Category Archives: Freedom

I cant imagine being president of the United States is very much fun. Lyndon Johnson, a particularly aggrieved occupant of that office, said it best. Twice.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it. And: If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: President Can't Swim. Double ouch.

Theres some pleasure in the presidency though riding in Air Force One and the White House movie theater come to mind but I think the coolest part has to be awarding the nations highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

You may not know that much about the PMOF. Even though it's a huge deal, its a bit under the radar, so let me tell you about it. First of all, if you have never seen it, the medal itself is quite eye-catching. Pretty cool, right?

Now lets look at who is eligible to receive the award, which is actually rather loosey-goosey. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award given by the president for especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

The decision is the presidents alone. They dont need to consult with anybody, says E. Fletcher McClellan, a professor of political science at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, whose research focuses in part on the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I know there's mention of civilian boards and things like that. [But] this has become more of an in-house White House staffing project.

Its typically given to Americans, like Joe DiMaggio, Maya Angelou and Henry Kissinger, but can be given to foreigners such as Angela Merkel, Desmond Tutu and Stephen Hawking. And yes, many businesspeople have received PMOFs, (more on that below).

The award was established by President Kennedy though he was assassinated before he could confer any. Tragically then, Kennedy was in the first class of recipients given by LBJ (who was later bestowed with the award posthumously by Jimmy Carter).

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President Donald Trump awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

There are two levels of the PMOF, regular and with distinction with the latter having only been given to 27 or about 4% of the 654 awardees since 1963. You can even win twice, though only two people have; Colin Powell once with distinction. The other double winner for some ungodly reason was Ellsworth Bunker, the hawkish ambassador to South Vietnam from 1967 to 1973, both times with distinction even. (Talk about overkill.)

Some other PMOF facts. Every president since Kennedy has received a medal except Nixon, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. You have to figure the latter two will be tabbed sooner rather than later. (As for Nixon, he could be like Pete Rose and the Baseball Hall of Fame, right?) Biden already got his btw, with distinction, from Obama while he was the vice president.

Five members of the Kennedy clan have been awarded PMOFs, while a sixth, Jackie Kennedy, was one of the very few to turn the award down along with Bill Belichick and Dolly Parton, who has declined twice! Then theres Bill Cosby, who won a medal in 2002. Later there was talk of rescinding it, but that didnt appear to go anywhere.

And yes, besides politicians, actors, artists, athletes and scientists, a good number of businesspeople have been honored. (See if you can guess which president picked each one.) Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, Roger Penske, Arthur Laffer, Miriam Adelson, Alan Greenspan, Walter Wriston, Estee Lauder, Dave Thomas, Gordon Moore, Peter Drucker, John Kenneth Galbraith, James E. Burke, Edgar Bronfman, David Rockefeller, Lew Wasserman, James Rouse and Sam Walton. (Walton was in one of my favorite classes, 1992, along with Ella Fitzgerald, Ted Williams, Johnny Carson, Richard Petty, I.M. Pei and Audrey Hepburn.)

Some other business recipients are: David Packard, Ed DeBartolo, Justin Dart, An Wang, Walter Annenberg, Lil and DeWitt Wallace, Arthur Krock, and Walt Disney.

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Melinda Gates, left, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Bill Gates, center, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Washington. Obama is recognizing 21 Americans with the nation's highest civilian award, including giants of the entertainment industry, sports legends, activists and innovators. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Historically the award has been fairly non-partisan. George W. Bush gave awards to Katharine Graham and Donna Shalala. Obama mostly did left-leaning awardees but also made awards to George H.W. Bush, Sandra Day OConnor, Robert Gates, Richard Lugar and William Ruckelshaus. Trump, however, did not cross the aisle, awarding mostly to GOP politicians, supporters and athletes.

Joe Biden has yet to give out any PMOFs. I am a little bit surprised, says McClellan. Obviously, his first year was extremely busy. Maybe hes waiting for the right time. We might not see it until the end of this year. Im surprised too. As one of only two living recipients of the medal with distinction along with Buzz Aldrin I just think its Bidens kind of thing.

So who would I pick if I were president? (Scary thought.) I have a million ideas for non-business people; Dionne Warwick, Josh Bell, Michelle Kwan, Tommy Caldwell, Ellen Ochoa, Willie Nelson, Snoop, (maybe not Martha Stewart), Jennifer Doudna, Ringo, etc., but I want to focus a bit on businesspeople.

With apologies to Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and others, I think big tech is mostly off the list for now, (especially Zuckerberg and Musk.) But I would make an exception for the late Steve Jobs, and what about Tim Cook in the same year even? (Or would that tick Tim off, always being in the shadow of?)

Outside Silicon Valley there are plenty of other candidates. How about Ken Chenault or Mary Barra? What about Charlie Munger? (Maybe too ornery.) Jamie Dimon or Ann Fudge? How about Herb Kelleher (posthumously) and his flyboy pal Gordon Bethune? Theres Howard Schultz, Dick Parsons, Ralph Lauren, Ted Turner, Paul Allen (posthumously) and Mike Bloomberg. (Who would you pick?)

I have an idea: How about a second one for Warren Buffett this time with distinction. Too much? If Ellsworth Bunker can win two, why the heck not?

