Are the Bill of Rights dead?
I'm beginning to think it is since the never ending gift of 9/11. Since then we have lost most of the First Amendment, the Third, definitely the Fourth and what is left of the 4th is taking another hit if congress passes the legislation that they are contemplating.
'Insidious' and 'Dangerous': Digital Privacy Groups Issue Urgent Warning Over CLOUD Act
Critics say the bill, which could be pushed through Congress this week, would enable U.S. authorities to skirt Fourth Amendment rights to collect Americans' data and use it against them
Civil libertarians and digital rights advocates are alarmed about an "insidious" and "dangerous" piece of federal legislation that the ACLU warns "threatens activists abroad, individuals here in the U.S., and would empower Attorney General Sessions in new disturbing ways."
The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data or CLOUD Act (S. 2383 and H.R. 4943), as David Ruiz at Electronic Fronteir Foundation (EFF) explains, would establish a "new backdoor for cross-border data [that] mirrors another backdoor under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, an invasive NSA surveillance authority for foreign intelligence gathering" recently reauthorized by Congress.
Ruiz outlines how the legislation would enable U.S. authorities to bypass Fourth Amendment rights to obtain Americans' data and use it against them:
The CLOUD Act allows the president to enter an executive agreement with a foreign nation known for human rights abuses. Using its CLOUD Act powers, police from that nation inevitably will collect Americans' communications. They can share the content of those communications with the U.S. government under the flawed "significant harm" test. The U.S. government can use that content against these Americans. A judge need not approve the data collection before it is carried out. At no point need probable cause be shown. At no point need a search warrant be obtained.
Remember when we were told that congress had to pass the FISA bill so that our intelligence agencies could keep us safe from the newest boogie man, Osama bin Laden and his Merry Men Al Qaida? We were told that it wouldn't be used against anyone here in the USA unless we were talking to someone over the pond. How did that work out for us? Yeah, not so well.
The #CLOUDAct threatens your privacy—but big tech companies want Congress to rush it into law. Sign the petition to tell your lawmakers to keep the CLOUD Act OUT of the must-pass omnibus bill: https://t.co/3FE3xVjw9H pic.twitter.com/CmzVsl8rm1
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) March 17, 2018
BTW the way, Israel is trying to get congress to make Al Jazeera register as a foreign news organization because they have been investigating Israel and they found information that Israel has been spying on us, on congress and everyone who is in the government.
However, we are supposed to be protected by the 4th amendment right now and yet that has been going on for some time. And remember that in the 2012 NDAA that was passed during the Obama administration, there is a clause that states that the military can arrest us and hold us indefinitely without a trial or access to a lawyer. This can be done on the president's order. The ACLU warned us that even if Obama didn't do that there might be a president who would. Imagine what Trump could do to his enemies. The democrats keep telling us that we can't trust Trump and yet they gave him more power to spy on us and now they are considering giving him this legislation. Oh yeah, Habeaus Corpus is still rescinded.
The McRestistence doesn't seem to be working very well for us.
Comments
230 years later,
I'm not sure any of the amendments have been honoured.
You might enjoy this opinion piece and comments.
I did enjoy it
Very interesting and good commentary. Following a few of the links posted. Thanks, Janis
If ICE were hunting down Trump’s critics, that would be bad but would make sense.
But ICE is hunting down Israel’s critics.
From one of the links to other links
Finally Some Good News
The Skirpal Affair is the final nail in the coffin of the Western media.
Ex-FBI Assistant Director: There Was A "High-Ranking" Plot To Protect Hillary; Brennan Leaked "Weekly"
"I think we have ample facts revealed to us during this last year and a half that high-ranking people throughout government, not just the FBI, high-ranking people had a plot to not have Hillary Clinton, you know, indicted," Kallstrom told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.
I highly encourage you to read this article on who all might be involved in the plot to not have "Hillary Clinton, you know, indicted."
UK Scientists Refused Government Pressure To Say Nerve Agent Was Made By Russia
No-one doubts that the Russians had the idea of making these things first, and worked on developing the idea. It has always been doubted up till now that they really succeeded. The Iranians succeeded under OPCW supervision some time ago and the chemical formulae were published to the whole world twenty years ago. So many states could have done it. The “of a type developed by Russia” thing means nothing, undoubtedly.
If ICE were hunting down Trump’s critics, that would be bad but would make sense.
But ICE is hunting down Israel’s critics.
I haven't followed the links you have highlighted,
but outsiders perspectives can sometimes be enlightening.
Till another day ... ; ).
Golden!
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Shoe on the other foot syndrome
Arrogance used to be and still is the Democrats' chief virtue. Corruption is/was their M.O. (not excluding Repugs from this). Now the momentum is all going against the Dems. Trump's response is augmented by his state of emergency executive order of Dec. '17 allowing use of military tribunals and asset confiscation. The harder the Dems fight, the harsher will be the retribution. Dems simply don't realized that non-politician Trump doesn't give a crap about the "political niceties" they are accustomed to be observed. HRC and Bubba are goners already as well as many insiders. The purge will end as deep as Hillbot support extends for as long as it persists. Watch out Rachel, you better learn Spanish, Cuban style.
