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Sunday, March 29, 2020

AMERICA 2020

Stansberry Research | 11 Feb 2016

Ron Paul's Survival Warning For The Coming Crisis in America 2020 

America could see a financial crisis worse than 2008, according to 12-term U.S. Congressman Dr. Ron Paul.  It could wipe out U.S. retirees. He explains how citizens of all political parties should prepare now to protect yourself, your family, and your money. By Stansberry Research & Porter Stansberry. Read here: America 2020 The Survival Blueprint 





Thursday, March 26, 2020

"C4L" END THE POWER GRABS!

— James Clyburn (D-SC),
     House Majority Whip

Dear Patriot,

My concern is growing by the day over the toll the reaction to the coronavirus is taking on our country, our prosperity, and our liberties.

Just look at a few of the recent headlines:

“If government can curb our rights to fight a virus, then why not to fight gun violence?”

“DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic!”

“Google, Facebook, and other tech companies are reportedly in talks with the US government to use your location data to stop the coronavirus”

These are HUGE infringements on our liberties.

But the statists and their pals in the national media elite, brush those concerns aside and scream MORE . . . MORE . . . MORE!

Well, I’m screaming "ENOUGH!"

But there’s only one thing that will make the politicians in power listen. . .

A surge of liberty-loving Americans standing alongside me to DEMAND they stop.

That’s why I’m counting each of you to sign your emergency END THE POWERGRABS petition right away.

I know a lot of folks are really worried about the coronavirus right now.

And that’s understandable. My son, Senator Rand Paul, has it and is currently quarantined.

But America will not last long if we don’t stand up to those who would attack our freedoms.

You and I simply cannot let the statists’ demands for massive expansions of power go unchallenged.

They may tell us it’s all about “keeping us safe” and that everything will return to normal once the coronavirus outbreak is under control.

But you and I know better.

Never mind the unbridled and BLANTANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL powers they’re racing to claim, including:

>>>    Bans on firearm and ammunition sales, hindering law-abiding Americans’ ability to protect their loved ones and property, right when they may be needed most.

>>>    Unfettered Federal Reserve power, allowing them to reach into taxpayers’ pockets and hand bailouts to their pals in the global financial elite.

>>>    Price Controls and takeover of industrial production. It’s a testament to American ingenuity and industry . . . businesses that can are shifting their business models to help combat the coronavirus.

But instead of praising that, the central planners ratchet up demands for price controls and more government control over production.

Meanwhile, governors in state after state demand businesses closeshutter schoolsrestrict travel, even suspend elections, and effectively prohibit religious gatherings.

What freedoms won’t they take from us under so-called “emergency powers?”

What liberties will they not crush?

The truth is, the Big Government statists are going all-out to use this crisis to consolidate more power and more perks for themselves and their well-connected cronies.

Proposals have included everything from goodies for union bosses, to massive Green New Deal-style regulations, to even resurrection of the "Obamaphone" program -- coronavirus legislation looks like the best Christmas ever for the social welfare crowd.

Meanwhile, you and me lose more of our liberties and it gets harder and harder for everyday Americans to provide for ourselves and our families.

That’s why I’m counting on every Campaign for Liberty supporter to sign the emergency END THE POWERGRABS petition I’ve prepared for you right away.

We’ve got to make it 100% clear, coronavirus DOES NOT give them license to trample our liberties with these unvarnished power grabs.

Once, you sign your petition, then please consider going just a small step further.

With everything that’s going on right now, Campaign for Liberty is really stretching our budget to help halt the loss of liberty you and I are facing. 

So if you possibly can, I hope you’ll agree to chip in with a generous contribution of $10 or even $25, which will go a long way to helping Campaign for Liberty halt the statists’ power grabs.

Please act at once.

For Liberty,

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Second Amendment Rights By: Alan Keyes


29 April 1999 | Dr. Alan Keyes

Second Amendment Rights 

"I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Amendment is still in the Constitution of the United States, contrary to what some elites would like us to believe.

And the 2nd Amendment was not put into the Constitution by the Founders merely to allow us to intimidate burglars, or hunt rabbits to our hearts’ content. This is not to say that hunting rabbits and turkeys for the family dinner, or defending against dangers, were not anticipated uses for firearms, particularly on the frontier – this is true.

