocking entrances to abortion clinics.  This activity is actually illegal and not protected the First Amendment.  It is a misdemeanor under most local jurisdictions.  The punishment is usually a fine or community service.  Under the tyrannical Biden DOJ, this is the punishment pro-lifers face:

Here is the text of the FACE Act: Civil Rights Division | Statutes Enforced by the Criminal Section (justice.gov)

Section 248 makes it unlawful for a person to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure or intimidate a person because he or she is or has been obtaining or providing reproductive health services.

Section 248 also makes it unlawful for a person to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure or intimidate a person because he or she is lawfully exercising the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

Finally, Section 248 makes it unlawful for a person to intentionally damage or destroy the property of a facility because it provides reproductive health services, or because it is a place of worship. Section 248 also prohibits anyone from attempting to commit any of the above.

This act is unconstitutional because the Federal Government was not granted jurisdiction by the Constitution over this type of crime committed inside the borders of a State. They are not federal crimes under the Constitution.  They are State and local crimes.

The pro-life activists are receiving sentences issued by the Biden Regime that are extremely excessive even under the tyrannical FACE Act.

In the absence of aggravating factors, a first offense under this statute is a misdemeanor punishable by six months imprisonment for a non-violent obstruction offense, and up to a year for an offense involving force or threats.  A second offense (committed after conviction on a different FACE offense) is punishable by up to eighteen months in prison for a non-violent obstruction offense and by up to three years in prison for an offense involving force or threats.  If bodily injury results, then the penalty is increased to up to ten years.  If death results, the penalty may be up to life imprisonment.

Journalism’s “extinction event” will lead to new and better choices for news

Posted: February 4, 2024 by John Ruberry in blogs, business, culture, internet/free speech, media, News/opinion, opinion/news
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By John Ruberry

Big News is having a bad time of it. Paul Farhi, who accepted a buyout from the Washington Post, asked in the Atlantic–a magazine that is propped up by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs–“Is American Journalism Headed Toward an ‘Extinction-Level Event?'”

With massive layoffs not only at the Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, but also the Los Angeles Times–and with Sports Illustrated being probably as dead as the Detroit Lions’ Super Bowl dreams–the answer may be a loud “Yes.” 

Meanwhile, in Democrat-controlled Illinois, the Illinois Local Journalism Task Force, created by legislation in 2021, is betting on the dinosaurs, that is, traditional media. Last week, the task force issued its recommendations for journalism in the Prairie State.

“Its proposals are mostly about getting taxpayers to pony up and putting government in control,” Mark Glennon says in Wirepoints, “[with] no mention of journalism’s own failures.”

Indeed, there are many failures. The glaringly obvious one–unless you work in mainstream media–is that journalists are pushing a narrative to score love from the 20 percent of the population who are far-leftists. Even in Illinois, a blue state, there are not many ultra lefties–they might make up 25 percent of the populace here.

Among the recommendations from the tax force include a whole slew of tax credits for local news sources, including for subscriptions, businesses who advertise with them, as well as for local news providers hiring reporters.

Every one of the recommendations from the task force are wretched ideas that I could eviscerate easily one by one, but to save time, I’ll move on. But not yet. Besides these tax credits, the task force recommends exempting local news sources from Illinois’ corporate income tax. 

Some states have no corporate income tax.

News should be a mass market product, not a niche offering, but the liberals in charge have turned it into that. Again, I’ll be brief. Most Americans–and yes, most Illinoisans–believe there are only two genders, and most had doubts about the COVID propaganda of 2020-21. And most of them are fed up with the lamestream media minimizing the ongoing crisis with rampant crime.

Yeah, I get it, the internet has hurt local news providers. But they didn’t adapt. The same with Big News.

Let’s talk about extinction events. Real ones. Extinction is usually portrayed as mass death, yet it’s also a mass life event. 

Following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, the lystrosaurus, a runt buck-toothed freak reptile, thrived, along with many other emergent species. Soon, geologically speaking that is, came the dinosaurs. After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, different small animals, mammals and birds among them–as well as fungus–prospered.

There’s never been more media–or more information–than there is now. Print newspapers are sometimes called dinosaur media.  I believe they should always be named as such. Among the new media are of course blogs such as this one, YouTube and Rumble video channels, streaming services, podcasts, and so much more. A consumer of information is now faced with a daunting challenge. Because finding enough time to sift through all of the choices–let alone absorb all of them–is impossible. 

Last Thursday, Chicago Tribune reporters held a one-day strike against its owner, Alden Capital, a hedge fund firm. “We often say, ‘Newspapers are not dying, they’re being killed,'” Gregory Pratt, a committed left-wing Trib journalist, told WGN-TV. 

Wrong, Pratt. Newspapers are being killed because journalists are emitting an unpopular product and looking down on their customers.

Let’s return to the Illinois Local Journalism Task Force. 

