Russia has shown again how the dream of post-Soviet civil liberties has plummeted under the authoritarian ambitions of Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, a Russian court sentenced a blogger to five years in jail for extremist views and advocacy. Terrorism? Religious fanaticism? No, Vadim Tyumenstev, 35, from the Siberian region of Tomsk, encouraged people to protest against corruption and high transport fares.
Local officials were incensed by the public discussion of their corruption and incompetence as well as his criticism of pro-Kremlin separatists in eastern Ukraine. Rather than refute the claims, they arrested him. The simply said that his call for people to attend a protest against the hike in local bus fares constitutes a call to overthrow the government.
It is a familiar approach in Russia from the Stalinist era. Of course, we must now just call it the Putinist era.
That’s rich coming from this blog.
Putin jails ’em.
Turley censors ’em.
Pogo stick
And in one post, remarkable.
“Nobody is doing life in a Canadian prison for trafficking pot” is your latest shoot from the hip assertion, akin to your blatantly false claim of your hero Greek Utah rapper wannabe, Weldon Angelos, being a “pot smoker” doing 55 years. We now know some of the facts and you were fabricating and using hyperbole.
I don’t know if there are any Canadians in prison for life on cannabis trafficking sentences. And you know what, YOU DON’T KNOW THAT EITHER! I do know life imprisonment for cannabis trafficking is on the books. If you were worthy, I would spend my valuable time researching your blind assertion. I surmise you may be wrong, but I won’t state unequivocally and cavalierly you’re wrong, I assert I don’t know. If I cared enough I would check it out. My knowledge of how Canadians treat their aboriginal people is there may be a few doing life on cannabis trafficking. Every country has people they crap on, and the aboriginals, as they refer to them in Canada, are the second class citizens “up dere.”
Let me again assert, cannabis should be legal. WE AGREE. But, when you get on your high horse, pontificate, embellish and dissemble, I am going to call you, and anyone else out for doing so. Detecting fraud, lies, deceit, is what I do.
Nick
You post the second most posts on this blog, congratulations. Your style is that of a pogo stick, a sentence or two on each bounce. You also take first place for cherry picking. Nobody is doing life in a Canadian prison for trafficking pot or for that matter any drug. However, with out without dubious extenuating circumstance, in the US thousands are spending the rest of their lives behind bars for next to nothing regarding drugs. So, the essence of what I posted earlier remains valid.
Rosen was in russia?
You’ve been pummeled Mr/ France/Canada. You picked a topic I know much about. End the New Year w/o disgracing yourself further. Remember, “Pride comes before the fall.” Smart folks know when to just walk away and fight another day.
And, let us not forget Mr.Canada/Frances original big lie, calling the Utah Greek rapper merely “a pot smoker.” Liberals lie, just not very well.
And, like all liberals, Mr. Canada/France likes to create and defeat straw men. “Put him away for life” because I don’t care?? READ WHAT I’VE SAID SEVERAL TIMES IN THIS THREAD and many times prior. I THINK CANNABIS SHOULD BE LEGAL. You truly are Rain Man.
The maximum penalty for selling 3 kilos or more of cannabis in Canada, LIFE IN PRISON! Trafficking any amount of cocaine or heroin maximum penalty in Canada, LIFE IN PRISON. Ya hey, those are some tough hoser laws.
I read up on this Greek rapper wannabe from Utah. He is the darling of the liberal echo chamber. I read pieces in HuffPo, Daily Beast, The Nation, etc. And, the new liberal snarky darling, John Oliver did a piece on the Utah gang banger. Like Leonard Peltier and so many losers liberals adopt, there is no rhyme or reason. It really is too bad the Golden Greek rapper got popped and made some incredibly bad decisions. But, there are people who have gotten shafted worse than him. Prisoners caught up in harsh sentencing guidelines who are much more worthy of sympathy. This Utah rapper must have some good PR people. Actually, just get the name into the liberal echo chamber and it reverberates coast to coast. I see at least one liberal lemming took the bait.
Five years for blogging-who knows the extenuating circumstances. Decades for an innocuous product like pot, regardless of the details on this one or that one, thousands of pretty much non criminal types have spent their lives in prison or had their lives ruined, etc. The US judicial system is no less rife with the same setting up of people, the same corruption, and the same ruining of lives. The ingredients might differ but the smell is the same. Statistics don’t lie. Personal histories don’t lie. So he’s stupid, put him away for life cuz ND TE doesn’t abide stupid.
We have our privileged and ‘smart’ criminals who skate. So does Russia and much of the rest of the world. We have ideals that we hold sacred. Yet we crap all over them on a routine basis. It hurts when it’s right in one’s own backyard. That’s why this blog is primarily focused on other countries.
Happy Birthday, old fart.
If you lose the attitude I will educate you on sentencing guidelines and the factors involved in this sentencing. I am not an expert, but my wife is. She was the guidelines expert for her region and although retired, still gets calls to probe her knowledge of these unjust sentencing guidelines. My wife has taught me a lot, but she is an ace on the subject. I will tell you I got the “multiple pounds” from the FAMM website, a group against mandatory minimums who are championing this guys situation. This guys girlfriend had large bags of shake, the byproduct of cannabis harvesting used to make edibles and hashish. This was factored into the sentence as was his buying a Lexus for $30k w/ cash. If you want to learn some FACTS, my wife and I will use our PACER account and research the salient factors that led to the sentencing. But, I need to hear from you an honest, not sarcastic, request. It’s my birthday and I don’t need foolishness on my birthday.
