First Amendment

NPR

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Florida Adopts Nation’s Toughest Restrictions On Protests : NPR

The law increases penalties for protesters who block roadways or deface public monuments. It creates a new crime, "mob intimidation." And it requires that anyone arrested at a protest be denied bail until their first court appearance, likely making for overnight jail stays. The law makes local officials in Florida liable to lawsuits from injured parties if they are found to have not done enough to respond to control violent protests. And it reacts to the "defund police" movement, allowing officials to appeal to the governor and his cabinet any decision by local officials to reduce funding to law enforcement.

NPR

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Larry Flynt, Porn Mogul And ‘Hustler’ Founder, Dies At 78 : NPR

His truly gross pornography, says sex columnist Dan Savage, made Flynt a necessary outlier testing the principle of free speech. "At the same time, he helped create Supreme Court decisions that further enhanced and strengthened the First Amendment that protects us. So we should be grateful for Larry Flynt even if his output wasn't something you're interested in," he says. "And I'm certainly not."

America lost a great man, a true patriot with the death of Larry Flint. He will be missed. 

KunstlerCast 339

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KunstlerCast 339

1/5/21

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/117388740
Episode: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/kunstlercast/KunstlerCast_339.mp3?dest-id=14822

Adam Ellwanger is a professor of English at the University of Houston – Downtown, where he teaches rhetoric and writing. In addition to those topics, his varied research interests include popular culture, political philosophy, media studies, and the American Mess writ large. Check out his dangerous new book on the modern politics of identity, entitled Metanoia: Rhetoric, Authenticity, and the Transformation of the Self. You will also like his essay on the Human Events website: Toward a Woke Metaphysics. Recently, he authored an open letter signed by over 180 professors that outlines forms of non-compliance that signatories will undertake in an effort to resist the current ideological trends on campus. Ellwanger also offers regular commentary at sites like Human Events, New Discourses, American Greatness, Quillette, and more. In his free time, he writes, plays guitar, drinks beer and ruby port, and listens to music. Follow him @DoctorEllwanger on Twitter. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

Insurrection At The Capitol: Live Updates : NPR

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How The U.S. Capitol Mob Was Treated Differently Than Earlier Black Protesters : Insurrection At The Capitol: Live Updates : NPR

When a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, surprisingly few police stood in the way. Protests had been expected for days, but police appeared unprepared for an actual insurrection and not even prepared to keep all the doors locked. Video showed police calmly talking with attackers after they moved into the building.

This came after a year of protests and confrontations with police after police shootings and other kinds of killings across this country. Many of those protests were put down more harshly, including those in Washington, .C. Officials often responded with tear gas or Tasers or stun grenades.

Cancel culture – Wikipedia

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Cancel culture – Wikipedia

Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles - either online on social media, in the real world, or both. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to be "canceled."

The CIA’s Secret Mind Control Experiments

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The CIA’s Secret Mind Control Experiments

11/20/20 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/115506371
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-381444908/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/npr/fa/2020/11/20201120_fa_fapodfri1120-618ba06b-e1ef-44f6-93eb-02aaf1e296de.mp3?awCollectionId=381444908&awEpisodeId=937010023&orgId=1&d=2920&p=381444908&story=937010023&t=podcast&e=937010023&size=46614721&ft=pod&f=381444908

Stephen Kinzer’s book, ‘Poisoner in Chief,’ exposes how CIA scientist Sidney Gottlieb worked in the 1950s and early ’60s to develop mind control drugs and deadly toxins that could be used against enemies of the U.S. government. Gottlieb believed the key to mind control was LSD, and is credited with bringing the drug to the U.S. He also experimented on unwitting people in prisons and detention centers in Japan, Germany, and the Philippines. (Originally broadcast Sept. 2019)

Cuomo signs law making it harder to file lawsuits to stifle free speech

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Cuomo signs law making it harder to file lawsuits to stifle free speech

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a new law Tuesday making it harder for the rich and powerful to file nuisance lawsuits to stifle free speech and intimidate critics.

The new law targets “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” known as SLAPPs, usually brought forth by wealthy plaintiffs to hamper free speech.

Typically expensive and time consuming, these filings have been wielded by individuals seeking to oppress free speech, like Harvey Weinstein — who threatened to sue the New York Times for defamation after the newspaper published an expose on the disgraced movie tycoon’s history of sexual harassment.