#Patriot Act

[amalgamasreal]

So I don't know how people on this app feel about the shit-house that is TikTok but in the US right now the ban they're trying to implement on it is a complete red herring and it needs to be stopped.

They are quite literally trying to implement Patriot Act 2.0 with the RESTRICT Act and using TikTok and China to scare the American public into buying into it wholesale when this shit will change the face of the internet. Here are some excerpts from what the bill would cover on the Infrastructure side:

SEC. 5. Considerations.

(a) Priority information and communications technology areas.—In carrying out sections 3 and 4, the Secretary shall prioritize evaluation of— (1) information and communications technology products or services used by a party to a covered transaction in a sector designated as critical infrastructure in Policy Directive 21 (February 12, 2013; relating to critical infrastructure security and resilience);

(2) software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to telecommunications products and services, including— (A) wireless local area networks;

(B) mobile networks;

(C) satellite payloads;

(D) satellite operations and control;

(E) cable access points;

(F) wireline access points;

(G) core networking systems;

(H) long-, short-, and back-haul networks; or

(I) edge computer platforms;

(3) any software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to data hosting or computing service that uses, processes, or retains, or is expected to use, process, or retain, sensitive personal data with respect to greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including— (A) internet hosting services;

(B) cloud-based or distributed computing and data storage;

(C) machine learning, predictive analytics, and data science products and services, including those involving the provision of services to assist a party utilize, manage, or maintain open-source software;

(D) managed services; and

(E) content delivery services;

(4) internet- or network-enabled sensors, webcams, end-point surveillance or monitoring devices, modems and home networking devices if greater than 1,000,000 units have been sold to persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction;

(5) unmanned vehicles, including drones and other aerials systems, autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, or any other product or service integral to the provision, maintenance, or management of such products or services;

(6) software designed or used primarily for connecting with and communicating via the internet that is in use by greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including— (A) desktop applications;

(B) mobile applications;

(C) gaming applications;

(D) payment applications; or

(E) web-based applications; or

(7) information and communications technology products and services integral to— (A) artificial intelligence and machine learning;

(B) quantum key distribution;

(C) quantum communications;

(D) quantum computing;

(E) post-quantum cryptography;

(F) autonomous systems;

(G) advanced robotics;

(H) biotechnology;

(I) synthetic biology;

(J) computational biology; and

(K) e-commerce technology and services, including any electronic techniques for accomplishing business transactions, online retail, internet-enabled logistics, internet-enabled payment technology, and online marketplaces.

(b) Considerations relating to undue and unacceptable risks.—In determining whether a covered transaction poses an undue or unacceptable risk under section 3(a) or 4(a), the Secretary— (1) shall, as the Secretary determines appropriate and in consultation with appropriate agency heads, consider, where available— (A) any removal or exclusion order issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defense, or the Director of National Intelligence pursuant to recommendations of the Federal Acquisition Security Council pursuant to section 1323 of title 41, United States Code;

(B) any order or license revocation issued by the Federal Communications Commission with respect to a transacting party, or any consent decree imposed by the Federal Trade Commission with respect to a transacting party;

(C) any relevant provision of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and the respective supplements to those regulations;

(D) any actual or potential threats to the execution of a national critical function identified by the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency;

(E) the nature, degree, and likelihood of consequence to the public and private sectors of the United States that would occur if vulnerabilities of the information and communications technologies services supply chain were to be exploited; and

(F) any other source of information that the Secretary determines appropriate; and

(2) may consider, where available, any relevant threat assessment or report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence completed or conducted at the request of the Secretary.

Look at that, does that look like it just covers the one app? NO! This would cover EVERYTHING that so much as LOOKS at the internet from the point this bill goes live.

It gets worse though, you wanna see what the penalties are?

