American Politics | News and Discussions

[Zibago]

Why hasn't US implemented regulations like EU to make the flag with non-flammable material, will solve flag burning problem

They will first buy flammable flags then burn them

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

They will first buy flammable flags then burn them

It cuts down the availability.

Either they have make the flag themselves or obtain it by illicit means.

 

[Zibago]

Which do you think would be better? Try to criminalize an act already ruled protected speech and try to convince Congress to support it? Or ignore it and hope instances die down.

I don't know what started Trump's message regarding flag burning in the first place since I don't recall any incidents recently, but his Tweet is what caused this recent rash of flag burnings and challenges to his statement. If he doesn't respond he doesn't provoke this kind of discussion or these types of actions. Criminalizing flag burning seems like it would only make civil disobedience worse.

But what does everyone else think?



Maybe because that would violate an individual's to freedom of symbolic speech? I dunno honestly, but it would seem like a good move. Protected or not, burning flags is dangerous.



I largely feel and think the same way. Flag burning was illegal in Norway until 2008, now it's legal. I'll protect someone's rights to burn our flag if they want to, but they'd better not let me see them doing it.

I took up arms to defend that flag, its values and its symbolism and I'd be rather pissed if I saw someone desecrating our colors... but I also took up arms to defend their right to do so and if the law says it's legal, then I support that.

What do you think a person who calls climate change a Chinese hoaxhoax will do?
He lets his emotions over-ride his sense of judgement

 

[ultron]

would Sun Tzu be proud of you, superboy ?

Sun Tzu would have had flag burners hanged. Sun Tzu killed two palace women with his own hands in order to train palace women.

 

[anon45]

Free speech has limits. It is okay when directed against particular politicians in a peaceful protest. Hate speech is not okay. Flag burning which insults hundreds of millions of Americans is not okay.

Free speech has limits when the actions of which can be reasonably assumed to cause direct harm to people, such as specified death threats, calls of fire in a crowded area, bomb threats, etc.

Burning a flag in protest does not meet that definition, unless the guy throws the burning flag at someone or does so within a small crowded building.

If burning a flag can be outlawed due to the symbolism being insulting, then so can drawings of allah and mohammed be outlawed, so can kkk demonstrations be outlawed, so can black power or white power or feminist or chauvinist demonstrations be outlawed.


In fact, if we want to go by insulting millions of Americans, political protest can be outlawed because, for example, counter protest for or protest against a war can insult hundreds of millions of Americans.

You won't find many things that don't insult anybody.

No, i refuse to go down that road quietly.

 

[ultron]

How about a national referendum? Should flag burning and destruction be criminalized.

 

[ultron]

http://qz.com/849318/twitter-twtr-says-it-will-ban-trump-if-he-breaks-hate-speech-rules/

 

[ultron]

@500 @C130

 

[LA se Karachi]

I agree...but where was Carter 8 years ago when Obama first took office..he should have been pushing hard for it then.
I never had a problem with Carter. However he didn't push it previously because he didn't want the political fallout. Pushing it now (after Hillary lost) so Trump has to deal with it seems rather low.

He did push President Obama on Palestinian statehood during his first term. From 2011:

"Former President Jimmy Carter urges the United States to not veto the Security Council vote for Palestinian statehood anticipated to take place next week.

"If I were president, I'd be very glad to see the Palestinians have a nation recognized by the United Nations," Carter tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered. "There's no downside to it."

Carter admits that for President Obama, failure to veto "would have some adverse effects perhaps on his political future.

But he thinks it's a price worth paying. His predecessor Harry Truman backed the creation of Israel for moral reasons, against the advice of his inner circle. Carter says that today, Palestinian statehood is "a basic moral commitment" for the U.S."

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/18/140558127/jimmy-carter-no-downside-to-palestine-statehood
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/18/140558127/jimmy-carter-no-downside-to-palestine-statehood

 

[ultron]

When voters vote in the general election in the US, they do not vote for the presidential candidates, as in most countries of the world. Instead, they vote for the electors of their states / DC. This is explicitly stated in the Constitution. No one in the US ever votes for candidates. Only the electors are voted on. It is incorrect to state Hillary Clinton got 65 million popular votes. Every candidate got exactly 0 popular votes.

When the voters in each state cast votes for the Presidential candidate of their choice they are voting to select their state's Electors.

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html

Each presidential elector shall execute and file with the secretary of state a pledge that, as an elector, he or she will vote for the candidates nominated by that party. The names of presidential electors shall not appear on the ballots. The votes cast for candidates for president and vice president of each political party shall be counted for the candidates for presidential electors of that political party…
http://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.56.320
http://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.56.320

 

[ultron]

@500 @C130

 

[maximuswarrior]

Does it even matter now? The election has been decided.

 

[Banglar Bir]

Congress Approves Measure for Crusade Against “Fake News” — Using DoD Funding
Justin Gardner December 2, 2016


http://thefreethoughtproject.com/congress-readies-crusade-against-fake-news-ndaa/

Congress is ready to join the crusade against so-called “fake news,” forwarding a measure through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to combat purported foreign propaganda and disinformation. The news comes after mainstream media have been busy promoting bogus blacklists, lashing out at those who dare question the narrative.

According to VOA:

“A congressional committee on Wednesday approved the measure, which would expand the ability of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center to identify and combat online disinformation. It still must be voted on by the full House and Senate and signed by the president before taking effect…

The measure advanced this week would draw on the resources of the Defense Department, intelligence agencies, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Broadcasting Board of Governors — parent organization to Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded international broadcasters — according to the Washington Post newspaper.”

The effort grew out of the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act and would supposedly stick to foreign targets. However, the Snowden revelations made us well aware that government is ready and willing to turn its powers on domestic targets — without notification.

