July 4, 2018

"The tradition of July 4 protest has been largely dormant for a generation now..."

"... These days, many Americans seem to disapprove of protests in general, and for them, demonstrations on the Fourth of July might seem particularly offensive, even worse than taking a knee during the national anthem. But this attitude fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the holiday. July 4 commemorates a protest so incendiary that its participants, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, risked execution as traitors to the crown. These dissidents came together to affirm their commitment to a political community based on equality, at least in theory. For a century and a half, social-justice activists honored this history by continuing it, trying to hold the nation to its own standards on the anniversary of the day they were declared. This July 4, on the heels of nationwide protests that mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in opposition to immigration policy, we ought to ask again, what does it mean to celebrate America now?"

Writes Holly Jackson — an English professor who is writing "a book about 19th-century radical movements in the United States" — in "How to Protest the Fourth of July" (NYT).

The most-liked comment over there is:
If we conduct ourselves so as not to offend Republicans or give them photo ops for November as you say, then we are as complicit as is the GOP who stay silent in the face of Trump’s daily assaults against our republic. If you can wave your flags, drink your beer, and eat your hot dogs while children are separated from their parents by our government, amongst other outrages, then you are a caricature of an American, hollow inside, and devoid of any true love of this country’s founding values.
What an insane idea: You must feel and express anger all the time or you are a hollow shell.

109 comments:

The Bergall said...

What in the hell is wrong with these people?

Perpetual misery..................

Loren W Laurent said...

"How to Protest the Fourth of July" (NYT)."

There is a difference between protesting ON the Fourth of July and protesting THE Fourth of July.

Poor headline editing or Freudian slip.

-LWL

rhhardin said...

I liked the daily assaults against the republic, followed by children in cages.

It's talking point soup.

Shouting Thomas said...

I'm gonna wave my flag, drink a beer (more likely) wine and eat a hot dog.

Hebrew National, of course!

Life is good. Let the nags bitch. I don't care.

Tregonsee said...

A good model would be the way majority of Republicans conducted themselves during the previous administration when we had a president who was functionally if not literally a Manchurian Candidate. Protest where appropriate, but continue to live your lives in a happy, productive manner while waiting for the next chance to do a meaningful protest, i.e. the next election. Worked for us, might work for them.

MikeR said...

"then we are as complicit as is the GOP" Wow. Except for a couple of hundred protesters, three hundred million Americans are complicit. As complicit as those who support it.
Good going, protesters. Way to make absolutely everyone your enemy.

PB said...

BS. To be in the spirit of the signing of the Declaration, go sign your owndamn document

rhhardin said...

Scott Adams is probably right on the diagnosis. Somebody set up a subversive bomb that couldn'tt be defused after the election, and cognitive dissonance reigns.

You'd want cognitive appoggiatura, a grace note.

Oso Negro said...

I think this "insane idea" is pretty commonplace among progressives these days, if I am to judge from the frothings of my facebook friends. "A child has been made to cry! To the barricades!" has been a popular sentiment. The more insanely they behave, the more likely Republican triumph in November. Or as Glenn Reynolds says, all they have to do is not look crazy, and they are failing at that.

Breezy said...

Have not read article yet but that commenter must be exhausted.

rhhardin said...

Take an ankle.

rhhardin said...

Elephants can take four knees.

EdwdLny said...

They hate the very place and only place that affords them opportunities unavailable to them anywhere else. They hate anyone unlike them ,anyone whom disagrees. Not unlike the Obama's, whom ,had they been in any other country, would have lived in obscurity. They are clueless and poorly educated as to the realities of life and the world. Spoiled, ignorant snots.

rhhardin said...

I myself lack a flag reflex. Flags are for post offices and embassies abroad.

Not having a flag reflex, I'm not sickened by taking a knee. Just bemused because it's protesting something that didn't happen as reported. Take a knee to support fake news.

rhhardin said...

They need a fake news flag to march around with.

rhhardin said...

May our news always be in the right; but right or wrong, our news.

Doug said...

