Private Message

Donald Trump And Adolf Hitler

Donald Trump is now barking some insane nonsense about forcing all Muslims in America to wear identification which distinguishes them, at a glance, from other Americans. He was interviewed by Yahoo and by NBC because of some vague comments he made on the subject, and he attempted to justify it by calling such violations of the first, fourth, and fifth amendments "good management" for America. He also stated that America has "no management", with which yours truly does not agree.

Either Trump erroneously blames America's problems on one religion; thinks he can win the presidency by inciting more hatred toward Muslims; or he is simply a bigot who feels he can run rough shod over any population within America he chooses. In the mean time, it appears that Donald Trump has no problem with the five white supremacists who were arrested recently in a foiled plot to kill people, while they worship in synagogues and black churches.

Where have we heard this idea about the outward identification and isolation of members of a certain religion? Does it sound, at all, familiar?

Trump also stated that he favors keeping a national data base of names
of anyone who happens to be Muslim. How is it that America is actually
taking Trump seriously? Especially while America prides itself on religious
freedom? Isn't it also interesting that while Trump wants to wall off our
country to keep foreigners out, he fancies women from Slovenia and
Czechoslovakia?

Of course, each of those women became American citizens AFTER
marrying "The Donald".



Here's more about those interviews. America needs to wake up.

Yet Another Attack On The Fourth Amendment

Here we go again. The Cyber Security Information Sharing Act of 2014, courtesy, once again, of Dianne Feinstein, would allow sharing of personal information between major internet sites and the United States government. You can get in touch with your representative here to request that your Fourth Amendment rights be protected and this bill be scrapped. On the bright side, Apple's new mobile operating system, i0S8, was engineered only to unlock for the owner of the device, even if Apple or the retailer is presented with a search warrant. Of course, this would not even be an issue if the United States Government would just let J. Edgar Hoovers tactics remain in another era.

Put Information To Good Use

While the media has been attempting to keep the masses focused on Hobby Lobby and it's barely useful employee insurance package, (seriously; Hobby Lobby is certainly NOT the only employer out there who rips off workers via benefits) there are elections coming up later this year. Every legislative session seems to feature either subtle or blatant challenges to the fourth amendment, putting down SOPA was, sadly, not good enough for everyone; and we still have a government that isn't interested in the upholding of the Constitution. But what about the information that is available about those running for public office? Shouldn't that information be shared and discussed publicly? After all, those who hold elected positions are merely civil servants, and their lives actually SHOULD be open books. Instead of hyper-focus on some dumbass Christians who want their employees to take as much maternity leave as possible, (isn't that what happens without contraceptives?) lets put the spotlight on all of our politicians who are planning to run for public office this fall. As for sharing information about their personal lives, remember how deeply they care, OR NOT, about the privacy of all the rest of us!

Snagged from Facebook.....seemed apropos. 

It's The Day We Fight Back

Today is The Day We Fight Back. Government agencies have gathered private information on Americans and stored it, only using it to their own advantage. We never hear about missing children getting found because of data gathered by the NSA, or travelers warned of danger by spying government agencies, yet we hear, more and more often, about SWAT teams mysteriously finding addresses that might belong to petty criminals and barging into the wrong houses, and about violent cops who do not wish to appear on camera. The longer this continues, the less the Fourth Amendment mean to the American people.

Here is a link to take action now. Using your zip code, the website will help you find the appropriate representative for your area. Congress will get quite a bit more email today than usual, so it is recommended that you telephone Congress, as well.

The Day We Fight Back

Mass Surveillance. What a concept; it conjures up an Orwellian image of government control extending everywhere, reaching into all affairs, personal and otherwise. The argument can and has been made that there really are no actual secrets and there never were, but what about warrantless grabs of information government agencies against an innocent, but targeted citizen? The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution prevents warrantless searches and seizures of our property in person, but where does it fit in electronic communiques?

Right now, there are two important pieces of proposed legislation that need attention from our representatives. First is the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Improvements Act, written by Dianne Feinstein. Her idea of updating and reform would simply legalize all the illegal data mining already done by NSA. It would also allow legitimate spying tactics on actual espionage suspects overseas, the original purpose of FISA, to be utilized here, in America. Because of the obvious conflicts with the Fourth Amendment, this is not a good idea. On February 11, we are asking everyone to call or write their representatives to state opposition to Feinstein's FISA Improvements Act.

The second proposed piece of important legislation is the USA Freedom Act. This act would amend section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is used to mine and store phone records of Americans. Limits would be placed on the data that is collected, the amount of data that can be stored, and the length of time it can be saved. The bill would also amend the FISA Amendments Act, (FAA, 2008) which allows warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. Our representatives need to know that we support this.

To anyone who still thinks that the NSA and that government agencies actually have the best interests of American citizens at heart, think about the fact that despite so much metadata and other information that there is barely room to store it, America still has unsolved missing persons cases.

New Blood

February 11 is The Day We Fight Back. This campaign is about awareness of the liberties that often are taken by government entities with our personal information and our fourth and fifth amendment rights. Unconstitutional surveillance programs not only hinder our rights to connect and communicate privately, but undermine democracy itself in this country. From the above linked website:

"On the day of action, the coalition and the activists it represents make calls and drive emails to lawmakers. Owners of websites will install banners to encourage their visitors to fight back against surveillance, and employees of technology companies will demand that their organizations do the same. Internet users are being asked to develop memes and change their social media avatars to reflect their demands.
Websites and Internet users who want to talk part can visit TheDayWeFightBack.org to sign up for email updates and to register websites to participate. Regular updates will be posted to the site between now and the February 11th day of action."

