Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted
There’s a very good reason that Virginia wants to disarm civilians with a rash of new, unconstitutional laws. That’s because they seem to be modeling themselves after one of those countries where the government cannot be publicly criticized without great risk to the critic.
Yet another new bill is on the table and this one criminalizes criticism of certain government officials. The summary of HB1627, proposed by Delegate Jeffrey M. Bourne, reads:
Threats and harassment of certain officials and property; venue. Provides that certain crimes relating to threats and harassment may be prosecuted in the City of Richmond if the victim is the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. In addition, threats to damage property may be prosecuted in the City of Richmond if the property is owned by the Commonwealth and located in the Capitol District. (source)
Oh, muffin. Are the people you’re oppressing been hurting your feelings? Then, by all means, while you’re actively trying to dismantle the Second Amendment, you should pass another unconstitutional law to attack the First Amendment.
It’s sort of like declaring a State of Emergency and calling gun owners white supremacists because you know you pushed them too hard and now you’re scared. But longer-lasting.
It’s also like communist China where critics can end up vanishing into a labor camp or watch their entire family be arrested. Or Thailand where lèse-majesté laws mean that a critic can be imprisoned for 3-15 years per count for any hurtful words about the king.
What constitutes a threat or harassment?
What exactly do the words “threats” and “harassment” mean in the terms of HB1627?
I’m glad you asked. If you take a look at some other codes that have been previously passed in Virginiastan, you’ll see that it can be something as simple as foul language.
Matt Palumbo wrote:
The bar for harassment is already as low as “vulgar language” in Virginia’s code 18.2-152.7:1:
If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Bourne’s bill proposes adding the following amendment:
A violation of this section may be prosecuted in the jurisdiction in which the communication was made or received or in the City of Richmond if the person subjected to the act is one of the following officials or employees of the Commonwealth: the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
Bourne’s Bill also changes the language of “he shall be guilty” to “he is guilty” of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
It’s insane that a bill defining harassment so vaguely is already on the books in Virginia – and it’s even more insane that someone is proposing expanding it so that politicians can legally intimidate their detractors with ease. (source)
Can you imagine the way this bill could be used to silence dissent? It’s so vague that it could be enforced completely arbitrarily.
If you say mean things on the internet, if you use swear words when talking about our elected officials, or if you happen to suggest some solutions like… I don’t know… is tarring and feathering considered illegal and immoral?…then you could be guilty under this proposed law. My comments section alone would fill an entire prison cellblock, not to mention the comments sections of other websites.
When a government plays stupid games like trying to disarm a bunch of gun-loving, rural-dwelling Virginians, that government is bound to get stupid prizes like those same Virginians marching on the capital and criticizing them on the internet.
People in public office open themselves up to criticism.
This is why we have a First Amendment. If anyone in the state should be allowed to be criticized, it’s the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
By the very nature of running for public office, one should expect to be the target of some verbal harassment. People who are so thin-skinned as to make a law about why nobody should be able to say mean things to or about them have no business whatsoever in government.
I wonder if this petition to recall Governor Northam counts as being abusive toward him? (Please take a moment to go sign it.) The bad news is, the Virginia state congress has been working on another bill meant to keep them in power by changing the rules for a recall.
HB842 reads:
Removal of public officers; petition requirements; signature requirements. Clarifies that the requirement that a petition for the removal of a public officer be signed under penalty of perjury applies only to the person or persons filing such petition with the circuit court. Registered voters signing the petition for purposes of reaching the required number of signatures shall not be required to sign under penalty of perjury. The bill also increases the required number of signatures to a number of registered voters in the locality equal to 25 percent, up from 10 percent, of the total number of votes cast at the last election for the office, and requires the signatures to be collected within a 60-day period. (source)
The hits just keep on coming in Virginia. Redistricting and a crapton of money from Michael Bloomberg during the election served to turn this state’s congress upside down. A legitimate protest has been meaningless to the government of Virginia. The members of the legislature don’t care what Virginians think and they’re arrogant enough to pass vaguely worded laws to silence their constituents.
This is the very definition of tyranny.
Don’t think it can’t happen in your state.
What’s happening in Virginia is a cautionary tale and political road map for what will soon happen in the rest of the country.
- First, they took over the legislature by redrawing districts and dumping in millions of dollars from out of state.
- Then they began changing the rules so they can’t be recalled.
- Then they began imposing draconian gun control measures.
- Then they set about to make criticism of them illegal.
Could it be any more clear that every step of this was planned ahead of time?