Regarding the gun, SMART dealers never let anyone see their guns, knowing the sentencing guidelines had HARSH multipliers for possession of firearms while selling drugs. Using the gun was not required to enhance the sentence. Even the amounts of ammo is factored in the guidelines. From what little I’ve read, this guy was a rapper wannabe, not street smart, trying to get street cred, involved w/ gangs, and got popped because he was a stupid dealer. He apparently had a stupid attorney that didn’t convince him to accept the plea deal. I am opposed to these harsh sentences. But, I don’t abide stupid.
ND
$350.00 ?multiple pounds??
Mandatory minimums for drug felonies involving a gun, however, stacked up to make Angelos’ weed bust a near life sentence. Angelos never used or brandished his two weapons, but because the police said they saw them — in his center console and strapped to his ankle — he received one five-year and two consecutive 25-year sentences.
Judge Cassell was outraged at Angelos’ mandatory sentence, calling it “unjust, cruel, and even irrational.” He urged President Bush to commute Angelos’ sentence to 18 years or less, and 29 former judges and prosecutors filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief imploring Angelos’ sentencing judge to declare the sentence unconstitutional.
Ya sees what ya wants ta see and ya hears what ya wants ta hear. By the way, that’s Mr. Canada/USA, perhaps a cut above those that are xenophobic and narrow minded in either country. But for someone who’s been so many places, eaten in so many kitchens, and has interviewed, deposed, etc so many people, we can’t be talking about you.
LOL! Well Mr. Canada, I am on record of being against mandatory minimum sentences. My wife was a Federal PO and had to prepare thousands of presentence investigations under those draconian guidelines. She hated it, particularly the crack sentencing guidelines. But, you LYING and calling a drug dealer, selling multiple pounds of cannabis w/ a gun strapped to his side, a “pot smoker” is flat ass BS. Again, propagandist, WE AGREE on the topic. But, YOU LIED about the circumstances. I can’t help but chuckle @ the irony, you being a gun hater and IGNORING the gun significance in sentencing. The guy was offered a 15 year plea. He made a bad choice. If you reject the plea deal, and you are found guilty, the judge has to impose the sentence he got. Screwed up sentencing laws, pushed through by the House Speaker Irish Dem buffoon, Tip O’Neil.
BTW, in 2010, w/ bipartisan support, Congress did away w/ the worst aspects of the crack cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines. Those were the guidelines pushed through by the shanty Tip O’Neill. And here’s the utterly stupid reason O’Neill pushed those crack laws through. His Boston Celtics had just drafted Len Bias. Celebrating going 1st in the draft, Bias did crack and his heart exploded. The Celtics were struggling and Bias was going to be the next Larry Bird. O’Neill’s constituents were shocked and pissed @ the len Bias death. O’Neill, who coined the phrase, “All politics is local” pandered to his constituents and pushed through draconian crack laws, cruel and unusual laws..and racist as well. I know exponentially more than you on this topic, Mr. Canada. But, if past is prologue, I expect some long, tedious, polemics from you upcoming. You are the guy who doubles down in blackjack w/ a 15. The smart thing to do is just walk away from the table.
“Pride comes before the fall.”
UPDATE 9/05/2015: Edward Snowden Speaks Out: “Hillary Clinton”, “The Donald”, & “Freedom”
Nick “Hildegard, Obama has unleashed the hounds on who leaked the WSJ piece on his ordering the NSA to spy on Bibi and Congress.”
Hounds is a nice way of putting it. Heartless thugs is more like it. Obama is a THUG pure and simple. It shouldn’t take a PHD in Body Language to get the despicable smirk on his face, but Americans are just that ignorant of what the rest of the world seems to know; our government has been taken over by extremely dark forces. It’s not ME who needs the tin foil hat.
Is anyone out there awake this morning? Do you like the CHANGE we’re experiencing? Do you imagine that what happened to Scotty Walker cannot happen to you or someone you love?
BREAKING: Researcher Scotty Walker arrested for exposing Sandy Hook truth
Hildegard, Obama has unleashed the hounds on who leaked the WSJ piece on his ordering the NSA to spy on Bibi and Congress.
Considering the VAST difference between the history of Russia and the U.S. we absolutely cannot judge them using the same criteria. The Soviet Union wasn’t dissolved until 1991 and the Russian Federation started officially in 1992; only 23 years ago.
U.S. slips again in press freedom ranking with blame on Obama administration
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/politics/u-s-press-freedom-ranking-obama-administration-leaks/
“The United States HAS DROPPED 29 SPOTS spots in the annual Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking SINCE 2009, when President Barack Obama took office.
The U.S. RANKED 49TH this year out of 180 countries included in the organization’s World Press Freedom Index, joining the ranks of countries like NIGER, MALTA, AND ROMANIA.
The decline from its position at No. 20 in 2009 has been spurred by the Obama administration’s aggressive PROSECUTION OF WHISTLEBLOWERS, said Delphine Halgand, the organization’s U.S. director.
“We consider that the Obama administration has launched a war against whistleblowers,” Halgand said. “This year is a continuation of the concern we already expressed that national security protection has been more and more threatening freedom of information in the U.S.”
The U.S. has prosecuted eight alleged whistleblowers under the Espionage Act, MORE THAN ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATORS COMBINED, Halgand said.
Despite Obama’s campaign pledge to make his administration one of THE MOST TRANSPARENT IN HISTORY, reporters and press freedom watchdogs have continually slammed the administration as one of the least transparent and criticized its dogged efforts to plug leaks.”
Doesn’t it all depend on what he meant by transparent?
JR, Amen! The 1st Amendment is under siege. Liberals hate it, w/ the Yale video being but one of thousands of examples.
Olly, Justice Breyer leads the charge in believing we need to incorporate international laws w/ ours. I have seen Scalia rip Breyer a new one discussing this topic.