Whistle Blowing The Old Fashioned Way

Whistle blowing. A fun, new concept that really shouldn't represent a necessity. But yet, it does. What a shame that we do not teach history well enough in our public schools to avoid that other necessity of repeating history when we fail to learn an important lesson the first time. Or the second, third, or fourth time, as the case may be.

The subject of the expectation of privacy, and respect for the same, has been in the spotlight many times in American history. We have local and federal laws protecting privacy, and our nation's Constitution addresses it, as well. Verdicts in capital murder cases have been overturned because of governmental abuses of citizens' rights to privacy. A republican president even resigned as a result of the way his administration treated the rights of others to privacy. Anyone remember Watergate? So why was it necessary for Edward Snowden to remind the general public that we still have not learned a damn thing from our own history?

Back in the day, before the internet, we got things done the old fashioned way. A very recently published book titled The Burglary describes the actions of John and Bonnie Raines, and Keith Forsythe whistleblowing without the internet. J. Edgar Hoover, the head honcho of the FBI in 1971, was already notorious for blackmailing and threatening others. Despite American law and the Constitution, he established and sanctioned government practices of blatantly ignoring the rights of American citizens. Digging up dirt and using personal information to which he had no legal right was his most typical tool of blackmail, and it was his policy to encourage all law enforcement agencies to violate the law this way. Granted, he was FBI, not state or local police departments, but we cannot forget what rolls downhill.

Bonnie Raines cased the FBI building in Media, Pennsylvania, and one night, she and her cohorts broke in and stole a bunch of classified documents which outlined directives to snoop illegally, blackmail, threaten, and bypass the rights of anyone and everyone who found themselves at cross purposes with the government, as it concerned J. Edgar Hoover. After finding pertinent bits and pieces of information in their loot, the group anonymously gave it to a journalist for the Washington Post. The attorney general serving at the time asked the Post not to publish this information, and J. Edgar Hoover was furious.......yet, the show went on. Much of the privacy and many of the rights connected to privacy enjoyed by Americans today, along with the ability to question authority from the individual standpoint owes to this anonymous action and risk, taken by these three individuals. J. Edgar Hoover sought to become more powerful than the Truth, but alas! He was unsuccessful. The burglars were never caught, and their identities never came to light until their book was published. What did come to light was the corruption that had engulfed and swallowed all branches of the government at the time.

What isn't known is whether or not J. Edgar Hoover ever stopped to consider the irony of this particular burglary taking place in a town called "Media".

Medical Information And Privacy

Have you ever wondered exactly what constitutes a beach in medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or "HIPAA"? Or, have you ever felt certain that your rights to privacy concerning your medical information had been violated, but not known how to file a complaint, or with whom to file a complaint? As it happens, if your privacy has accidently or deliberately been breached in some way...say....the emergency department at your local hospital accidently sent your bill to another person, business, or government agency, instead of to you; and your injury, hospital visit, and insurance information are now common knowledge among people of whom you have never seen or heard, there is information provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about exactly what is lawful and what is not lawful concerning the sharing of medical information. In a case such as the one above, the hospital would have sixty days to notify you that the breach had occurred, and would also be required to notify DHHS of the breach. DHHS even offers the convenience of an online link for the filing of a complaint and reminds everyone of the fact that it is against the law for any healthcare provider to retaliate in any way against a person who has filed a complaint.


 

Prism, Privacy, And Edward Snowden

Your tax dollars at work, once again. Edward Snowden, who told us all about Prism, which can trace internet and cell phone signals in real time. While Snowden had a high level security clearance and all of the responsibility that goes with it, were his actions of divulging the information truly criminal, and if so, is he really guilty of treason? He did not go to any of our enemies with information about the fourth amendment rights of Americans getting violated, he came to the American people with it. Now that he has done that, he is the subject of an investigation, and his last known whereabouts were a hotel room in Hong Kong. He has since been offered asylum in Iceland.

Something that is rather disturbing is described in the video below, in an interview with Christiana Amanpour and Glenn Greenwood. Greenwood suggests that it is now no longer safe to be an investigative journalist, because if a journalist spends too much time with his source, he could also be considered culpable in some way, should the story covered concern a crime, and be charged as an accomplice! Also, an editor for the Washington Post, covering the story about Snowden, reportedly overheard security officials in a discussion at an airport stating that Snowden should "be disappeared", rather than extradited back to the United States to stand trial! So much for justice and due process. Perhaps it is easier, when possible, to just deny a person his day in court and skip due process!
 

As for Prism, it has always been sound advice to remember that there really are no secrets. The programs in use by NSA to store and interpret meta data stores such a large volume every day that the effort becomes counterproductive through having too much information to sort. The real invasion of privacy comes in the form of tracked computer information and cell phone data.....while one's calls are not necessarily heard, they are tracked. The trail of telephone numbers is logged, and of course, one's location, or approximate location, is also traceable. But then, there have been cameras on traffic lights for quite some time, now. Most stores have surveillance systems, decent schools have cameras, and Walmart sells cheap security cameras for homes. There really isn't much privacy to be had at this point in our history as humans. Anything that cannot be determined by studying the above mentioned methods of spying can often be divulged for free by the local Avon Lady.

 

Edward Snowden. A petition to pardon him for any crimes with which he may be charged is here.