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and runs a small digital publishing company. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
What they are proposing is TREASON and need to be arrested (including Bloomberg) and tried in a court of constitutional law.
I agree and the penalty for treason is not prison time.
It’s death by firing squad or hanging………I choose hanging…I enjoy lying politricksters learning the chicken kick.
I like the rope to because you can just use it over and over again
To quote an old friend of mine–Vietnam vet–To be shot is a soldier’s death. Hanging is for traitors.
Well, it’s actually more directly specific than that. What the Virginia legislature is guilty of is the felony violation of USCC 18-241-242. The question is why aren’t they being arrested, handcuffed, and shackled, and arraigned before a magistrate for a bond hearing? Anybody know the answer to that? (hint) ‘We let them get away with it’
I think it isn’t “fragile” as much as it is “tyrannical”.
going to the range now for some ammotherapy. (I live just outside Richmond)
Figure I better do it while firing ranges are still legal.
There’s a bill moving through the Va. legislature banning firing ranges except for law enforcement.
That’s like banning hospitals to prevent disease.
When did my ancestors Jametown get moved to Russia?
The fact that all these unconstitutional activities have been happening for years, and not just in Virginia, shows that we’ve been on a slippery slope for a long time. People are too disinterested, uninformed and apathetic. I just hope that the recent protests and people waking up to what’s really going on isn’t too little, too late …
It is not about being thin-skinned. It is about silencing those that could and would protest and advertise their illegal activities, and therefore jeopardize their agenda of total Civilian Disarmament, which would jeopardize their agenda of absolute control of the population to ensure that they will stay in power, with all of the advantages and perks that being an elected official gives them, and set things up to meet UN Agenda 21 and UN Agenda 2030 here in the US, so globalists can enjoy all the best of the US, safely, securely, and exclusively.
A tax-paying worker base, with the minimum amount of benefits to keep them healthy enough to keep working, at a pay rate that allows them to live, barely, but not improve themselves, until they are old enough to retire, at which time they will go before the panel of doctors that will be under the control of the government, that will determine if they are still a useful part of society and deserve to be allowed to live a while longer, or will have medications and treatments withheld, so they will die quickly. Probably sedated so they cannot complain.
All in the name of: “For the good of the citizens, and safety of the children.”
Totalitarianism. One of the worst forms of tyranny.
Just my opinion.
Northam is just trying to stop people from calling him governer baby killer blackface.
He can’t stand the mirrors of his own life choices.
A blob of ectoplasm is not a “baby”. Northam deserves condemnation, but not for keeping the government’s goons out of doctors’ examining rooms.
What we need is widespread civil disobedience, and a network of people willing to not only stand together and say ENOUGH, but also fight together when the time comes. It’s not a matter of IF it will happen, but WHEN.
So, would calling Trump a “fraud and a failure”, a “crook, con-man” etc. be covered under this “law”? Or does it just apply to the Democratic law makers of the great state of Virginia? Thus taking away the great American pasttime of complaining about elected officials?
How DARE they?!?!?!
That’s funny!
And true.
Just wait till you send a text to a friend that you “Dont like Govner Whatshisname” and they arrest you under this law.
Enough is enough with these little kings and queens. Time for the people to pull these criminal traitors out of their offices and hang em.
They are more like dictators than government servants.
The few rule over the many because the many ALLOW it.
Prosecuting you for saying that you will kill Joe Snicklebritches because you don’t like the way he voted on an issue is one thing. That’s uttering a threat, and should be taken seriously.
Saying Joe Snicklebritches is a goat – f∆€#!~% moron and a corrupt bum is freedom of speech under the Constitution.
The reason our forefathers put that provision in the Constitution is because the British Crown forbade any and all criticism of the Crown and it’s policies. The law was used to silence any perceived dissention and misused to get rid of people who ran afoul of government officials, or had something they wanted, as goods, property and chattel were often seized under this law.
Where’s the ACLU when the communists steal a VA election, and then pass laws against the 1st amendment? The must have concluded that protest means you guys are neutered, with our without guns.
The ACLU is in the same place they’ve always been, given they are communists as well.
If people really think power is ever given away, I wish you luck, because it’s not the guns they are coming after: IT IS YOU.
You’re only decision is how you are willing to go to your maker: on your feet, or on your knees. You cannot negotiate with a lunatic or idiot. And unfortunately, these guys are both, with a satanic topping.
If this were some third world country (with some natural resource we wanted), we would impose sanctions on them, the UN would condemn them, launch a propaganda campaign against them with op-eds from all the MSM, and launch some “regime” changing operations against these government officials.
