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By Emma Balter

Trip Seibold had planned to run for U.S. Congress in 2020 to represent Texas 31st District, but he had to drop his bid because of significant burdens to get on the general election ballot. Why? Hes a Libertarian.

The Texas legislature passed a new law in June that puts significant restrictions on third-party candidates. Previously, third parties could get their candidates on the ballot if the party met certain requirements: It could hold a convention where the attendance equaled one percent of votes cast for governor in the last election, or it could gather the signatures of one percent of people who didnt vote in a primary in the last election.

In addition, at least one statewide candidate from the party must have also won five percent of a vote in the previous election cycle.

The bill was presented as a way to expand ballot access. It waived the convention and petition requirements and lowered the threshold of the third requirement. Now, a party only needs one of their candidates to receive two percent of a vote in the last five elections.

However, new requirements are shifted onto the individual candidates, who now have to submit a petition or, if they fall short of the minimum signatures required, pay filing fees of varying costs depending on the office.

Seibold did not get the number of signatures he needed, but refused to pay the large $3,125 filing fee. Instead, hes running for the Texas State Board of Education for District 10, which requires a lower fee of $300.

I have an unwavering belief that money doesnt belong in politics, Seibold said in a Facebook post on December 4. The Texas Legislature won and the American people lost.

A couple lawsuits followed the bills passing. In July, several third parties, including the Libertarians and Greens, sued the state over requirements which they say constitute too high a barrier for entry.

When you have these restrictions that make it effectively impossible for others to participate and entrench two old established parties, thats when the system starts to fail and thats when voters are denied meaningful choices at the polls, Oliver Hall, executive director of the Center for Competitive Democracy and an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Houston Chronicle.

An October lawsuit that homed in on the filing fees resulted in a Harris County judge blocking them from being enacted, a mere week before the filing deadline. They won on the basis that the fees fund primary elections that third-party candidates do not participate in.

This temporary injunction was a crucial step to ensuring voters have choice at the ballot box, Harris County Libertarian Party Chair Katherine Youngblood told the Houston Chronicle.

This latest development is a big win for third parties, yet its just a provisional reprieve for now. The July suit is still pending.

Read this article:
Third-Party Candidates in Texas Want a Fair Shot - Reform Austin

Yegor Zhukov was tired of giving interviews. So instead of using the main entrance to an event in his honor, where a television crew was waiting for him, he slipped past a security guard and headed for a side door. He didnt go unnoticed.

Please, young man, follow the rules, the guard ordered, running after him.

Zhukov, a 21-year-old politics student and popular libertarian YouTube blogger, doesnt particularly like rules. Or rather, he explains, he doesnt mind rules in principle, its just that he grew up in a country with a big government that uses them to infringe on the rights of its citizens.

Wanting that to change is why he made a bold declaration last week, a day after a Moscow court had bowed to public pressure and released him on a suspended sentence of three years under the condition that he not use the internet.

I want to be the president of the country, he said in an appearance on the independent Dozhd television channel.

Although Zhukov has long criticized the Russian government on his blog, his recent experience with the countrys legal system was his first close encounter with what he sees as a repressive regime.

In August, at the height of the protests in Moscow against a decision by election commission officials to bar opposition politicians from running in the citys local parliament elections, police arrested him along with a couple of dozen others on charges of fomenting mass unrest.

They got the wrong guy. In court, prosecutors showed a video of a young man during a rally gesturing for people to walk toward a group of riot police. Journalists, however, later turned up another video showing that it was a case of mistaken identity.Despite the blunder, the authorities stood steadfast behind their decision.

The absurdity of the case made Zhukov the oppositions figurehead of the repressive nature of the authorities crackdown on the protests. His star rose further because of his stoic posture in the face of prosecution.

I dont know if I will be free, he told a judge during a court appearance, but Russia definitely will.

As a public outcry against the crackdown gathered steam, the authorities in September released a handful of the prisoners. But while Zhukovs charges were dropped, prosecutors now brandished a new accusation: that he had been hostile to the government in his YouTube videos and was hence guilty of extremism, a charge that carries up to five years in prison.

Like many opposition activists of his generation, Zhukovs political wake up came in March 2017, when Russias most prominent opposition critic Alexei Navalny released a YouTube video alleging corruption by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, sparking a series of protests that spring. In June of that year, Zhukov launched his blog.

But while Navalny triggered Zhukovs awakening, the young activist has chosen the ideological path of libertarianism, a political philosophy emphasizing individual autonomy. In nearly all of his videos in which he mostly criticizes President Vladimir Putins administration the Gadsden flag, a symbol of the American revolution adopted by libertarians, hangs on a wall behind him, blaring the words: Dont tread on me.