(b) Civil penalties.—The Secretary may impose the following civil penalties on a person for each violation by that person of this Act or any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization issued under this Act: (1) A fine of not more than $250,000 or an amount that is twice the value of the transaction that is the basis of the violation with respect to which the penalty is imposed, whichever is greater. (2) Revocation of any mitigation measure or authorization issued under this Act to the person. (c) Criminal penalties.— (1) IN GENERAL.—A person who willfully commits, willfully attempts to commit, or willfully conspires to commit, or aids or abets in the commission of an unlawful act described in subsection (a) shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $1,000,000, or if a natural person, may be imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both. (2) CIVIL FORFEITURE.— (A) FORFEITURE.— (i) IN GENERAL.—Any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, used or intended to be used, in any manner, to commit or facilitate a violation or attempted violation described in paragraph (1) shall be subject to forfeiture to the United States. (ii) PROCEEDS.—Any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, constituting or traceable to the gross proceeds taken, obtained, or retained, in connection with or as a result of a violation or attempted violation described in paragraph (1) shall be subject to forfeiture to the United States. (B) PROCEDURE.—Seizures and forfeitures under this subsection shall be governed by the provisions of chapter 46 of title 18, United States Code, relating to civil forfeitures, except that such duties as are imposed on the Secretary of Treasury under the customs laws described in section 981(d) of title 18, United States Code, shall be performed by such officers, agents, and other persons as may be designated for that purpose by the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General. (3) CRIMINAL FORFEITURE.— (A) FORFEITURE.—Any person who is convicted under paragraph (1) shall, in addition to any other penalty, forfeit to the United States— (i) any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, used or intended to be used, in any manner, to commit or facilitate the violation or attempted violation of paragraph (1); and (ii) any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, constituting or traceable to the gross proceeds taken, obtained, or retained, in connection with or as a result of the violation. (B) PROCEDURE.—The criminal forfeiture of property under this paragraph, including any seizure and disposition of the property, and any related judicial proceeding, shall be governed by the provisions of section 413 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 853), except subsections (a) and (d) of that section.

You read that right, you could be fined up to A MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS for knowingly violating the restrict act, so all those people telling you to "just use a VPN" to keep using TikTok? Guess what? That falls under the criminal guidelines of this bill and they're giving you some horrible fucking advice.

Also, VPN's as a whole, if this bill passes, will take a goddamn nose dive in this country because they are another thing that will be covered in this bill.

They chose the perfect name for it, RESTRICT, because that's what it's going to do to our freedoms in this so called "land of the free".

Please, if you are a United States citizen of voting age reach out to your legislature and tell them you do not want this to pass and you will vote against them in the next primary if it does. This is a make or break moment for you if you're younger. Do not allow your generation to suffer a second Patriot Act like those of us that unfortunately allowed for the first one to happen.

And if you support this, I can only assume you're delusional or a paid shill, either way I hope you rot in whatever hell you believe in.

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

The NSA is just DAYS from taking over the internet, and it’s not on the front page of any newspaper–because no one has noticed.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/congress-is-about-to-pass-a-massive-expansion-to-illegal-surveillance-and-most-havent-noticed

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[dosesofcommonsense]

The person who sacrifices freedom for safety gets neither.

The Patriot Act needs to go. It sounds like a protection when it’s gross misconduct and a giant violation of your rights.

[beemovieerotica]

I'm less concerned about a stand-up comedian slightly embellishing the truth sometimes to make a joke land, but like.

when your entire brand is "speaking truth to power" and presenting instances of racial discrimination as authentic, emotionally moving moments in your life that are reflective of larger trends in society...this directly undercuts that. and to some people, it makes the larger truths less believable

and then falling back on the "it's just comedy" bit, minhaj's style is only comedic in parts-- he hits these very serious notes, and there's an understanding that his routines are crafted for the sake of communicating important realities, and that's what he's marketed himself as, and that's why people show up--and when that's no longer understood between him and his audience, what's the point?

going beyond his brand though, fabricating childhood stories (also about discrimination) and then directly implicating a real living woman, showing her picture to your audience of thousands (albeit blurred, but there's enough information contained there), and being unconcerned when she faces death threats and he further humiliates her...? jesus fucking christ.

[wack-ashimself]

Shit, I forgot to post in on here, but ANY internet privacy you had is GONE.

Friday, the government expanded the patriot act forcing software and hardware peeps to work for the NSA, aka, YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PRIVACY AT ALL.

You think the tik tok ban was due to Chinese interference? HA. It was cuz they were saying things that made the federal government look bad.

BECAUSE THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT WORKS EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE RICH, AGAINST THE PUBLIC, AND THEY DON'T WANT US UNITING TO TAKE THEM OUT OF POWER!!!

