Judge rejects Mueller’s request for delay in Russian troll farm case

A federal judge has rejected special counsel Robert Mueller’s request to delay the first court hearing in a criminal case charging three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens with using social media and other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In a brief order Saturday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich offered no explanation for her decision to deny a request prosecutors made Friday to put off the scheduled Wednesday arraignment for Concord Management and Consulting, one of the three firms charged in the case.

Via Politico

Featured Image: DonkeyHotey/Flickr

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A Sheriff Just Threatened Charges Over ‘Fuck Trump’ Sticker — and the Internet Is Destroying Him

(ANTIMEDIA) A Texas sheriff is under fire for making a Facebook post about his intention to take punitive measures against a truck driver displaying a bumper sticker declaring “FUCK TRUMP AND FUCK YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM.”

On Wednesday morning, Sheriff Troy E. Nehls of Fort Bend County, Texas, posted a picture of the back of a truck asking members of the community to help him find the ‘offender.’

“I have received numerous calls regarding the offensive display on this truck as it is often seen along FM 359. If you know who owns this truck or it is yours, I would like to discuss it with you,” he said.

Nehls apparently already sought to impose punishment, adding, “Our Prosecutor has informed us she would accept Disorderly Conduct charges regarding it, but I feel we could come to an agreement regarding a modification to it.”

He also posted a picture in the comments of legal code concerning disorderly conduct, apparently attempting to justify his attempt to suppress free speech by suggesting the truck driver was instigating a breach of the peace.

The statute, Sec. 42.01, says “a person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly uses abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace,” or if it “makes an offensive gesture of display in a public place, and the gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”

Attempting to cite this statute suggests Trump supporters could be so triggered by free speech about the president they might incite violence, a particularly hilarious notion considering the right has spent months virtue signaling about the first amendment and scolding leftists for being violent snowflakes.

And the Internet responded swiftly as thousands of commenters flowed in offering relentless trolling, thoughtful defenses of free speech, and cutting rebukes of partisan hypocrisy. The trolls were numerous:

Other commenters were straightforward and to the point, citing previous court decisions and defenses of free speech:

Still others tackled partisan hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance:

Some commenters defended the sheriff and received immediate responses:

A couple  pointed out the fact that people actually called the police because they were so offended:

The truck driver also received an offer from a lawyer and former prosecutor for free legal assistance:

The ACLU of Texas also chimed in:

“Sheriff Troy E. Nehls, Constitutional Law 101: You can’t ban speech just because it has ‘f@ck’ in it.

“Hey truck owner, feel free to contact the ACLU of Texas.”

Sheriff Troy E. Nehls, Constitutional Law 101: You cant ban speech just because it has f@ck in it.Hey truck owner, feel free to contact the ACLU of Texas.

Posted by ACLU of Texas on Wednesday, November 15, 2017

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Kellyann Conway Eaten Alive by Trolls After Turning Herself into a Meme

(ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) In what some are calling a deft PR move intended to distract from this week’s episode of Russaigate, Kellyann Conway sparked a social media frenzy after she appeared on Fox News with two pieces of white paper. Though the text on the pages attempted to dismiss this week’s flurry of claims the Trump campaign did, in fact, collude with Russia to elect the president, they were easily photoshopped.

Just as the internet ran with Trump’s decision to hold up pieces of paper upon signing an executive order earlier this year, social media users quickly altered the images to mock the senior adviser to the president.

Here’s the original:

And here’s what happened when the trolls feasted on it:

#kellycards Tweets

Some poked fun at her infamous statements about “alternative facts”:

Some mocked her job altogether:

Others were just silly:

Others went the pop culture route, citing well-known films:

Predictably, many of the photoshops focused on Russia:

Unfortunately, while some of the memes were funny, many simply revealed Americans’ hopeless attachment to the two-party system despite decades of evidence proving that  regardless of whether or Republican or a Democrat is in power, special interests and violence consistently hack the political process — far more than Russia could ever hope to. Many of the memes simply championed Hillary Clinton and championed typical liberal dogma:

In short, the Trump administration is a corrupt sh*tshow, the “resistance” to that corrupt sh*tshow amounts to support for other corrupt sh*tshows, and the empire is crumbling — but at least we have memes.

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