Justice Department Files Statement of Interest in California College Free Speech Case

Photo: Ben Shapiro was one of the high-profile speakers hosted by YAF this year at UC Berkeley. The event prompted counter-protests, a high level of security, and offers of counseling for students who did not feel safe.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
Thursday, January 25, 2018

The Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in Young America’s Foundation and Berkeley College Republicans v. Janet Napolitano. The plaintiffs, Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) and Young America’s Foundation (YAF), allege that the University of California, Berkeley, enforced a double standard when applied to free speech. BCR alleges that UC Berkeley applied a more rigorous and highly discretionary set of rules to their organization compared to other campus groups, especially with respect to “high-profile” campus speakers.

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit as a result of excessive hurdles BCR faced in bringing speakers of their choice onto campus. They allege that UC Berkeley’s High Profile Speaker Policy and Major Events Policy violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that Berkeley’s “High-Profile Speaker Policy” granted administrators unfettered discretion to decide which speakers are subject to arduous curfews, prohibitive security costs, or undesirable venues. In one instance, administrators—who had full discretion to determine who constituted a “high-profile speaker”—established a 3:00 pm “curfew” that conflicted with class times.

While the plaintiffs attempted to book speakers under the restrictions of the “High-Profile Speaker Policy,” a former president of Mexico and a former White House adviser were hosted at the University, but University administrators did not apply the High-Profile Speakers Policy to those events.

Berkeley counseling for impact speakers “have on individuals’ sense of safety & belonging”

In filing the Statement of Interest, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand provided the following statement:

“This Department of Justice will not stand by idly while public universities violate students’ constitutional rights.”

In addition to the statement, Associate Attorney General today penned an op-ed(link is external) on the issue of campus free speech.

This is the third Statement of Interest filed by the Department of Justice in a First Amendment case under Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The first was filed on September 26, 2017 in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, and the second was filed on October 24, 2017 in Shaw v. Burke.

Attorney General Sessions reestablished the Department’s commitment to protecting First Amendment rights—especially campus free speech– in a speech at Georgetown Law School in 2017.

Fake Julian Assange Accounts: Newsweek Journalist, Chris Cuomo Fall For It

Here we go again: This fake account is even spelled correctly and it managed to engage Chris Cuomo:

Cohn. But i am sure you know better.

Jullian Assange  

@PPbraibmon

not a Russian meddler.not real meshigana. friend of Shalom Alechim

=============

I warned you on January 26, 2018! Now this reporter has fallen prey:

Here is real Julian Assange:

Julian Assange  

@JulianAssange

 


Here is fake Julian Assange:

Julian Assange  

@TheRealJuIian

Yes, it says parody, but it is very difficult to discern the difference in a newsfeed now that Fake Julian Assange has added the little hour glass emblem. This is the same account that previously shared falsified documents saying Hillary has dementia.

Fake “Julian Assange” Says Hillary has Dementia; Retweeted 8500 Times So Far

And since I last wrote this, here are some new fake accounts:

Julian Assange  

@JuIianAssagne

Founder ; Geopolitical analyst. Detained without charge in violation of UN ruling ordering my freedom. This is my personal parody account.

Embassy of Ecuador, United Kingdom
Joined January 2017
Born on July 31

Julian Assange

@JulianAssange_

USA, the world’s internet censor, uses; slurs, lies, deceit & ICANN to block WikiLeaks just like  & 56 other websites blocked from viewing

Julian Assange  

@Juliannassange

Editor of Wikileaks, detained without trial, a bit rapey, 14 words!

Ecuador Embassy, Londonistan
Joined September 2017

 

 

Wikileaks Plans its Own Global Fake News Awards #fakenewsnom

In 2014, Six Iranians Arrested for this Video Dancing to “Happy”

From 2014:

Six Iranians arrested for appearing in a video dancing to Pharrell Williams’ song Happy have been sentenced to up to one year in prison and 91 lashes, their lawyer says.

The sentences were suspended for three years, meaning they will not go to prison unless they reoffend, he adds.

The video shows three men and three unveiled women dancing on the streets and rooftops of Tehran. In six months, it has been viewed by over one million people on YouTube. The majority of people involved in the video were sentenced to six months in prison, with one member of the group given one year, lawyer Farshid Rofugaran was quoted by Iran Wire as saying.

Iconic Photo of Woman Freeing Herself of Hijab Becomes Symbol of Iran Protests

The “Happy we are from Tehran” video was brought to the attention of the Iranian authorities in May, after receiving more than 150,000 views. Members of the group behind the video were subsequently arrested by Iranian police for violating Islamic laws of the country, which prohibit dancing with members of the opposite sex and women from appearing without a headscarf. They later appeared on state-run TV saying they were actors who had been tricked into make the Happy video for an audition.

The arrests drew condemnation from international rights groups and sparked a social media campaign calling for their release. Williams, whose song was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year, also protested at the arrests. “It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness,” he wrote on Facebook.

