Glenn Greenwald on secrecy and privacy…
Author: HP McLovincraft
Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.
The state of things…
Enemies of the School Board
School boards have always attracted their share of controversies: disagreements over curriculum, bitter election fights, and personality clashes. But in recent months, as parents express their frustration over Covid lockdowns, mask mandates, and critical race theory, local school districts and federal law enforcement have upped the ante by monitoring parents, requesting undercover agents at school board meetings, and even arresting parents who attend board meetings to express dissent.
The latest and most egregious example comes from Round Rock, Texas. In a series of school board meetings this fall, two fathers—a minister named Jeremy Story and a retired Army captain named Dustin Clark—spoke out against alleged corruption and school officials’ hostility toward parents. Journalist Pedro Gonzalez reported that at an August meeting, Story had calmly “produced evidence that the board had covered up an alleged assault by the superintendent, Hafedh Azaiez, against a mistress.” The superintendent and school board president cut him off midsentence and ordered officers to remove him from the premises.
At the next meeting, in September, with the district’s controversial mask mandate on the agenda, the school board locked the majority of parents out of the room, preventing them from speaking. Clark and other frustrated parents asked the board to open the nearly empty room to the public. Instead, school board president Amy Weir directed officers to remove Clark from school property. As he was dragged out by two officers, Clark shouted to the audience: “It’s an open meeting! Shame on you. Communist! Communist! Let the public in!”
A few days later, the school district, in coordination with law enforcement, sent police officers to the homes of both men, arrested them, and put them in jail on charges of “disorderly conduct with intent to disrupt a meeting.” Families and supporters of Story and Clark held an all-night protest outside the jail, until the men were released the following morning. They are now raising funds for their legal defense.
The school board was able to do this because the Round Rock Independent School District has its own police force, with a three-layer chain of command, patrol units, school resource officers, a detective, and a K-9 unit. The department serves under the authority of the board and, through coordination with other agencies, apparently has the power to order the arrest of citizens in their homes. For many parents, the school board is sending a message: if you speak out against us, we will turn you into criminals. When reached for comment, the school district’s police department confirmed that it initiated the investigation and that “one board member requested details from the RRISD Police” prior to the criminal referral.
Round Rock is not the only school board to resort to repressive tactics to stifle dissent. In Loudoun County, Virginia, for example, where parents have protested against critical race theory and a sexual assault cover-up, the superintendent asked the county sheriff to deploy a SWAT team, riot control unit, and undercover agents to monitor parents at school board meetings. The sheriff refused, telling the superintendent that he had not provided “any justification for such a manpower intensive request,” but the mere attempt was astounding.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN skip DOJ whistleblower revealing ‘threat tag’ targeting parents at school board meetings
The media have largely ignored the explosive allegation made by a DOJ whistleblower about the counterterrorism targeting of outraged parents that appears to undercut sworn testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On Tuesday, a whistleblower revealed the FBI created a “threat tag” to aid in tracking alleged threats against school board officials, teachers, and staff as part of its implementation of a controversial memo issued by Garland last month.
An Oct. 20 internal email from the FBI’s criminal and counterterrorism divisions, released Tuesday by House Republicans, instructed agents to apply the threat tag “EDUOFFICIALS” to all investigations and assessments of threats directed specifically at education officials.
“The purpose of the threat tag is to help scope this threat on a national level, and provide an opportunity for comprehensive analysis of the threat picture for effective engagement with law enforcement partners at all levels,” the email stated.
The email also directs FBI agents to consider whether the criminal activity being investigated is in violation of federal law and what the potential “motivation” is behind it.
Amid Criticisms A Sex Crimes Registry Is ‘Overly Harsh,’ Colorado Rebrands The Term ‘Sex Offender’
The Sex Offender Management Board of the State of Colorado has voted to rebrand the term “sex offender,” replacing it with the euphemistic phrase, “adults who commit sexual offenses.”
