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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Category Archives: Legal/Political Columns

A collections of my popular ramblings concerning the law, Natural Law, and political issues. Enjoy!

Secrets of the Secret Squirrels: Hacking, Tracking, Spying, Plotting, and Planning

07 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

America, CIA, computers, government, spying, technology, Wikileaks

Wikileaks dropped a Daisy Cutter on U.S. Intelligence today with the release of “Vault 7” – thousands of documents on and from the CIA.

Read more at:

The Independent; and

The Mirror.

logo

Wiki / CIA.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER VAULT 7

The amount of material is vast. Here is some of Wiki’s analysis:

CIA malware targets iPhone, Android, smart TVs
CIA malware and hacking tools are built by EDG (Engineering Development Group), a software development group within CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence), a department belonging to the CIA’s DDI (Directorate for Digital Innovation). The DDI is one of the five major directorates of the CIA (see this organizational chart of the CIA for more details).

The EDG is responsible for the development, testing and operational support of all backdoors, exploits, malicious payloads, trojans, viruses and any other kind of malware used by the CIA in its covert operations world-wide.

The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell’s 1984, but “Weeping Angel”, developed by the CIA’s Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.

The attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom’s MI5/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a ‘Fake-Off’ mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In ‘Fake-Off’ mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.

This is worse than 1984 because it is real and because Orwell’s world didn’t have smartphones. Use of these devices guarantees some level (usually high) of tracking, prying, and manipulation. And this is what Wiki has disclosed upfront and what they know about. More and more consumer devices – from TVs to HVACs to garage remotes to security systems to refrigerators to watches – are connected and, thus, open to hacking. Wiki goes on:

As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.

Your smart, bescreened, talking, sensing, feeling, modern car with the touchscreen, navigation, wi-fi, Bluetooth, cameras, little birds flying around, and all that other garbage that has nothing to do with driving. All of it is vulnerable. And this is nothing new. Shortly after October 2014 I started sounding that alarm.

Actually none of this is new. People have been tapping in and spying since the days of the telegraph. The public was aware (or should have been aware) of the government’s massive, global electronic surveillance apparatus back in the 1990s. Technology has grown since then. The system has grown with it. Assume that any and all electronic browsing, communicating, or other work you do is being monitored and recorded. Odds are, it is.

The CIA has also:

  • Targeted all operating systems;
  • Exploited all known vulnerabilities;
  • Worked with the communications/electronics/computer industry to stay one step ahead of everything;
  • Weaponized everything;
  • Opened the weaponization to mass international proliferation (by nations, companies, and hackers);
  • Spied on just about everyone; and
  • Developed systems to evade most forensics and anti-malware programs.

Much of the recent news about this stuff has centered on the NSA and the FBI, dire and grim outfits to be sure. But the CIA is different. They collect information like no one else. And they act on it. Sometimes lethally. Usually clandestinely. And almost always with deniability or immunity. No one, even in Congress, knows exactly what they do nor how much money they spend. America’s secret police and perhaps her most dangerous agency.

Now, just as the FBI is the big domestic intel agency, the CIA is generally for foreign affairs. By law and operation they are not supposed to target Americans in America (outside the borders, you’re on your own). Not supposed to. Just like you were supposed to keep your doctor you liked under the ACA, with the low prices too. Saddam was supposed to have WMD. Income tax withholding is supposed to go away once Hitler surrenders. Supposed to. Got that?

Just for fun, Google “MK Ultra”. Loads of fun – and still bearing fruit.

Supposed to.

We’re also supposed to have a curious press and diligent academics to look into things like these leaks. Wiki actively encourages that:

WikiLeaks has intentionally not written up hundreds of impactful stories to encourage others to find them and so create expertise in the area for subsequent parts in the series. They’re there. Look. Those who demonstrate journalistic excellence may be considered for early access to future parts.

…

There are very considerably more stories than there are journalists or academics who are in a position to write them.