I for one encourage these protesters to keep it up. Keep marching in your lines and carrying your signs so that we may know you for what you are. So that you can be arrested when you damage property, and you can be imprisoned when you incite violence. Keep it up.

rhhardin said...

Bombs bursting in air, but the Times is still there.

Hippogryph said...

Well, they are going to discover they are in much the same boat as the NFL anti-flag protesters.

When one directs one's protest---for whatever the specific stated object---very clearly against a symbol of the ENTIRE country, reasonable people can perceive where the true enmity lies.

The stars & stripes, the anthem, the Fourth as a holiday, are all associated with the American people as a whole, and the American project itself. There are a million ways to frame one's protests as basically aimed at improving the country, without wholly despising it. (And even a true America-hater may do all this strategically and deceitfully, too, if they have a modicum of self-control!)

I think the hard Left knows this as well as anyone else. But they just can't help themselves. They know what they hate, after all.

Anonymous said...

"For a century and a half, social-justice activists honored this history by continuing it, trying to hold the nation to its own standards on the anniversary of the day they were declared."

Ah yes,the old "hold the nation to its own standards" shtick. Invoked by people who want the founders memory-holed because of their unbearable whiteness.

Because the nation contemporary SJWs want is exactly what the founders had in mind.

And wait a minute..."the nation"? You're appealing to the history, culture, standards of a nation, Ms. English Professor? Well, we all know where that leads, don't we?

iowan2 said...

America, has since its inception, held a very rare position honor, successfully completing a transfer of power every 4 years with zero conflict.
The Democrat party has forever changed that. There was an election, The Democrats lost. Violence ensued immediately. Riots in the streets, cars burned, businesses looted, general mayhem. All instituted by the Democrat party. I fear things have a lot of room to get worse, before one side asserts physical superiority.

mccullough said...

If these activists were smart they would have the families in the detention centers celebrate the Fourth of July. Build up some goodwill with the citizenry.

But activists, like university professors who write Op Ed’s for the NYT, are fucking stupid.

mccullough said...

The protests have been non stop since Trump took office. Can’t even keep up with what they are bitching about now. The protestors need a day off like other people. Plus, Soros doesn’t want to pay time and a half for holiday pay.

Bill Peschel said...

See, this is why you need the First Amendment. So you can see where your enemies are.

It must be exhausting to be constantly virtue signaling. Too bad these keyboard revolutionaries are encouraging other idiots to risk their safety in street protests.

(I was going to type "lives," but let's face it: This isn't Venezuela, Nicaragua, China, or Iran, where real protestors risk their lives.)

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Trump haters have their greatest hits of remarks or incidents that supposedly prove he is beyond the pale, indefensible. He failed to disavow ... somebody. Now for message discipline the main one seems to be "separated children from their parents." I once googled: what happens to children if their mother is sent to prison? Are they automatically in foster care? (I think it's safe to say they are forcibly separated from their parents, or at least one of them). The answer seemed to be that child care agencies are always hoping someone will step up: the mother's most recent boyfriend (who may, at a guess, be a drug-dealing lowlife), some relative with no known record of child abuse so far, etc. The whole idea that what happened to the Central American migrants, illegally entering the U.S., is so dramatically new and different, is preposterous. One's willingness to get indignant about this, if it is honest, must be in direct proportion to ignorance of similar situations. Migrants bring kids in the hope that this will expedite the process of gaining legal status in the U.S.; by doing so, they certainly impose a more complex process on U.S. authorities. Is the answer to treat them as if they haven't committed a serious crime at all, they should just go free in the U.S.?

MayBee said...

Hahahhaha! "Trump's daily assaults against our Republic".

Kep Hartman said...

America and Americans: a country and a culture the author and her fellow travelers love to hate.

To what model of governance would they turn to? Cuba? Russia? China?... Venezuela?

I can hear their bleating: "Yeah, but all those Marxist-Leninist paradises simply weren't governed by smart people like us! Give us a chance to do a makeover to America (open-borders and all), and just see what success we will have!"

MayBee said...

Angle-Dyne, Angelic Buzzard said...
"For a century and a half, social-justice activists honored this history by continuing it, trying to hold the nation to its own standards on the anniversary of the day they were declared."

