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President Obama has just quietly signed into law a bill that makes it illegal to run an alternative media website in the U.S.
On Friday, just two days before Christmas, Obama signed the “Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017” bill into law.
Wearechange.org reports:
This bill will “Criminalize ‘Fake News, Propaganda’ on the Web,” a key piece of legislation meant to crack down on free speech and independent media. In Layman’s terms, the act will allow the government to crack down with impunity against any media outlet it deems “propaganda.” The next piece of the legislation will provide substantial amounts of money to fund “counter propaganda,” to make sure the government’s approved stories drown out alternative media and journalists who question the status quo.
The “right to free speech and freedom of the press,” is guaranteed by the First Amendment to The U.S. Constitution. It is a foundation of American values, put in place by our Founding Fathers to protect our liberties, is now being endangered by this new law.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth.” – John Adams, Samuel Adams, James Bowdoin (1780). Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This is not the first time that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was used to disguise a piece of legislation. Back in 2012, Obama signed a law that allowed for the “indefinite detention of American citizens” without a judge or jury. Then in 2013, Obama signed an NDAA bill that packaged an end to the Smith-Mundit act that prevented the government from using propaganda against its own citizens enabling the government again to legally produce propaganda.
What does that mean for you if you are an independent journalist or blogger? You can read more here, but it means that for simply writing this and asking questions and pointing out that Obama always signs these bills around the holidays like I did in this poem, if I am accused of “fake news” or propaganda, I could face criminal charges.
In other words the stage is now set for the U.S. government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the they deem to be “foreign propaganda.” The ministry of truth is setup. Welcome to 1984.
In a statement, Obama said that:
Today, I have signed into law S. 2943, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.” This Act authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe. It continues many critical authorizations necessary to ensure that we are able to sustain our momentum in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to reassure our European allies, as well as many new authorizations that, among other things, provide the Departments of Defense and Energy more flexibility in countering cyber-attacks and our adversaries’ use of unmanned aerial vehicles.”
According to 0bama, the US is, “countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”. The only countering the world actually witnessed was done by Syria and Russia. America created, supplied, trained and financed the Islamic State.
The first casualty of the ban on fake news and propaganda should be the US government.
Well said, James!
Exactly .. but why does the map of “the Levant” and map of “The Greater Israel” cover the same territory?
isis is isreal secret intel services. Not sure about the intellingence or intelligent part though. As long as americans are sleeping at the wheel, israel will get what it wants as usual. Better get use to it and get with the program because our exceptional friends are not yet ready to wake up…certainly not with their snowflakes running around like lunatic monkeys screaming BS 24/7.
Wow! That sounds like Fake News ® SHUT IT DOWN
You big ol’ mean Nazi muslim!!! 😉
Go back to Huffington Post or Alternet where you’ll fit right in.
I was being sarcastic, brother
Sorry .. thanks for the heads up ..
Americans “countered” the treat to our Country posed by Obama and all the evil reprobates he works for by electing Donald Trump. The gay muslim imposter is now spinning ever downward into the toilet bowl of history…don’t forget the air freshener.
But what the government should want is the True news about the government blocked, Like that Obama is a Muslim Terrorist and hates America and Americans and that his wife is a man ! And the Muslims that he is sneaking in are an army that will go on a nation wide murder attack against Americans killing many thousands !!! BE READY !!!!
Wait a minute! The supreme court ruled in the 1962 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan case that the US media is protected by the First Amendment and can legally lie. So now media CAN lie but they CAN’T lie.
Everyone clear on that?
The phrase “tangled web” keeps occurring to me when I try to think this through.
It would be a hoot if some fancy lawyer put the shoe on the other foot and had the government sue itself for propaganda.
The lawsuits (or prosecutions) this is bound to result in may be the silver lining. As long as the issue of “fake media” stayed in the media in a he-said-she-said war of words, the government was safe. Once it gets into court there will be rules of evidence, subpoena powers, and discovery processes that are going to severely embarrass the government. These will be historic court battles that the best lawyers will be itching to fight.
You are assuming the courts will uphold the constitution.
They’ll uphold it a lot better after a couple of Trump judges join the Supremes.
What exactly does the constitution say about truth in the press? What does it say determines what or who the press is and/or who gets to make that determination? Sincerely.