So start digging and researching. You might get famous for it. You might also want to unplug the TV and remove it from the house.

European Court of Justice: States Can Refuse “Refugees”

07 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on European Court of Justice: States Can Refuse “Refugees”

Tags

"Refugees", civilization, Europe, immigration, invasion, law, Merkel, Ninth Circuit, The West

There is (or was) a trend in American jurisprudence to show deference to foreign legal precedents. Prior to the 21st Century this was limited almost entirely to decisions under English Common Law; occasionally a Court would site some archaic principle from ancient Greco-Roman-Anglo tradition. Then, liberals decided to open things up, scouring the globe for any shred of justification for dismantling U.S. laws and freedoms.

Here’s one new high court decision from Europe they might be slow to embrace:

Europe’s top court has ruled that European Union member states aren’t obliged to grant humanitarian visas to people who want to enter their territory to apply for asylum.

The decision announced Tuesday came after a Belgian court in October ordered the government to give humanitarian visas to a family in war-torn Syria.

The European Court of Justice ruled that allowing people to choose where to get international protection would undermine the EU system establishing which country should handle asylum applications.

It said that EU law only lays out the procedures and conditions for issuing visas to transit through or stay on the territory of a member state for up to 90 days.

But the Luxembourg-based court said member state courts remain free to rule on visas under national law.

Europe is under literal siege from hordes of “refugees” – mostly fighting-aged men fleeing to better welfare and criminal opportunities. Even the dullest of the globalist cabal begin to see there is a terrible problem brewing.

Even Angela Merkel and her gaggle of anti-Western autocrats realized, in 2015, they were making a terrible mistake allowing in so many unassimilable third-worlders. Yet they feared denials would violate E.U. laws. Their former fears were very justified, the latter turned out to be completely fictional.

Compare and contrast the ECJ’s ruling to the recent rank stupidity from the Ninth Circuit:

…the Executive Order’s effect on their faculty and students who
are nationals of the seven affected countries. These students
and faculty cannot travel for research, academic
collaboration, or for personal reasons, and their families
abroad cannot visit. Some have been stranded outside the
country, unable to return to the universities at all.

The Ninth essentially said, “To hell with law and order, Mohammed has a right to learn a faster way to synthesize TATP while his family lives on the dole. So eat it, America!”

Granted, things are a little worse in Europe, now, than in America. Still, in order to build diverse inclusivity and other liberal, talking point, buzz phrases, Trump should challenge the Ninth to be more open to international law. Be trendy, be hip, and block the invasion before we turn into Germany.

Issue82standard

Preparedness Weekly.

The American Healthcare Act of 2017

06 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on The American Healthcare Act of 2017

Tags

American Health Care Act, Congress, GOP, government, health, law, legislation, ObamaCare

Whack-a-Bill, everyone’s least favorite carnival game is over. And people were really starting to wonder about the Obamacare repeal repeal and replace whatever…

Remember when Nancy Pelosi famously declared, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it?” She was, of course, referring to the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare, and was justly skewered by “conservatives” at the time for the outlandish statement. Fast forward seven years, and now it’s the Republicans doing the exact same thing.

The GOP has chosen to conceal the text of what may become the replacement for Obamacare. Not only can you – someone the bill will most definitely affect – not read it. Members of the U.S. Senate are not even allowed to see what is contained in the legislation.

Senator Rand Paul, who is advocating for a complete repeal of the ACA, has made repeated attempts to view what he refers to as “Obamacare Lite,” but has still been unable to get his hands on a copy of the bill. The Kentucky senator has even gone so far as to wheel a copy machine to where he was told the bill was being housed. Paul, a Republican, was denied access.

The secrecy should be enough to alarm citizens across the U.S. and cause the public to demand to see what kind of health care reform may be about to be shoved down their throats. But what Senator Paul believes the bill contains is the most distressing part of this story.

