Rising fascism in the US

Opinion: Why I’m suing for my right to flip off the president

One sunny Saturday last fall, I hopped on my bike and headed out for a ride near my home in Virginia. President Trump decided to spend some time outdoors that day, too, at the golf course he owns, not far from my biking route. Our paths crossed on Lowes Island Boulevard. As his motorcade sped by, I extended my middle finger in a brief and almost reflexive expression of my frustration with his mean-spirited and narrow-minded politics.

Three days later, I lost my job.

A wire service photographer covering Trump captured the gesture, and a Voice of America reporter posted the photo online. It went viral. The next evening, I used the photo as the background on my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts, neither of which mentioned where I worked. But after the weekend, I did let my employer, Akima, know that I was the cyclist in the picture.

While acknowledging that the First Amendment protected my right to extend my middle finger, my boss told me that “corporate protection” dictated that he terminate me on the grounds of a social media policy that prohibits “obscene” or “inappropriate” content. ­Akima does business with the government, and company executives obviously feared that the Trump administration would (unconstitutionally) penalize my employer for my gesture. So, that Tuesday, they forced me out.

The First Amendment bars retaliation against me by Trump. But Trump doesn’t need to punish me for my speech if fear of him spurs my employer to do it. And a private employer can’t suppress my freedom of expression on my own time out of fear of illegal government retaliation without violating Virginia employment law, which is why I filed a lawsuit against my former employer this week.

I am not alone in having my ability to make a living threatened by my desire to exercise my right to free speech. No one who follows football thinks that all 50 quarterbacks signed by NFL teams in the past year are more talented than Colin Kaepernick. The president’s relentless attacks on Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem created an environment in which many teams were reluctant to sign him and risk a backlash that could hurt their bottom line. Now Eric Reid, one of the first to join Kaepernick’s protest, is facing speculation that the salary he can draw as a free agent is reduced because he engaged in political dissent.

These are the stories that have made news, but this facilitation of speech suppression is creeping throughout the private sector. Take, for example, Protect Democracy, the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization helping me bring my lawsuit. Members of the group have told me that their mission — preventing a slide to a more authoritarian form of government — has made it difficult for them to rent office space in Cambridge, Mass.; landlords, they say, fear retaliation from the federal government.

This sort of behavior is familiar to people living in Egypt, Hungary, Thailand, Turkey and Russia, where the ability to do business increasingly depends on being seen as favorable to the regime. As a result, companies in each of these countries do not hire or do business with known dissenters. And that pressure — making citizens choose between their pocketbooks and their principles — starts a downward spiral that ultimately dismantles a democracy.

Let’s call this “autocratic capture.” Autocratic capture is not new to the world, but it is new to this country, and it is up to all of us to keep it from taking root. Our democracy depends on it. As James Madison warned in the early days of the United States, the “value and efficacy” of free elections “depends” on Americans’ “equal freedom” to examine the “merits and demerits of the candidates.” But if Americans can keep their jobs only when they refrain from criticizing the president, then that freedom is lost. And once the freedom to speak is lost, then the rest of our constitutional rights will not be far behind.

Trump had steered clear of talking about Sinclair, but that changed Monday, when he tweeted that it’s “so funny” to see criticism of Sinclair from other media outlets, arguing that the company is “far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke."

Might as well call it what it is.

For your consideration: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14007-no-actually-this-is-what-a-fascist-looks-like

I don't want Donald Trump elected to dogcatcher, but this shite perpetrated by The Boston Globe is inexcusable and the people who had administrative control over this rag should be fired. This is clear propaganda meant to sway political opinions by a "newspaper." Amazing this can happen in this country.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2016/presidential-election-headquarters?intcmp=subnav

Meanwhile, our news media blacked out mention of Bernie for months as he ran for the presidency, ensuring as few people as possible would hear about him - as if they - the media - were on Hillary's payroll. There have been several massive rallies and protests, such as the one that's happening right now in DC, that the media intentionally blacked out. Smells like China.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/why-ny-times-basically-doing-blackout-bernie-sanders

I'm also concerned about the fact that Edward Snowden is the one who had to run for his life instead of the administration officials regarding what Snowden dropped to the public. Why in hell hasn't some action been taken to put a stop to governmental intrusion into our lives? http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/why-edward-snowden-is-a-hero


I despise the direction my country is headed.

What do you think?

I don't know, I am not a lawyer.

And a private employer can’t suppress my freedom of expression on my own time out of fear of illegal government retaliation without violating Virginia employment law, which is why I filed a lawsuit against my former employer this week.

Who said anyone was a Nazi? Have I said so in a post and forgotten?