But above all, the Founders added the 2nd Amendment so that when, after a long train of abuses, a government evinces a methodical design upon our natural rights, we will have the means to protect and recover our rights. That is why the right to keep and bear arms was included in the Bill of Rights.

In fact, if we make the judgment that our rights are being systematically violated, we have not merely the right, but the duty, to resist and overthrow the power responsible. That duty requires that we maintain the material capacity to resist tyranny, if necessary, something that it is very hard to do if the government has all the weapons. A strong case can be made, therefore, that it is a fundamental DUTY of the free citizen to keep and bear arms.

In our time there have been many folks who don’t like to be reminded of all this. And they try, in their painful way, to pretend that the word “people” in the 2nd Amendment means something there that it doesn’t mean in any one of the other nine amendments in the Bill of Rights. They say that, for some odd reason, the Founders had a lapse, and instead of putting in “states” they put in “people.” And so it refers to a right inherent in the state government.

This position is incoherent, and has been disproved by every piece of legitimate historical research. For example, at one point in Jefferson’s letters he is talking about the militia, and he writes “militia, every able-bodied man in the state . . . “ (every man capable of carrying arms). That was the militia. It had nothing to do with the state government. The words “well-regulated” had something to do with organizing that militia and drilling it in the style of the 19th century, but “militia” itself referred to the able-bodied citizens of the state or commonwealth – not to the state government.

It would make no sense whatsoever to restrict the right to keep and bear arms to state governments, since the principle on which our polity is based, as stated in the Declaration, recognizes that any government, at any level, can become oppressive of our rights. And we must be prepared to defend ourselves against its abuses.

But the movement against 2nd Amendment rights is not just a threat to our capacity to defend ourselves physically against tyranny. It is also part of the much more general assault on the very notion that human beings are capable of moral responsibility. Consider, for example, the phony assertion that certain weapons should be banned because “they have no purpose except to kill people.” This debate is not about certain kinds of weapons that kill people; all kinds of weapons can kill. It is people that kill people, and they can use countless kinds of weapons to do so, if killing is in their hearts.

So let’s get down to the real issue: are we grownups, or are we children? If we are grownups, then we have the capacity to control our will even in the face of passion, and to be responsible for the exercise of our natural rights. If we are only children, then all the dangerous toys must be controlled by the government. But this “solution” implies that we can trust government with a monopoly on guns, even though we cannot trust ourselves with them. This is not a “solution” I trust.

Advocates of banning guns substitute things for people, but this approach won’t wash. It is the human moral will that saves us from violence, not the presence or absence of weapons. We should reject utterly the absurd theory that weapons are the cause of violence.

Anyone who is serious about controlling violence must recognize that it can only be done by rooting violence out of the human heart. That’s why I don’t understand those who say “save us from guns,” even while they cling to the coldly violent doctrine that human life has no worth except what they “choose” to assign to it.

If we want to end violence in our land, we must warm the hearts of this people with a renewed dedication to the God-given equality of all human beings. We must recapture the noble view of man as capable of moral responsibility, and self-restraint. Purify the heart and we will not have to worry about the misuse of weapons.

It is the business of the citizen to preserve justice in his heart, and the material capacity, including arms, to resist tyranny. These things constitute our character as a free people, which it is our duty to maintain. If we want to hold on to our heritage of liberty, we must first and foremost strengthen our confidence in our own moral capacity, and encourage such confidence in our fellow citizens. Only a people confident that it can behave like grown-ups will be justified in asserting its right to keep and bear arms, because it will be a people responsible to use them only in defense of ourselves and our liberty.

But if we want that to be true, then we shall have to return, as a people, to that same humble subjection to the authority of true moral principle that characterized our Founders, and that characterized every generation of Americans, until now. We must regain control of ourselves.

Most deeply, then, the assertion of 2nd Amendment rights is the assertion that we intend to control ourselves, and submit to the moral order that God has decreed must govern our lives. And just as we have no right to shirk our duty to submit to that moral order, so we have no right to shirk our duty to preserve unto ourselves the material means to discipline our government, if necessary, so that it remains a fit instrument for the self-government of a free people."








