Under a proposed Louisiana law, peaceful protests like 350.org’s “Draw the Line on Tar Sands and the Keystone XL pipeline,” in the French Quarter in New Orleans on September 21, 2013, bear the possibility of prison sentences as long as 20 years, or fines of up to $10,000.
Credit: Julie Dermansky / Corbis
On April 12, 2018, in the chambers of the Louisiana State House of Representatives, Rep. Major Thibaut Jr. stepped up to the microphone before the Speaker to introduce seemingly benign House Bill 727. According to his testimony, the bill was humble — almost technical — in scope and aimed primarily to add “pipelines” to the list of what the state considers “critical infrastructure.” It had faced no opposition in committee, Thibaut added, and had “over sixty-something authors.”
“It’s a good bill,” he said, then motioned for favorable passage. Ninety-seven legislators voted yay, three voted nay, and just like that, all 4.6 million residents of Louisiana took a step toward losing their First Amendment rights. Should the bill become law, it would impose […]
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I might even go so far as to call it Totalitarianism, that we are living under now in this country. With our massive military spread all over the world, we look more like Nazi Germany, except the Muslims are the central target instead of the Jewish people. And the local police here are looking more like soldiers than “peace” officers, as this article points out. Noam Chomsky (the great philosopher) even says the USA looks like the greatest threat to world peace in the world right now.