If his politics arent for all, his final words to a judge before sentencing last week nonetheless struck a chord with a wide audience.

Your honor, the darker my future, the wider I smile toward it, he said in a speech, translated into English by a number of publications including The New Yorker, that went viral in the United States.

On Wednesday evening, Zhukov, his parents, others who had been arrested and then released for their roles in the summers protests and activists of varying political persuasions gathered in the newsroom of the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper in central Moscow to watch a documentary film the outlet had produced on the summer and the fallout.

Zhukov sat in the front row, erupting into laughter along with others in the room, their tribulations now behind them, as they watched scenes of Russian riot police clad in protective armor drag teenagers off to police wagons. Afterwards, Zhukov and one of his lawyers split off with several activists who wanted his ear over what he will do now that he is all but free.

The activists told him there are other cases that are not getting enough attention. Namely, that of Novoye Velichiye, or the New Greatness a chat group of mostly young people that was infiltrated by a Federal Security Service (FSB) officer. The authorities claim the group was extremist; its defenders say the case is fabricated.

By the end of the evening, Zhukov was convinced he had to speak out about the case. This is something that has directly affected me too, he said once he had sat down for an interview with The Moscow Times.

How will he do it? Legally speaking, his lawyers have told him, he can do it through his blog, which now has more than 170,000 followers having gained 70,000 since his August arrest as long as he passes administrative control over it to someone else.

Beyond continuing with the blog, he said, he plans to finish his university degree by next summer. Hes also going to host a talk show on the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station and write for Novaya Gazeta.

These are other ways I see to keep spreading my ideas, he said. Thats my goal right now: for the focus not to be on me, but on the ideas.

His ideas have raised eyebrows. Critics have pointed to his support of Jordan Peterson, a Canadian thinker who has been described as a purveyor of fascist mysticism. They have also noted one video from January of this year titled Feminism Is Dangerous, in which Zhukov, seated behind a desk with a red Make America Great Again cap on it, tells his audience: Today the nutcases are lefties and particularly left-wing feminists.

During the Dozhd interview, Zhukov defended his views, comparing the idea of feminism to the Soviet notion of collective identities. This sparked a new round of criticism among Russian liberals.

Asked if he regretted his comments, Zhukov nodded, but said the problem was how he had explained himself.

It taught me that I need to carefully express my views, he said. At the end of the day, I want the same thing as Russian feminists. For transgender peoples rights to be respected, for same-sex marriage to be legal, for there to be a law against domestic violence. I just dont believe in classifying people according to collective identities.

Throughout the interview, Zhukovs press secretary Stanislav Toporkov, 18, sat beside him, correcting every now and then. Hes just one member of Zhukovs growing team, which currently has five other members.

But the team is still deciding how its going to function as an organized party or a more organic political movement. What it does know, Zhukov said, is that 2021 and 2024 when State Duma and presidential elections will take place are essential years for their future.

We are still figuring it all out, Zhukov said. The idea for now is to say: stay tuned.

Read more:
Yegor Zhukov Wants to Be Russia's President One Day - The Moscow Times

A US Army veteran became the first in Florida to be charged with defying the states newly adopted red flag law after he refused to turn in his firearms, including an AR-15.

Jerron Smith, 33, who is suspected of shooting at his friends car, was found guilty by a jury in Broward County in southeastern Florida last Friday, December 6, in less than an hour.

Judge Ernest Kollra ordered a pre-sentencing investigation for Smith who faces up to five years in prison.

Floridas new red flag law came into effect in the wake of the shooting tragedy in a high school in Parkland in February 2018 in which 17 people lost their lives.

It was just after a month after the horrific incident that Smiths weapons were confiscated by the deputies after a shooting took place outside his residence in Deerfield Beach.

Smith was accused of repeatedly firing at his best friends car during an argument over a cellphone on March 28 night. The police came to his house to seize off all the weapons and other items under a Risk Protection Order. They had found several magazines stocked in his bedroom.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Smith, it was said that he had shot at least half a dozen times at the vehicle of Jackson Levon while he was inside it.

Under Floridas red flag law, authorities with the backing of the judge can seek to remove weapons from people who are perceived as threats to themselves and others. Apart from Florida, 14 other states have such laws.

Smith told the jury that he was unaware of the legal requirements when the deputies came to his house. He repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, believing that the police could not search his home without showing a warrant or his consent.

According to a report in the local Sun-Sentinel, Smith's lawyer could not present a convincing argument that his client did not fully understand the new law. The date for Smiths sentencing is yet to be decided.

The Sun-Sentinel also said in a report in September that guns have been taken from 2,0000 residents of the state in a year-and-half since the new law was passed.

