Woody Guthrie- This Land Is Your Land

Woody Guthrie- This Land Is Your Land

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wsj-reporter-arrested-in-russia_n_64254dcbe4b02a8d518cad37

OMG!

'Russia’s security service arrested an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations and demanded his release.

Evan Gershkovich was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information, the Federal Security Service, known by the acronym FSB, said Thursday.'

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges...At a hearing Thursday, a Moscow court quickly ruled to keep Gershkovich behind bars pending the investigation.

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/has-cfo-allen-weisselberg-finally?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

The Status Kuo: Has CFO Allen Weisselberg Finally Flipped on Trump?

'...Changing counsel in the middle of serving a short prison sentence also makes little sense, unless...something important has happened. So...what might have caused Weisselberg to want to retain his own lawyers... with no Trumpy strings attached?...One possibility...was that Bragg intended to hold back other possible charges, first giving Weisselberg a taste of what it’s like to be in Rikers, even for a short time...

Enter Letitia James, the New York Attorney General currently suing the Trump Organization for false financial statements on inflated property values. In one of her filings, she laid out a possible open-and-shut insurance fraud case against Weisselberg. He had claimed, falsely, that the value of the Trump Organization’s real estate holdings had been assessed by an independent appraiser, but that turned out to be a lie...If it’s easily provable that Weisselberg made those false representations...that means any new sentence could be far higher than a few months. A few years could effectively be a life sentence, especially at Weisselberg’s age.

But it is...quite possible...that Weisselberg has...flipped on Trump. If so, this could be what is causing all this shuffling and confusing signaling. A pending appearance by Weisselberg...would surely be enough reason for the DA’s office to postpone final presentation and take additional time to prepare for that testimony... Patience, along with a deep and satisfying breath, is in order...If in the end the story plays out like this, and Trump really does goes down like Al Capone for financial fraud because his CFO finally gives up the goods, all under very clever, incremental pressure from prosecutors, then we will owe the Manhattan DA a collective apology and some major props for playing the long game. He will have truly earned, shall we say, big bragg-ing rights.'

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-org-suddenly-fired-its-jailed-money-man-allen-weisselbergs-lawyer?ref=home

This is a very interesting development. Worth reading the entire article (my words).

'For months, the Trump Organization paid New York City lawyer Nicholas Gravante to represent Weisselberg. But according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, Gravante wasn’t “Trumpy” enough to keep onboard.

Five people who spoke to The Daily Beast did confirm that Weisselberg is now being represented by defense lawyer Seth L. Rosenberg, who previously spent time running the rackets bureau at the very same DA’s office that is now investigating the case.

According to two people familiar with the situation and one law enforcement source, prosecutors in recent weeks have discussed applying additional pressure to Weisselberg, who is currently behind bars in the dreaded New York City jail at Rikers Island until at least April.'

https://hartmannreport.com/p/does-america-need-an-emmett-till?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

'Leadership from multiple venues in American journalism should get together and decide what photos to release, for maximum impact and minimum trauma.' Thom Hartmann

THE HARTMANN REPORT

'His mother, Mamie Bradley, made the extraordinarily brave decision to show her child’s mutilated face with an open-coffin funeral in their hometown of Chicago....

And now we have another mass school shooting, this time in Tennessee with three 9-year-old girls dead as well as 3 adults. Immediately followed by another pathetic Republican congressman claiming that Congress can’t do a thing...This is a phenomenon as systemic and unique to the United States today as Jim Crow was in the 1950s. The gun control movement needs to learn from the Civil Rights movement.'

https://www.rawstory.com/manhattan-grand-jury-considering-trump-s-hush-money-case-will-break-for-a-month/

So much for an indictment anytime soon, I guess.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-2/#:~:text=Second%20Amendment%20Right%20to%20Bear,Arms%2C%20shall%20not%20be%20infringed.

