Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin.
—Noam Chomsky
Quote of the Day
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Category Archives: Free Speech
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
The one time Brett Kimberlin actually got one of his LOLsuits against me all the way to trial, he tried to use my codefendants, Aaron Walker, Ali Alexander, and Stacy McCain, and me as his witnesses to prove his case. That didn’t go well, and the TKPOTD for seven years ago today dealt with part of the exchange with Stacy McCain.
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Here’s another bit of bumbling from The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin’s direct examination of Stacy McCain during the Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. trial.
MR. KIMBERLIN: Okay. And then did you also tweet that “Perhaps Pat Stranahan and that WJJ Hoge can communicate facts to hired liar Monica Hess”?
MR. MCCAIN: Did I tweet that? Are you showing me a tweet? Okay, let me state for the record that this is not — this is — what this is from — can I make the point this is from the site Breitbart Unmasked. Do you agree?
MR. KIMBERLIN: I’m just asking you a simple question —
MR. MCCAIN: No. No. You’re showing me something from another site that you are accused of owning.
MR. KIMBERLIN: No. I’m asking a simple question. Did you tweet —
MR. OSTRONIC: Your honor, I’ll object. It’s an unauthenticated document.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. KIMBERLIN: No further questions for this witness.
It is downright foolish to attempt to outcrazy Stacy McCain.
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Kimberlin had already filed his RICO Madness LOLsuit which included Stacy as one of the defendants by the time the Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. case came to trial. His subsequent LOLsuits were filed after that trial, and Kimberlin never again tried to sue Stacy McCain.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Many of my favorite Team Kimberlin Posts are titled Qapla’. This one from four years ago today reported the ruling by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirming The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberlin’s loss in the RICO Retread LOLsuit.
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The Court of Special Appeals has ruled in the appeal of the Kimberlin v. National Bloggers Club, et al. (II) RICO Remnant LOLsuit. The defendants win. Brett Kimberlin loses.
Everything proceeded as I foresaw.
UPDATE—I’d like to offer my thanks to Patrick Ostronic, my pro bono counsel, for his help in this case.
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Kimberlin has an appeal before the federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. We’ll see if he maintains his unblemished 0.000 batting average when the court rules in that case.
Stay tuned.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
By this time in 2013, Brett Kimberlin has already filed a false criminal complaint against me and seen it dropped for lack of evidence and he had filed the first of the four LOLsuits he brought against me. The TKPOTD for eight years ago tried to warn him about messing with me.
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Brett Kimberlin has a history of trying to use the court system to silence those who he perceives as his enemies, and one sure-fire way to get on his enemies list is to publish the truth about his past or his current activities. His latest bit of lawfare names me along with four other bloggers as a defendant. Gentle Reader, please allow me to make the following points.
1. The case will be disposed of through the courts not the Internet.
2. Unless advised to do so by my lawyers, I will make no public comments about any pending matter in the case.
3. Tactically, suing me is a dumb move on Kimberlin’s part. He will find that I now have a reason to focus more of my attention on him.
4. Strategically, suing me is an even dumber move. He will now either answer my discovery interrogatories and admissions and produce the documents I seek, or he will have to explain to the court why his suit should not be dismissed.
Click here to buy more popcorn from Amazon.
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Kimberlin sold a lot of popcorn for Orville Redenbacher, and the link above still works.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Yesterday, I was please to be able to report on the dropping of the false criminal charge filed against Christina Pushaw by Rebekah Jones. It was a particularly sweet day for me because it was the eight anniversary of the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office dropping a false criminal charge that Brett Kimberlin had filed against me. In both my case and Ms. Pushaw’s there was nothing to provide an evidentiary foundation for the charges. Eight years ago today, I took the opportunity to tell Kimberlin You Must Construct Additional Pylons to support a real case.
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No wonder I walked out of the courthouse a free man.
The false charge filed against Aaron Walker has also been dropped.
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In 2013, case like mine would be retained in the online case search system. Now, cases like Ms. Pushaw’s are automatically expunged when they are nolle prosed.
My case did wind up being expunged without my knowledge at the request of the State’s Attorney’s Office. I had to go to court to have it unexpunged so that I could sue Kimberlin for malicious prosecution.
Blognet
MUSIC: Theme. Intro and fade under.
NARRATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
MUSIC: Up, then under …
NARRATOR: You’re a Detective Sergeant. You’re assigned to Internet Detail. A public figure awaiting trial for cyberharassment and hacking has accused a writer of violating a peace order. Your job … get the facts.
MUSIC: Up then under …
ANNOUNCER: Blognet … the documented drama of an actual case. For the next few minutes, in cooperation with the Twitter Town Sheriff’s Department, you will travel step by step on the side of the good guys through an actual case transcribed from official files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Blognet is the story of the good guys in action.
MUSIC: Up and out. Continue reading
False Charge Against Christina Pushaw Dropped
The first order of business this morning in Courtroom 513 at the District Courthouse in Rockville, Maryland, was the entering of nolle prosequi motions by the State’s Attorney’s Office. The false charge of failure to obey a temporary peace order filed by Rebekah Jones against Christiana Pushaw was among the cases dropped. According to a spokesman for the State’s Attorney, there was no evidence to support the charge.
UPDATE—The only other people who were in the courtroom other than me when I witnessed the charge being dropped were an Assistant State’s Attorney, Judge Moffett, the clerk, and a bailiff. Rebekah Jones was not there. The case was not going forward, so her “testimony” was not necessary.
UPDATE 2—The State v. Pushaw case has been expunged.
Shoe Leather Reporting
I’m on the road today gathering eyewitness information for a story.
Stay tuned.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
It was seven years ago yesterday, that Brett Kimberlin lost his first of four defamation LOLsuits he filed against me. Seven years ago today, I ran this post about other bloggers’ Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. Wrap Up Posts.
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The Other McCain: here
Patterico’s Pontifications: here
Legal Insurrection: here
Breitbart Unmasked: [crickets]
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I’m very thankful for the support my codefendants and I received from our fellow bloggers.
Oh, and given that Breitbart Unmasked Bunny Billy Boy Unread hasn’t had any new material posted for over two years, I don’t think we’ll ever see any of the coverage of the trail they had promised.
Quote of the Day
The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.
—Anthony Kennedy
Welcome to the Club
YouTiube cited the same alleged reason when they banned my account, and they blew off my appeal as well.
Heh.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Some days are better than others, but 26 June, 2013, was a day that didn’t go well for Brett Kimberlin. The post #BrettKimberlin Strike Two dealt with on of the setbacks he faced that day.
I referred to Kimberlin as Lord Voldemort because of the unconstitutional “he-whom-must-not-be-named” gag order that was part of the peace order he had obtained against Aaron Walker.
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The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules that Brett Kimberlin Lord Voldemort does not have standing to appeal the Circuit Court ruling that Seth Adams was not in contempt of the order the Dark Lord has against Mr. Adams. (H/T, Allergic to Bull)
First Amendment 2, Voldemort 0
Going to court with neither the facts nor the law on your side isn’t working any more, is it?
The time to face the music is coming ever nearer. Justice through blogging. And then the courts.
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Kimberlin is still mired in losing legal cases of his own making.
Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.
Whatever It Is, It Ain’t News
In 2019, Rachel Maddow stated on her cable show that One America Network was “really literally is paid Russian propaganda.” OAN sued for defamation. The case has been dismissed because the judge found that what Maddow presents is exaggeration, hyperbole, and pure opinion, and no reasonable person would assume that such outlandish accusations are factually true even when she uses the language of certainty and truth. In other words, she’s a political activist with a byline; Maddow does not present news.
Given her ratings, it seems more of the public is beginning to understand that her show isn’t entertainment either.
Quote of the Day
If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.
—Émile Zola
Quote of the Day
Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money.
—Frederick Douglass
Dealing with Crimethink
My podcasting partner Stacy McCain has a post up about the Xiden administration’s efforts to induce Americans to report on potentially radicalized friends and family.
The Lives of Others was not intended to be a how-to film.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
This episode of Blognet first ran seven years ago today.
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MUSIC: Theme. Intro and fade under.
NARRATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
MUSIC: Up, then under …
NARRATOR: You’re a Detective Sergeant. You’re assigned to Internet Detail. A blogger is being sued for writing about another lawsuit and questioning the plaintiff’s motives. His employer is being sued as well. Your job … get the facts.