Ah yes,the old "hold the nation to its own standards" shtick. Invoked by people who want the founders memory-holed because of their unbearable whiteness.

Because the nation contemporary SJWs want is exactly what the founders had in mind.

And wait a minute..."the nation"? You're appealing to the history, culture, standards of a nation, Ms. English Professor? Well, we all know where that leads, don't we?


Perzactly

rhhardin said...

The ARRL runs a 13 colonies contest each year. Contact all 13 stations plus WM3PEN in Independence Hall and request a handsome wall certificate.

I've worked so far ny ri ct de nc and penn. But it's just a pretense for a ham event.

The question of the minute is what happens to the every-wednesday CWT contest that fills a usually empty band with hundreds of hour-long contesters from 9am to 10am, with the band not being empty this time. A collision of ham events.

Trumpit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Sablan said...

"These days, many Americans seem to disapprove of protests in general, and for them, demonstrations on the Fourth of July might seem particularly offensive, even worse than taking a knee during the national anthem."

-- People disapprove of loud, disruptive protests, like laying down in grocery aisles or blocking traffic. For the most part, contained protests -- like Occupy -- were not only tolerated, but supported by the media and political elite in several areas. Let's say I'm not particularly convinced of this so-called expert's expertise.

Matt Sablan said...

Hell, protest was so popular on the right, that the Tea Party has been the most important transformative politics in a generation in that they not only moved political thought and opinion, but *they won actual elections.* And it all started with protests.

Browndog said...

I don't understand why the most sacred secular holiday in our country went from being called Independence Day to ...being called a date on a calendar.

Matt Sablan said...

Hell, protests are so accepted that several colleges allow them to threaten, intimidate and actually do violence to conservative speakers.

We're hardly in an era where protests are "disapproved" of. You just have to look at what both sides let devolve in Charlottesville to get that, if anything, in today's America, people, police and politicians give agitators a very free hand to protest.

Trumpit said...

"What an insane idea: You must feel and express anger all the time or you are a hollow shell."

The dyed in the wool Republicans are deplorable, and loathsome per se, and many of them comment regularly on the Althouse blog. They really smell the place up. We, the illuminati, should use Trump's infamous wall plan to our advaantaage to, in various ways, wall these horrible people (rednecks, hillbillies, Hoosiers, racist hicks, etc.) off from decent society. I'm working on a nonlethal plan to do just that. Be patient. Time for an Althouse poll: What role did misogyny play in the erection of deplorable-on-steroids Donald Trump as president in 2016.

The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus , "enlightened") is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati , an Enlightenment -era secret society founded on 1 May 1776. The society's goals were to oppose superstition , obscurantism , religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power .

Matt Sablan said...

"I don't understand why the most sacred secular holiday in our country went from being called Independence Day to ...being called a date on a calendar."

-- I assume general laziness. It's shorter to write, like Xmas. Soon, it'll just be 7/4. Or 74.

AllenS said...

Trumpit said...
Time for an Althouse poll: What role did misogyny play in the erection of deplorable-on-steroids Donald Trump as president in 2016.

rhhardin said...

Answer: the CWT contest takes over the band.

William said...

I have often felt that there's too much complacency and self righteousness at Christmas Midnight Mass celebrations. It would be a fine thing to disrupt these ceremonies and make the parishioners aware of the Church's past complicity in the Spanish Inquisition.

Matt Sablan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Sablan said...

"It would be a fine thing to disrupt these ceremonies and make the parishioners aware of the Church's past complicity in the Spanish Inquisition."

-- Nobody expects to be made aware of the Church's past complicity in the Spanish Inquisition!

... No. Doesn't have the same ring to it.

Oso Negro said...

@Trumpit - Lighting the emanations of one's ass with a match can be briefly illuminating but threatening to the orifice and vicinity.

Matt Sablan said...

Also... in the last few weeks, haven't we had protesters personally and individually attack and shame members of the administration? I get that this is the opinion section, but when the opinion contains such a gross misstatement of fact, it should probably get yanked. There is no way the writer should have been able to smuggle in this thought: "These days, many Americans seem to disapprove of protests in general, and for them, demonstrations on the Fourth of July might seem particularly offensive, even worse than taking a knee during the national anthem."