[yay-depression]

in honor of the paper i’m writing about TBS&TDH please have this uquiz

[lobsterenthusiastt]

so im getting into 2000s politics because i think they're interesting and apparently the patriot act is a real thing???? i thought that was part of metal gear's world building

[desidarling123]

If you haven't read this expose already, please do, because it's NUTS.

TLDR; Hasan Minhaj admitted to fully just. Lying. About things that, until recently, he posited as things that actually happened to him.

Some of the craziest excerpts from this article (imo)

But was his invention of a traumatic experience with his child or with law-enforcement entrapment distasteful, given the moral heft of those things, and the fact that other people have actually experienced them? “It’s grounded in truth,” Minhaj said. “But it didn’t happen to you,” I replied.

Dude. DUDE. What the fuck?!?!

There’s a palpable discomfort among comedians when they are asked to comment on another person’s art—a sort of code of omertà. But a number of writers and performers who spoke with me bristled at Minhaj’s moralizing posture. “He tonally presents himself as a person who was always taking down the despots and dictators of the world and always speaking truth to power,” one former “Patriot Act” employee said. “That’s grating.”

Yeah, this always drove me crazy about his style, but now coupled with the truth that he's been making half his shit up? Fucking insidious.

“If he’s lying about real people and real events, that’s a problem,” the writer said. “So much of the appeal of those stories is ‘This really happened.’ ”

Exactly. Hasan's whole claim to fame is being a "truth-teller" so discovering how much of his stories are lies... yikes!

Many stories on the cancellation also mentioned a series of tweets from former female employees of color alluding to their poor work experience behind the scenes. A document reviewed by The New Yorker revealed that three women had hired an attorney and threatened litigation against Netflix and “Patriot Act” ’s production company, alleging gender discrimination, sex-based harassment, and retaliation.

I remember when these came out. My IRL acquaintances did not really believe it, but I definitely felt odd about it. No smoke without fire...

Oh, and this ending fucking FLOORED ME.

When we spoke, I asked, were he to get “The Daily Show” hosting job, if his fabrications could put him in a compromised position when commenting on someone such as George Santos. Minhaj brushed the question off. “I think, when George Santos says he’s on the volleyball team, it’s a pointless story,” he responded. Minhaj’s “fiction” was always in service to a bigger point, putting him in a different moral category than Santos. He appeared unwilling to engage with the idea that his position in the comedic landscape is unique, or that the host of a comedy news show might be held to more stringent standards of accuracy across his body of work. When it came to his stage shows, he told me, “the emotional truth is first. The factual truth is secondary.” ♦

What a bunch of word scramble to justify.... not telling the truth? "Emotional truth", what a load of garbage. It's fucking identical to the same concept "Alternative Facts" the Far-Right was pushing so hard on us just years ago.

As a POC I find this especially rankling because we fight so hard for our stories to be heard... only for some fucking rando to not just co-opt those experiences and traumas, but fully... make them up? And claim them as his own? For clout?!?!?

What a mess. Unlikely to hurt his career (unfortunately) but goddamn.

[amalgamasreal]

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Not only is war costly, both in lives and dollars but it also creates fomenting hatred of the US and massive "blowback."

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-corruption/two-decades-of-blowback-the-patriot-act-turns-22

[workersolidarity]

Google's true origin partly lies in CIA and NSA research grants for mass surveillance

https://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-cia-and-nsa-research-grants-for-mass-surveillance

I thought I'd remind people of this old article from 2017 on the CIA/NSA origins of Google and how it was specifically designed to make the tracking and surveiling of internet users as easy as possible.

From its very inception, the programs and capabilities that make Google such a powerful search engine were created using CIA/NSA research funds passed along through unclassified NSF (National Science Foundation) grants to develop the technologies necessary to closely track American citizens and foreign users of the internet. Even the internet itself was created as part of a DARPA research program.

So should it come as a surprise to anyone that Google is filled with US and NATO propaganda today? Now I know that's not what this article is specifically referring to, however I think it's a continuation of the same kind of processes for surveillance and information space control between tech giants like Google and the CIA.