This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on February 19, 2022. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer

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Who should win the Presidential Medal of Freedom? - Yahoo Finance

I hope the truckers do come to America and I hope they clog up cities, Trumpist Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul declared. And hell probably get his wish.

If ambulances, fire trucks, and other essential services are gridlocked for extended periods, if factories are shut down and workers laid off because of additional supply chain disruptions, thats apparently what Paul considers the acceptable cost of an essential civil rights protest.

How differently would Paul react to a convoy of Black Lives Matter protesters clogging up cities and bringing public life to a standstill? He likened a group of peaceful BLM protesters to a crazed mob when some yelled at him, while he was safely under police escort.

Of course, hes not alone in his hypocrisy. Trumpists who praise the Canadian truckers who occupied Ottawa and closed off access to essential international bridges for weeks have loudly condemned less disruptive BLM protesters as terrorists. Last year, in the wake of BLM protests, Trumpist Florida Governor and presidential aspirant Ron DeSantis proudly signed expansive anti-riot legislation including a ban on Willfully obstructing the free, convenient, and normal use of a public street, highway, or road by impeding, hindering, stifling, retarding, or restraining traffic or passage by standing on or remaining in the street, highway, or road, endangering the safe movement of vehicles or pedestrians. It should be needless to point out that DeSantis strongly supports the truckers Freedom Convoy. Lawlessness for me but not for thee, he might explain.

Do protesters have First Amendment rights to appropriate public streets, occupy public spaces, and obstruct transportation systems and the flow of people and goods for extended periods? Of course not. Rallies, marches, and other public protests have long been subject to non-partisan, non-discriminatory, reasonable time, place and manner restrictions.

But partisans right and left generally recognize the necessity and constitutionality of these restrictions only when applied to their ideological opponents. When their friends and allies take over public spaces, public systems and public life for prolonged periods, they call it civil disobedience Pauls tribute to trucker convoys. Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, Paul declared, inviting truckers to occupy Americas roads and cities. Over a decade ago, Occupy Wall Streeters wrongly claimed they were engaged in civil disobedience when they appropriated public parks in much smaller, much less disruptive protests of income inequality.

Both sides imagine that protesting under the banner of civil disobedience immunizes them from arrest or punishment for illegal actions. Both sides are wrong. Civil disobedience is not simply a willingness to break laws you consider unjust. It includes a commitment to suffer the punishment for law breaking, in order to dramatize the laws injustice and hasten its change. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty, Martin Luther King Jr. explained in his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. In his classic defense of civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau exhorted his reader to Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. Thoreau was not an activist. He felt no obligation to devote himself to eradicating wrongs. But he did not want to be complicit in them. The monstrous wrong of his day was slavery, so he famously refused to pay taxes to Massachusetts because it belonged to a union of slave-holding states and recognized the legal prerogatives of slaveholders. He willingly went to jail but spent only one night there because someone paid his taxes for him with no thanks from Thoreau.

Of course, most of us would have happily walked out of jail. Most of us lack the commitment, altruism and un-wielding integrity to meet the high standards set by Thoreau and King. Most of us do not volunteer for punishment when we regularly (and sometimes unavoidably) break the multitude of laws that are supposed to govern our daily lives.

Im not suggesting that you should turn yourself in every time you attend an unpermitted protest. But the more disruptive, prolonged and uncivil your protest, the more it appropriates public spaces and systems, subsuming public life, the more you should acknowledge and hold yourself accountable for its costs. Civil disobedience is not an exercise of rights so much as an assumption of social responsibilities.

Wendy Kaminer, a lawyer and author of eight books, is a former member of the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the national American Civil Liberties Union.

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The truckers' 'Freedom Convoy,' civil rights and social responsibility - wgbh.org

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas said Friday that he would see to the end of tenure at the states public colleges and universities. His reason? The University of Texas at Austins Faculty Council had recently gone too far in asserting professors right to teach critical race theory.

What we will propose to do is end tenure, all tenure for all new hires, Patrick, a Republican, said during a press conference. For currently tenured professors, he continued, the law will change to say teaching critical race theory is prima facie evidence of good cause for tenure revocation.

Its unclear how far Patricks proposal will go. Texas lieutenant governors have real power when it comes to setting the legislative agenda, and Patrick said he already has the support of Brandon Creighton, Republican chair of the state Senate Committee on Higher Education. Unnamed university leaders and members of the University of Texas systems Board of Regents also think tenure has outlived its time because they dont have control of their own universities, Patrick said. Even so, any serious attempt by Texas to end tenure will be a titanic battle between legislators and faculty advocates: PEN America has already called the proposal a mortal threat to academic freedom, while the American Association of University Professors fact-checked Patricks disingenuous speech and warned that changing the law to make teaching CRT a fireable offense is an extremely dangerous authoritarian precedent.

In a democracy, politicians do not determine what people are allowed to learn or forbidden from learning, Irene Mulvey, AAUP president and professor of math at Fairfield University, said in a statement.

Whats certain is that the ongoing war on CRT escalated significantly with Patricks announcement. The move didnt necessarily shock those who have been tracking legislative attempts to ban the teaching of CRT or other so-called divisive concepts this legislative session, however. Whereas earlier anti-CRT bills mostly targeted K-12 instruction, these experts said, 2022 is much more about higher education.