I'm trying to figure out what thought the writer didn't think they could get to stand alone, so they had to smuggle it in with a bunch of weasel words, like "many" and "seem to" and "seem."

This opinion piece is based on an opinion that doesn't stand to scrutiny. I don't think I can honestly say that Americans disapprove of protests, especially when we've got high ranking politicians, journalists and others pushing people to not leave administration officials "unscathed."

Matt Sablan said...

"If you can wave your flags, drink your beer, and eat your hot dogs while children are separated from their parents by our government, amongst other outrages, then you are a caricature of an American, hollow inside, and devoid of any true love of this country’s founding values."

-- I wonder if this commenter protested during the Obama Years, or did history start anew when Trump was inaugurated?

Fernandinande said...

If you can wave your hotdogs as children are separated from their beer by our government, amongst other outrages, luncheon meats and beverages.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The person who wrote that is probably satisfied that their comment was enough effort for the cause. They can now tuck into their Brie and Chardonnay knowing that others, possibly inspired by their truculence documented here, will do the hard work of interrupting Republican meals and dishonoring our flag this lovely Independence Day. The inflammatory writer won’t be on the border protesting, Zhe won’t be helping to reunite kids who have been separated. If they do March it will be a parade of impotent anger, another sign of Democtray disarray.

DavidD said...

“ ‘I don't understand why the most sacred secular holiday in our country went from being called Independence Day to ...being called a date on a calendar.’

-- I assume general laziness. It's shorter to write, like Xmas. Soon, it'll just be 7/4. Or 74.“

Next we’ll be calling Christmas the December 25th holiday. Or Veterans Day the November 11th holiday.

Every country has a July 4th. Lots of countries have an Independence Day, too.

Does India call their Independence Day the 15 August holiday?

tcrosse said...

July 1 used to be Dominion Day, now it's Canada Day.

Robert Cook said...

"I don't understand why the most sacred secular holiday in our country went from being called Independence Day to ...being called a date on a calendar."

"SACRED?"

That stupidity aside, although I've always know that the 4th of July is known as Independence Day, I've never heard anyone use that term in everyday use. In my experience, as a child in Indiana, and then later growing up in Florida, and for the past 37 years here in NYC, eople always call this holiday the "4th of July."

traditionalguy said...

Values, values, values. Religious ideals all with, the exception of what united colonists from South Carolina to Massachusettes in 1776.

The value that United this North American Nation was an Attack by a European Tyrant King on their Private Property and their Prosperity as if he owned them. For violating that value alone the hot headed German King had his head handed to him.

Robert Cook said...

"...during the previous administration...we had a president who was functionally if not literally a Manchurian Candidate...."

If you mean a "Manchurian Candidate" for the corporate elites, you're correct.

Gahrie said...

What an insane idea: You must feel and express anger all the time

Sounds like the definition of your typical Lefty to me.

Robert Cook said...

"I for one encourage these protesters to keep it up. Keep marching in your lines and carrying your signs so that we may know you for what you are. So that you can be arrested when you damage property, and you can be imprisoned when you incite violence. Keep it up."

A Tory supporter of the King, quoted in the Philadelphia-Times Ledger, ca. 1770s.

Sydney said...

we are as complicit as is the GOP who stay silent in the face of Trump’s daily assaults against our republic

Could someone give me examples of these daily assaults? Do they mean his tweets?
As for protests, I can completely understand why someone might protest the national anthem if they feel our government Oh say! Does that star spangled banner still wave over the land of the free?” after our government decided they could force us to purchase a private product (health insurance). The answer was so obviously no, I just never sang it. Sang it last night at an Indepence Day function, though. It feels like freedom is coming back.

rcocean said...

Every time the liberal elite write about patriotism, they just show they don't have any.

Protesting for "Open Borders" and elimination of America 1.0 is a form of patriotism.

Okey-dokey.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The true hollow is that of a leftist. The empty leftist vessel is only filled when the narrative talking points are propagated by the the loyal D press.