This is simply legalizing the collusion between FBI & GCHQ
which allowed eavesdropping on Trump even before his presidential campaign began. Clintonites used GCHQ to pass on intercept messages from/to Trump and then pass it along to the Feeb's. This isn't really a new thing, it just adds the sheen of "legality" to it.
Ole McCain is involved in the Steele dossier too
It was his chief of staff who turned the dossier over to the FBI. Sydney Bluementhal (Hillary's BFF) gave a lot of the information to Steele. Hillary's hands are all over things from her and the DNC to hire Steele, her decision to blame her loss on Russia, and getting so many members of congress to agree to push the Russian propaganda on not only us, but the other country's governments too. Seriously, why would so many people agree to spread that? This I don't get.
If ICE were hunting down Trump’s critics, that would be bad but would make sense.
But ICE is hunting down Israel’s critics.
I think (if I can still do that)
because other country's governments are in the business to sell their weapons and are scared to lose those business' profits and thereby would risk German weapon producers to fail and then it would increase joblessness amon their constituents. They all play in the same sand box with some dirty sand in it.
If you think I can understand Germany's government and our Defense Ursula van der Leyen, you make a mistake. I think it's more than awful.
What hurts Putin? Germany’s defense minister wants to find out
Apparently they talked in February about van der Leyen may become the next Secretary General of the NATO and successor of Jens Stoltenberg.
I feel ashamed, embarrassed and worried.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Ursula sounds like less of a hawk than our boys.
she knows how to talk calmly and is not someone who
blows a lot of hot air. But how she decides is another issue. So ... Merkel at least has a certain very subtle and low key sarcasm and wit.
https://www.euronews.com/live
It takes the place of alarmed concern and immediate action
to deal with climate change and the end of a livable environment.
Russia had a bumper wheat crop last year; ours is down to 45 million acres, with winter wheat badly harmed by the severe winter weather. Even so US production was already at its lowest recorded historically since 1921, when farm data first began being recorded. From Fern's AG Insider https://www.agriculture.com/author/ferns-ag-insider as summarized briefly in a local co-op's newsletter.
@Alligator Ed
Imagine what the notoriously vindictive Clintons would have done with this, to anyone thought lacking in sycophancy... that scares me even more, actually, which is saying something. Hillary is a blood-thirsty psychopath - who laughed with excited joy on camera at the memory of the horrendous and agonizing death of someone she wanted out of the way - the very worst kind, who finds such things thrilling.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
That new legislation to wiretap the clouds of the world
...explains a lot of the incoming propaganda-terrorism that the intelligence agencies are pushing on the People — like the "OMG our power grids were hax!" alarm the other day. Americans will voluntarily peel off the rest of their rights and hand them over. This was the backstory to 1984 that Orwell never bothered to write. It was just too banal.
One can see all the good use they are getting out of the Russia Hoax.
Nice essay, Snoopydawg. Really got my rant going:
As for losing rights, the Constitution guarantees no rights to the People. The Constitution is speaking to the rulers of the People. Believe me, I know the difference. Rulers can modify or delete the rights in the Bill of Rights through Executive Orders or legislation, as they see fit. If the Founders had wanted to guarantee those rights to the People they would have done so. They used the term "unalienable" quite a bit for that purpose, elsewhere.
The last clause of Article I, the so-called “Elastic Clause”, says to the Rulers: Congress shall have power “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
The breadth and scope of federal legislation has always been unchained from the rights people think were conferred on them. That's why it was so easy to delete the right to privacy. The authorization can be found in the clause — the importance of “necessary and proper” legislative powers does exactly what the wealthy and privileged Founders intended. It flatly announces that “Congress can make any law it feels is necessary to provide for whatever it considers the general welfare of the country.”
That is why the nation looks like it does and why the people are what they are. That's why the constitution always defaults to the gilded age of economic extremes. Having no constitution is much better than having a hopelessly flawed one.
And that's why there was such a row about passing it
in the first place. A few select (and not quite so selfish) Important People spotted the flaws and refused to vote for the Constitution as-was. Enough of them (just enough) were brought around with the promise of immediate amendments to secure the "most important" rights, and that's why we even have a Bill of Rights. Whether it's worth anything after the way the Psychocrats have been chipping away at it, is quite another question.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I think your question has been answered
The constitution was buried and put to rest after the fateful day. It's buried in the same dustbin that international law was put. This country hasn't followed it since its ink dried on the paper it was written on. And so far no other country seems to have a problem with this.
If ICE were hunting down Trump’s critics, that would be bad but would make sense.
But ICE is hunting down Israel’s critics.
I’d never thought I’d see the day when
a person has to include extreme-left and extreme-right media in their regular reading — in Germany, that’s sources with views bordering on neo-Nazi and Maoist — if they are to have any hope of getting a halfway balanced and accurate picture of what’s going on in the world.
But that’s where developments stand now.
The German elite-controlled cultural “mainstream” cannot really report or criticize any more — it is too committed to selling the following interests, and German subservience to them, to the public and making them and their war actions look good: U.S., NATO, E.U., Israel, Anglo Five Eyes, Saudi Arabia, Gulf and North African despots, and Turkey.