“When we heard it was secret, we wanted to see it even more because if something is secret, you do worry that people are hiding things,” Paul said speaking to CNN.

Well pass around the cigars.The baby is here! THE FULL TEXT.

nimbus-image-1488849724483

I gave it a brief skim through. Much of this requires adjusting the existing law, 42 U.S.C. 300u–11. I don’t feel so ambitious tonight as to do a full reconcile. You’re on your own in that regard.

I see retroactive modification to the Community Health program, back to 2015. And another $422 Million spent.

They want to reroute Medicaid payments to the States. I heard some GOPers jibbering on the news about this: “Power out of Washington! Back to the States!” What about power to the people (and our money with us too)?

Mandates… Where are the mandates???

Oh heck …going to turn over analysis to Fox News. They are calling it a full replacement:

The sweeping legislation would repeal ObamaCare’s taxes along with the so-called individual and employer mandates – which imposed fines for not buying and offering insurance, respectively.

It also would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies, replacing them with tax credits for consumers.

The mandate and the fines were what most concerned me. Unconstitutional intrusion and theft (robbery, really), John Roberts’s “reasoning” aside.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told Fox News they also “are not pulling the rug out from under people.” Rather, he said Republicans want to restore power to the states and control costs in Medicaid and elsewhere.

“It’ll amount to the biggest entitlement reform, probably in at least the last 20 years,” he said.

Good. Keep those reforms coming on a monthly basis at least. Aim for 1912!

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said …

Who the hell cares?

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the proposal “would cut and cap Medicaid, defund Planned Parenthood, and force Americans, particularly older Americans, to pay more out of pocket for their medical care all so insurance companies can pad their bottom line.”

Yeah, yeah. Killing babies, good; killing old folks, scare tactic… Do shut up, Chuck. He’s probably right about the insurance companies though; they pay Congress well to keep them in the black.

And from possibly the only respectable member of Congress:

However, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said the bill “looks like ObamaCare Lite to me … It’s going to have to be better.”

Then, make the changes, Rand. That’s what committees and reconciliation are for. We may have to settle for ObamaCare Lite. Anything would be better than what we have now – a doomed system on imminent approach to bankruptcy and ruin. I’m not sure about Rand but I know his honorable father would, ultimately, like a return to a free enterprise-based system, one sans Medicare, Medicaid, and all other forms of government mismanagement and tyranny. That’s not going to happen … any time soon.

What has to happen is a reform. Is this it? Who knows. At least we have something to read and work with.

I’ve been hounding Congress to fix this mess since the summer of 2012. Finally, we’re getting somewhere. I’ll go ahead and take the credit. You can thank me tomorrow.

Boo Hoo: 17,000 Down, 80,000 to Go

05 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Boo Hoo: 17,000 Down, 80,000 to Go

Tags

government, IRS, taxes, theft

The AP reports a wailing and gnashing at the IRS:

The number of people audited by the IRS in 2016 year dropped for the sixth straight year, to just over 1 million. The last time so few people were audited was 2004. Since then, the U.S. has added about 30 million people.

The IRS blames budget cuts as money for the agency shrunk from $12.2 billion in 2010 to $11.2 billion last year. Over that period, the agency has lost more than 17,000 employees, including nearly 7,000 enforcement agents. A little more than 80,000 people work at the IRS.

We should shoot for the same number of IRS employees we had in 1912. Same budget. And the same tax rates too.

Did Obama Break the Law by Surveilling Trump?