Kids in cages outrage was not an outrage when Obama did it.

Danno said...

Blogger Oso Negro said...@Trumpit - Lighting the emanations of one's ass with a match can be briefly illuminating but threatening to the orifice and vicinity.

Does Trumpette's ass also emit penumbras?

Comanche Voter said...

Well I'm sure no hollow shell (as my wife points out when I step on the scale). That said should I be protesting these nudniks who are perpetually outraged about this, that or the other thing? I've got my life to live, and my community to support (I'm a frequent volunteer in all sorts of activities). I have neither the time nor the energy to wast on liberal nutters.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If these a-hole leftists want to cry on the 4th of July - while the rest of us have a great day, I'm cool with it.

Go worship Michael Moore, you tired empty headed leftist fools.

Comanche Voter said...

Oops, sorry about that spelling error "wast" should be "waste". Or referring back to the pour vs pore post, should that be "waist"?

Rusty said...

As if to illustrate the hollowing anger of the left, Trumpit shows up and demonstrates just how angry she is.
It must be exhausting to be so pissed off all the time.

Ralph L said...

"Trump's daily assaults against our Republic".

Soon the Pussy Internment Camps will be filled.
And the guards come and go as they please.

Seeing Red said...

TTOTM 24/7/365

Michael K said...


"I for one encourage these protesters to keep it up. Keep marching in your lines and carrying your signs so that we may know you for what you are. So that you can be arrested when you damage property, and you can be imprisoned when you incite violence. Keep it up."

A Tory supporter of the King, quoted in the Philadelphia-Times Ledger, ca. 1770s.


Thank you, Cookie. We know where those Tory supporters ended up.

Last I heard Canada was open.

CWJ said...

Not so long ago, when the "kids in cages" photo turned out to be taken during the Obama administration, not Trump's, we laughed at the opposition's own goal. I thought they'd quietly make this meme go away. Instead, they doubled down and whipped this up into a major prairie fire. Truth really is no defense against the SJW's.

Robert Cook said...

"Hell, protest was so popular on the right, that the Tea Party has been the most important transformative politics in a generation in that they not only moved political thought and opinion, but *they won actual elections.* And it all started with protests."

And corporate funding once the corporations recognized the opportunity to get more corporate-friendly stooges into office.

Browndog said...

Rusty said...

As if to illustrate the hollowing anger of the left, Trumpit shows up and demonstrates just how angry she is.
It must be exhausting to be so pissed off all the time.


They say hatred is all consuming, and will destroy you. I agree, but saddened it takes so long.

Paul Zrimsek said...

It's not that Mommie Dearest doesn't love you-- it's just that you're a continual disappointment to her.

Marty Keller said...

And corporate funding once the corporations recognized the opportunity to get more corporate-friendly stooges into office.

Thanks, Cookie; more brilliant insight signifying exactly nothing--unless of course you were referring to Hillary and Clinton, Inc.

In which case, never mind.

narciso said...

the declaration is the greatest affirmation of dissent, but you do have to believe in a higher beam, something facebook does not apparently:

https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/03/facebook-algorithm-flags-removes-declara

Bay Area Guy said...

Happy 4th of July! It's not a perfect country, it has it's flaws and mistakes, but it's a damn good country. We beat the Colonialists, the slave-holders, the Nazis and the Commies, and we're still kickin'. Here's to all the brave young men who sacrificed so that we could live in relative ease and comfort.

Jupiter said...

"These days, many Americans seem to disapprove of protests in general,"

as opposed to the bygone Golden Age, when protesting was good fun for the whole family and the populace turned out as one to whine about the country they lived in.

I am sure I would despise her politics if she could explain what they are, but it's the stupidity that really gets me down. How do they get so much stupid into those tiny little skulls?

Sebastian said...

"What an insane idea"

And there you have it, a summary of prog philosophy in four words.

Now, when you next enter a voting booth, remember that the Dems support any such "insane idea."

Michael K said...

And corporate funding once the corporations recognized the opportunity to get more corporate-friendly stooges into office.

