Liberty

Even worse was the messaging that came from an operative with CAP, who has become a little Twitter star among the Democratic faithful for his endless Cheneyite exploitation of terrorism fears to attack Republicans and justify gun watchlists. This is how he described Feinstein’s bill:

It’s hard to put into words how appalling that is. This CAP official is not only outright lying about Feinstein’s bill: pretending that it bars “terrorists” — rather than people placed on a suspicion watchlist — from buying guns. Worse than rank dishonesty, he is literally, explicitly equating people who will be deemed suspicious by the U.S. government — overwhelmingly Muslim, needless to say — with “terrorists.” As Sam Adler-Bell put it about this tweet, “Referring to all people on the DOJ’s watchlist as ‘terrorists’ is legally incorrect and ethically ugly.” In Volsky’s mind, or at least in his propaganda, anyone deemed by the government to be suspicious is now a “terrorist” — no evidence needed, no trial held, no due process accorded.

For eight years, this mentality was the driving force behind the worst Bush/Cheney war-on-terror abuses. No matter what the extremist policy was — indefinite detention, warrantless eavesdropping, torture, no-fly lists, Guantánamo, rendition, CIA black sites — Republicans would justify it by saying it was merely being done to “terrorists” and would accuse their due process-advocating critics of wanting to “protect terrorists.” What they actually meant was that all of this was being done to people accused by the U.S. government of involvement in terrorism. But in their mind, “government accusations of terrorism” were synonymous with “proof of guilt.”

That is exactly the warped, Orwellian formulation Democrats embrace: As is extremely obvious, the Democrats’ definition of “terrorist” is “anyone whom the U.S. government suspects of being a terrorist.” Just as was true of all those GOP abuses, what makes these Democratic proposals so dangerous is that they constitute a war on the most basic right of due process. As Vox’s Dara Lind explained, “If you give the government more power to ban terrorists from having guns, you’re reinforcing the power it has to define who counts as a terrorist.” That’s why the ACLU yesterday wrote to the Senate and denounced Feinstein’s bill:

Source: Democrats’ War on Due Process and Terrorist Fearmongering Long Predate Orlando

State and city officials Tuesday announced plans to move people out of Seattle’s homeless encampment known as The Jungle.

The plan blends a combination of outreach to connect the encampment’s residents with shelter and social services, with a cleanup of health hazards like garbage and human waste.

Then, state and city agencies will improve access to the area for maintenance workers and first responders and ponder a plan for the site’s future.

Found on a wooded expanse of land stretching along I-5 from Sodo to Beacon Hill, The Jungle has had a troubled reputation that culminated with a January shooting that killed two and injured three others.

Read Full Article=> Seattle aims to clear out The Jungle homeless camp | The Seattle Times

Thousands of refugee children across Europe are still waiting to find out how a new UK government pledge on immigration rules will actually alter their lives — as other countries across the continent also struggle with the influx of migrants and refugees that is showing no signs of slowing.

In Sweden, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman announced that as many as 80,000 migrants may be deported over the next few years if their asylum claims are rejected. Ygeman said that around 45 percent of 2015’s record 163,000 asylum seekers would likely be made to leave.

Thursday also saw a Dutch strategy aimed at tackling the migrant crisis put forward by Labour party leader Diederik Samsom, which suggested the European Union (EU) should begin sending sea arrivals back to Turkey from Greece. In return, the EU would pledge to take between 150,000 and 250,000 refugees each year directly from Turkey — much less than the 1 million that arrived to Europe by sea in 2015.

This proposal reportedly has the support of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, but its implementation would depend on Turkey being considered a safe country for refugees — which most of the EU does not currently agree it is. In a statement, Amnesty International called the plan “morally bankrupt.”

Last Tuesday saw Denmark adopt a law allowing the seizure of migrants’ personal belongings. Possessions including watches, mobile phones, and computers can be taken as a contribution to the expenses of keeping them.

Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei shut down an art exhibition in Copenhagen in protest at the legislation. “It made me feel very angry,” he said.

READ FULL ARTICLE => Confiscations, Deportations, and Vague Promises: Europe Asylum Policy Shifts Again | VICE News

A national uproar over racial profiling erupted in the 1990s after New Jersey state troopers were found to have focused on minority drivers for traffic stops in hopes of catching drug couriers. Thousands of local law enforcement departments and more than a dozen state police agencies began collecting traffic-stop information as a result.In the seven states with the most sweeping reporting requirements — Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina and Rhode Island — the data show police officers are more likely to pull over black drivers than white ones, given their share of the local driving-age population.

By itself, that proves little, because other factors besides race could be in play. Because African-Americans are, for example, generally poorer than whites, they may have more expired vehicle registrations or other automotive lapses that attract officers’ attention.

More telling, many researchers agree, is what happens after a vehicle is pulled over — especially whether officers use their legal discretion to search a car or its occupants and whether those searches uncover illegal contraband. An officer can conduct a “consent search” without any justification if the driver grants permission. A search can also be made without consent if an officer has probable cause to suspect a crime.

In the four states that track the results of consent searches, officers were more likely to conduct them when the driver was black, even though they consistently found drugs, guns or other contraband more often if the driver was white. The same pattern held true with probable-cause searches in Illinois and North Carolina, the two states that carefully record them.

Read Full Article => The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black – The New York Times

TRP News with James Andre.

This week – New numbers for the budget deficit and the same old story with Republicans and the federal budget. Europe struggles with the record flow of migrants. The Left is adopting the destructive and divisive tactics of the Right, and what does it mean to be ‘progressive’?

0:30 Budget
8:30 Migrants
16:02 Political Tactics
28:42 Progressivism
For audio only, stream or download here : https://archive.org/details/TRPNews

TRP News with James Andre.

This week – Kim Davis is back to work, Congress is back to work, and both are refusing to do their jobs. Dem primary features more of the same, migrant news, and an update on the situation in Gaza.

0:30 Kim Davis
6:14 Dem Primary
22:55 Congress
35:20 Migrants
46:39 Gaza

For audio only, stream or download here : https://archive.org/details/TRPNews

TRP News with James Andre.

This week – The Democratic primary, The DNC summer meeting and that DNC Iran resolution, Planned Parenthood and another government shutdown, The killing of Deputy Goforth and the racist response, an update on ISIL, and migrant news

0:27 Dem Primary
7:50 DNC Iran resolution
14:03 Government Shutdown
17:08 Deputy Goforth
20:47 ISIL
23:48 Migrants

For audio only, stream or download here : https://archive.org/details/TRPNews

A new law, called the Freedom Act, which substantially reformed and narrowed the bulk phone data program, was signed by U.S. President Barack Obama a day after the existing program lapsed on June 1.

The Freedom Act also allowed the existing surveillance program to continue for a six-month transition period, but it remained in legal limbo pending Monday’s ruling by a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

“In passing the USA Freedom Act, Congress clearly intended to end bulk data collection … But what it took away with one hand, it gave back – for a limited time – with another,” wrote Michael Mosman, a judge on the surveillance court.

In his ruling, first reported by the New York Times, Mosman rejected the May ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that the Patriot Act had never authorized the NSA to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk.

“Second Circuit rulings are not binding on the F.I.S.C. and this court respectfully disagrees with that court’s analysis, especially in view of the intervening enactment of the U.S.A. Freedom Act,” he wrote.

The U.S. Justice Department welcomed the decision.

Read Full Article: U.S. court rules NSA can temporarily resume bulk phone data collection