MUSIC: Up then under …
ANNOUNCER: Blognet … the documented drama of an actual case. For the next few minutes, in cooperation with the Twitter Town Sheriff’s Department, you will travel step by step on the side of the good guys through an actual case transcribed from official files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Blognet is the story of the good guys in action.
MUSIC: Up and out.
SOUND: Footsteps on sidewalk. Repeating background PA announcement: “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers. No parking please.”
FRIDAY: It was Wednesday, March 6th. It was a smog-free day in LA. I was on temporary duty for Internet Detail. My partner, Liz Smith, was back in Westminster with our boss, Twitter Town Sheriff W. J. J. Hoge. My name’s Friday. It was 11:31 am when I walked out of the baggage claim area at LAX. Continue reading
Quote of the Day
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
—John Milton
Social Media, Censorship, and Overreach
Susan Crabtree has an article over at RCP titled Group of Tech Execs Takes On Social Media Censorship. It takes a look at what may be going on behind the scenes in Silicon Valley related to Facebook’s recent uncensoring of discussion about the possibility of a lab leak being the source of the recent pandemic from the point of view of Mike Matthys, a venture capital executive. She also cites Matthys’ criticism of Facebook’s censorship relating to a Wall Street Journal review of a book on climate change, YouTube’s suppression of a video about the efficacy of masks and lockdowns by Gov. DeSantis and physicians from Stanford and Harvard, and an attempt by Reps. Eshoo (D-CA) and McNerney (D-CA) to pressure media companies.
[P]olitically biased censorship only further fuels widespread mistrust in the media writ large – especially when they suddenly reverse course and lift bans on certain narratives that subsequent evidence shows weren’t crackpot ideas at all.
Many of the Titans of Tech have become intoxicated with their success to date. They’ve become legends in their own minds, and that has led them to overreach. Hubris invariably attracts Nemesis.
Hogewash! is very tiny slice of the overall media pie, but it has been the a victim of social media censorship. In 2015, my blog and I were banned from Twitter because truthful reporting was deemed to be targeted harassment. That was very early in Twitter’s campaign to control The Narrative, and the company wound up restoring one of my accounts. However, Twitter has applied some of the lessoned learned dealing with accounts like mine to refine their censorship methods and try to keep them within the Section 230 safe harbor.
About a year ago, I began receiving emails and comments saying that Facebook was not permitting users to post links to Hogewash! because this site violated Facebook’s “community standards.” Given Facebook’s behavior with regard to free speech, I took that as a badge of honor, and late in 2020, I closed my own Facebook account. Last month, I received an email from one of the Gentle Readers with a copy of a notice he received when he tried to link to a post at Hogewash!. This notice gave a more specific reason for banning links to Hogewash!—it claimed this site is a source of spam.
I have asked Facebook to provide me with any evidence they have connecting this site with spam by close of business today.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Maybe it’s a Montgomery County thing to try to have someone arrested on a false charge of violating a peace order. It was nine years ago yesterday that Brett Kimberlin’s false complaint cause Aaron Walker to be arrested, booked, and jailed for a few hours. Nine years ago today, I posted this: Aaron Walker’s Arrest—Early Edition.
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Patterico has a good analysis which untangles some of the gnarly mess of the reporting about yesterday’s farce. Read it. All the way through. At the end, he recommends reading David Hogberg’s eye witness report of the hearing.
Brett Kimberlin and his allies are acting as if they have a winning strategy. He was lucky yesterday to draw an elderly judge who doesn’t seem to understand the Internet, blogging, or social media. I doubt that his luck will hold out. IANAL, but it looks as if Walker should prevail on appeal. We need to support him and the other bloggers being abused by Kimberlin and his friends.
The donation web site is here. [Expired link.]
UPDATE–Glenn Reynolds (JD, Yale, 1985) notes:
Walker also made a major error by representing himself. No lawyer should do that in anything more than a minor traffic offense. This goes double for Yale Law grads. . . .
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Judge Vaughey was not only overruled on appeal, he wound up being reprimanded by the Commission of Judicial Disabilities.
And Kimberlin has lost all of this anti-free-speech LOLsuits and all his appeals since 2012.