Cookie, you missed the ending. The pols tried to take over the movement, like Dick Armey tried, but they got rejected because it was real grass roots outfit unlike Democrats and the present day marches of fools.

Then, the corporate types typical of the Clinton Crime Family and the GOPe made sure they got nowhere.

hombre said...

"What an insane idea: You must feel and express anger all the time or you are a hollow shell."

As I keep saying, Democrats are mostly lunatics behaving like delusional, petulant children. The others are looking away or pretending that the loons are not the face of the Party - a milder form of mental illness.

rhhardin said...

I just pedaled past a gathering parade storm. There were kids in strollers.

The Godfather said...

You can protest on the ground that the US is failing to live up to its ideals, or you can protest that the US has a despicable system that needs to be overthrown. Most of the great reformers followed the first course -- abolitionists, suffragettes, civil rights activists, labor reformers, etc. It worked pretty well. Today's most visible Left seems incapable of acknowledging that even our ideals are valuable.

rhhardin said...

A traditional celebration would have been playing cards clothes-pinned in the spokes.

mockturtle said...

Most of us can be thankful today that our nation is not represented by the hysterical readers of the NYT or the WaPo.

hombre said...

@MichaelK (9:27): The quote should be right on. Every Antifa uprising violates federal law prohibiting conspiring to violate the civil rights of others.

Trouble is, the FBI is busy opposing Trump and investigating NCAA violations. Consequently, the matters are left in the hands of local police, stooges for Democrat city councils, who revoke the permits of lawful demonstrators rather than arresting Antifa thugs.

William said...

What really enrages me is Mother's Day. What right do these callous bastards have to celebrate Mother's Day. They rip children from the embrace of their mother and then go on to take their mother to an expensive dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. I hope next Mother's Day, the celebrants are properly shamed and harassed in the restaurants throughout America. Only in this way can we make America a country worthy of its ideals.

Big Mike said...

Holly Jackson and our own, dear, Cookie have problems understanding the last two words in the Declaration of Independence: “Sacred” and “Honor.” Strange words whose meaning they simply can’t wrap their feeble brains around.

ALP said...

"You must feel and express anger all the time or you are a hollow shell."

What. You. Said. I am particularly fed up with the plethora of articles about people who are all fired up and suddenly politically active, driven by the anger they feel over Trump. They are proud of this! I interpret their actions as: "I was a lazy, self absorbed asshole until I felt the need to relieve my uncomfortable emotional state by joining a political action group."

I guess happy, content people never volunteer to make the world a better place? Do I have that right?

wwww said...

"I for one encourage these protesters to keep it up. Keep marching in your lines and carrying your signs so that we may know you for what you are. So that you can be arrested when you damage property, and you can be imprisoned when you incite violence. Keep it up."

A Tory supporter of the King, quoted in the Philadelphia-Times Ledger, ca. 1770s.

LOL!


Frederick Douglass protested the Fourth of July. some people say he's getting noticed more and more.

Roughcoat said...

What an insane idea: You must feel and express anger all the time or you are a hollow shell.

Almost as insane as the idea that feeling joy should make you uncomfortable.

n.n said...

#HateLovesAborton

tcrosse said...

Three Cheers for the Grand Old Flagellant.

chuck said...

> What an insane idea

#walkaway

Darrell said...

In the 50s and 60s, you heard Independence Day as often as your heard 4th of July. Everyone said both, usually reserving the latter to refer to the picnics, grilling, beer, and fireworks aspects.

Michael K said...

All they have to do is not act crazy for six months (four now) and they can't even do that.

Gahrie said...

I actually support the idea that today is a perfect day to protest the government. As long as you do it peacefully and respecting the rights of others. Perhaps a protest on the steps of city hall, which is closed today anyway?

Drago said...

I fully expect to see ragtag bands of exuberant Cow-costumed individuals storming burger-joints and taking their meat to toss in the harbors and lakes and ponds all the while waving signs that read "Eat Mor Chiken"

Sam L. said...

One more reason to despise the NYT!

Darrell said...

Soros had planned violence coast-to-coast for today--I wonder if they cancelled it. A few things happened yesterday.

tim in vermont said...