Monday, January 6, 2020

PETITION: NO WAR WITH IRAN


6 January 2020 

Change.org Petition: NO WAR WITH IRAN 


Dennis Kucinich started this petition to Congress
The assassination of General Suilemani was an overtly offensive attack calculated to provoke Iran to an unnecessary war.
WE THE PEOPLE, place our names signed herewith, to this PETITION TO CONGRESS. We urgently demand Congress to intervene to:
  • Engage all possible diplomatic channels to heal rifts from the disastrous actions of an out of control administration 
  • Direct the President to bring our troops home from the Middle East
  • Cut off all funds for war in Iraq, or against Iran, except to defend our troops’ safe return to the US 
  • Require production of all “intelligence” which was given to the President to support General Suilemani’s assassination  
  • Enact a law forbidding the assassination of foreign officials  
  • Invoke the War Powers Act, which can force a congressional vote on Iran within 90 days
The extrajudicial-assassination of a top Iranian state official constitutes an illegal act of war against both Iraq and Iran, and risks a retaliatory response from Iran which imperils US officials and soldiers world-wide.
Americans would never tolerate a foreign government killing one of our leaders, nor should we expect that any other nation would meekly permit such a ghastly deed to go unanswered.
It is clear that the assassination of General Suilemani was an overtly offensive attack calculated to provoke Iran to war, leveraging Israel's geographic vulnerability as an excuse to wage a wider war, blaming Iran for the past and future US casualties in Iraq.

It is a fact that the US has lost over 4,432 troops who were present in Iraq, NOT because of Iran, but because top US officials lied to the American people about Iraq's intent to use weapons of mass destruction against America.

The lies which took us into war in Iraq must never be forgotten because the same mentality continues to run US foreign policy today. We saw through the lies then and we see through them now.
The Congress must step forward to tame the beast of war which is once against demanding to be fed. The consequences of war with Iran are devastating to contemplate.
The US Administration has set the stage is set for a retaliatory response that imperils our soldiers and US officials everywhere.  We could very well be on the verge of another world war, with the lives of millions of people in the balance.
America must not spend more blood and treasure.  US Iraq policy has resulted in the deaths of US soldiers and over one million innocents, making the world less safe and depriving our fellow countrymen of the benefit of trillions of dollars which ought to have been spent rebuilding America.


Friday, September 13, 2019

PETITION: Ban Facial Recognition

 BAN FACIAL RECOGNITION 
Facial recognition technology is unreliable , biased and a threat to basic rights and safety. Fill out the Form below to tell your Congressional and local lawmakers to ban the government from using this dangerous technology.
 

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS
MEDIA JUSTICE
RESTORE THE FOURTH
DEFENDING RIGHTS AND DISSENT
COLOR OF CHANGE
DEMAND PROGRESS
FREE PRESS
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
MIJENTE
OPEN MEDIA
EPIC
X-Lab
Fight for the Future
Detroit Community Technology Project
Constitutional Alliance
RootsAction
Media Alliance
Oakland Privacy
Popular Resistance
18 Million Rising
CAIR
Presente
Daily Kos
Consumer Action
Muslim Justice League
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Privacy Times
United We Dream
MoveOn
Greenpeace USA
Detroit Digital Justice Coalition
MPower Change
Secure Justice
National Lawyers Guild
Tor

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Facial Recognition Technology / Civil Rights and Liberties

“Facial Recognition Technology (Part 1): Its Impact on our Civil Rights and Liberties”
Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - 10:00am
Location: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515



PURPOSE 


The hearing will examine the use of facial recognition technology by government and commercial entities and the need for oversight on how this technology is used on civilians.  Read More: Here 


Facial Recognition Technology (Part II): Ensuring Transparency in Government Use

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2019 - 10:00am
Location: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
PURPOSE

The hearing will examine the use of facial recognition technology by federal law enforcement entities and the need for oversight and regulation of how this technology is used on American citizens. Read more: Here






Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Cell-Site Simulators / IMSI Catchers

Cell-Site Simulators/IMSI Catchers

Cell-site simulators, also known as Stingrays or IMSI catchers, are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, tricking phones within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower. 
Cell-site simulators operate by conducting a general search of all cell phones within the device’s radius, in violation of basic constitutional protections.  Law enforcement use cell-site simulators to pinpoint the location of phones with greater accuracy than phone companies. Cell-site simulators can also log IMSI numbers (unique identifying numbers) of all of the mobile devices within a given area. Some cell-site simulators may have advanced features allowing law enforcement to intercept communications or even alter the content of communications.