Sumi Cho, a retired DePaul Universityprofessor of law who taught aseminar on critical race theory, said, Throughout 2021, we saw what Ill call the White Discomfort Bills 1.0, which largely mimicked the former Trump administrations now-rescindedexecutive order against the teaching of divisive concepts on race and gender in federal contractor trainings. In early 2022, Cho continued, weve seen an explosion both in terms of quantity of bills, as well as the severity of the language.

Cho, who serves as director of strategic initiatives at the African American Policy Forumthe group that co-wrote the template resolution on CRT that UT-Austins Faculty Council adopted, offending Patricksaid bills in six states sought to ban the teaching of CRT by name in 2021, compared to 25 explicitly targeting CRT and systemic racism this year.Idaho, Iowa and Oklahomaenacteddivisive-concepts lawsfor higher education last year, but some 20 states are targeting colleges and universities this year, she added.

As of Friday, 23 states were considering 49 different divisive-concepts bills implicating higher education, according to tracking by PEN America. Many include penalties for violations.

Regarding these penalties, Cho said mandatory punishments and private cause-of-action vigilantism are on the riseinspired, no doubt, by the 2021 Texas law outlawing most abortions, which opens up those in violation to private litigation.Chocited a bill in Oklahomathat would allow K-12 employees to befired for failing to comply with a proposed ban on books involving sex, sexual "perversion" or sexual or gender gender identity, and for parents tosueand collect$10,000a dayif the offending book is not removed within 30 days. Another bill would allow K-12 employeesto be sued for $10,000 for continuing to promote ideas shown to be in opposition to the closely held religious beliefs of the student.

A third Oklahoma bill, SB 1141, would ban college and university programs beyond gender and ethnic studies from including in any required course any concepts related to gender, sexual, or racial diversity, equality or inclusion.

Cho said legislators are also broadening their takes on divisive concepts, to include religion, culture, political beliefs andLGBTQ issues this year.

In South CarolinaHB 4605 seeks to protect individuals from ideological coercion and indoctrination by any state-funded entity, including postsecondary institutions. This includes private colleges that accept state funds. Under this proposed law, no such entity may subject anyone to defined divisive concepts about race, gender, religion or sex, or compel any individual to accept or adopt the following: the existence of genders other than male and female and gender fluidity; nonbinary pronouns, honorifics or related speech; unconscious or implicit bias; or that race and sex are social constructs. No one under 18 may be taught about sexual lifestyles, among other topics. Violations, to be reported to a state hotline, lead to a loss of state funding, tax-exempt status and any other state-provided accommodation or privilege, until the entity demonstrates compliance. Beyond HB 4605, two other bills seek to limit discussions around race and other topics in South Carolina.

In Georgia, faculty members are already dealing with unpopular changes to public universities posttenure review system and the imminent appointment of higher education neophyte Sonny Perdue as chancellor of the University System of Georgia. Now professors are facing two divisive-concepts bills that mention postsecondary education and a legislative inquiry into such concepts.

In an initial, 11-page letter to the university system, David Knight, chair of the Georgia House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, asked for detailed information on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and DEI spending on each campus for the last five years. The letter asks about everything from whether faculty and staff members may include research, service or scholarship about diversity as part of their performance evaluations to professional development, e.g. faculty support center hosting a book study on Ibram Kendis How to be an Anti-Racist.

In an updated letter sent to the system last week, Knight pared down his request, saying, I did not realize the volume of data my request would produce, and I appreciate your feedback on this matter, suggesting some quiet back-and-forth with acting chancellor Teresa MacCartney. Knight continued, My motivation is to understand how university and college resources are expended, especially as it relates to helping students earn degrees on time, in high-demand fields, with as little debt as possible, or otherwise related to improving the economic opportunities of Georgians and Georgia.

Knight said he now wants an organizational chart for each institution that had programs or offices primarily or mostly involved in advocacy for affinity or identity groups, social justice, antiracism and DEI, and information on how DEI factors into to hiring and employee evaluations practices.

Heather Pincock, associate professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University and a member of the United Campus Workers of Georgia, said Knights request can be read multiple ways, including as information-gathering ahead of the passage of any actionable anti-CRT law this year. Pincock said she was more inclined to see the request as data for state budget building, especially given Knights multiple statements of concern about increased university spending on DEI.

My interpretation is that its a different strategy for trying to censor our campuses, she said.

Pincock added, Whats especially alarming about Representative Knights request is that while the [pending state] bills primarily target the curriculum and what is taught in the classroom, this request suggests that legislators are also interested in curtailing activities outside of the classroom, including student services.

Dustin Avent-Holt, an associate professor of sociology at Augusta University, said that while DEI is being framed in part as a budgetary issue, weve been experiencing budget cuts over the last 20 to 30 years in Georgia. And so [the Legislature is] kind of cutting us off, if you will, creating a kind of financial crisis and then using that as a pretext for getting rid of things that they dont want to have at the university.

Asked how hed be affected by any new state law limiting the discussion of divisive concepts, Avent-Holt said, I teach social inequalities. I dont know how to teach about social inequalities without discussing that.