05 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

crime, Donald Trump, FISA, government, law, Obama, spying

Evidence is mounting that Obama and his team bugged Trump Tower last year. If this turns out true and if the manner of the surveillance is as it appears, Team Obama is in for serious problems:

If the stories are correct, Obama or his officials might even face prosecution. But, we are still early in all of this and there are a lot of rumors flying around so the key is if the reports are accurate. We just don’t know at this time. The stories currently are three-fold: first, that Obama’s team tried to get a warrant from a regular, Article III federal court on Trump, and was told no by someone along the way (maybe the FBI), as the evidence was that weak or non-existent; second, Obama’s team then tried to circumvent the federal judiciary’s independent role by trying to mislabel the issue one of “foreign agents,” and tried to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “courts”, and were again turned down, when the court saw Trump named (an extremely rare act of FISA court refusal of the government, suggesting the evidence was truly non-existent against Trump); and so, third, Obama circumvented both the regular command of the FBI and the regularly appointed federal courts, by placing the entire case as a FISA case (and apparently under Sally Yates at DOJ) as a “foreign” case, and then omitted Trump’s name from a surveillance warrant submitted to the FISA court, which the FISA court unwittingly granted, which Obama then misused to spy on Trump and many connected to Trump. Are these allegations true? We don’t know yet, but if any part of them are than Obama and/or his officials could face serious trouble.

Is this true? Any of it? We’ll find out soon. FISA applications are almost always granted, with complete deference to the Executive branch (12 denials in over 35,000 applications). That the FBI or someone backed off a regular warrant suggests a lack of evidence. That FISA would reject a subsequent application is amazing. The issuance of a follow-up application suggests impropriety (as does this entire episode).

As I mentioned yesterday, a sitting President is one of the few who can obtain FISA records with any ease. And he’s working on it: “”A senior White House official said that Donald F. McGahn II, the president’s chief counsel, was working on Saturday to secure access to what the official described as a document issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing surveillance of Mr. Trump and his associates.”

If any of this is substantiated, then the “why” behind it, the motives, will be explored – likely as part of the criminal prosecution. Was it an attempt to sway the election? A fishing expedition on Trump? War with Russia related? Who knows?

20130725-jennifer

Stanford Center.

Here’s an interesting thought, one grounded in existing precedent: what if the alleged actions touch substantially on national security matters (the Russian war angle or terrorism or something related)? Would an attempt to steer the U.S. into harm’s way constitute action giving aid to an enemy? If so determined, then the responsible party(ies) could possible be labeled as “enemy combatants”, accordingly detained, and treated as such.

We may have entered uncharted territory. Developing…

Getting the Bugs Out

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

crime, Donald Trump, election, Obama, Russia, surveillance

Imagine if you bought a house and discovered, shortly after moving in, that it was infested with termites or other destructive little critters. That pretty bad. Now, imagine if you discovered that the former homeowner, who sold you the house, had planted the bugs just to mess with you. That’s unconscionable.

And that’s exactly what President is literally facing right now.

Trump, in Trump style, just Tweeted:

3df21cd100000578-4281150-image-a-14_1488630523912

In typical, predictable, and quantifiable media style, the media (and the Democrat establishment) jumped all over the claim as “unfounded”.

Then, as often happens, the truth came out:

During the summer last year, the Obama administration filed a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Trump and several advisers but the request was denied, according to Heat Street former editor, Louise Mensch.

Just a day before the 2016 election, Mensch reported that ‘sources with links to the counter-intelligence community’ confirmed that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) had granted a FISA court warrant in October to monitor activities in Trump tower.

On Wednesday, a New York Times report said White House officials took efforts in the closing days of the Obama administration to analyze and spread information about Russian election interference, driven by a concern that the material might get buried by Trump.

How smart is it, regardless of the underlying concerns, to FISA tap the incoming president? FISA actions and records, extremely questionable Constitutionally anyway, are secretive and sealed. About the only person who can access them is the president. That seems to have happened.

When does obsessive concern about fictional (or even real) Russian interference turn into obsessive interference with an Executive administration? We’re probably about to find out.

ECON 666: Already Planning to Make the Next Recession Worse

03 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

1913, America, banksters, economy, evil, Federal Reserve, government, money, recession, theft

The Federal Reserve system is truly amazing.