I think Obongo (or his predecessor) also reinforced that with more recent bullshit… E/O, maybe? I don’t remember, but it just isn’t right.
All I can say to these NWO types, and facsimiles thereof…is that they will need to bring their ‘A’ game if they plan to alter my plan(s). Same for the old doctor that thinks he can tell me what to do (or not) with my body. Make all the laws you want, cry yourself to sleep when you fail.
It’s very simple — the MSM can lie as long as it’s the government’s lies, but the alt-media is not allowed to tell the truth if it’s truth the government doesn’t want you to hear. It takes a Constitutional scholar like Obama to sign off on that one. But we all need to find out who the sleazy treasonous puppets were in the House and Senate who actually put this abomination on Obama’s desk.
My Bet John McCain and US Demoncrats made these iiLegally Laws NDAA since 2012
Good one.
I’m happy to see that you get the irony. I keep bringing this up. Essentially he’s said “we can lie to you (meaning the MSM), but now he’s making a distinction and saying “those who are not MSM must tell the truth”. I wouldn’t spend to much time and energy analyzing this. It needs a court challenge and he needs to leave.
Negrobama.. another loser with nothing left to lose..
“Negrobama” funny. ????
you are part of the problem. why do you have to put your racist spin on this? this affects all americans. it is you who is the loser.
Eat me asshat..
How many RINOneocons voted FOR this bill? It had to pass CONgress before he could sign it.
So less then 4 weeks the following American President and crew will have this starring at the U.S. Government.
They are planning a major Satanic diversion to please the same god who controls South Korea.
It stay’s, then you’ve been taken, but won’t have much time to dwell on it.
??????????????????
WTF DO YOU MEAN, BOY??
Propaganda is only legal as long as it’s Clinton/Bush/Obama propaganda.
Everyone else’s propaganda, including “truth”, is dangerous and terrorist, and probably Russian to top it off.
Send Obama, the Bushs and the Clintons to Gitmo, then close it down for anyone else.
Interestingly, the organizations in charge of monitoring “fake news” and “Russian propaganda” are the very NGO’s and think tanks that produce American propaganda. Foxes guarding the henhouse.
We have a puppet government protecting the interests of the super rich shadow government
The only good thing about this: We’ll see much earlier whether Trump is real or just the Republican version of “Hope and Change” (where you only get to hope he means any change).
If he’s genuine, he’ll revert this on day one.
Trump thanked Infowars’ Alex Jones for helping him win the election. It’s doubtful Trump would not support Infowars right to exist, along with all the rest of us.
Yep. Trump has a yuuuge debt to pay to the alt media. Without them, he would not have been elected. Saying thanks is just words, and words are cheap. After January 20th, we expect action.
Including Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Kellyanne, Rudy, and 3,084 counties out of 3,141.
You are assuming the people who really run things are just going to roll over and let Trump have his way.
Will never happen, he will fall in line whether he wants to or not.
Just sit back and watch
The “people who really run things” are in a panic for the first time in our lives. Yes, they will fight Trump; their problem now is that Trump has most of the rank-and-file military and police on his side.
Mattis was a genius move. The active military are definitely supporting Trump and they are there to keep the banksters in line.
Right. And Mattis, being a member of the USMC, belongs to the most staunchly pro-Constitution branch of the military. He also is probably the best-read person in Washington today with a 7,000 title personal library. I didn’t know until Mattis was appointed and I started researching his background that the Commandant, Marine Corps (CMC) maintains a *required* reading list web page for all USMC officers. Note the second title in the list here: http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/content.php?pid=408059&sid=3340953
Why do you doubt Trump? He IS a man of action.
I don’t doubt Trump, and he is clearly a man of action. But pardon me if I’m I’m in a wait-and-see mode right now after being lied to all my life by one administration after another, both Democratic and Republican. None of us should think it will be all sunny skies and smooth sailing from here on out, and Trump needs his supporters’ help even more now than before the election. We are in a battle for the life of the nation and the future of humanity, so stay sharp and steely-eyed.
Tom says, “We are in a battle for the life of the nation and the future of humanity.” Yes! I like to think of Trump supporters as on the bridge of Spaceship Enterprise. Stay sharp, but keep a positive attitude too.
