American Prisoner Executed by Hamas, Brazil Bans X (Twitter) & VPN's, Florida Crushes Released Prisoners with Debt (The Five for 09/03/24)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
As a reminder, I started a second Substack after getting shot at by mugger’s last week (it’s a long, painful, crazy story).
If you missed that, click here.
Now, let’s get into the news.
[one]
The Supreme Court in Brazil has banned X (formerly Twitter).
On Monday, five of the court’s justices were asked to consider Friday’s decision to temporarily banish X from Brazil, where the platform has more than 21 million users. By lunchtime all five had voted in favour of the ban.
Casting his vote in favour of X’s continued suspension, Flávio Dino said the company’s decision to “deliberately” ignore a court order to name a legal representative in Brazil suggested it “considered itself above the rule of law”.
Such behaviour risked turning X into an “outlaw”, Dino added, indicating that he could revisit his decision in the future if the company corrected its “illegal conduct”.
“Economic power and the size of one’s bank account do not produce some strange immunity from jurisdiction,” Dino argued, warning of the risks of “private autocrats” being allowed to lay down the laws of social networks.
Judge Cristiano Zanin also backed the ban, citing how X had “systematically” flouted supreme court orders, first to block accounts that were allegedly spreading disinformation and then to name a local representative.
“The repeated noncompliance with supreme court decisions is extremely serious for any citizen or legal entity, be they public or private. No one can seek to perform their activities in Brazil without complying with the laws and the federal constitution,” Zanin argued.
Dino, Zanin and Rocha all agreed with perhaps the most contentious part of Moraes’s earlier ruling: the prohibition of the use of “technological subterfuge” such as virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass the blocking of X. Using such technology to access X in Brazil is now punishable with a fine of 50,000 reais (£6,760) a day.
To translate that fine into dollars, it’s $9,000 per day if a person in Brazil is caught using X, or about a year’s salary.
The median salary in the U.S. is $59,000…so, it’s the equivalent of a $59K PER DAY fine in the U.S. For using a social media platform.
Brazil has fallen.
[two]
From the Washington Post:
When Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention in their hometown of Chicago last month, their son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, had been held hostage in Gaza for 320 days.
They ended their speech by talking directly to their son, hoping he could somehow hear them: We love you, stay strong, survive.
As they spoke, Hersh was alive. But there was almost no more time left.
On Sunday, the couple announced that their nearly 11-month campaign to save their son had come to a heartbreaking end.
Hersh’s body and those of five other hostages were discovered by the Israeli military in a tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza. They had been shot at close range multiple times on Thursday or Friday, Israeli authorities said after a forensic examination.
Hersh was one of five American hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza. After the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, his parents emerged as eloquent and relentless advocates for bringing the hostages home, telling the story of their son’s capture as they traveled from Washington to Geneva to Doha, Qatar.
Hersh, a 23-year-old born in California and raised in Jerusalem, became one of the most high-profile faces of the plight of the hostages in large part because of his parents’ tireless campaigning.
It’s worth noting here that at that same DNC event, thousands of pro-Hamas protestors attempted to disrupt the DNC, to move the party towards a more sympathetic stance towards the terrorist organization.
[three]
The state of Florida is crushing released inmates with impossible debt.
From Musca Law, Criminal Defense Attorneys:
Imagine this: You're released from prison in Florida, determined to turn your life around. You aim to stay on the right path, secure employment, and comply with parole terms. Then, you learn you're facing a hefty bill.
In Florida, as in many states, inmates foot the bill for their prison stay. Known as "pay-to-stay," this practice often saddles former convicts with overwhelming debt.
In Florida, prisoners are levied $50 per day for their original sentence, irrespective of early release. Unpaid bills can impede former inmates' efforts to move past their prison stint.
Shelby Hoffman, interviewed by WFTS Tampa Bay, recounted her ordeal. Despite serving just 10 months of a 7-year term, she was hit with a $127,000 bill. Post-release, Hoffman has turned her life around, pursuing a bachelor's degree. Yet, her dream career as a case manager remains out of reach due to the outstanding pay-to-stay debt.
This is insane. I’m not exactly sure what to do about it…but guess what the only way to raise $127,000 as a convicted felon is?
If you answered “sell a lot of drugs,” you would be right.
Florida is all but guaranteeing ex-criminals will be forced into felonious activities to pay back their bill to the state…including for expenses THAT NEVER HAPPENED.
[four]
A complete journal from the mass murderer at Covenant School, which took place on March 27, 2023 has finally been released by the Tennessee Star.
On Tuesday, The Tennessee Star and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy released 90 pages of writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. The Covenant Killer’s 2023 Journal, which was handwritten by Hale between January and March of 2023, can be downloaded here.
The journal was legally obtained by The Star from a source familiar with the investigation in June 2024. It was recovered from Hale’s vehicle by officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), along with a spiral notebook, after her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, where she murdered three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members before she was killed by MNPD officers.
Between June 5 and September 3, The Star published approximately 50 articles that are based on The Covenant Killer’s 2023 Journal but do not contain the actual pages from that journal. Tuesday’s publication of The Covenant Killer’s 2023 Journal provides further evidence supporting those 50 articles, but also reveals new information, including the octagonal symbol Hale drew when writing about her planned attack on the Covenant School or her gender identity.
Hale, who was 28-years-old when she died, was born a biological female, but identified as a transgender male at the time of her attack. She often signed journal entries using the name Aiden.
Haley’s journals dive deep into “white privilege” and transgenderism, which appear to be the motivation here. Nothing, so far, appears to show any justification for holding the journals for more than a year, outside of the political motivation that killing for politically left-wing causes doesn’t fit the narrative government bureaucrats and the corporate press typically want to assign to mass murderers.
[five]
Finally, the Venezuelan dictator who just stole the election this year…is now focused on imprisoning anyone who spoke out against the clearly rigged electoral results.
CNN reports:
Christmas will start next month in Venezuela, authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro has decreed – even as thousands of Venezuelans look set to pass the holidays behind bars amid his government’s crackdown on political unrest.
“September smells like Christmas!” Maduro said in his weekly television show on Monday, to the apparent delight of his audience.
“This year and to honor you all, to thank you all, I am going to decree the beginning of Christmas on October 1. Christmas arrived for everyone, in peace, joy and security!” he said.
Maduro’s decree – not the first of its kind, but the earliest – comes as Venezuela grapples with the fallout from July’s presidential election, which saw Maduro claim a third term despite global skepticism and outcry from the country’s opposition movement.
Just a few hours before Maduro’s announcement, Venezuelan authorities published an arrest warrant for his main rival, opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, accusing him of “crimes associated with terrorism.” Gonzalez has failed to respond to three summons regarding an investigation into an opposition website that posted results from the contested vote, the Venezuela Prosecutor’s Office said.
Maduro has been under pressure at home and abroad since claiming victory. The opposition coalition backing Gonzalez insists the presidential vote was stolen, publishing online vote tally sheets, which experts say indicate Maduro actually lost the presidency by a significant margin.
The US and other neighboring governments have demanded that Venezuelan authorities reveal granular voting data to verify the outcome. US authorities this week also announced the seizure of a Venezuelan plane used by Maduro for international travel.
So, he has catch phrases now about his evil deeds?
Venezuela was already a hellhole, a mere shadow of the nation that once had the 4th highest GDP per capita in the world…aparently it’s also run by a real life Bond villain now.
Until the next one,
-sth