Cum on Feel The Noize: What's Poppin in Egypt This Weekend

Good people of the internet, welcome to another week of my unrestricted commentary. Protesters in Egypt have been similarly unrestricted in their commentary against their president, engaging in unforeseen and widespread demonstrations around the country on Friday.

Protesters in Cairo (see link for source)

A call to action posted via social media to take a stand against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in response to the inherent corruption of his administration. Mohamed Ali, an Egyptian businessman living as an exile in Spain, took to social platforms to urge Egyptians to protest in the streets after a highly attended soccer match in Cairo on Friday. Speaking from his experience as a contractor working for el-Sisi's regime, Ali claimed that el-Sisi and his aides mismanaged public funds for their own gain (e.g. Palaces and Villas being built for administration officials), when Egypt is currently battling a poverty crisis. Statistics taken in July report that 33% of Egyptians are living below the poverty line, according to AlJazeera. 

Mohamed Ali, former contractor for Egyptian government (see link for source)

The people certainly heard this call to action, and came out in droves. Demonstrations occurred in eight Egyptian metro areas, the largest ones in Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez. From the high view count and usage of anti-Sisi hashtags on various platforms, this outcry wasn't surprising. What is surprising however, is that in light of laws and responses created by el-Sisi's administration to subdue dissenters, these citizens took their lives into their hands and came out anyways. 

el-Sisi took power in Egypt via a military coup in 2013, overthrowing Mohamed Mursi after many demonstrations against the regime. Since his rise to power, el-Sisi has installed legislation to protect himself against this sort of downfall. 'Unauthorized' protests are illegal in Egypt, Security and police forces in metro areas responded to protesters with tear gas, with arrests of tens of citizens and a journalist. There have been no casualties reported, but the risk taken by these protesters was high in coming out yesterday. 

Photo taken following the announcement of el-Sisi's takeover in 2013. (see link for source)

Protesters could be heard chanting, "LEAVE, SISI", and "THE PEOPLE DEMAND THE FALL OF THE REGIME". A poster of el-Sisi was destroyed by protesters, Here's a few links to videos taken from the demonstration, posted to social media, to give you an idea of how angry the people were. 

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

el-Sisi is actually on his way to the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly, and has yet to deliver a response to the action back home. el-Sisi called Ali's comments last week, "slander", and claimed to be "honest and faithful" to Egypt and its military. State TV glossed over the protest action or minimized it, describing the conflict as "quiet". Human Rights Watch has demanded that the UN take a stand against el-Sisi during his attendance at the General Assembly, and for the release of the jailed protesters. 

President el-Sisi addressing Ali's comments at a youth summit last week. (see link for source)

The importance of standing up for your country, holding your representatives and administrative bodies responsible for their actions or inaction is highly important. We have our rights to do this guaranteed to us as U.S. citizens, and this right is one we can never fully grasp the privilege of. Countries such as Egypt, that are denied by law this freedom, still understand the fundamental importance of this action, and the changes it can bring. What those changes will be remains to be seen, but the bravery and belief in Egypt and its progress exercised by its citizens this weekend is a reminder that while not everyone has this privilege, people around the world seek to employ dissent at any cost, to better the world they live in. 

YOU GOTTA FIGHT, FOR YOUR RIGHT, TO PROOOOTEST!! (see link for source)

Origin Intel For This Post, Because I'm Too Poor To Even Entertain The IDEA of Plagiarism:

AlJazeera article

Reuters article

TV Lawyer Completely Neglects Constitutional Principles, To No One's Surprise

America! Let's get down to business. This week in COM-1450, we were discussing the Civil War/Reconstruction historical framework around the U.S. Constitution. Within this discussion, I've got a note from you, Dean Smith, that will serve as the basis for today's commentary.

