Tag: Reddit

The Story: On the final weekend of January, former President Trump's office announced a shake-up of the legal team contesting the impeachment article in the...

“It’s definitely an organic process,” CarpeDonktum told me over the phone shortly after Mr. Trump tweeted his video. “If a political campaign wanted to hire me to do viral marketing stuff for them, that could be interesting,” he mused. CarpeDonktum started making memes, like countless other online Trump supporters, after spending time on Reddit’s The_Donald forum. According to their creator, it’s no fluke that the videos caught the eye of the president; he tailors them to an older generation of internet users. “It’s boomer humor,” he said of his style of videos. And CarpeDonktum, who described himself as “an entertainer” who “wants to make people laugh,” is not above engaging in all-caps Trumpian politics (which includes angrily tweeting at liberal politicians). But at a time when our politics is programmed by what’s viral on Twitter, CarpeDonktum appears — stupefyingly as it might seem — to have something approaching power in MAGAland. “All of the memes and stuff like that.” he said. The stuff online that people dismiss as memes — that’s the way to motivate people,” he added. “It’s the viral political marketing of the future.” In theory, his story is a perfect realization of the utopian understanding of the utopian promise of the internet: a truly democratic system of communication where anyone, anywhere can create things and get them seen by important people — even the president!

Piggybacking your comment to tell the rest of the Reddit community how huge this is. Ellis was the one who was screaming at Mueller's prosecutors that the indictment was just to get Manafort to flip on Trump. I was hopeful it was just grandstanding, but this part of the ruling made me feel more optimistic than I have in a while: [T]he Special Counsel’s investigation of defendant falls squarely within the jurisdiction outlined in [paragraph b(i)] of the May 17 Appointment Order, and because [paragraph b(i)] was an appropriate grant of authority, there is no basis for dismissal of the Superseding Indictment on this ground. Paragraph b(i) of the order reads: [A]ny links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump[.] Compare with paragraph b(ii) of the order, which reads: [A]ny matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation[.] So, Judge Ellis is saying that Manafort's indictment in his court is directly related to links between Russia and Trump's campaign, and IS NOT a matter that arose directly from that investigation.

Hi, Reddit! I'm excited to do my very first AMA (of course, since I'm anti-censorship, I prefer that to the "AMAA" option). About Me: I’m Nadine Strossen, constitutional law professor and civil liberties activist, and especially eager to answer questions about the topic of my new book*—HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship—*and about ANYTHING else! I served as President of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) for 18 years (1991-2008), and I’m now on the national advisory boards of the ACLU, EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), and Heterodox Academy. I am an impassioned defender of free speech and academic freedom, which are embattled now as always; experience convinces me that these freedoms are essential for advancing “liberty and justice for all,” as well as any other cause. So that’s my favorite topic, but as a free speech absolutist, OF COURSE I welcome questions about any other topic too!