What was Trump's assault against the Republic yesterday?

Freeman Hunt said...

Bet that commenter gets invited to a lot of shindigs. "Where's Angry Marty? Didn't he get the email?"

Jim at said...

What an insane idea: You must feel and express anger all the time or you are a hollow shell.

Actually, today's left manages to do both.

Jim at said...

Perpetual misery..................

Yep. And the best part?
They deserve it.

Michael K said...

Trouble is, the FBI is busy opposing Trump and investigating NCAA violations.

And, That's not all they can do.

The FBI once taught its agents that they can "bend or suspend the law" as they wiretap suspects. But the bureau says it didn't really mean it, and has now removed the document from its counterterrorism training curriculum, calling it an "imprecise" instruction. Which is a good thing, national security attorneys say, because the FBI's contention that it can twist the law in pursuit of suspected terrorists is just wrong.

"Dismissing this statement as 'imprecise' is a rather unsatisfying response given the very precise lines Congress and the courts have repeatedly drawn between what is and is not permissible, even in counterterrorism cases, over the past decade," Steve Vladeck, a national-security law professor at American University, says. "It might technically be true that the FBI has certain authorities when conducting counterterrorism investigations that the Constitution otherwise forbids, but that's good only so far as it goes."


Yup, and it was the counterintell office that went rogue.

Douglas B. Levene said...

I wonder if the professor encouraging these protests would like having a group of conservatives follow her around, verbally having assign he as she’s shopping, eating in a restaurant, putting her kid on the school bus? Because that’s the next step.

Johhnybandit said...

Tim ask "What was Trump's assault against the Republic yesterday?"
Wasn't it something about the republic could not survive his poor spelling?

Doug said...

Wwww said, A Tory supporter of the King, quoted in the Philadelphia-Times Ledger, ca. 1770s.

LOL!

So, I take it you are for now arrests for lawbreakers and no imprisonment for violent crimes?

Rusty said...

Darrell said...
"Soros had planned violence coast-to-coast for today--I wonder if they cancelled it. A few things happened yesterday."

Today they're more likely to run into some guy who was in Korea or Vietnam or Iraq. One of those guy would punch em in the face. Progressives don't like getting punched in the face. Especially by guys who don't give a fuck that you'll run to the police of get your lawyer on em.
Especiall the old guys who used to marines. Those guys are nuts.

Michael K said...

WWWW forgets where all those Tories ended up.

Robert Cook said...

"Soros had planned violence coast-to-coast for today--I wonder if they cancelled it. A few things happened yesterday."

Is that what the Tinfoil Hat Association reported?

Robert Cook said...

"It might technically be true that the FBI has certain authorities when conducting counterterrorism investigations that the Constitution otherwise forbids, but that's good only so far as it goes."

"Technically true?" "Might be?" How can that be? (It can't.) I guess "technically true" must be synonymous with "actually false." "Good only so far as it goes?" It doesn't go anywhere, so the FBI exceeding constitutional limits to any degree is bad. There is no "good." (Didn't we learn this at WACO...or from our Civics classes?)

No American law enforcement agency at any level may be allowed "certain authorities" that are forbidden by the Constitution "except when conducting counterterrorism investigations." There are no exceptions in the Constitution to the limits it places on government use of or "authorities" granted to law enforcement.

rcocean said...

Its a "flawed Country" - what kind of defensive stupid shit is that?

You want to go live somewhere else, in a mythical "perfect" country?

Please go - you unpatriotic wanker.

Nobody asked your "beloved immigrant" parents, or grand parents, or great grandparents to come here. And no one is keeping you from leaving.

You think Israel or Ireland, or Canada or Mexico is better? Then, hit the bricks pal, and don't let the door hit you on the way out!

You stupid wankers, always complain and never leave. You subvert and destroy but never build.

Michael K said...


"Soros had planned violence coast-to-coast for today--I wonder if they cancelled it. A few things happened yesterday."

Is that what the Tinfoil Hat Association reported?


You would be far better at explaining what they reported.

Did your DSA memo get lost ?

wwww said...
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