The board’s decision passed following a 10-6 vote on Nov. 19 will not change the language used in criminal justice proceedings, the Colorado Sex Offender registry, or the name of the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board itself. It does, however, apply to the “Standards and Guidelines for the Assessment, Evaluation, Treatment and Behavioral Monitoring of Adult Sex Offenders.” Some on the board argued this new phrasing will aid rehabilitation efforts.
The SOMB reportedly considered a number of other terms to replace the phrase “sex offender,” including people who are “in treatment for engaging in sexually abusive behaviors” and those “who have committed sexual offenses.” Following this vote, the proposed change will be open for public comment for 20 days, and then the board will vote again on whether to alter the decision and make it final.
The rationale for the language shift is reducing stigma against those convicted of sex crimes, with the Denver Post claiming “many attorneys, people on the sex offender registry and even some victims have criticized Colorado’s management of this population as overly harsh and counterproductive to the goal of rehabilitation.”
This argument is also being used in Colorado to criticize the sex crimes registry that requires those convicted of sexual crimes to publicly report their residence and reside away from places children congregate such as schools and playgrounds. Earlier this year in relation to this public discussion, the Denver Post sympathetically portrayed the story of a man convicted of sexually assaulting a minor being removed from volunteer positions after he served his time because people found him on the registry.
The SOMB’s language decision has been met with backlash, with Sexual Assault Resource Prosecutor Jessica Dotter telling KOAA that such a change “minimizes victim experiences and trauma,” continuing to note that “If the self-image of sex offenders is prioritized over the devastating impact on victims’ lives, we are concerned that would negatively impact public trust.”
How Unethical Were the Prosecutors Trying to Put Kyle Rittenhouse in Prison? Let Us Count the Ways…
Let’s go over just a few of the things these weasels did to Kyle Rittenhouse.
District Attorney Michael Gravely chose to bring a case against someone with a clear-cut case of self-defense. Voters should do something about that guy in the next election.
Gravely’s hand-picked attack dogs, Binger and Kraus, lied throughout the process and never resisted and revised the charges to reflect new information uncovered in their case.
The case was overcharged. Even Daily Caller reporter Ritchie McGinnis, who appeared to be hiding behind a car when Rittenhouse shot Joseph Rosenbaum to preserve his life, thought reckless endangerment charges on his behalf were uncalled for.
Defense attorney Mark Richards told reporters after the verdict that putting on the Khindri brothers, the owners of Car Source, was a lie to the world — and they knew it — so that Binger could further the fiction that Rittenhouse and his buddies were never asked to come and protect the buildings that night. PJ Media’s Megan Fox does a total takedown of this outrage. We were on to them the whole time.
Kyle Rittenhouse lived in the area. He was not a “chaos tourist” or “vigilante.” He was a good kid who came to help his, yes his, community. Rittenhouse worked in Kenosha. His dad lived in Kenosha. His friends lived in Kenosha. He lived 17 minutes away in a border town in Illinois. More than half the people who work in Washington, D.C. don’t live there. Let’s ban them, those damned chaos tourists.
The gun used in the shootings was purchased with Rittenhouse’s money by a good friend, Dominick Black, who kept the gun in his dad’s gun safe in Kenosha with the plan to sell it to Rittenhouse when he turned 18. That young man is on trial in Kenosha for procuring that gun. He testified that if he helped the prosecution he might get a better deal from Thomas Binger in his case. Do tell.
The gun was legal. Prosecutors kept up the farce that it was not legal for more than a year until the last possible moment — before the jury got the case. That lie launched a thousand Leftist conspiracy theories. It needn’t have. They could have read the law and learned the truth. Looking at you, Bill de Blasio, you big tub of goo, and Jerry Nadler.
Thomas Binger and Jim Kraus withheld witnesses from the night in question. They lied. LIED — about the name of the man who provided drone video of the shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum. They knew who it was the whole time and then lied straightfacedly to the judge saying, “Gee, your honor we had no idea.” Of course, we later found out that the man’s name was on the witness list the whole time.
Kyle Rittenhouse Not Guilty Verdict Breaks Hollywood: ‘I Weep for This Country’
Left-wing Hollywood celebrities experienced a collective meltdown after a jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin, acquitted 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of all charges on Friday. “I weep for this country,” one star lamented, while another claimed the verdict represented a victory for “white supremacy.”
