First Amendment
Nobody's A Bigger Bullsh*tter Than Trump
We've known for a long time that Donald Trump loves to elevate himself to super-human status. We've also known for a long time that words are meaningless to Trump. Very often, his use of words transparently and inadvertently reveal exactly what he's thinking, especially when he ...read more
Trump Defends Sinclair Media Because It's Made For Him
Over the weekend, it was revealed that Sinclair Broadcast Group, the right-wing company that has been buying up local TV stations, filmed a video where they forced all their news anchors, across all affiliates, to read from the same script, which reads in part: "We’re concerned ...read more
The Parkland Boycott of Laura Ingraham Is Now A "Dangerous" Threat To Freedom
Oh my! I had no idea that the Parkland kids weren't just after our Second Amendment rights, but our First Amendment rights, too! At least, that's the argument that The Hill's Joe Concha is making as he laments the boycott of Laura Ingraham's advertisers led by Parkland student ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: Revealed at Last, a Patriotic Form of Black Protest That White People Won't Object To
The Banter Long Read: As if we needed a reminder about how racist America is, this past week the nation freaked out over mostly black athletes peacefully and quietly taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality. This has once again reinforced the unspoken ...read more
Trump's Antitrust Threat Against CNN is a Dangerous Escalation
Donald Trump has been president for less than six months and he's so eroded our sense of what is normal in a democracy that this is not the screaming headline of every newspaper: “White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary” CNN, the ...read more
Post-Alexandria, Expect More Restrictions on First Amendment Rights and Zero Restrictions on Second Amendment Rights
At some point in the near past, the Republican Party decided that Second Amendment rights were the only rights that are absolute and untouchable -- rights that can not be regulated or restricted in any way. Ever. It used to be that Republican saints like Ronald Reagan could ...read more
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Trump's Refusal To Attend The White House Correspondents' Dinner Is A Sign Of Utter Cowardice
For weeks, there's been speculation about whether or not Donald Trump would attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The dinner is a chance for presidents to poke fun at the press and to show off their lighter side as they take some ribbing of their own. It was never going ...read more
Ignoring The First Amendment, Republican Calls On CNN To Punish "Disrespectful Reporter"
We knew this was coming. At his Wednesday press conference, incoming dictator-in-chief Donald Trump intensified his war on the media by refusing to take a question from CNN's Jim Acosta. Trump was angry because CNN had reported on the story that Russia holds compromising ...read more
Trump Is Hiding His Attack On Obamacare By Threatening To Strip Protesters Of Their Citizenship
Twitter has become Donald's weapon of mass distraction. He regularly throws bombs to get people in a foaming rage while he quietly builds an administration that will devastate the working class, finish dismantling the middle class and make billions (if not trillions) in profit ...read more
While Cable News Kisses His Orange Butt, Trump Assaults the Political Press with Surprise 'Firing Squad'
We learned three things on Monday about the relationship between cable news and the incoming autocratic regime of Donald Trump and his neo-Nazi cabal. Each one of these three things is more disturbing than the last. First, we learned that MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has been ...read more
Trump Wants "Equal Time" To Respond To Comedy That Mocks Him; Trump Can Go F*ck Himself
There are far more important stories out there right now than Donald Trump's ridiculous Twitter rant against both the cast of Hamilton and Saturday Night Live's ongoing mockery of him. There is, for instance, the fact that Trump -- remember, the president-elect -- was forced to ...read more
Trump Supporter Curt Schilling Thinks Lynchings Are 'Awesome'
Former baseball player and current nobody Curt Schilling took to Twitter on Monday to once again show America just how deplorable Donald Trump supporters can be. In a tweet that has since been deleted, Schilling shared a photo of a man wearing a t-shirt with a joke about ...read more
If You're Applauding Gawker's Bankruptcy, You Simply Don't Get How Dangerous It Is
Ben Cohen is the founding editor of The Daily Banter and finances all of this out of his own pocket. There's an entire menu of reasons why it takes balls of iron to do what Ben is doing (his take on the Gawker story can be found here). As someone who also ran a small business ...read more
Thin-Skinned Bully Donald Trump Says He Wants To Do Away With the First Amendment
In addition to being a rotting tangerine with a comb-over made of corn silk and a reality show con man, Donald Trump is, maybe above all else, a thin-skinned bully. His snotty Twitter tantrums that invariably occur each and every time anyone dares call him out for his horseshit ...read more
Liberals, Please Speak up for Free Speech
by Hugh Harris The death of two Islamists who attacked Pamela Geller’s “Jihad Watch Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” once again shines a light on the limits of free speech. Only days later some 204 writers protested at the decision of the PEN American Center to honor ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: How Larry Flynt and the Supreme Court Allowed Me to Mercilessly Satirize Dick Vitale
Right off the bat, I'd like to note with extreme emphasis that this isn't intended in any way to suggest that my experiences producing satirical cartoons is anywhere in the same universe as the tragedy in Paris. This post is entirely about protecting satire and shouldn't be ...read more
Sarah Palin Tried To Bully Us With Legal Action and Failed Miserably
For the last several months or so, I've been following the intellectually-impaired grifter antics over at The Sarah Palin Channel -- Palin's recently launched subscription service, which also happens to feature free-to-the-public videos posted on the main page. In the process of ...read more
No Guns Allowed? Who Knew "Chipotle" Was Mexican For "Tyranny"?
First and foremost, I'm an American. I love my country, but respect the strong influence immigrants have had here. I don't judge a man by the kind of food he serves. Mexican was never my thing, but if you're making something people want, then by God you should be allowed to ...read more
The Supreme Court Will Rule Against Contraception Coverage Because of Citizens United
The Supreme Court announced that it plans to hear arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act's mandate requiring all health insurance policies to cover contraception and reproductive services without co-pays. The mandate has been challenged by two business owners including the ...read more
Obama Administration's Spying on Journalists is a Disgrace
The Obama Administration has found itself in yet another scandal this week after it was revealed that law enforcement officials had obtained records for the telephone lines of journalists at the Associated Press. From the NYTimes: The A.P. said that the Justice Department ...read more
Its 2009, Why Are We Still Prosecuting People For "Obscenity"?
There's this thing called the first amendment, and even sickos get the benefit of it. At least they should. A California-based company that produced and distributed obscene materials and its owners were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh today for violating federal ...read more
Congress Shall Make No Law
A bunch of pointy headed morons want us to relax the first amendment because some unbalanced zealots and religious nimrods use it to justify their actions. Look, if we don't have the first amendment, America might as well close up shop and go home. I don't care who takes offense ...read more
Priorities
What John Stagliano is doing is perfectly legal and falls under the first amendment. A grand jury has socked Stagliano with eight obscenity violations for selling adult videos online and via unmarked packing envelopes shipped by the U.S. Postal Service. None of the films contain ...read more