On June 6th the 8th Circut Court of Appeals affirmed Jessica’s 8 year sentence but did not affirm the terrorism enhancement calling it a “harlmess error” leaving the question of its legality open. In deed the terrorism enhancement raises the range of punishment by more than the five-fold. The three Trump-appointed appeal judges disregarded this argument, saying Reznicek would have been sentenced to 96 months either way. In order for the terrorism enhancement to be triggered, the actions must be “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.”
“Sentencing Jess under a federal terrorism enhancement for acts of civil disobedience targeting private property sets an alarming precedent for climate justice movements and endangers Indigenous and front-line defenders most impacted by worsening climate conditions. These communities are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change. The ability to call for substantial measures to slow or halt climate change is literally a matter of life or death for us.” said the Water Protector Legal Collective in a statement following the decision.
Federal prosecutors only pursued terrorism enhancements against Reznicek after 84 Congressional representatives wrote a letter in 2017 to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting that Reznicek and other protestors who tamper with tar sand oil pipelines be prosecuted as domestic terrorists. The authors of this letter received a combined $36 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. If the decision stands, the judicial branch will continue applying terrorism enhancements to activists, while claiming that a drastically increased sentence from being labled a terrorists by the U.S. govenment is “harmless”.
We wish you a nice Midsummer! Today is the longest day. Happy winter solstice for the southern hemisphere! ♦ Wir wünschen einen schönen Mittsommer! Heute ist der längste Tag. Für die Südhalbkugel eine schöne Wintersonnenwende! ♦ Desejamos-lhe um bom Solstício de Verão! Hoje é o dia mais longo. Feliz solstício de inverno para o hemisfério sul! ♦ ¡Les deseamos un buen verano! Hoy es el día más largo. ¡Feliz solsticio de invierno para el hemisferio sur! ♦ Nous vous souhaitons un agréable solstice d'été ! Aujourd'hui est le jour le plus long. Joyeux solstice d'hiver pour l'hémisphère sud! ∎
It is me on FB: “That just seems to be true in deed to me what Yanis Varoufakis is telling here. Really worth to read. Even just what the reporter asks needs to be known: “What would you tell about the world majority not being in support of the sanctions against Russia? No country on the African continent, none in the Middle east, the whole of Latin America as well as the countries with the largest population India and China do not speak for the sanctions” - all translated literally into German. At the bottom you can watch the original news in English language.”
Write an email to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, do what you can. Certainly you may also browse my previous messages about Julian to get more information on what to write.
Algorithm Watch wanted to analyse Facebook´s algorithm. They had to withdraw their donation project for data research for not to be sued by Facebook. When platforms like Facebook push certain content and stifle other, it can have a critical impact on public discourse. It is known that Facebook fosters content that attracts many clicks and interaction; something that also applies to fake news. Then again unwanted information can be suppressed readily if there is no public accountability. Algorithm Watch demands a Digital Services Act, which protects research in public interest.
Not just social media but even search engines are downgrading or taking certain content out of the index. The problem is not as significant with search engines but apparently there is targeted influence on search results also here in the West. The author of this page searches regularely for his own content and currently more and more sites and content from elstel and his own person disappear. It´s been quite a while since only the two controversial pages mentioned in my previous message linked from here had been obviously affected. Today it is about almost every page at elstel. It is also a long time since pirate bay founder Peter Sunde let people prick up their ears by his article ‘I Have Given Up’ which is about the free internet. Today, most likely you can find something at metager or eventually at entireweb. Bing does also censor but it lasts for them longer than for Google to downgrade or take a site out of the index.