How Cell-Site Simulators Work


Generally, there are two types of device used by law enforcement that are often referred to interchangeably: passive devices (which we will call IMSI catchers), and active devices (which we will call cell-site simulators.) Passive devices, as a rule, do not transmit any signals. They work by plucking cellular transmissions out of the air, the same way an FM radio works. They then decode (and sometimes decrypt) those signals to find the IMSI of the mobile device and track it.
Active cell-site simulators work very differently from their passive cousins. Cellular devices are designed to connect to the cell site nearby with the strongest signal. To exploit this, cell-site simulators broadcast signals that are either stronger than the legitimate cell sites around them, or are made to appear stronger. This causes devices within range to disconnect from their service providers’ legitimate cell sites and to instead establish a new connection with the cell-site simulator. Cell-site simulators also have passive capabilities, such as identifying legitimate cell sites and mapping out their coverage areas. For the purposes of this article we will primarily discuss active cell-site simulators.
It is difficult for most people to know whether or not their phone’s signals have been accessed by an active cell-site simulator, and it is impossible for anyone to know if their phone’s signals have been accessed by a passive IMSI catcher. Apps for identifying the use of cell-site simulators, such as SnoopSnitch, may not be verifiably accurate. Some more advanced tools have been built, which may be more accurate. For instance, security researchers at the University of Washington have designed a system to measure the use of cell-site simulators across Seattle. There are other researchers, including those at EFF, looking into this further.

What Kinds of Data Cell-Site Simulators Collect

Data collected by cell-site simulators can reveal intensely personal information about anyone who carries a phone, whether or not they have ever been suspected of a crime. 


Once your cellular device has connected to a cell-site simulator, the cell-site simulator can determine your location and read identifying data such as IMSI or ESN numbers directly from your mobile device. It can also intercept metadata (such as information about calls made and the amount of time on each call), the content of unencrypted phone calls and text messages and some types of data usage (such as websites visited).  Additionally, marketing materials produced by the manufacturers of cell-site simulators indicate that they can be configured to divert calls and text messages, edit messages, and even spoof the identity of a caller in text messages and calls.   

How Law Enforcement Uses Cell-Site Simulators

Police can use cell-site simulators to try to find a suspect when they already know their phone’s identifying information, or to scoop up data on anyone in a specific area. Some cell-site simulators are small enough to fit in a police cruiser, allowing law enforcement officers to drive to multiple locations, capturing from every mobile device in a given area—in some cases up to 10,000 phones at a time. These indiscriminate, dragnet searches include phones located in traditionally protected private spaces, such as homes and doctors’ offices.
Law enforcement officers have used information from cell-site simulators to investigate major and minor crimes and civil offenses. Baltimore Police, for example, have used their devices for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from tracking a kidnapper to trying to locate a man who took his wife’s phone during an argument (and later returned it to her). In one case, Annapolis Police used a cell-site simulator to investigate a robbery involving $56 worth of submarine sandwiches and chicken wings. In Detroit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used a cell-site simulator to locate and arrest an undocumented immigrant. 
Police have even deployed cell-site simulators at protests. The Miami-Dade Police Department apparently first purchased a cell-site simulator in 2003 to surveil protestors at a Free Trade of the Americas Agreement conference
Cell-site simulators are used by the FBI, DEA, NSA, Secret Service, and ICE, as well as the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and National Guard. U.S. Marshals and the FBI have attached cell-site simulators to airplanes to track suspects, gathering massive amounts of data about many innocent people in the process. The Texas Observer also uncovered airborne cell-site simulators in use by the Texas National Guard.
A recent Congressional Oversight Committee report called on Congress to pass laws requiring a warrant before using cell-site simulators. Some states, such as California, already require a warrant, except in emergency situations.