Built, in secret in a dark room at Jekyll Island, Georgia, it was foisted on the American people more than 100 years ago. It is patently illegal; Congress abdicated its Article I authority to control the currency to a private, unelected, and uncontrollable bank. It destroyed the value of the dollar. It necessitated the 16th Amendment and the income tax (as a prop).

It institutionalized the normal business (boom, bust, boom,…) cycle – privatizing the gains and socializing the loses. It allows for concentration of wealth in the dirty hands of a few bankers and closely associated persons. It places all responsibility and liability on the public. It allows for unlimited government: spending, debt, programs, and wars. It works in conjunction with other central banks and the Bank for International Settlements to maintain a global system of debt slavery.

That this greatest and most evil of ponzi schemes has lasted for 104 years is a testament to either the wiles of its creators and operators or to the blind stupidity of the people. It could be both. And it could signal the completely corrupted nature of the American political class. None of it unfathomable…

Those who rule the economy like gods, even in the midst of preparing for a likely transition in leadership next February, are already plotting and planning their actions for the next American recession:

While in recent weeks there has been a material increase in Fed balance sheet normalization chatter, according to a new report from Deutsche Bank analysts, it may all be for nothing for one simple reason: should the US encounter a recession in the next several years, the most likely reaction by the Fed would be another $1 trillion in QE, delaying indefinitely any expectations for a return to a “normal” balance sheet.

As a reminder, as of this month, the duration of the latest expansionary cycle – as defined by the NBER – has reached 93 months, surpassing the 92 months of the 1982-1990 cycle, and is now the third longest in history. Should the cycle persist for another 27 months, or just under two and a half years, it would be the longest period of “economic growth” in history.

It’s like they know. Like they do this on purpose. “QE”means quantitative easing. That’s fancy banker talk for printing money. In this case, the U.S. Treasury will announce a sale of $1 Trillion in federal bonds. That’s more debt and interest for the taxpayers to work off. The Fed will then “expand its balance sheet” by buying the Treasuries. These are on sale at the Treasury but the Fed will buy them through their favorite middleman, Goldman Sachs.

Goldman will mark up the price, to give the people the worst deal possible and to make a profit. Goldman will finance the initial purchase from the Treasury with a fake money loan from guess who… And how will the Fed obtain the money for the Goldman loan and for the secondary Treasury purchase? By printing money! A lot of money. $1 Trillion for Goldman. And $1 Trillion plus Goldman fees for the Fed. Wait. There’s more (and more and more): the Treasury and the government now have an extra Trillion. That’s the multiplier effect. $3 Trillion+ in extra fake money in circulation.

I do not know what Goldman’s markup is. Let’s say it’s 10%. So $3.1 Trillion is created out of thin air. Poof! The money came from nowhere but it still has an effect. And it has to be paid for despite not being real.

The government gets to spend their Trillion in debt immediately – on war, healthcare, a mission to Mars – literally the sky is the limit (or space). Later the taxpayers will pay that back to the Fed, with interest (on money that never existed). Goldman will instantly pay off its $1 Trillion loan from the Fed through the subsequent sale to the Fed. They keep their 10% – $100 Billion! Good to be them.

Now the Fed will have on the crooked books: the asset of the Treasuries, and: the liability for the $1.1 Trillion to buy them. The balance went to Goldman, remember. Given enough time and hard work and sweat from the taxpaying saps, this liability and associated asset would balance out – back to zero. But, in the meantime, the Fed has that $1 Trillion asset just sitting there! They won’t let it go to waste.

They will use it as an asset to loan more fake money to more commercial banks (in America and abroad). More multiplying. More debt based on something that doesn’t exist.

All of this excess fake money floating around drives down the value of existing money – Gresham’s Law. This makes the taxpayer’s hard-earned money – that little money they’re allowed to keep when not repaying debt and interest via taxes on loans that never really existed – less valuable even as the prices of the things they must buy rise (monetary inflation). In other words, while the globalist instantly profit, the taxpayers take it in both ends for the duration.