Texas passed an anti--CRT billimpacting K-12 education last year, which Patrick mentioned Friday during his press conference. That bill and others like it ledChos policy forum and the AAUP to co-sponsor a template resolution for faculty senates affirming the right to teach CRT and gender justice without political interference. UT Austin is among about a dozen institutions where faculty governance bodies have passed a version of that resolution, but so far its the only one thats prompted a governor or lieutenant governor to resolve to end tenure.

Patrick said during his press conference that instead of passing a resolution on teaching CRT, UT Austin faculty members should have asked for an appointment to discuss the matter with him or other lawmakers, because lets be very clear, on the Senate bill that we passed on critical race theory, and the House bill that we passed, we didnt say, You dont talk about race. We didnt say that you cant teach about slavery. We didnt say that you ignore our history. What we said is, Youre not going to teach a theory that says were going to judge you when you walk in the classroom about the color of your skin That if youre white, you were born a racist.

Experts say critical race theory isnt assigning blame based on skin color but about recognizing institutional racism where it persists, including in the legal system. Faculty members generally consider the curriculum to be the purview of the faculty, and many if not most would consider involving legislators in curricular discussionsparticularly those involving politically contentious issuesto be anathema to academic freedom.

Jeremy Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, said Patricks speech represented a new low in attacks on education and academic freedom in higher education. The attempt to end tenure completely in all Texas state universities and then to specifically to revoke tenure for any professor who teaches critical race theory is despicable. It is the exact opposite of academic freedom. Exactly what academic freedom was designed to protect against are these kinds of government incursions into faculty teaching and faculty research.

Andrea Gore, Vacek Chair in Pharmacology at UT Austin and chair of the councils academic freedom committee, said she was shocked that Patrick had even noticed a nonbinding resolution on academic freedom. Nevertheless, Patricks actions and words make it clear that not only has he been waiting for an opportunity to do away with teaching race and social justice in public universities, he has also had tenure in the crosshairs. This resolution scraped off a thin veneer that was giving faculty a false sense of security about academic freedom in Texas.

Taking this view, tenure is not so much a new front in the war on CRT as CRT is the newest battle in the longer-running political war on tenure.

She added, Tenure gives the faculty protection and freedom to speak and conduct research in their areas of expertise, even if those areas might be considered controversial, and without fear of reprisal.

Richard Lowery, an associate professor of finance at UT Austin and frequent critic of the academic left who has argued that critical theory and social justice are incompatible with academic freedomand whom Patrick mentioned flatteringly several timesFridaysaid he did not support ending tenure, which protects dissident faculty members, too.

The lieutenant governor has never reached out to me or spoken to me about higher education, aside from acknowledging me in the audience of one talk, Lowery said. Ending tenure just gives the activists who have taken over UT Austin one more tool to threaten and punish people who depart from campus orthodoxy, once the politicians no longer view this as a politically valuable football to play with and go back to neglecting their obligation to provide oversight of the university.

Lowery said that if anyone wants to get serious about really reforming higher education so we can get back to providing valuable learning experiences for students and performing evidence- and logic-based research, they know where to find me, but hardly anyone seems to care about this on either side.

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Anti vaccine mandate protestors block the roadway leaving the Ambassador Bridge border crossing, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on February 8, 2022. (Photo by Geoff Robins / AFP) (Photo by GEOFF ROBINS/AFP via Getty Images)

The GOP and the far-right are cheering on the prospect of a freedom convoy in the U.S., which is expected to depart from Coachella Valley in Southern California in early March and snake its way across the U.S. to Washington, D.C.

The freedom convoy movement started in Canada in late January, in response to a new mandate requiring truckers crossing over the border from the U.S. to get vaccinated. While the protesters core issue is still, ostensibly, COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, the movement has ballooned into a grab bag of populist, anti-government, and anti-establishment grievances, rolling in nebulous complaints about tyranny and lack of freedom.

The Canadian movement has already sparked a wave of copycat anti-vax freedom convoys around the world, from Australia, to New Zealand, to France, Finland, and Israel.

But in the U.S. the prospect of a mass anti-government mobilization comes with its own set of security concerns due to the ongoing deep divisions and routine political violence since the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which the GOP recently deemed legitimate political discourse.

The Department of Homeland Security recently affirmed that the U.S. remains in a heightened threat environment due to an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories and individuals who seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest.

The website, Convoy 4 Freedom 2022, which is intended as a central online hub for the movement, says the current plan is for freedom convoy participants to rally March 4 in Coachella Valley and then set off for Washington, D.C., two days later. They havent identified which route theyre planning to take. Some hopeful participants met up in person last week in Southern Californias Huntington Beach to discuss their plan of action, according to local videographer Vishal Singh.

All the fervor around COVID-19 protections comes at a time when many Democrat-controlled states, including New York, California, Connecticut, and New Jersey, are relaxing mask requirements in light of declining hospitalizations and waning Omicron transmission rates.

In early February, Facebook booted the Convoy to D.C. 2022 page from the platform, after saying theyd discovered some of the groups admins had ties to QAnon. This prompted an outcry by conservative media, who accused Facebook of censoring the freedom convoy movement.