Who Sells Cell-site Simulators

Harris Corporation is the most prevalent company providing cell-site simulators to law enforcement. Their Stingray product has become the catchphrase for these devices, but they have subsequently introduced other models, such as Hailstorm, ArrowHeadAmberJack, and KingFish. Digital Receiver Technology, a division of Boeing, is also a common supplier of the technology, often referred to as “dirtboxes.” 
Other sellers of cell-site simulators include Atos, Rayzone, Martone Radio Technology, Septier Communication, PKI Electronic Intelligence, Datong (Seven Technologies Group), Ability Computers and Software Industries, Gamma Group, Rohde & Schwarz, Meganet Corporation. Manufacturers Septier and Gamma GSM both provide information on what the devices can capture. The Intercept published a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of various cellphone surveillance devices, as well as an older cell-site simulator manual made available through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Threats Posed by Cell-Site Simulators

 Cell-site simulators invade the privacy of everyone who happens to be in a given area, regardless of the fact that the vast majority have not been accused of committing a crime. 
The use of cell-site simulators have been shrouded in government secrecy. Police have used cell-site simulators to track location data without a warrant, by deceptively obtaining “pen register” orders from courts without explaining the true nature of the surveillance. In Baltimore, a judge concluded that law enforcement had intentionally withheld the information from the defense, in violation of their legal disclosure obligations. For a while, police departments tried to keep the use of cell-site simulators secret from not just the public but also the court system, withholding information from defense attorneys and judges—likely due to non-disclosure agreements with Harris Corporation. Prosecutors have accepted plea deals to hide their use of cell-site simulators and have even dropped cases rather than revealing information about their use of the technology. U.S. Marshalls have driven files hundreds of miles to thwart public records requests. Police have tried to keep information secret in Sarasota, Florida, Tacoma, Washington, Baltimore, Maryland, and St. Louis, Missouri.
In light of this secrecy, the FBI told police officers to recreate evidence from the devices, according to a document obtained by the nonprofit investigative journalism outlet Oklahoma Watch. 
Cell-site simulators often disrupt cell phone communications within as much as a 500-meter radius of the device, interrupting important communications and even emergency phone calls.  Cell-site simulators have been shown to disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color. In Baltimore, the use of cell-site simulators disproportionately impacted African-American communities, according to a map included in an FCC complaint that overlaid where Baltimore Police were using stingrays over census data on the city’s black population.
Cell-site simulators rely on a vulnerability in our communications system that the government should help fix rather than exploit. 

EFF’s Work on Cell-Site Simulators 

For the reasons above, EFF opposes police use of cell site simulators. Insofar as law enforcement agencies are using cell-site simulators in criminal investigations, EFF argues that use should be limited in the following ways:
  1. Law enforcement should obtain individualized warrants based on probable cause;
  2. Cell-site simulators should only be used for serious, violent crimes;
  3. Cell-site simulators should only be used for identifying location;
  4. Law enforcement must minimize the collection of data from people who are not the targets of the investigation.

Litigation

We filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to expose and shine light on the U.S. Marshals Service’s use of cell-site simulators on planes. 
Along with the ACLU and ACLU of Maryland, we filed an amicus brief in the first case in the country where a judge threw out evidence obtained as a result of using a cell-site simulator without a warrant. 
We filed an amicus brief, along with the ACLU, pointing a court to facts indicating that the Milwaukee Police Department secretly used a cell-site simulator to locate a defendant through his cell phone without a warrant in U.S. vs. Damian Patrick. (The government then admitted to having used it.) 

Legislation

We were original co-sponsors of the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA), along with the ACLU and the California Newspaper Publisher Association. This bill requires California police to get a warrant before using a cell-site simulator. Any evidence obtained from a cell-site simulator without a warrant is inadmissible in court. 
EFF supported S.B. 741, which requires transparency measures regarding the use of cell-site simulators. We are in the process of collecting these policies.

Further Research 

EFF has been investigating the use of cell-site simulators against Water Protectors and their allies at the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. We are currently doing further research on the technical aspects of cell-site simulators.

EFF Cases


For More Information