Yes, even as the banks instantly get richer for doing nothing, the people get poorer. And this crazed debt cycle runs parallel to the usual business cycle (boom, bust, growth, contraction, …) until the next recession, depression, or downturn – when it will all be repeated.

That’s partly the nature of these bars on the graph from Zero Hedge:

expansion-duration

We’re at the end of the red bar (2009-present). That’s supposed to be a boom market or good times. For most they haven’t felt so good. And that’s because the people have struggled with the debt and inflation and lose of buying power from the last round of QE, circa 2008-09.

Cozy, huh? This cycle will keep repeating until the economy totally collapses or until the people finally wake up and rise up (or both).

From the graph one can also see we are, by historical average, overdue for a recession right now.

Additionally from the graph one might catch a glimpse of the Depression of 1921. It was the one immediately prior to the Great Depression. And it only lasted for six months. That’s because it was the last major depression/recession before the Fed really got the game up and running.

Cycles naturally come and go. They naturally correct themselves in very rapid fashion. It takes a central bank and a government, working together, to prolong their effects – and to build upon the cycle for the next time.

It seems the next time is coming and the criminals are already planning for it. If you don’t mind flirting with utter disaster and if you’re not ready to wake up yet, then at least heed the warnings. They’ve already told you so. If you’re caught off guard, that’s on you. Hell, it’s all going to be on you anyway…

Blog vs. Blog: A Legislative Name Game

03 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Blog vs. Blog: A Legislative Name Game

Tags

Congress, games, names, New York Times, ObamaCare, secrecy

So, yesterday, I mentioned the GOP efforts to hide the repeal/repeal and replace/stall/same thing/shore-up/or whatever the new Obamacare Bill is, if anything. I did so, here, on my blog.

Today, on his blog, Carlos Slim ran essentially the same story.

nimbus-image-1488567036970

Carlos Slim’s Blog, the New York Times.

Hide-and-Seek? Isn’t that a little cliche? A little simplistic?

Yes, it’s true: they hide the Bill away we know not where; we seek in vain for the truth (whatever that is). We think we have it and they move it again.

I just like my game name better:

Whack-a-Bill! It’s like “whack-a-mole” except it’s played with a piece of hidden legislation and an imaginary padded mallet. The “mole” pops up, we try to hit it, and it quickly disappears down the rabbit hole of Congressional stupidity. Fun, if aggravating.

Well, what’s in a name? What’s in the Bill?! Geesh…

The Border of the Fourth Amendment

02 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

America, borders, Constitution, Fourth Amendment, freedom, The People, tyranny

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

-U.S. Constitution, Amend. IV

Persons, their papers and effects, safe from search and seizure. Warrants. Freedom. America. Civility. Constitution. Rights.

Ancient. History. Gone, my friends. Read on: the “border” of the 4th Amendment:

Over the last decade, tens of thousands of visitors to the US – plus US citizens and residents returning home – have been subjected to warrantless border searches of their electronic devices.

Border officials may seize, search, and copy the contents of any such device. There’s no arrest, warrant, or even probable cause required – just “gimme.” And activists claim that since the inauguration of President Trump, this practice is becoming increasingly common.

While the majority of searches seem to occur when entering the US, border officials also have the authority to search electronic devices before you leave the country. In some cases, you may even be asked to log into your social media and email accounts and allow border officials to peruse their contents.

And that’s not all. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would apply these rules not just at the “border,” but also within 100 miles of any border crossing. In other words, many of America’s largest cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco are also effectively “constitution-free zones.” So is any city with an international airport.

While I haven’t heard of warrantless electronic device searches outside actual entry points into the US, between October 2008 and June 2010, 6,500 persons had their electronic devices searched along the US border, according to the DHS records.