Celebrities including Sophia Bush, Patton Oswalt, and Josh Gad took their cues from the establishment media by insisting on a racial angle to the verdict, even though all the parties in the case were white. Other celebrities simply vented their rage, like Alyssa Milano, who hurled expletives at her TV as the verdict was read.
“This is white supremacy in action,” Sophia Bush tweeted.
“So…the white guy goes free. Is that the message?” author Stephen King wrote.
“Fucking not guilty,” Alyssa Milano despaired.
In one bizarre instance, ABC’s Scandal star Kerry Washington paid tribute to the two men Rittenhouse shot and killed out of self-defense — Joseph Rosenbaum, a pedophile sex offender, and Anthony Huber, a habitual woman beater.
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges on Friday following three days of jury deliberation. The 18-year-old faced two charges of murder, one charge of attempted murder, and two charges of reckless endangerment stemming from last year’s Black Lives Matter riots that saw large parts of Kenosha burn to the ground.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys argued their client acted in self-defense when he was attacked while helping to defend property against violent rioters. Rittenhouse shot and killed two rioters after they threatened him — Joseph Rosenbaum, who reached for Rittenhouse’s rifle, and Anthony Huber, who hit Rittenhouse in the head and neck with a skateboard, and reached for the rifle.
Hollywood celebrities didn’t appear concerned with the details of the case when they reacted with rage to the jury’s decision.
One Tree Hill star and left-wing activist Sophia Bush called the verdict a “miscarriage of justice,” adding: “This is white supremacy in action.
School Forces Unmasked Kids to Wear Yellow Badges
A school in the UK is forcing children who don’t wear face masks due to them having an exemption to wear yellow badges on school premises and in class.
Yes, really.
An email form the school, which is not named, was posted on Twitter by journalist Allison Pearson.
The school cites an “increase” in the number of COVID cases, despite the fact that infection levels in the UK have been flat or even in decline over recent weeks, as a justification for re-introducing mandatory mask rules.
“Those pupils who were exempt from wearing a mask last academic year will once again be exempt and should wear a yellow badge,” states the email.
The yellow badge is historically understood to symbolize a “badge of shame” and was imposed on Jews at numerous points throughout history to denote them as ethnic or religious outsiders.
While no one is comparing the treatment of Jewish people in Nazi Germany to kids being forced to wear yellow badges, the use of such a symbol is still odious and morally bankrupt.
“Does the school have teachers who know their history?” asked Pearson.
GoFundMe Denied Rittenhouse Fundraising While Crowdsourcing Funds For BLM Rioters
The crowdsourced fundraising service GoFundMe sought to justify their early decision last year to terminate campaigns for Kyle Rittenhouse after the teen shooter was acquitted on all charges Friday.
“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime. In light of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, we want to clarify when and why we removed certain fundraisers in the past,” the platform wrote on Twitter with a link to a company statement.
Yet while Rittenhouse was denied crowdsourced funds for a political show trial charging the shooter with first-degree homicide in a case that was clearly self-defense, the website is still hosting campaigns soliciting donations for Black Lives Matter activists charged with violent crimes.
Facebook and Twitter Silent on Whether Kyle Rittenhouse Support Is Still Banned
Facebook and Twitter banned support for Kyle Rittenhouse across their platforms shortly after the Kenosha riots. After a jury in Wisconsin found Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges brought against him, those same platforms refuse to say if support for the teenager is still banned.
Rittenhouse was found not guilty on five charges including first-degree reckless homicide, two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. The presiding judge, Bruce Schroeder, also dismissed two additional weapons charges.
As Breitbart News recently reported, Big Tech companies continued to censor statements of support for Rittenhouse, even as the prosecution’s case fell apart:
Over a year old, the ban is still in place on both Facebook and Instagram and is even catching GOP Senate candidates like Josh Mandel in its net.
Facebook says supporting Rittenhouse violates its guidelines on “violence or dangerous organizations.”
Users on Twitter also report that the platform is still suspending them for supporting Rittenhouse.
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