“To go where no man has gone before” This is what the present always represents, as we make history a day at a time. And though we may fail and end up making today’s history the same as a thousand days before (history repeats) each day is an opportunity to explore new, better alternatives. Trump is not beholden to the Old Regime, and as a businessman has to be a flexible problem solver who knows good advice from bad advice.
Infowars just attacked Obama for not vetoing the UN resolution criminalizing Israel’s continued theft of Palestinian land.
Now we know for sure Alex Jones is a true blue Zionist.
Based on his cabinet picks and backpedaling on his campaign promises, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
This law is alarming for a pro-Donbass blogger like me. But there is one very important distinction that has to be made. You say “fake news” bloggers can face criminal charges. ZeroHedge, on the other hand, implies only that “fake news” websites can be shut down (see link below). Obviously, this is a crucial difference. If there are criminal penalties, I would have to close my website Quemadoinstitute.org. If not, I would keep publishing until the government shuts it down.
What does the law explicitly say on penalties for “fake news” outlets?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-24/obama-signs-countering-disinformation-and-propaganda-act-law
We are under zero obligation to obey any unconstitutional law. Fraud and criminality do not gain power by being called “law”.
Now the mainstream media will sink even faster, nobody will believe a word of it anymore.
Idea: Can alternate website bloggers file a class action suit?
I think the government has to make the next move now against some site to create a cause of action. After that is when the sparks start to fly in court.
The government is Al-Queda.
Close, but they are beholden to the Lucifarian shadow government
The easiest way to show that some one is a dictator is to make him act like one. Obama is on his way out and Trump is on his way in. If he is planning some sort of coupe, it’ll fail like everything else he does. The Independent Media is the way of the future and not even this massively corrupt president can stop it.
The IRON CURTAIN becomes tighter as the US becomes what we used to accuse the USSR of being, a propaganda state.
becomes? It’s been a propaganda state for a long time.
It’s one of the interesting things about language that denied appropriate words or phrases to think about certain things, we have difficulty thinking about them, and all linguists know this. This phenomenon was behind Orwell’s depiction of “Newspeak” in 1984, a calculated reduction of vocabulary to keep people from thinking clearly.
There are still a shocking number of people, even intelligent and well-educated ones, who don’t know what “false flag” means. But say “fake news” and everyone knows right away what it means, even if they may have different opinions about who’s doing it. So by introducing that phrase to combat alt-media, the government and MSM have only opened up a can of worms as everyone can now look back as far as they want in media and history books and it will be easier to recognize the fake news we’ve been fed since forever because we now have it named. It’s a well-known trick of Power that if you control language and naming, you can control how people think, but I’ve never seen a new phrase roll-out backfire as fast as “fake news”.
Can anyone take this direct challenge to the First Amendment to court?
This will never stand, a govt can’t stop free speech, feel free to act as if this never happened, this mans(Obama) word means nothing.
When the Trump administration comes into power, all of this @hit is going to stop and Obama and his corrupt minions are going down.
…fuck Obama and The entire Bush / Clinton / Bush / Clinton / Obama – War Crimes & Treason Cabal. Impeach everyone of these mother-fuckers…charge and convict them for treason…then start hanging these treasonous pricks from lamp poles.
RJ O’Guillory
I doubt that Trump is going to be on your side now that he is President. Note that his principal promise was the end of Washington insiders but his first action has been to make up an administration full of Washington insiders, even the Chase Manhattan bankers got a post. The people are going to have to do this themselves not rely on Trump. It is time to ditch saviours and become your own Gurus. The people united …. By the way Obama has excelled at putting out fake news in the last few weeks, he seems to have lost his cool and became hysterical when Aleppo fell to the Syrian Government.
Note that I use “Syrian Government” rather than the regime as I want to be truthful as opposed to the Washington Regime which uses ” the regime” for the Syrians while calling Washington’s proxy army or invading terrorists, rebels. Perhaps Obama can be the first to face trial.
Trump had a television show in which the main point was firing people. Many of the people whom he appointed in order to please the establishment won’t be there much longer, hopefully.
What a xmas present to America – what a jerk!
Freedom of the Press, has been dead for a long time, what you read and watch as well hear is what the powers to be want you to know/not know. The lack of real news has been gone since the seventies, and it was pretty well limited then. Who, by the way determines fake news, oh yeah, the idiots that created it, good times yet to come.