The movement then re-emerged as a chaotic web of affiliated channels on Telegram, creating opportunity for the white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and neo-Nazi groups who are already active there to piggyback on their momentum. In some of the public-facing Telegram channels, users with QAnon or neo-Nazi references in their handles have been chiming in on freedom convoy channels. (For example, one person with the numbers 88 in their screen namea signifier for Heil Hitlerreminded the Aryans in the channel to do their push-ups.) Others have become paranoid. We have spies and hackers taking over and running groups, wrote someone with the screen name LJ Wolf. Please do not publicly air information about routes and drops and please stay as anonymous as possible.

It seems there are a lot of bots and cryptocurrency lures in here, wrote another. Ive got a few [private messages] from strangers and then an immediate invite to their crypto chat.

Support for a U.S. convoy surged so quickly last week that plans quickly turned chaotic, with different organizers stating conflicting dates for the convoy to get underway. One contingent of activists was pushing to get going in Los Angeles this past weekend with the goal of creating havoc around the Super Bowl, a loose plan that got a big boost when Yahoo News got ahold of some DHS documents mentioning it. There was a ragtag group of protesters outside the stadium in Inglewood, but the convoy failed to materialize.

A network of groups and event pages dedicated to organizing the convoy to D.C. also quickly respawned on Facebook. But many of those have since been axed by the social media company after NBC reported that some accounts promoting a trucker convoy in the U.S. were linked to content mills in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Romania, and other countries.

Additionally, TD Bank froze two accounts that had received donations for the trucker convoy in Canada. And, in yet another blow, the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, which helped raise $8.7 million for the convoy, was hacked on Sunday night and the personal details of all 92,000 donors were published online. The hack revealed the majority of donors to the Canadian convoy were actually Americans.

Despite these setbacks, the movement continues to gain support from mainstream GOP personalities all the way to the far-right fringes, including many who peddled 2020 election conspiracies and backed the Stop the Steal movement, which led to the violent riot at the Capitol.

MAGA activist Amy Kremer, who is the chairwoman for Women for Trump and was recently subpoenaed by Congress for her role in Jan. 6, tweeted her support last week for the truckers who had encircled Canadas capital city of Ottawa.

The eyes of the world are upon you & we stand with you, Kremer wrote. Hold the line for #Freedom. In another tweet posted the previous day, she urged the trucker convoy in Ottawa to Hold the line. This mantra was familiar. Hold the line was a hashtag used by Stop the Stealers, including Kremer and her counterparts, in the run-up to Jan. 6.

Fox News Tucker Carlson is selling T-shirts that amend his usual slogan, I (heart) Tucker, to I (heart) Truckers.

On Friday, Infowars declared Feb. 11 as the day the attempted global government COVID power grab officially collapsed as part of its breathless wall-to-wall coverage of the convoy.

One video by the far-right outlet VDARE, posted to Gab, asserted that anti-system sentiment is rising among the very people that the system depends on, and pondered whether trucker populism could forge the way for a new North American nation. White nationalist groyper Nicholas Fuentes also expressed his support for the movement. Hey listen up zoomers put down the tide pods & honk for FREEDOM he wrote.

The movements also been watched closely by the Proud Boys, who have spent the last year attempting to gain legitimacy and establish coalitions around hot-button political issues, such as COVID-19 vaccines. Theyve been routinely promoting and resharing videos and posts by Freedom Convoy Telegram accounts.

Some organizers have talked about taking the I-10 cross country, which would mean cutting across Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. But that route doesn't seem to be confirmed just yet. Its also not clear how disruptive itll be. The Canadian convoy movement snarled traffic, and in some cases, was associated with ugly, offensive behavior, like public defecation, harassment of locals, and waving the occasional swastika or Confederate flag. For days, they blockaded the Ambassador Bridge, a key border crossing linking the U.S. and Canada, resulting in trade bottlenecks. (The bridge has since reopened, after Canadian police moved in to make arrests on Sunday). In an ominous development, on Monday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta announced that theyd arrested a small group of heavily armed hardcore convoy protesters who were prepared for a violent showdown with law enforcement. Police seized 13 long guns, handguns, body armor, a machete, high-capacity magazines, and a lot of ammo.

It remains to be seen whether the current momentum and support for the convoy to D.C. will be sustained for another two weeks. Previous attempts to hold large-scale protests since Jan. 6 have crumbled amid infighting and fears that participants could be getting snared in a federal honey trap. But its striking how the language being used by some organizers and participants in the convoy movement bears an eerie similarity to that used in the run-up to Jan. 6.

They have pushed fear with the arrests and detainment of our citizens who protested on Jan 6 of 2021 after we watched an election being stolen, wrote a man who described himself as an active-duty U.S. Marine on the Convoy 4 Freedom 2022 forum. They have slowly and methodically dismantled our right and freedoms, they are destroying our constitutional republic. They are ushering in the new world order in which we will indefinitely lose everything!

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Everything We Know About the US Freedom Convoy - VICE

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CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem suggested aggressive means to end the trucker protest in Canada on Thursday, including slashing tires.

On her Twitter account, Kayyem shared a report from the Wall Street Journal that described the gridlock caused by the truckers on Ambassador Bridge, the largest bridge link between the U.S. and Canada.

INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST WRITES WHAT THE TRUCKERS WANT FOLLOWING 100 FREEDOM CONVOY INTERVIEWS

"Footage shows trucks in gridlock on the Ambassador Bridge, a key trading link between the U.S. and Canada. It was temporarily closed early Tuesday amid growing protests against Canadas Covid-19 vaccine mandates," the WSJ reported.

Kayyem suggested harsh penalties for truckers for blocking the Ambassador Bridge.

"The convoy protest, applauded by right-wing media as a freedom protest, is an economic and security issue now. The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks," Kayyem wrote.

Truckers carry jerrycans to refuel as truckers continue to protest vaccine mandates against Covid-19, in Ottawa, Canada on February 7, 2022. Ottawa has declared a state of emergency after the long protests by truck drivers over vaccine mandates and Covid-19 restrictions. (Kadri Mohamed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The protests emerged from opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and several provinces have now agreed to roll back some restrictions.

Although Kayyems idea appeared radical to some Twitter users, she doubled down on the tweet later.

"Trust me, I will not run out of ways to make this hurt: cancel their insurance; suspend their drivers licenses; prohibit any future regulatory certification for truckers, etc. Have we learned nothing? These things fester when there are no consequences," Kayyem tweeted.

Justin Trudeau, Canadas prime minister. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Fox News Digital/Lisa Bennatan)

AS VACCINE DEADLINE LOOMS, FIREFIGHTERS RALLY AGAINST NYC MANDATES THAT COULD MEAN TERMINATION FOR MANY

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet to meet with the protestors who have described his behavior as vilifying them.

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CNN analyst calls to 'slash the tires' of the Canadian ...

The convoy is organised by the people, for the people.

This morning, Efrat Fenigson, a prominent Israeli human rights activist and chief marketing officer, spoke with me in her car, whilst converging with a convoy (one of 40) heading to Jerusalem. This Valentines Day, bridges across Israel are expected to be lined with supporters, cheering on an estimate of 20,000 trucks and other vehicles, as they make their way to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, to demand an end to all Covid restrictions and mandates in the country.

Needless to say, Israels Freedom Convoy has been inspired by the unprecedented protests going on in Ottawa, Canada and along critical bridges across the US-Canada border, led bysalt of the earth truckers, demanding the freedoms back for all Canadians, after two years of draconian Covid restrictions and mandates.

Fenigson spoke about the misleading way in which the Israeli media are covering the freedom convoy. They have chosen to disempower the movement by not accurately reporting that its about the demand for basic freedoms being restored to all Israeli citizens. Instead, they have chosen to spin it as a protest arising from increased costs of living.

Fenigson highlighted the six goals the organisers of the Freedom Convoy want to achieve:

A sum of $35,000 has been raised in a short space of time for the protestors. Many have brought tents and mattresses, with the intention of staying in front of the Knesset for many days.

Only time will tell, if the Freedom Convoy in Israel will bring about any meaningful change in government policy. It is worth noting, given the unforeseen success of the Canadian truckers and their supporters in drawing the worlds attention to the two-year attack on their freedoms, with the subsequent revocation of vaccine passport mandates in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and now Ontario the Israeli Freedom Convoy stands a good chance.

Reposted from the authors Substack

Sonia Elijah has a background in Economics. Shes a former BBC researcher and now works as an investigative journalist.

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Freedom Convoy Israel 2022 - Brownstone Institute

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Laura Ingraham said the left has changed the narrative on freedom from something that once mattered, to now a "problem" getting in the way of the Democrat agenda Monday on "The Ingraham Angle."

Ingraham said with protests and freedom convoys around the world inspiring millions to take a stand against totalitarian measures, officials who thought they would never be held accountable are now becoming "desperate."

TRUDEAU WON'T CAVE TO THE FREEDOM CONVOY BECAUSE IT WOULD BE THE RIGHT THING TO DO: TERRELL

"Weak and ineffective leaders don't change course even when COVID recedes, because I've said for almost two years now, this was never about the virus. It was about creating a compliant public, a compliant public that was kind of primed to obey the next lockdown order. No questions asked," said Ingraham.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference on the airline industry in Montreal, Quebec on July 15, 2021. (Photo by Andrej Ivanov / AFP) (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Ingraham went on to explain the myriad of assaults on our basic liberties there have been.

"School closures deny children quality education that was the freedom to learn the facts, and max vast vaccine and mask mandates deprived us of our freedom to decide what we put into our own bodies. Stay-at-home orders destroyed small businesses while large corporations thrived. That was our freedom to work. Then Big Tech censorship where YouTube, Twitter, Facebook they acted as proxy speech police for the government, our freedom of expression. Anyone who didn't tell the Fauci line, even treating physicians and renowned researchers were threatened. They were suspended, maligned and even banned completely," said Ingraham.

ONTARIO'S LEADER VOWS SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR PROTESTERS STILL GATHERING IN OTTOWA

The host also highlighted multiple examples of Biden pushing back on the idea of freedom "I love how people talk about personal freedom. If you're exercising personal freedom, should you put someone else in jeopardy, their health in jeopardy? I don't consider that being freedom," said Biden, in one example.

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE - AUGUST 20: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivers his acceptance speech on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center on August 20, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"Never thought I would hear a president say something like that," said Ingraham. "And the media picks it up and then repeats it with their own lame flourish. Now the message is to be afraid of those who want freedom,"

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Despite this war on freedom from democratic authoritarians, Ingraham says that this "anti-freedom coalition" is crumbling.

