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Turkish President Visits UK To Remind Everyone He Still Wants To Punish Critical Speech

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I'm not sure why any nation with at least a passing respect for civil liberties would continue treating Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a world leader worth discussing ideas with. Erdogan rolled into the United States with his entourage of thugs and thought he could have critics beaten and unfriendly journalists tossed from press conferences. He continually petitions other countries to punish their own citizens for insulting him.Back at home, Erdogan is jailing journalists by the hundreds, claiming they're terrorists. A failed coup set off the latest wave of censorial thuggery, with Erdogan bolstering his terrorist claims by pointing to criminal acts like… robbing ATMs. A massive backlog of "insulting the president" cases sit in the country's court system -- a system that's certainly aware it's not supposed to act as a check against executive power.And yet, world leaders continue to act as though Erdogan is an equal, rather than an overachieving street thug with an amazingly fragile ego. UK Prime Minister Theresa May, hoping to strike a trade deal with Turkey, invited Erdogan to not only discuss a possible deal, but speak publicly.May tried to keep Erdogan from being Erdogan

May said that while it was right that those who sought to overthrow a democratically elected government were brought to justice, “it is also important that in the defence of democracy… Turkey does not lose sight of the values it is seeking to defend”.May added: “That is why today I have underlined to President Erdoan that we want to see democratic values and international human rights obligations upheld.”
But Erdogan was always going to be Erdogan:
At a press conference in Downing Street alongside May, Erdoan made no reference to May’s remarks about human rights, but instead urged her to do more to extradite Turkish exiles from the Gulenist or Kurdish movements, saying that if she did not act act against terrorists, it would come back to bite her.
And went on to make it clear that by "terrorists," he also meant journalists who may or may not have been caught engaging in burglary, but otherwise can be assumed to be political targets jailed to ensure silence.You can't keep treating an overgrown child like an adult. No one should be doing business with Turkey until it cleans up its civil rights violation record. And that's not going to happen as long as Erdogan is president. Gently nudging him towards not being a completely evil asshole obviously doesn't work. All it does is make the government's hosting his off-the-cuff remarks on censorship and jailing journalists look like enablers of oppression.

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posted at: 12:00am on 19-May-2018
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Food Fight Over: New Jersey Turnpike Authority Gets Told To Pound Sand By PTAB Over Florida Pizza Company's Logo

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You may recall that way back in early 2015, we discussed the absurd story of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority suing Jersey Boardwalk Pizza for trademark infringement. At issue was that the pizza joint's owners, both from New Jersey, had crafted a clever logo that mimicked the logo for the Garden State Parkway, except it altered all the words to be the parlor's name and the food it served. It was a clear homage. Nobody denied it. That didn't change the fact, however, that the NJ Turnpike Authority is both not in the business of selling pizza, nor is it in the business of being in Florida. As such, there was zero potential for customer confusion, and the court dismissed the case.You would have thought that would be the end of this story. But, no, the NJTPA decided to go the trademark office and try to have the pizza parlor's trademark invalidated. Why in the hell it bothered doing so is anyone's guess. Regardless, it didn't work out well for the Garden State.

Three administrative judges with the United States Patent and Trademark Office ruled Monday that Jersey Boardwalk Pizza can continue to use its logo, which the New Jersey Turnpike Authority argued was confusingly similar to the Parkway logo.In dismissing the authority's claims, the patent office's governing board noted the similarities, but the restaurant's business is unrelated to the roadway. The case was heard in February and took three months to decide.
All sorts of questions leap to mind. What exactly did the folks at the NJTPA think was going to happen at the PTAB after a U.S. District Court refused to entertain this bullshit? Who exactly makes up the legal staff for the NJTPA and are they, or are they not, fully functioning human beings? Is there some kind of gas leak we should be aware of, or perhaps some sort of underground radiation resting just under this legal team's offices?The most important question, however, is this: how much taxpayer money was flushed down the litigious toilet, all because a couple of New Jersey transplants wanted a callback to their home state for a Florida pizza business? If the answer to that question is greater than zero, it sure feels like there should be exit interviews going on post-haste.

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posted at: 12:00am on 19-May-2018
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