In most legal challenges to this practice, federal courts have essentially rubber-stamped these policies. Even if you take the precaution of encrypting the contents of your electronic devices (highly recommended), border officials may demand the password.

…

The border and incoming arrivals I can kind of see. Don’t like it, but I can see it. It’s the 100-mile radius and the interior aspects that call up my inner Lexington and Concord here. While I have not heard of DHS (to protect us from CIA-bred terrorists, remember) searching phones or laptops in the interior, I have heard of their checkpoints, random places on the highway and nowhere near any border.

hqdefault

These aren’t the civil rights you’re looking for. Lucas Film / 20th Century Fox / YouTube.

Please read Nestmann’s full article. He gives some great tips for surviving these ordeals. He mostly recommends encryption and throw-away devices. Sage wisdom. And, as he notes, you may forget legal challenges. Constitutional protections are only afforded terrorist “refugees” now. You. Don’t. Count. Anymore. Pay your taxes and shut up!

Mr. Trump really has precious short time to Make America Great Again, if he can. Nestmann’s digital dodges work fine for now. There’s always a temporary and relatively easy way around tyranny when it starts. The rifles come out a little later.

The Incredible Obamacare Whack-A-Bill

02 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Congress, GOP, government, ObamaCare, Rand Paul, secrecy

Now you see it. Now you don’t. Actually, you just don’t. Even if you’re a member of Congress, a Republican member, you can’t see whatever passes for Obamacare reform.

This is getting ridiculous. Well, it’s been ridiculous for years – now they’re just adding to the spectacle.

House Republicans thought they were writing a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Instead, on Thursday, they found themselves running a traveling circus.

Following reports that a major chunk of their health-care legislation was being held for House GOP review in a secret room somewhere in the Capitol complex, Democrats and Republicans who hadn’t been invited started the hunt. Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, was first on the scene of the supposed secret location.

“It’s the secret office of the secret bill,” Paul told a gaggle of reporters. After being denied entry by a security guard and staff aide, he quickly turned the moment into an impromptu press conference about legislation transparency.

“I suspect public pressure will make them release it,” he said.

Except, as it turned out, the bill wasn’t there. House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady was in the room, but the Texas Republican said the bill wasn’t.

Where’s the Bill? Who’s got the Bill? Anybody seen a Bill?

c57xffixqaay2wl

Sen. Rand Paul on the hunt (with portable copier). Steve Kopack / Twitter.

Why the secrecy? The Draft circulated a week ago was obviously that – a draft – or a ruse. Allegedly the authors were not happy it got out. An, now, they’re making it impossible for anyone to see what they’re doing. Why? Do we have secrecy in our government? The answer is, “yes, of course”. But that doesn’t feel right, it’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

The original legislation, which gave us the doomed ACA, was shrouded in secrecy. It was rushed through the process. No one bothered to read it (or had time). That didn’t work out so well. Had they read it, they might have concluded it was a giant, stinking boondoggle, voted it down, and spared us (and themselves) the present worry.

After what … 100 years? … of promising to fix or get rid of the mess, one would think Republicans would be proud if their efforts. Why hide them? Do really have anything this time? Someone pointed out that they did pass a repeal Bill through previously. It met an Obama veto. Why not redo the exact same Bill? Trump would sign it. Stupidity on top or secrecy on top of incompetence.

Similarly, the TPP legislation was kept “locked up and under armed guard in the Capital basement vault”. That, also, was a complete disaster waiting to happen. The Bill stalled in the Senate (maybe someone read it), only to have Obama okay it anyway. Trump killed it earlier this year with great ceremony – one of the few laws undone, ever. A win for the people.

The people need another win with Obamacare. At the least, they deserve a little trust from their employees in Congress. Let’s see what is in the damned repeal, repeal and replace, prop-up, or whatever it is.

It’s really a shame we don’t have a “no confidence” voting measure for our government. That’s no secret.

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Perrin Lovett

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