Trump better fix this.
An unConstitutional Act is not law.
“F” the law.
Will someone point out precisely where, within the constitution it allows for this? I can’t seem to locate such an authority! Marbury v Madison Anything repugnant to the constitution is null and void from it’s inception!
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
16 AM Jur 2d (Volume 16 American Jurisprudence, second series) section 177 on Constitutional Law, which states:
“The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it, an unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted.
“Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it . . . ‘No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.’ ”
Shouldn’t the pre-election POLLS published, weeks after weeks, in the Main Stream Media be labeled as ‘Fake News’?
Following Obama’s own law government should shut down all main stream media.
“the end of the republic never looked better.” -Obama mahdi
Closet Queen Kenyan Communist scumbag abomination.
I really get annoyed when discussions about critical issues are eroded by petty name calling and gratuitous insults. Come on Texas Arcane deal with the issues which demand that the focus is on what the effect of the legislation will have on freedom and accountability, and on what we can do about it.
All “news” that besmirches commies and or the NWO/UNelected will be deemed unlawful… Bow down to the great Obongo or else suffer the pain of the whip.
President Trump should use his new powers to shut down The Washington Compost and The New York Slimes, for starters.
how much treason can this fraud get away with before people revolt?
Treason, plain and simple. A capital offense. Most fake news comes from the MSM, and many fake news sites on the internet are government operations designed to give the government and excuse to crack down. We have one of the most corrupt, criminal governments in the world. Totally corrupt.
So true, most of the alternative media are “limited hangouts”.
Completely honest and uncontrolled news is extremely rare, if not non-existant.
When a blogger/journalist gets a visit from the shadow government asking about the health of their kids/family/loved ones…..they will fall in line very fast….
Who could resist this? I challenge anyone reading this to tell me WHO WOULD NOT BUCKLE?
I will either hear nonsense or, as many like to say, crickets……..chirp…..chirp……chirp…..chirp….
Sometimes in combat soldiers seeing their comrades killed causes them to want to turn and run, and sometimes it angers the hell out of them and they fight ten times as hard. We have yet to see how the alt-media will respond to government threats and violence.
Right now as the internet matures into all it can be new bloggers and alt-media sites are still blooming like wildflowers after a desert rain. I think any government that tries to suppress the free flow of information will doom itself to perpetual whack-a-mole.
Please cite the exact wording that you say constitutes cracking down on alternative media. Thanks.
I did not “consent” to this law- it is therefore void.
Good then this site should be getting the boot. Our Constitution will not allow this to happen. You guys are a bunch of fear mongers. Toolio’s!
Fear mongering sells prepping stuff and advertising. ….it’s all about the money…..never underestimate the power of human greed
Surely if you’re charged you then have the right to defend yourself and prove that what you wrote was not fake, thus enshrining into history the real news and not the MSM propaganda…
I don’t think any other president leaving office has been so intent in scorching the earth behind him. History will remember him as the president who hated his own country.
First he is a puppet and second, I doubt he considers this his country
LMAO! I hope the FCC is ready to shut down the fake news sites! Goodbye CNN…MSNCB…Associated Press…HuffPo…Daily News…NYT…
They will shut them down as soon as Santa dismounts his gold dust farting lime green unicorn.
Good thing Congress passed a bill allowing them to scrap anything Obama tries to puke through in his final death throws. We’ll have to remember this one and hold Trump’s feet to the fire.
Essentially, what it means is, they are trying to stop people from telling the truth about jews and their agendas.
Those are the main players in the Lucifarian agenda ruling this fallen world
Obama created the conditions in America for Trump to be elected.I always told my Conservative friends that when people had had enough of it they would rebel,and this is exactly what happened.
Many foreign News Sites are the only ones telling the “Way it is”. I swear CBS,ABC and NBC share the same stories with just a different liberal bent to each.We don’t want it!
A great thing about our Constitution is self-presevation is baked right into it. Any act, order, or proclamation pretending to be law, but in conflict with the Constitution is automatically “null and void, as if it had never been written.” Combined with jury nullification, it’s the last line of defense short of taking up arms.
There are tons of unconstitutional laws that pass….how much water your toilet holds….what kind of light bulbs are sold….Obama Care…..on and on…..Short of a revolution, the incremental thievery of our rights and our country will continue unabated.