But figures showed that South Florida, which includes places like Broward County where mass shootings are not rare, has not been as agile in implementing the new law like most other big counties.

Read more from the original source:
Army veteran who refused to give up firearms citing Fifth Amendment found guilty of defying Florida's new 'red flag' law - MEAWW

CEO of Twitter, Jack Patrick Dorsey, speaks during an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times at Twitter India office, at the Crescent, on November 14, 2018 in New Delhi, India.

Burhaan Kinu | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Tuesday the company is funding a new research team that will develop an "open and decentralized standard for social media," in part to address some of the current problems with the platform.

The idealistic long-term vision is to make disparate social media networks more like email, so that users could join different networks but still communicate with each other no matter which one they're using.

Shared technical standards would also make it easier for users to gain some control over how these networks recommend content, which could reduce the tendency to guide users to the most outrageous material and users in hopes of keeping them engaged, according to Dorsey. It could also make it easier for the social networks to enforce restrictions against hate speech and other abuse, essentially helping them share the load at a lower cost.

There are already social media platforms that operate on a decentralized framework, the most popular of which is Mastodon, an open-source social network that's often used as an alternative to Twitter. Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, has also launched several projects advocating for a decentralized internet.

But unlike these projects, which have struggled to gain traction, Twitter already has a devoted user base of more than 300 million people, which could give Dorsey more traction in trying to push the standard through and convince other social networks to lend support.

It seems unlikely, however, that Facebook, which currently dominates the space with an audience of more than 2 billion users, would be willing to cede control to an external coalition. A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dorsey announced the vision and team, called Bluesky, in a string of tweets:

Bluesky will include up to five architects, engineers and designers charged with creating the standards. The goal is that one day Twitter will become a "client" of the network, though it's likely the standard will take several years to develop, Dorsey said.

"For social media, we'd like this team to either find an existing decentralized standard they can help move forward, or failing that, create one from scratch," Dorsey said. "That's the only direction we at Twitter, Inc. will provide."

The standard would allow Twitter to focus its "efforts on building open recommendation algorithms which promote healthy conversation," Dorsey added.

Focusing on recommendation algorithms could help Dorsey deflect some of the content moderation problems the company continues to face, such as its failure to curb hate speech, said Jennifer Grygiel, a social media professor at Syracuse University. In an open source framework, Twitter would handle how content surfaces on the platform, akin to Google searches, instead of hosting and managing the content itself.

By announcing Bluesky, Twitter appears to have realized that hosting and managing content "is a business model that doesn't have many benefits," Grygiel added.

"They're looking to deal less with the responsibility that is the walled garden, aka the platform," Grygiel said.

When asked to elaborate on the Bluesky project, a Twitter spokesperson pointed to Dorsey's tweets and said in a statement: "We've long demonstrated our commitment to doing critical work in the open and empowering people to build off of the fundamentals of our service. Apart from the technical elements outlined by Jack today, this is about exploring the fullest and most participatory vision of our service."

Continued here:
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has an idealistic vision for the future of social media and is funding a small team to chase it - CNBC

A senior adviser to Boris Johnson was involved in trying to stop the media reporting images of a four-year-old boy photographed sleeping on a hospital floor.

The Conservative aide contacted the press regulator Ipso on behalf of Sarah Williment, the mother of the boy, after the health secretary, Matt Hancock, spoke to her by phone, according to individuals with knowledge of the case.

The regulator then issued a notice asking the press to not name the boy or use the photograph, which had previously been widely used.

It is highly unusual for a political party to send a complaint to the press regulator on behalf of an individual and seemed designed to try to limit reporting of the row. The image had become one of the defining photos of the final week of the campaign.

A Conservative party source confirmed that a senior Tory adviser had sent the letter to the press regulator on behalf of Williment because she wasnt happy with the excessive coverage of the incident.

The unusual intervention, first reported by BuzzFeed News, was made as the Conservatives struggled to contain the row over the photograph. Pictures of the child on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary were published initially in the Yorkshire Post and followed up by the Daily Mirror.

On Monday, Johnson had grabbed a reporters phone and put it in his pocket when he was confronted with the photograph.

Hancock was then sent to the hospital in an attempt to bring the story under control. During his visit, Tory sources said he spoke to Williment over the phone. Another aide approached journalists about the story on Monday afternoon, warning them to consult with their news desks before following up the story.

In an apparent bid to silence other news outlets from following up on the story one of the prime ministers most senior aides contacted Ipso, saying they were acting on behalf of Williment.

The aide also sent the letter to the BBC, which reported extracts of it, claiming the story was causing significant distress to the boy and his family.

Originally posted here:
Boris Johnson aide tried to stop media using image of boy on hospital floor - The Guardian