CONSTITUTION ANNOTATED: Congress.gov: Library of Congress

'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'

'For much of its early history, the Second Amendment went largely unscrutinized by the Supreme Court. The few nineteenth century cases implicating the Second Amendment established for a time that the Amendment was a bar to federal, but not state, government action,1 and the Court’s only significant Second Amendment decision in the twentieth century seemed to suggest that the right protected under the Amendment was tied only to state militia use of certain types of firearms.'

Then came Heller (my words):
'By the beginning of the twenty-first century, many of the U.S. Courts of Appeals that considered the matter concluded that the Second Amendment protected a collective right tied to militia or military use of firearms,4 while some courts and commentators maintained that the Amendment enshrined an individual right to possess firearms outside the context of militia or military activity.5 In the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller,6 the Supreme Court held, after a lengthy historical analysis, that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for historically lawful purposes, including self-defense in the home.7

In the 2022 case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen,13 the Court considered the constitutionality under the Second Amendment of a portion of New York’s firearms licensing scheme that restricts the carrying of certain licensed firearms outside the home. In a 6-3 decision, the Court struck down New York’s requirement that an applicant for an unrestricted license to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense must establish proper cause, ruling that the requirement is at odds with the Second Amendment.14 In doing so, the Court recognized that the Second Amendment protects a right that extends beyond the home15 and also clarified that the proper test for evaluating Second Amendment challenges to firearms laws is an approach rooted in text and the historical tradition of firearms regulation, rejecting a two-step methodology employed by many of the lower courts.16'

https://popular.info/p/the-inside-story-of-why-a-florida?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

Heads up, people. This is how easy it is to control school curriculum. Well worth the read (my words).

'Ruby Bridges is a civil rights hero...Bridges was the first Black child to desegregate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, fulfilling the promise of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education...She faced a mob of protesters screaming racial slurs and had to be escorted by federal marshals. White parents wouldn't allow their children to share a classroom with Bridges, so she was taught alone. She could only bring food from home because federal marshals were worried that Bridges would be poisoned.

In 1998, Disney made a movie about Bridges' life...For years, schools in Pinellas County, Florida, have shown the film about Bridges as part of their Black History Month curriculum...parents were sent a trailer of the movie and asked to sign a permission slip. Emily Conklin, the parent of a second grader at North Shore Elementary in Pinellas County, decided not to allow her child to watch the film...But for Conklin, that wasn't enough. On March 6, Conklin filed an "Objection to Instructional And/Or Media Material" seeking to ban the Ruby Bridges film for all second graders — and even much older students.

According to Pinellas County School Board policy, after "a parent objects to the use of the material with other children besides their own child," the objection must be reviewed by the "School-Based Instructional Materials Review Committee,"...There is no time frame for these reviews. Critically, the "material in question will remain in use until the School-Based Instructional Materials Review Committee recommends a final decision."

Nevertheless, in response to Conklin's objection, North Shore Elementary banned the film from its school pending a review, according to the Tampa Bay Times.'

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-8f6?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

Joyce Vance: Civil Discourse:

'...the former president’s first campaign rally to try to become the future president was launched, celebrating his connection to the convicted criminals who stormed the Capitol on January 6 to try to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power...“2024 is the final battle. That’s gonna be the big one...He was, predictably, pro-Putin and anti-prosecutor.

What of the grand old men of the Republican Party? A former president? Senators? Governors? Leaders of all stripes and at all levels? Silent, in abdication of public responsibility for the monster they’d invited in and have permitted to remain, no matter how much private distaste they may have for him.

For many people, it’s easier to ignore Trump than to pay attention. But we cannot afford to look away...Last week, lawmakers toured the District of Columbia jail where Jan. 6 defendants are being held, at the behest of Trump cronies like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. They expressed concern that people held there reported being mistreated despite the fact that they have far better access to their lawyers and technology than most people in custody, and they had sufficient resources to tape the “J6 Choir” song with Trump.— Following the visit, first-term Texas Representative and former public defender Jasmine Crockett corrected the Republican narrative. “Somebody’s got to be here to tell the truth,” she said. “If we weren’t here, there would be no check for whatever it was that they said.” But Republicans don’t seem to be listening.'