"WITHOUT GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT, NO CONSTITUTIONAL CLAIM CAN BE MADE, BECAUSE ONLY THE GOVERNMENT CAN VIOLATE YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS"- D. Smith

In all it's glory, le constitution. (see link for source)

Well said, but apparently this was not entirely clear to Judge Jeanine Pirro, a former judge, prosecutor, and politician turned Fox News opinion host. Pirro went on C-SPAN this week to promote her new book, Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy , and to interact with callers. If you couldn't already gather from Pirro's book title, she's only slightly aggressive in her vilification of liberals and anyone else opposing the sitting president. She inspired a lot of callers to ring her up to chat about their opposition to her rhetoric, as well as President Trump's and his administration's rhetoric. 

I dream of Jeanine! Or, I nightmare of Jeanine. (see link for source)

One particular caller, Kevin, raised concerns about Pirro's claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar of Michigan couldn't serve the Constitution because she chooses to wear a hijab, among other anti-Immigrant rhetoric she and her fellow opinion hosts on the network espouse and support. Here's Pirro's dodgy, and thoroughly foolish response: 

PIRRO: (laughs) "Well, first of all, the truth is that the venom that is coming from the left, I think it's clearer every day. When they try to shut down the people on the right from saying and exercising their First Amendment free speech, when they're taken off of Twitter, and Facebook, when the left demands that people lose their jobs and their shows. When the left like Debra Messing just last week said, 'I wanna out everyone who supports Donald Trump so they never work in this town again', When the left gets to the point where they wanna shut down free speech, they don't want us to speak at universities, they then don't want us to work, Bill Maher would rather have a recession so that Americans don't work. And then you've got this McCarthyism and this blacklisting coming from the left, you've gotta ask yourself, where is the venom coming from here? The First Amendment is a constitutional right. The United States has protected hate speech, in fact they've said, the Supreme Court has said specifically, it's not just speech everyone agrees with that's protected, it's hate speech as well.....Now if you want to talk about the fundamental freedoms, they're being limited by the left.."

(see link for source)

Phew. That was a mess and a half for a lot of reasons that I will for time's sake not get into. However, what I will get into is Pirro's assertion that the "Left", which she is not defining as the legislators, but anyone who identifies as left leaning on the political spectrum, is VIOLATING members of her own political affiliation's right to free speech. For a lawyer, you don't know shit about the Constitution, Jeanine. 

As Dean Smith said, "only the government can violate your constitutional rights". Pirro is trying to victimize herself, and other loud voices in her party who have been criticized and targeted for hateful and bigoted use of language in different platforms. A lot of hard right conservatives have been removed on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, because their content violates the site's Terms of Service. These sites are not government entities, and are not like government, responsible for upholding your constitutional rights. These sites cannot violate anyone's right to free speech, because that's not the sites' responsibility. TV stations that choose, like Fox did, to suspend Pirro for comments she has made that were of hateful nature, are not violating anyone's right to freedom of speech. 

The sad part of this, is that often, her viewers, and any person that doesn't have a solid understanding of our Constitution wouldn't understand that what she is saying is outright bullshit. Because in theory your right to free speech is protected in this country, people believe it can be violated by anyone at any time, and they'll try and use this theory to defend their stupidity. No one on the left or the right can suppress free speech, or violate the constitution. The government is the sole body that can do this, and that is the way of it. Even if not for her hateful comments, perhaps Pirro should be dropped from Fox for having a piss poor understanding of the very legal framework that upholds our country. 

(see link for source)

(Drops mic)

Origin Intel For This Post, Because I'm Too Poor To Even Entertain The IDEA of Plagiarism:

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/jeanine-pirro-went-c-span-it-didnt-go-well 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanine_Pirro

Rap God Stands Up For First Amendment Rights

Well, since we last gathered, not much has changed in world events. However, I have a highly enticing story for you all, that originated from a Comedy Central Special of all places. Roy Wood Jr., a highly talented comic who many know from his contributions to The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, did a fan-damn-tastic standup special for the network from which I enjoyed clips of this afternoon. All kinds of interesting, hilarious, and also touching stories serve as the format of his set, but there was one particular anecdote that was just fitting enough for the subject matter of this very course.