"Even though the ends for them always justify the means, we know what was going on. And the press they did too, but they didn't cover the stories that mattered. They covered them up. But here's the good news. The anti-freedom coalition is unraveling."

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Laura Ingraham: Democrats have a problem with freedom - Fox News

Truckers shut down US-bound bridge to protest vaccine mandate

The Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Canada began to reopen after shutdown by truckers protesting vaccine mandates.

STAFF VIDEO, USA TODAY

A weeklong "Freedom Convoy" trucker protest in Canada that shut down the busiest border crossing to the U.S. has inspired trucker protests around the world.

Including in the United States.

Dozens of vehicles and hundreds of people gathered Saturday and Sunday near the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York, that connects with the Ontario city ofFort Erie. The protesters flew American flags, honked horns and carried banners saying "my body my choice" and "do not comply."

Among the organizers wasConvoy to Save America, a group that lavished praise on the Canadian effort.

"We watched the joy spread as everyone came together to stand for the freedom to choose," Pennie Fay, one of the group's founders, said in a statement. "Convoy to Save America carries that same message of unity, togetherness, and peace."

Fay said the group stands together for the right to choose "no mandates, no mask rules, no more lies."

The bridge was not closed, but the demonstrators drew the attention of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who visited an interagency command center in Buffalo.

"We're prepared for any impacts from protests near the Canadian border," she said. "We are ready to address any potential travel and commerce disruptionsand also ensure we can protect everyones right to peaceful protest."

AMBASSADOR BRIGE REOPENS: Police clear protesters

Another group,the People's Convoy, is planning a cross-country convoy starting in Los Angeles and ending in Washington, D.C. Dates were expected to be announced as soon as Monday.

Canada's "freedom convoy" in Windsor, Ontario, shut down the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit. Ittook several tow trucks and more than a dozen arrests over the weekend before the protest was disbanded and the bridge reopened.Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called ita "win for Michigan families."

"Its time to get traffic and trade moving across North Americas busiest land border crossing again," Whitmer said. She vowed to "do whatever it takes to ensure that our businesses can keep humming along."

Protesters, who also havecreated havoc atthe capital in Ottawa for three weeks,say they objectto Canada's COVID-19 rules.Truckershave specifically targeted amandate requiring drivers enteringCanadato be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements.

But Colleen Sinclair, a counterprotester who lives in Ottawa,said all demonstrators have had their say and need to move on. Or the police should drive them out, she said.

I feel angry at whats happening. This isnt Canada," Sinclair said. "Theyre occupiers. This is domestic terrorism and we want you out of our city. Go home.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers on Monday to remove the truckers and other demonstratorswho have clogged the streetsof Ottawa and blocked border crossings elsewhere to protestCOVID-19 restrictions.

These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating the time to go home is now, Trudeau said after meeting virtually with leaders of the countrys provinces.

US-CANADA BRIDGE REOPENS:Weeklong trucker protest targetedCOVID mandates

In western Canada, amajor truck border crossing between Surrey, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington, was closed Sunday after Canadian authorities said a few vehicles had breached police barricades and a crowd entered the area.

The Ontario protesters could claim a small victory Monday when provincial Premier Doug Ford announced that he would liftproof-of-vaccination requirements in two weeks.Ford said the decision was not a result of the protests but was made because it is safe to do so." Vaccination proof is required to get into restaurants, gyms and sporting events.

Some U.S. leadershave expressed firm support for the truckers. President Donald Trump said he was proud that many protesters were waving Trump banners.Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, inan interview with the conservative media site Daily Signal, said civil disobedience can "clog things up, make people think" about the mandates.

Some of the blame for the Canadian protests falls on U.S. officials who put mandates on Canadian truckers coming here, Paul added.

Some of this, we started, Paul said. "The truckers are annoyed. Theyre riding in a cab by themselves, most of them for eight, 10-hour long hauls, and they just want to do what they want to do. Its their own business.

The Canadian protestsalso inspired convoys and protests around the world.

Hundreds of cars, camper vans and trucks taking part in a protest convoy were preparing to enter Brussels on Monday after a weekend protest in Paris that led to almost 100 arrests, France24 reported. Brussels already has banned the protest.

Nightclubs in Amsterdam stayed open Saturday night in solidarity ofdemonstrations at The Hague against restrictions in Netherlands. InNew Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday accused protesters there ofintimidation and harassment" that has brought chaos to the capital of Wellington for the past week.

That cannot be tolerated," she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Can protests similar to the Canadian 'Freedom Convoy' happen here? They already are. - USA TODAY

Illustrations by Gregory Christie

EDITORS NOTE: To celebrate the sustaining power of love, we asked Memphis author Alice Faye Duncan to share the story of Coretta Scott King and her loyalty to Martin Luther King Jr. Its a story she tells in her forthcoming 2023 book Corettas JourneyThe Life and Times of Coretta Scott King (Calkins Creek Press). Duncan sees their love as the perfect study in cosmic devotion.