Oklahoma High School Football Team Sexually Assaults Teammate; Attempted Cover-Up by School Officials Now Under Investigation; Parent Attempted to Purchase Video Evidence

In a case of what is beginning to look like putting the welfare of a high school football team ahead of the welfare of a minor child, a public school in Bixby, Oklahoma is facing allegations of a failure to report a sexual assault of a team member and a potential cover-up of the incident by responsible school officials.

According to an Affidavit filed November 27, 2017 with the State of Oklahoma, Tulsa County:

  1. The Oklahoma State Attorney has designated a special prosecutor to investigate the incident. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has also been called into the probe.
  2. In addition to an investigation of the sexual assault, the investigation will determine whether mandatory reporting of the incident occurred as well as whether there were attempts to thwart an investigation.
  3. Electronic evidence has been seized from:

Superintendent of Schools

Principal

Head Football Coach

Athletic Director

All football players implicated in the incident

4. The male victim, age 16, was interviewed by the special investigator on Nov 13, 2017.  The victim was at a team function in a private home belonging to the Superintendent of Bixby Public Schools. The Superintendent’s son is also a player on the team.

5. The victim was held down by three teammates as a fourth teammate inserted a pool stick into his anus through his shorts. A fifth team member filmed the event. A sixth team member held the door to the room closed. All other football team members stood by laughing. The victim left after the incident. His mother later reported it did result in rectal bleeding.

6. The victim said he was aware the video was shown to others. He was told the video had been deleted. In addition, the victim reported to the investigator a similar incident in 2016 had occurred at the same location.

—————-

The victim’s mother was interviewed on Nov 15, 2017. She reported that she was contacted by the school’s Athletic Director on Oct. 26.

She was only told that her son had been the subject of a hazing or bullying incident.  He asked if she wanted police contacted and she declined, not knowing it was a sexual assault.

On Oct 31, during a meeting with the superintendent, the mother and her husband still were not told the nature of the assault. She went home to discuss with her son when he told her it was actually a sexual assault and had happened before.

The investigator does not know the exact date when school officials became aware of assault, but knew that it was at least October 26. The incident was not officially reported to the Bixby police until November 1 or 2. The Department of Human Services was not notified until November 10.

By Nov 9, the OSBI was brought in as it appeared school officials were not cooperating.

A second Affidavit reveals that all the football players have cooperated and admitted to their involvement in the assault. It also revealed that a parent tried to purchase the telephone used in the filming of the incident. Further, it seems to show increasing evidence of an attempt to cover-up the incident involving school officials and perhaps the entire board of directors, and certainly seems to indicate a failure to report the incident in a timely fashion. According to the investigator, “It certainly appears that any reporting of the incident was significant and has caused difficulty in the investigation, especially including the inability to preserve evidence. It also appears that there may have been some initial effort by one or others to not report the incident at all.”

A grand jury has been convened and the case is currently in recess as investigators continue to gather evidence.

Affidavits:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/bixby-affidavits/pdf_b92f74c7-0d70-5eae-9e4f-a02a37b0a8cc.html

Kissinger rejects ‘freeze-for-freeze’ with North Korea

EPA file photo shows former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Yonhap)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) — South Korea could push to indefinitely postpone joint military exercises with the United States in exchange for North Korea taking steps to denuclearize, a U.S. expert said Tuesday.

The allies earlier agreed to suspend the annual drills for the duration of the PyeongChang Winter Games. North Korea views the exercises as an invasion rehearsal and has protested with various provocations in the past.

2018/01/26 01:47

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) — Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Thursday he does not believe North Korea will abandon its nuclear weapons in exchange for a suspension of U.S. joint military exercises with South Korea.

Kissinger, who served under the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970s, spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the security challenges facing the U.S.

“The most immediate challenge to international peace and security is posed by North Korea,” he said in his opening statement, posted on the committee’s website. “Paradoxically, it is only after Pyongyang has achieved nuclear and intercontinental missile breakthroughs, accompanied by threatening assertions and demonstrations, that measures to thwart these activities have begun to be applied.”

Kissinger acknowledged some success in the Donald Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign to curb the North’s nuclear ambitions, but added there has been no breakthrough.

“North Korea acquired nuclear weapons to assure its regime’s survival; in its view, to give them up would be tantamount to suicide,” he said. “An outcome that was widely considered unacceptable is now on the verge of becoming irreversible.”

Kissinger called for an agreement on Korea’s future through the revival of the now-stalled six-party talks or a separate forum led by the U.S. and China. That, he said, would be the best road to the denuclearization of the peninsula.

A “freeze-for-freeze” under which the U.S. and South Korea would suspend their regular military exercises in exchange for the North halting its nuclear and ballistic missile testing “will not … fulfill this purpose or even advance it.”