In its rancid report there is a map of Illinois. Counties with few media choices are marked in that map in different shades of red. One of those is McHenry, which is northwest of Chicago. I know of two great news sites reporting about McHenry County: Cal Skinner’s McHenry County Blog and the Lake and McHenry County Scanner–a suburban answer to the phenomenally successful CWB Chicago. I’m certain that the task force didn’t include these sites in their elitist media tally. 

Another fabulous Illinois news source is the aforementioned Wirepoints.

Big creatures usually don’t survive natural mass extinction events. Small ones, nimble animals, find opportunities in an altered world.

Remember, lystrosaurus made way for larger and grander beasts, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex. Today’s blog may become tomorrow’s News Corp–the parent company of Fox News, Dow Jones, HarperCollins, and so many more.

Humans will always crave information–it’s in our DNA–it is just a matter of how it’s delivered to us. We’ve come a very long away from when the evening news was a caveman squatting in front of a bonfire telling whoever was sitting in front of him how that day’s hunt went. If that prehistoric anchorman delivered fake news–“I killed six mammoths today with my bare hands!”–his audience simply walked away. Kind of like what consumers of Big News are doing now.

The dinosaur media–and the Illinois Journalism Task Force–doesn’t get it.

John Ruberry blogs regularly from the Chicago area at Marathon Pundit.

The future is cheap drones

Posted: February 3, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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With all the dumb headlines and conspiracy theories surrounding Taylor Swift, you could be forgiven for missing a far more important headline: that the Ukrainians sank the Russian corvette Ivanovets using unmanned surface vessels.

The Ukrainians continue to use cheap drones to hit Russian troops on land and now attack vessels at sea. When you lack the money and infrastructure to build high end tanks, aircraft and ships, and you have to counter such units, cheap drones are going to be the best selection.

Right now we’re seeing wave attacks of guided drones, which require a human in the loop. This will last until electronic weapons become good enough that having a command link to guide the drones becomes too big of a risk. At that point we’re going to start seeing autonomous drones launched on one-way missions that will strike targets without ever calling back to home.

This isn’t to say that drones make ships, aircraft and troops obsolete. Drones can’t occupy land (at least, not until Skynet has its way) and they can’t run airports and seaports. Drones will act as a way of denying the use of these facilities, sea lanes or land. The opposing side will have to develop cheap ways of responding, because its not economically feasible to use a million dollar missile to shoot down a $10K drone every time you are attacked. The United States would do well to develop these methods now before we have to develop them in a hurry in the Red Sea.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

If this is true the United States is doomed

Posted: February 1, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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On this past Monday I encountered an article that was absolutely terrifying.  If the article was only a tiny bit true it would mean that our constitutional republic is utterly and totally doomed.  Here is the horrific article: Taylor Swift Could Impact Outcome of 2024 Presidential Election: Poll (breitbart.com)

A new poll shows that Taylor Swift could impact the outcome of this year’s presidential election, with 18 percent of voters saying they’re “more likely” or “significantly more likely” to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift.

The alarming results come from polling conducted for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies. The survey, which had a sample size of 1,500 eligible voters, was conducted on January 18 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.53 percent.

She’s influenced popular culture, sports, the economics of entire regions of the U.S.,” communications consultant James Haggerty told Newsweek. “So why not politics and elections?

The founding fathers of this great nation would be horrified to learn that the fate of the United States will possibly be decided by such incredibly low informed voters.  I can’t think of a more apt way than that to describe anyone who would base their vote on the endorsement of any celebrity, let alone someone as vapid as Taylor Swift. 

The political left has built an enormous power base comprised mainly of low information voters.  They are manufactured in mass by our indoctrination system, which masquerades as an education system.

As you can see from this article, NYT: Biden Campaign Covets Taylor Swift’s Support (breitbart.com), low information voters will form the foundation of Joe Biden’s ‘reelection’ efforts.

President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign feverishly hopes to secure the support of popstar Taylor Swift, who the New York Times describes as the campaign’s top “target,” in regards to an endorsement, but a recent poll shows her potential political influence could be a wash.

The campaign has begun discussions with celebrities and social media stars about promoting Mr. Biden on Instagram and TikTok. When Mr. Biden took a fund-raising swing through Southern California in December, the campaign carved out time to meet with influencers to pitch them on posting pro-Biden content. There are also plans, first reported Sunday by NBC News, to hold a fund-raiser with two Democratic former presidents: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

The biggest and most influential endorsement target is Ms. Swift, 34, the pop sensation and N.F.L. enthusiast, who can move millions of supporters with an Instagram post or a mid-concert aside. She endorsed Mr. Biden in 2020 and, last year, a single Instagram post of hers led to 35,000 new voter registrations. Fund-raising appeals from Ms. Swift could be worth millions of dollars for Mr. Biden.

Thomas Jefferson made it abundantly clear that an electorate comprised of low information voters would be quite catastrophic.

 if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. there is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

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