An example of what I mean would be any attempts search Google about its record of displaying Western propaganda. You can make the search as specific as possible, specifically referencing US and NATO propaganda or even specific incidents, but your search results will always display endless articles about how Google is supposedly filled with Chinese and Russian propaganda. No mention at all of US or NATO propaganda, even though I can name probably a dozen or so articles I've read over the years about just that. None of them show. Just the articles about how Chinese and Russian propaganda are proliferating online.

Yet, when I search for any kind of contested incidents where it's generally accepted that no one knows whether the incident was caused by Russia or the US, only the articles with the US Govt narrative will show. Again, even though I know of at least a few specific English-language articles about the issue from the Russian perspective. Those articles cannot be found in a simple search and I must go to the source site to find the articles. Only the US government narrative shows on Google.

And you can repeat this pattern for various contentious issues where the US Govt's propaganda dominates search engines like Google and alternative views must be sought directly from their source sites.

So it should come as no surprise that Google itself was created thanks to CIA/NSA grants passed along through the NSF. Similar to how the CIA/NSA passes along grants to promote Western Propaganda outlets in foreign countries using the National Endowment For Democracy or the NED.

[tatersgonnatate]

I have a friend who is a history teacher.

He is now using what's going on with tiktok to explain the Patriot Act, which was happening when my friend and I were kids ourselves, to his own students now.

History doesn't change unless you get up, grab it by the shoulders, and FORCE it to. It absofuckinglutely WILL repeat and fam we CANNOT afford that...

[badgamegraphics]

hello younger zoomers. Think it’s normal to film people in public? Wonder WHY we do that? Isn’t it weird we’ve basically normalized constant surveillance as a society here in the states? Gonna need you kids to look up the United States Patriot Act under W Bush. Like right now. Like this is not normal. Like it wasn’t legal for the police to tap someone’s phone without a warrant before this. Like please don’t accept this as an okay normal thing.

[creativealmonds]

Heroics

In Justice League: Unlimited there is an episode that will always be my favorite: Patriot Act. Implicitly Pretentious on YouTube has a great video on it. Check him out for this and other DC analysis videos.

The reason I love this episode is that is shows what it means to be a hero. A few c-list heroes with no powers and Green Arrow get called in to sun for Superman in a parade celebrating heroes. There are police and firemen and these c-listers.

A super-powered general comes in and starts recking shop, saying how he wants to fight Superman to show that no one can challenge American power. Several people almost die due to his actions and other heroes, more c and b listers with no powers, are called in quickly but are defeated until there's only the general and Shining Knight. SH gets beat but the civilians they saved surround him.

These heroes aren't popular, a lot of them don't have powers, they use tech or some type of mythical artifact. The only thing that separates them from the policeman and the firemen are their costumes, their gear, and their origins. And throughout the episode of highlights different aspects of heroism. Vigilante gives some kids the job of rounding up people and getting them away from the area. Shining Knight saves a man from some ruble, and he says if there was a car in front of him. It shows that the heroes just help people.

Shining Knight gets beat very badly by the general, but even when he's bruised and broken and very much going to die, he still stands up and tries to help. When Green Arrow and Speedy run out of arrows, they still charge him with their bows. When S.T.R.P.E’s chest is exposed, he's still fights.

"Anyone can wear the mask." Miles Morales says in Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. People usually take it as be a superhero but the way I see it is that to be a hero is to show humanity, to show the kindness in all people.

Not everyone is gonna be able to save a city by themselves or lift buildings, in My Hero Academia only the kids with the best powers can get into UA. In the beginning Toshinori says Midoriya could be a police officer since he's quirkless.

And I'd like to see how the DCAU would interact with this. Because not everyone can be a superhero, anyone can be a hero. Its in the small acts of kindness, in the things that won't matter or be written down in a history book of epics, but that will make someone's day and make them feel something good when they think back on it.

I haven't read the manga and the last I watched was around the end of Raid arc. In MHA, being a hero is a popularity contest about merch sales, photoshoots, whether a person uses their quirk with a liscene. It's a marketable brand of heroism that sells toys, funds hero schools and draws heroes into big cities to get good media coverage.

Midoriya and Toshinori are examples of doing good for the sake of doing good. The heroes in Patrol Act show that do be a hero is to be kind, to share the bit of humanity inside all of us.

[rickchung]

Hasan Minhaj x "My Response to The New Yorker Article".