Obama has lost whatever was left of his mind when he signed this. It is a joke. He is like a little kid throwing his toy on the floor instead of putting away like mom told him to do. Poor O. He can’t play with his white house toy anymore so he throws a hissy fit. Typical progressivism.
Time to purge the criminals and hang the traitors from our political system…time to apprehend those who would trash our Constitution, violate our laws and willfully destroy our country. Time to drain the swamp!
If you work for a TLA dot gov agency and know the truth, honor your oath, NOW! This is NOT the time for good men to do nothing!
does this mean huffington post will be toast? ohh darn..
What do you expect from an African impostor with a fake birth certificate? It turns out that the racists/white supremacists were right all along. Blacks owe us all a huge apology. Whites should never have trusted them.
He is a filthy muslim who cares nothing for America, the Constitution or the people. Obama is crap and his legacy of failure is well deserved. I spit upon the name of the filthy one known as allah, she is not worthy of me.
His legislation is going to be repealed by Trump. This crap is unconstitutional.
Fake news, like that WH birth certificate?
You know, I voted for him twice. Would not have voted for him a 3rd time. I think a lot of people wouldn’t have. Better that he didn’t run against Der Trump. It would have been embarrassing.
Does America deserve to be wiped-out?
The people getting in God’s face on the “Final Judgement”, yelling at God; “DID I NOT CAST OUT EVIL IN YOUR HOLY NAME!!”, American. By the same corruption that brought down Atlantis, Sodom and Gomorrah has blinded America with it’s own self-worship can’t see the end.
You Edged God Out and joined the corrupted gypsies of Israel.
Too bad our military cannot protect us, since all those brainwashed terrorists do is what they are told: Bomb those wedding parties, shoot that baby, burn that city, send that drone to another nation we are not at war with….everything but protecting our dwindling freedoms. Instead, they should be doing what they took an oath for: Protecting America and our Constitution.
Sorry if you are a ‘veteran’ and are insulted, but that’s the truth. Why do you think so many of you are killing yourselves? Because you are proud of what you did, or because you are shamed at what you did (terrorism). Nobody forced you to join. Were you blind to the fact that all of our ‘wars’ are based on lies? You should have known instead of being conditioned by propaganda and violent military games. Really, fuck you and shame on you terrorists.
Pretty soon you’ll have to move to Russia to enjoy American style freedoms.
This is no way a law as it is described. It IS unconstitutional and therefore null and void.
It will lose in court every time.
Remember these same laws can be used against “them”; we just have to get the “good guys” into office. We could use the Patriot Act against Hillary, Obama, Bush etc….round them all up without due process,]..
http://www.infowars.com/breaking-obama-bans-free-speech-in-the-dead-of-night/
But what the government should want is the True news about the government blocked, Like that Obama is a Muslim Terrorist and hates America and Americans and that his wife is a man ! And the Muslims that he is sneaking in are an army that will go on a nation wide murder attack against Americans killing many thousands !!! BE READY !!!! kio9i8u7y6tyrg54re39557yt65tfr4j878780oi9
Obama is a piece of shit. Didn’t have the balls to do it when the people where watching. His time is almost over and he will be forgotten quickly. America’s first president that desired to take down his nation and people. Disgusting.
As JAMES LEONARD points out below there is no law forcing the media to tell the truth and as a matter of fact they have the green light to lie all they want. The main stream media lies all the time with impunity. Not only in the telling of news but in their op-eds where they have free reign to spout their propaganda at will. The government recognized press is nothing but a mouthpiece for the powers that be.
This is not about stopping “fake news”, this is about stopping the truth and competition against the failing government propaganda media.
On the same note to anyone willing to listen. Fake news media is only a small part of the problem with the propaganda that permeates this country. Hollywood is the number one propaganda outlet in this country yet people spend good money to get their brain washed every day. So why do they gripe when propaganda is forced on them when they willing lap up the propaganda from the governments favorite BS industry?
I hope Obama is arrested for treason against the American People before he can escape to his newly purchased mansion in Qatar.
“Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017” Allows the Mainstream Media to continue their Fake News propoganda without dissent. Watch boys, their tightening the noose…in a bi-partisan way of course.