The US today freely interferes in the governments of so many other nations, fueling unrest and financing violence, seeking to impose on these countries a peculiarly American form of "open government" which it can control, but has always severely restricted any such activity either suspected or real, on its own soil. We have already read about the Un-American Activities Act [1] and the extensive government policies to prohibit political activism or promote other forms of government or capitalism in those years, and I briefly mentioned the Sedition Act passed by President Woodrow Wilson's government in the early 1900s. [2]

This latter legislation was directed against all Americans and used to firmly silence criticism of government policies. Under this Act, the government engaged in countless illegal searches and seizures of property and imprisoned tens of thousands of US citizens simply for criticising Wilson's desire for war. The authorities organised gangs to regularly intimidate and beat up citizens, unrelated to the propaganda war on the Germans. Wilson admitted openly that many of his laws and activities were unconstitutional, but often protected himself with claims of national security.

In 1940, under President Franklin Roosevelt, the US created a law known as the Smith Act [3] which made it a crime in the US to "knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise, or teach the ... desirability or propriety of overthrowing ... any government in the United States". And for the following decades the government prosecuted thousands of individuals who proposed alternatives to the US system of capitalism, or promoted any form of socialism or attempted to form another political party. The act was exclusively intended to suppress any and all forms of political dissent in the United States. Many people were imprisoned or disappeared simply for publishing or circulating pamphlets or articles that discussed alternative political or economic views.

Anti-government Yellow Vests and anti-pension rallies have simultaneously descended upon the streets of the French capital, promptly escalating into clashes with police who responded with tear gas and baton charges.

This weekend appeared to be particularly heated in Paris, as two different groups of protesters joined efforts in defying the policies of the country's government. Although the protests were calm most of the day as RT's Charlotte Dubenskij reported, violence broke out in some parts of the city.

The protesters tried to erect barricades in the streets, set objects on fire and pelted law enforcement with various objects. The police, in turn, responded with generous usage of tear gas which engulfed the streets with a thick blanket, footage from the scene shows.

J Hus has accused Europeans of "forcing LGBT onto" Africa and "weaponising" homosexuality in a series of tweets about colonisation.

The rapper began tweeting about Europe's colonisation of Africa on Monday, writing: "STOP FORCING LGBT ONTO US. Live your life I don't care but don't force it onto me especially when you don't wanna recognise these black struggle [sic]."

Following a backlash on Twitter, he added: "Trust me i ain't homophobic. The more gay men the more women for me. If you want come kill me. I know what I'm saying."

An attorney who fought to help get people wrongly convicted of murder out of prison has died after getting hit by a vehicle in suburban Chicago.

Karen Daniel, 62, died at the scene Thursday morning, according to Oak Park police.

A 63-year-old motorist was ticketed for failing to reduce his speed to avoid an accident and failing to yield to a pedestrian.

Daniel was to start in January at the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago's law school. She also was to teach criminal justice classes at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet.

Benjamin Netanyahu's son has called for British diplomats to be "kicked out" of Israel over a reference to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The prime minister's middle child, Yair, made the comment in response to an announcement that Prince Charles was making his first visit to the area in January.

"God willing you guys will be kicked out of Israel soon," the 28-year-old tweeted. "Until then I'm thinking of visiting the occupied lands of Scotland or Wales, which do you recommend?"

He explained his comment by saying that the British consulate in Jerusalem "pretends to be the embassy to the non-existing country of 'Palestine'."

A few days ago, Morgan Stanley laid out why 2019 was an "unusual", bizarre year for equity markets, which hit all time highs around the globe even as bullish strategies underperformed, crippling countless hedge funds who failed to get the mix of assets just right and suffered another round of gut-wrenching redemptions which culminated in the longest streak of hedge fund outflows since the financial crisis.

But for the people who brought you this record performance in stocks - namely the world's traders, bankers, and finance professionals - there is another reason why 2019 was not only perplexing but also painful year: more of them got let go than any other year since 2015!

According to Bloomberg calculations, banks around the world - the institutions that are supposed to benefit the most from rising markets - have unveiled the biggest round of job cuts in four years "as they slash costs to weather a slowing economy and adapt to digital technology." Wait, did Bloomberg just say "slowing economy?" But... but... S&P at all time highs? Oh wait, we almost forgot: all of the S&P's upside in 2019 was due to multiple expansion as earnings declined YoY

Lee Mendelson, the producer who changed the face of the holidays when he brought "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to television in 1965 and wrote the lyrics to its signature song, "Christmas Time Is Here," died on Christmas day, his son said.

Mendelson, who won a dozen Emmys in his long career, died at his home in Hillsborough, California, of congestive heart failure at age 86 after a long struggle with lung cancer, son Jason Mendelson told The Associated Press.

Lee Mendelson headed a team that included "Peanuts" author Charles Schulz, director Bill Melendez, and pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi, whose music for the show, including the opening "Christmas Time Is Here," has become as much a Christmas staple as the show itself.

Mendelson told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2000 that he was short on time in finding a lyricist for the song, so he sketched out the six verses himself in "about 15 minutes on the backside of an envelope."

Another woman claims that she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse beginning when she was just 14, according to a new lawsuit.

The woman — who filed the Manhattan Federal lawsuit anonymously under the name Anastasia Doe — claims from 2003 through 2006 she was sexually abused and eventually raped by the financier in his East 71st Street mansion.

Anastasia, now 30, says in 2003 she was recruited by her underage friend who told her she could get $300 to give a massage "to a rich man in Manhattan," according to the court papers filed Friday.

When she and the friend arrived, Epstein was laying face down on a massage table where he allegedly told the girls to get naked. He then began touching Anastasia's private parts and abused her with a sex toy, the suit says.

Administrators tracking someone's personal cellphone to monitor their location sounds like something the Communist Party might do in China. But it's happening right here.

Multiple colleges across the country have started tracking the exact location of their students at all times, according to the Washington Post. In a move that school administrators claim will boost class attendance and student performance, colleges have installed Bluetooth sensors that connect to students' phones to monitor their movements with extreme precision. Universities are now able to abandon traditional attendance-taking measures in favor of this invasive new technology, SpotterEDU.

SpotterEDU was developed by Rick Carter, a former basketball coach who received a protective order from DePaul University for allegedly threatening the school's athletic director and head basketball coach. Carter originally developed the technology in 2015 to monitor student-athletes, but now colleges such as Syracuse University and Virginia Commonwealth University have taken things a step further and are monitoring the student population to track attendance.

The idea of tracking students' locations is already concerning. Invasions of privacy for the purpose of micromanaging adults is a problem even if only used to track attendance. But the app's extreme precision allows administrators to go further in following their students' every move.