But no. This is just the VA government and their abuse of Americans.
I have to agree with Daisy, this is what tyranny looks like.
I still say file Sedition and Treason with the grand jury against them. Then demand that they be barred from holding office of public trust since they violated the constitution bill of rights in both the federal and state governments by abusing their powers invested to them by we the people. You can never trust a traitor. Not to mention they are to forfeit their benefits and retirements 100%. Maybe that will send a message to the rest of the politicians when they see their peers in prison for life or receiving the death penalty.
Yup another emotionally charged but useless comment, Mette. See my other post on what their direct criminal offense is. It’s on the books. They are are already prohibited from making these un constitutional laws. It’s easy to get all pumped and say”file Sedition and Treason with the grand jury against them’ (which is not what they are doing’. They are violating our Bill of Rights with illegal laws under 18-241-242. But who is going to “file charges’ and Bring it to a Grand Jury? You, Mette?
I have two sons, and like many American boys, they LOVE ninjas. Every cartoon or movie about them, they’re down with that. Naturally, I have tried to give them a little bit of their actual history, so they’d understand them a bit better. For example, ninjas dressing all in black was NOT “because it looks cool”. No; it stems from the fact that is what Japanese peasants wore back in feudal Japan. They were not allowed to wear any other color. So if you wanted strike at a hated foe then blend in and disappear, black was the way to go.
Japanese peasants were also not allowed to criticize any member of those who ruled over them, no matter what. Taxes too high? Tough shit, be quiet. Harvest went bad and you’re hungry? Tough Shit, be Quiet. Samurais used your family for target practice? TOUGH SHIT, BE QUIET!!
See, there’s a reason that Japanese peasants weren’t known for handing over any ninjas they might find. Beating people into silence doesn’t mean they agree with you.
What Governor Blackface is trying to do is to reimpose the tyranny that ruled over the common people of Japan all those years ago. Its the same sort of tyranny that has silenced and beat up and tortured and killed people for thousands of years of human history. What Governor BlackFace and the rest of the would be tyrants need to understand is that silencing citizens will not create robots, it will create rebels. And some of those rebels might have read a history book or two
Hold on a second . . . on the VA flag, it says Sic semper tyrannis . . . are they going to remove that too as it loosely references them?
When legislators pass laws that violate natural rights, they become criminals, and should expect to be treated as such. Ditto for enforcers of illegitimate laws.
There’s only one question: If these bills pass, how far are you willing to go?
The basic premise is that TPTB are breaking the law in the process of passing new laws, but “we the people” are expected to follow the law to fight this travesty. Huh? They’re going to double and triple down on their efforts — with a heavy-handed threat of reprisals — and they’ll go after social media and websites in an attempt to prevent people from organizing. Know your enemy and if HB1627 passes, every possible way to communicate with Bourne should be flooded with lawbreakers. Make sure y’all are also in good standing with — and know the intentions of — the sheriff(s) in your district(s).
Getting illegal to criticize them is the same as being politically correct. This is all to mask their satanic communist agenda and put them above reproach.
Translation? They are to be your God! There will be no other. Now ON YOUR KNEES (which will be the next law they will pass).
If you were a sexual predator would you want people talking about it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76QoB7CRbzM
If foreigners (who are defined as ‘people from outside the US’) are disallowed from contributing to the campaigns of candidates for national office, isn’t it reasonable to disallow out-of-state people from contributing to the campaigns of candidates for state office?
It is reasonable; sensible, even. Sadly it hasn’t happened in many states yet. That needs to happen, and soon. $oro$ and his Hydra-headed NGO network has been pulling the strings throughout the world, and redirecting taxpayer funding to his own evil ends, for decades. He owns more politicians than most people are aware of, and uses his ownership to corrupt elections and legislatures at his whim.
In my opinion, NO taxpayer money ought to be given to ANY NGO, regardless of how noble and effective their mission may be. If they’re doing good work, word will spread and they will garner appropriate levels of VOLUNTARY support. $oro$ has managed to slip his hand into your wallet and pull out nearly a third of the money you thought you’d given (remitted) to the IRS. Such pilfery of the public treasury MUST be stopped, if we are to also stop this onslaught of socialist propaganda and lawfare.