The fact that this $160 million, two-year authorization is being advanced through the annual military budget makes it all the more disconcerting. Under the guise of the war on terror, the NDAA has been used to increase Executive authority, and the 2012 version went so far as to authorize the indefinite military detention of U.S. civilians without habeus corpus.

In promoting the bill, Sen. Chris Murphy gave the Washington Post some propaganda to repeat, saying, “In the wake of this election, it’s pretty clear that the U.S. does not have the tools to combat this massive disinformation machinery that the Russians are running.”

Another cheerleader, Sen. Rob Portman, said, “[Russia and China] spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations.”

Naturally, the Washington Post did not analyze these statements, and failed to mention that last year the Pentagon ramped up its information war through the STRATCOM program. Based in Latvia, on the front lines of the new Cold War, this program merges “psychological operations, propaganda and public affairs under the catch phrase ‘strategic communications.’”

This “new temple to information technology” represents the latest evolution in a decades-long effort to control the narrative so U.S. military hegemony can advance unchecked, making endless war the norm. The control and manipulation of information is now viewed as a “soft power” weapon.

To battle fake news and foreign propaganda, the U.S. merely engages in a bigger and better form of fake news and propaganda.
But why would they need a new Congressional initiative to combat purported Russian propaganda if they already have STRATCOM? Considering the establishment’s war on alternative media and those who legitimately question the narrative, the NDAA measure could be frightening indeed.

More than one blacklist has been propagated through mainstream media – with no evidence or rational justification – lumping reputable news and opinion sources with actual “fake news.”

The Washington Post wins the prize for most desperate attempt, suggesting that around 200 websites – including this one – are willing co-conspirators or “useful idiots” in a massive Russian propaganda campaign. The list included longtime, respected outlets such as Ron Paul Institute, Consortium News, Truth Dig, AntiWar.com and others.

To advance this claim, Craig Timberg referenced a group called PropOrNot, although no research or evidence was provided, nor were the people behind the list revealed. We’re supposed to just take their word for it, because they are the hallowed mainstream media.

So it’s no surprise that Timberg proudly wrote a Washington Post article trumpeting the Congressional measure as “the most significant initiative against foreign governments’ disinformation campaigns since the 1990s.”

The reference to “foreign governments’” rings hollow, as this is the same author pushing a McCarthyist crusade against American outlets. Authentic analysis of U.S. foreign policy is anathema to the Washington establishment, whose think-tanks generate endless war as “primary provocateurs” with MSM outlets acting as “secondary communicators.”

Timberg and fellow crusaders don’t seem to appreciate the fact that we criticize the war-mongering of all governments, not just America’s. Hillary was exposed as a key player in this perpetuation of endless war.

The rise of Donald Trump – whose authoritarian tendencies may turn out to be even worse for the cause of peace – doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have called out Hillary. It means the system is broken.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/co...e-against-fake-news-ndaa/#6mDKydJfZ3whJMJ2.99

 

[nadeemkhan110]

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at U.S. Bank Arena on Thursday in Cincinnati.
Ty Wright/Getty Images

The first publicly known phone call between a U.S. president-elect and a leader of Taiwan since 1979 took place on Friday when Donald Trump accepted a call from President Tsai Ying-wen.

JOSHUA KEATING
The U.S. has not formally recognized Taiwan since re-establishing relations with the People’s Republic of China that year. The phone call could infuriate the Chinese government, which considers Taiwan part of China and has taken extreme umbrage at U.S. support for Taiwan in the past.

The Financial Times writes that “it is not clear if the Trump transition team intended the conversation to signal a broader change in U.S. policy towards Taiwan,” which generously implies that the Trump transition team has any idea at all what it’s signaling. It’s important to remember that Trump is not takingthe State Department briefings that presidents-elect usually have before these calls and doesn’t seem to have any regard for how his statements will be interpreted.

News of this unprecedented call comes a day after Trump caused a befuddled reaction from traditional American ally India when he reportedly fawned over Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during another phone call. Then, earlier on Friday, the president-elect reportedly invited Rodrigo “Asia’s Donald Trump” Duterte to the White House, despite the fact that the Philippine president has called President Obama a “son of a whore” and encouraged death squads to kill thousands of drug dealers. (A Duterte aide described this as an invitation, but it also seems possible it was just one of the casual “come by and see me some time” lines Trump has been using on other leaders and Duterte interpreted it as something more formal.)



Making this Taiwan news all the worse, the Trump organization has reportedly been in discussions about building a series of luxury resorts and hotels there, so this could potentially be one of the many areas where he could use American foreign policy to advance his own business interests. The Philippines, which recently named a Trump-linked developer as its special envoy to the United States, is another one. A government official receiving gifts from foreign governments is a violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, and there’s only one potential remedy for such an abuse, scholars have said.

In any event, this is all very dangerous. Americans may have gotten used to the idea, by now, that Trump is mostly just winging it, but foreign governments will read his ad libs as official and deliberate U.S. policy positions. At this rate, Trump is on track to spark a major international crisis before he even takes office. If there’s anyone within his transition team that’s at all concerned about protecting national and international security over the next four years, it’s imperative that they do two things as soon as humanly possible: 1. Appoint a secretary of state who has a baseline knowledge of international affairs that Trump will actually listen to, and 2. Take away his phone now.

Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...wanese_president_seems_to_be_just_making.html

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Well US has had a problem with spying on its own head of state that is why many candidates and ex president and people of knowlede tend to keep their emails on their private networks , because once their private intentions are picked up by


Watchers of the GROUP, they initiate a internal dicipline program to try to pressure the Candidate with scandals