I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Twitter has called for the government of India to respect freedom of expression.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
The core claim at the center of all of Brett Kimberlin’s LOLsuits against me was defamation, and a statement must be false in order to be defamatory. Kimberlin claimed that it was false to refer to him as a pedophile. During discovery in the Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. suit, the only one of his cases to get that far, I asked him what evidence he had to show what I had reported was false. The TKPOTD for seven years ago today dealt with his effort to dodge those interrogatories.
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The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin doesn’t want to answer the interrogatories that I sent him as part of discovery in the Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. nuisance suit. For example—
Irrelevant to the case? Really? I thought TDPK was suing me because he says I have called him a pedophile. This is from his complaint—
This is found on page 78 of Citizen K:
His [Kimberlin’s] attachment to Jessica was quite a different matter. Their weekly after-school outings, Kimberlin said, were “very special days” for her. … For three consecutive summers, 1974 through 1976, they took vacations for a week or longer in Disney World, Mexico, and Hawaii. Sandi [“Jessica’s” mother] couldn’t get time off from work, so on these summer trips it was just the two of them—Brett and Jessica.
Eyebrows levitated. A drug-dealing colleague had memories of conversations with Kimberlin that struck him as odd: “We’d see a girl who was pubescent or prepubescent, and Brett would get this smile and say, ‘Hey, what do you think? Isn’t she great?’ It made me very uncomfortable.” Another recalled Kimberlin introducing Jessica as “my girlfriend,” and if irony was intended, it was too subtile to register.
<sarc>Nothing to see here. Move along.</sarc>
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Kimberlin lost that case because he failed to present any evidence that anything I or my codefendants has written or said about him was false.
Does Acme Legal Have a New Client?
The Gentle Reader who has been following this blog for a few years may remember a running gag about the crackpot legal theories advanced by the members of Team Kimberlin being based on advice from the legal department of the same Acme Company that sells widgets to Wile E. Coyote. These tweets suggest Acme may have a new client—
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
—John Adams
Jones may be annoyed by people looking into and reporting on her past and current activities, but truthful reporting is not defamatory. Indeed, lawyers have told me that under Maryland law she would bear the burden of proving any allegedly defamatory statement was false.
Speaking of false statements—
I can’t find any evidence in the online Maryland Judiciary Case Search of any warrants having been issued in Maryland because of a criminal complaint filed by Jones.
Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Today is the ninth anniversary of my first post about Brett Kimberlin. It was titled No Thugs Zone.
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Fellow blogger and Maryland resident Stacy McCain has had to move his family out of the state because of threats related to blogging about Brett Kimberlin. He is not the only blogger suffering abuse from Kimberlin.
Mr. Kimberlin was unwise in choosing to pick a fight with the blogosphere. He is likely to find that, while we don’t always agree with one another, we have each other’s backs when the freedom of the Internet is threatened. Mr. Kimberlin and those who have supported him (I’m looking at you, Ms. Streisand [dead link]) have bitten off more than they can chew. The pushback is just beginning.
UPDATE–The McCain family is having a ton of unforeseen expenses because of their sudden move. I just hit his tip jar. Why don’t you?
UPDATE 2–Expect more, a lot more, about this on Friday.
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I’m not through with him yet.
Rebekah Jones and the False Criminal Complaint
Rebekah Jones filed a bogus petition for a peace order against Christina Pushaw. Because she filed her petition outside of normal business hours, she was granted an interim peace order until a judge could evaluate her petition. When she appeared before a judge, she was granted a temporary peace order based on her unchallenged testimony. After Ms. Pushaw was served with a copy of the temporary order, a second hearing was held during which Jones’ testimony was subjected to cross-examination. When her allegations were subjected to the rules of evidence, her petition was denied, and no final order was issued.
Ms. Pushaw was never served with the interim order, but the day after it was issued, Jones filed an Application for Statement of Charges claiming that Ms. Pushaw had violated the order. Her sworn complaint is clearly false because Ms. Pushaw had not been served with the order, but it resulted in a summons being issued to Ms. Pushaw. The online Maryland Judiciary Case Search shows a “trial” date of 7 June. Based on my own experience with this kind of false complaint, if the charge hasn’t been dropped for lack of evidence by that date, there will be a preliminary hearing before a judge to determine if there is probable cause to go forward with the case. Given the lack of service, there should be no finding of probable cause.
An Application for Statement of Charges is signed under penalty of perjury. Perjury is only a misdemeanor in Maryland, but it is punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years.