Promo thumbnail for CC Special (see link for source)

While an undergraduate student in Florida, Wood was exposed to all kinds of different music, but a really popular musical subculture of the time was "Miami Bass". That didn't sound like a real genre to me either upon first learning of it, but it is a legit sub-genre of hip hop that essentially involves heavy use of a Roland TI-808 drum machine, and a shit-ton of sexually explicit lyrics, coming from musicians and DJs in Miami, FL. Wood tells a story of his encounter with a very well known artist in that scene, more pertaining to the artist's caravan of strippers in a party bus driving around the city. However, Luke Skywalker/Uncle Luke/Luther Campbell (man goes by a LOT of names), stood for a lot more than a good time. 

I wish I was kidding (see link for source)

Uncle Luke, a prominent participant in the Miami Bass scene, utilized highly sexually explicit lyrics in his rap and in this group "2 Live Crew"'s material. I've got some lyrics here for your viewing pleasure, just to demonstrate my point. This all came out in the late 80s, so though these lyrics might not actually be that shocking to y'all, it was highly controversial content then. To backtrack a little bit, Tipper Gore (former VP Al Gore's wife) and activist group Parents Music Resource Center had already established an uproar that led to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) implementing the "Explicit Lyrics: Parental Advisory" sticker in 1985. This action was apparently not enough according to the group, that wanted to kind of set up music sales like we do movie theater sales, establishing age limitations for certain musical content as is done for Rated-R movies. It should be noted that the Parental Advisory sticker is not required of record companies to be printed on the cover, it's a guideline rather than a LAW. 

As Nasty As They Wanna Be (see link for source)

2 Live Crew's third album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, came out in 1989, to a large uproar from this same group of people. They couldn't handle the obscenity, and to boot, there was no Parental Advisory sticker on the cover. People LOST their minds, Rob Martinez, the Governor of Florida at the time, got a ton of politicians together to work towards a BAN of this album. It almost happened, because the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that this album was "legally obscene" and three members of 2 Live Crew were arrested for performing songs from the album at a sex club shortly after the ruling. However, the group and their lawyers got smart, and exercised their First Amendment rights on the national stage.

Bob Martinez (see link for source)

The U.S. Court of Appeals (Eleventh Circuit) heard the case against the State of Florida, with the argument from 2 Live Crew/Uncle Luke's representation that their First Amendment rights protected the sale and content of their album. The group was able to continue selling the album, and perform it live as they wished, returning to their business. As sexually charged as their lyrics were, the framework of the U.S. Constitution protected the ability of these artists to express themselves as they wished, without meddling from the government. This power and privilege that we have as Americans often goes unappreciated, we take so much for granted that we can say what we want, whether or not those in power in our country agree with us. This freedom is not fully extended to many nations across the world, and we are highly lucky to have it. 

2 Live Crew and Uncle Luke's experience navigating this censorship is not only an entertaining example of constitutional protections, but it really demonstrates that we as citizens of this country have a duty to stand up for these protections when they are ignored by others. Even if you don't agree with the content of his music, Uncle Luke took important steps through his Constitutional rights to protect any person creating controversial content, no matter the degree, and that is meaningful to our society! Wood emphasizes this in his set! 

The Man. The Myth. The Legend. (see link for source)

"It's very easy to put people in one box, you know? But it's not fair, because we can be many things. Is Luther Campbell a man that built his career on some music that a lot of people would consider disrespectful and misogynistic to women? Absolutely. You can make that argument. But you can also make the argument that he was one of the most important legal trailblazers in entertainment in the last three decades. You can be both things."- Roy Wood Jr. 

That's all I have for now. Until next time, keep it uncensored, America. 

Origin Intel For This Post, Because I'm Too Poor To Even Entertain The IDEA of Plagiarism: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JoI9jOmygc

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2010/10/29/130905176/you-ask-we-answer-parental-advisory---why-when-how

https://ambrosiaforheads.com/2015/07/25-years-ago-today-2-live-crew-made-history-bringing-out-the-parental-advisory-sticker/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Nasty_As_They_Wanna_Be#Obscenity_trial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_Advisory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Campbell