“That would equate legitimate security operations with activities which have been condemned by the U.N. Security Council for decades,” he said. “And it would encourage demands for additional restraints on, and perhaps the dismantling of, America’s alliances in the region.”

A freeze, pushed by China and Russia, would also give legitimacy to North Korea’s nuclear establishment and results of its previous tests.

“Interim steps towards full denuclearization may well be part of an eventual negotiation,” Kissinger said. “But they need to be steps towards this ultimate goal: the dismantlement of Pyongyang’s existing arsenal.”

The mistake of past negotiations, which only helped North Korea buy time to advance its weapons development, must not be repeated, he added.

“Death of Stalin”: Satirical Film Not to be Distributed in Russia: Denies it is Censorship

© filmpro.ru

KAZAN, January 25. /TASS/. Withdrawing of the distribution certificate for The Death of Stalin movie has nothing to do with censorship, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“I don’t agree that it is a manifestation of censorship,” he said.

Russian Culture Ministry yanks distribution certificate for The Death of Stalin

January 23, 18:52UTC+3

 

The Death of Stalin, a British-French political satire film directed by Armando Iannucci, is based on a graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. The Russian Cultural Ministry has decided to withdraw the distribution certificate for the British-French political satire film The Death of Stalin, Acting Director of the ministry’s Cinema Department Olga Lyubimova told TASS on Tuesday.

On Monday, a public screening of the picture took place, attended by film industry figures, State Duma (lower house of parliament) MPs, representatives of the Russian Historical Society as well as members of the Culture Ministry’s Public Board. According to the Board’s head Yuri Polyakov, the movie should not be screened in Russia as it seems to be a tool for “ideological struggle.” He pointed out that, “nobody spoke out in favor of the film as a work of art.” The movie industry people who watched the flick requested the Culture Ministry yank its distribution credentials.

“The distribution certificate for The Death of Stalin has been withdrawn,” a spokesperson for the Culture Ministry said.

A group of the Russian Culture Ministry’s lawyers earlier requested Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky yank the distribution certificate for The Death of Stalin, citing the film’s extremist nature.

“The Death of Stalin is aimed at inciting hatred and enmity, violating the dignity of the Russian (Soviet) people, promoting ethnic and social inferiority, which points to the movie’s extremist nature,” the attorneys said. “According to the rules of issuance and withdrawal of film distribution credentials, such a certificate must be withdrawn in case a movie contains information the dissemination of which is prohibited by Russian legislation,” the address says.

According to the lawyers, the film portrays some historical characters, including Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov, in a distorted way. “Zhukov is portrayed as a militant comedian, while he was actually a prominent commander, a gifted strategist and a marshal of the Soviet Union, who made a great contribution to our army’s victory in the Great Patriotic War, so his name is inextricably linked to the great Victory. However, the movie shows no respect for our history and the memory of previous generations,” the address stressed.

“We are confident that the movie was made to distort our country’s past so that the thought of the 1950s Soviet Union makes people feel only terror and disgust,” they added.

The Death of Stalin, a British-French political satire film directed by Armando Iannucci, is based on a graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. The Russian release of the picture, which premiered worldwide in September 2017, is due for release January 25. The movie is centered on the pursuit for power in the USSR following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. The film stars Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs and Olga Kurilenko to name a few.

Net Neutrality Explained by Burger King through Whopper Neutrality

The repeal of Net Neutrality is a hot topic in America, but it can be very difficult to understand. That’s why the Burger King brand created Whopper Neutrality, a social experiment that explains the effects of the repeal of Net Neutrality by putting it in terms anyone can understand: A Whopper sandwich.

 

North Korea seeks ability to simultaneously fire multiple nuclear missiles: CIA chief

This AP file photo shows U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. (Yonhap)

2018/01/24

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) — North Korea is pushing to acquire the capability to fire multiple nuclear missiles at the same time, increasing the threat posed to the United States, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency said Tuesday.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, CIA Director Mike Pompeo also said the U.S. mission is to extend that timeline as much as possible.

“Kim Jong-un will not rest with a single successful test,” he said, referring to the North Korean leader. “The logical next step would be to develop an arsenal of weapons that is not one, not a showpiece, not something to drive on a parade route … but rather the capacity to deliver from multiple firings of these missiles simultaneously.”

Pyongyang last year conducted its first tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S. It also detonated its sixth nuclear bomb.

Pompeo has repeatedly said that North Korea is just months away from having the ability to nuke the U.S.

“I want everybody to understand that we are working diligently to make sure that a year from now I can still tell you they are several months away from having that capacity,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis, Pompeo added, but “we are equally, at the same time, ensuring that if we conclude that is not possible, that we present the president with a range of options.”

The CIA chief also noted that Kim appears to seek Korean reunification on his terms, not just protection of his regime, by pursuing the nuclear capability.

“I Love Trump,” Says Ugandan President Museveni

Ugandan President Museveni says he loves Donald Trump, feels Africa does need to improve, and admires Trump’s frankness.