VIRGINIA used to be a state of very indepentant individuals,BEFORE they allowed New Yorkers into their state,one look at bloomburg or the governor tells you their child molesting queers and probably eat children.. the Hero”s of Virginia are supposed to b protecting the people,SADLY that OATH they took to GOD,means absolutly Zero to them,Did anyone notice the governor threated to stop their paychecks,HE KNOWS the POLICE GANGS in america are nothing but TRAITORS AND CHEAP WHORES,they are NOT men of HONOR,there are very few men of Honor left now in america,NOT THE POLICE GANGS OR MILITARY,their ALL devils from hell,and would kill their 6 year old if their ordered to..
WE SHALL RISE ABOVE!!!!!!
You need to form a “ union” and start industrial action such as strikes and picketing.
Today, ZeroHedge has already reprinted this thread of Daisy’s, and linked to the original:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/are-virginia-politicians-really-so-fragile-theyd-pass-bill-making-it-illegal-criticize
Already with 389 unique comments, & counting…
–Lewis
The mighty people of Virginia need to bring a suit against their state to the Supreme Court. Their lawmakers cannot be allowed this kind of control. Stand your ground and appeal to higher powers.
Everyone in Virginia ought to be fully alert by now.
Fight lawfare with lawfare; it could work.
This is a standard modus operandi for socialists everywhere… once they take power, they retain it “by any means necessary” (BAMN is one of their buzzwords). They will enact any level of social control structure they can get away with, then expand it every chance they get, until the populace is absolutely cocooned in laws, rules, penalties and punishments for the crime of being an individual with independent thoughts.
People, don’t let this happen to you. Today, it’s the Democrat Party which is infiltrated by socialists at the highest levels. But don’t be blinded by partisanship; there are socialist moles in the Republican Party as well. Vote out ALL the socialists, regardless of party affiliation. And monitor your election offices closely; make sure the voter rolls are clean WELL before election day, and volunteer to be a poll watcher, reporting at regular intervals so that no faked election results will be accepted as valid by We the People.
If you have friends who feel that politics won’t affect their daily lives, bring them up to date on daily life in Venezuela and how it’s changed since their people *supposedly* chose socialism. The results are copy-and-paste textbook the same, wherever socialism is implemented. And, as Virginia’s plight is illustrating (add in California, Illinois and Oregon), it **CAN** happen where you live. Colorado is rapidly swirling down this particularly fowl toilet bowl. Don’t just sit back and let it happen to you, because it WILL.
Does mealy mouthed, dipstick, racist, son of a dog fit the criteria?
The state of Virginia is a Constitutional Crisis happening now. It will not be much longer until Civil War breaks out. I do not have a clue as to why the current batch of politicians in the state government are pushing this agenda as they are, but I recognize that it is not going to take much more of this to cross the tipping point. All I can say now is clean your weapons, buy as much ammunition as you can, and be ready for what breaks out.
It was these types of ridiculous rules that forced the initial revolution against the British and we know how that turned out, I expect that this time will be a repeat of that.
I’m guessing that whizzing on the Executive Mansion after a ‘hard’ Saturday night will rate as a Class 1 Felony..?
Northam is the new Gessler. Surely Virginia has its own William Tells! Virginia’s state motto suggests it knows how to handle tyrants.
Thank you, Daisy, for keeping us all aware of these things that we may, otherwise, not know! Wow!! This is unbelievable! I don’t live anywhere near VA but this is very concerning because what happens in one state can spread to others. And it seems Michael Bloomberg is putting money into other states to get gun control passed. I read that he gave about $500,000 to Mr. Galvano, head of the senate, in Florida who passed a gun control bill through the state senate. Don’t think the governor supports the bill so not sure what will happen there.
So, we see these things happening, like in VA, and what can we do? I mean really do that will stop them before a revolution?
Something similar just happened in NM. A group of female gunowners peacefully demonstrated against a “red flag” law legislators are crafting. Some of the legislators addressed the group ordering them to NOT attempt to visit or speak to them in the Capitol building, as the legislators claimed they are “intimidated” by them. As the building was crawling with State Police, it takes no real stretch of the imagination to suspect violating this order would result in arrest and maybe worse…
It would seem that Ms Wolfe’s Awkward Time is slowly drawing to a close…and folks like Gov Blackface and Bloomingberg are hastening the passage.
Communists are like that.
Be careful what you vote for, dipsticks.
There are so many terms that have been made politically incorrect or with a different meaning since the leftists started changing the vocabulary to suit them. If you want to control people’s thoughts, begin by controlling their words.
“Progressives are actively working to control what people say by controlling what words are acceptable to use. If you can control the language, you can control the people. And controlling people is the ultimate goal of the left.” –Derek Hunter