Few know Coretta Scott Kings journey from girlhood in Alabama to activist and prophet, speaking across the nation promoting nonviolence as a way of life. She challenged the Black civil rights patriarchy after Martin Luther Kings death. It was this fiery, unflappable, and resolute version of herself that captured Martins heart on their first date in Boston in 1951.

As February is the month to extol love and Black history, I offer you ten Tanka poems. These spare verses recall 1955, the year Coretta and Martin were a young couple with a new baby in Montgomery, Alabama. Martin could not perceive that Montgomerys boycott was the start of a liberation movement and that Corettas parents, Obie and Bernice Scott, had raised a woman who was the perfect love to walk with him and hold his trembling hand on the battleground for freedom.

Originating in Japan, Tanka poems include five lines with 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7). I chose this simple form to make a complex love story accessible to readers across all levels of understanding. What did Gwendolyn Brooks say? Poetry is life distilled. And here is my distilled understanding of the greatest love story that continues to keep on giving.

Coretta Scott King

Martin Luther King Jr.

Venus and Saturn

A convergence of planets

A cosmic union of fate

Coretta Scott King

The songbird and preachers wife

Dexter Baptist Church

Dr. King preached like Moses

Chattered Montgomery folks

Rosa Parks rebelled

A nonviolent activist

Stubborn like granite

Seamstress took a front bus seat

Arrested for her protest

Thick black clouds of change

Swept across Montgomery

Jim Crow squawked at death

Black folks put on walking shoes

Boycotted city buses

Dr. King stood up

Fanned the flames on Jim Crows pyre

Fiery-tongued preacher

Pretty wife and newborn child

His family soon a target

BOOM! Kings home was bombed

The bus boycott carried on

Fifty thousand strong

Black maids walked in snow and rain

December to December

BOOM! Kings home was bombed

Coretta and baby cried

Martin grew fearful

SaidGo to your fathers house

Coretta refused to leave

Obadiah Scott

SaidCome home to Heiberger

Coretta saidNO

Venus and Saturn converged

It was not a time to run

Bernice understood

Coretta was Obies seed

Fireproof heart of faith

Baptized in muddy waters

A woman born for battle

Coretta Scott King

Venus and Saturn converged

Two agents for change

Marched down highways and bridges

Singing We shall not be moved

Alice Faye Duncan lives in Memphis and is a National Board educator who writes poetry and picture books for children to help them remember important, but forgotten moments from American history. Her newest titles include Opal Lee and What it Means To Be Free and EvictedThe Struggle for the Right to Vote. Free teacher guides for both books can be found at http://www.alicefayeduncan.com.

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Holding hands on the battleground of freedom - mlk50.com

Over objections from some members that the bill could protect internet grifters and neuter Floridas health care regulatory boards, a House panel on Monday voted 12-5 to pass a bill that protects doctors freedom of speech on the internet.

The legislation is aimed at preventing a crackdown on doctors accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19, a trend that has been occurring across the country and drawing scrutiny from regulators who say such actions are unethical.

Before passing HB 687, members of the House Professions and Public Health Subcommittee beat back a pair of amendments offered by Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, including an amendment to delete from current law the gag clause that prevents physicians from discussing guns with their patients.

While a federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down the so called docs v glocks law, the language remains in two sections of state statutes. Guillermo Smiths proposed amendment struck the language, which cannot be enforced.

Guillermo Smith also offered an amendment to the bill that would have ensured that freedom of speech protections also apply to Department of Health physicians. Guillermo Smith is from the same county where a top DOH official was removed after raising concerns with the departments vaccination rates in an email

Rep. Anna Eskamani spoke in favor of the amendment saying that the state cannot pick and choose which speech to protect.

Let the Department of Health follow the priorities established in this legislation, she said.

While the committee members shot down both of Guillermo Smiths amendments, Lawmakers agreed to take up an amendment to HB 687 drafted by committee staff that removes the $1.5 million fine the Department of Health could face if it violated a practitioners right to free speech.

The proposed committee bill would continue to make it illegal for the state to reprimand, sanction, or revoke or threaten to revoke a license, certificate, or registration of a health care practitioner unless it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the free speech leads to the direct physical harm of a patient. But the department wouldnt have to pay the steep fine for violating the law.

Bill sponsor Rep. Brad Drake told committee members that the bill does not offer physicians any freedom of speech protections they are not offered today.

Drake said he filed the bill after hearing about physician Joel Rudman. Rudman testified in committee that the American Board of Family Medicine tried to take action against him after he made comments about the Covid-19 vaccine.

Gov. Ron DeSantis threw his support behind HB 687 and its Senate counterpart, SB 1184 earlier this month. The bills are not supported by organized medicine.

The legislation comes at a time when the Federation of State Medical Boards has reported an uptick in complaints against licensed medical professionals for disseminating false or misleading information. The organization found that 67 percent of medical boards reported an increase in complaints and 21 percent had taken some sort of disciplinary action.

The federation has come out in support of scrutinizing medical professionals amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

We are encouraged by the number of boards that have already taken action to combat COVID-19 disinformation by disciplining physicians who engage in that behavior and by reminding all physicians that their words and actions matter, and they should think twice before spreading disinformation that may harm patients, said Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, the president and CEO of the federation said in a December statement.

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Guns, COVID-19 and the internet; House panel OKs 'freedom of speech' bill - Florida Politics