Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Consequences of Federal Intrusion: Global Data Collection

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Checks and balances exist in the American System because evil will always find a way if not properly managed and limited by the rule of law, and the consent of the governed.  To allow any of those checks and balances to be compromised is to allow the camel to stick his nose into the tent.  Compromising the United States Constitution can lead to consequences we may not wish to encounter.  Apple understands this, and that is why they have been fighting against giving the federal government a toe through the door regarding access to their customer's electronic devices.

When the NSA first began searching through our communications, they said it was okay because they were doing it under a provision of the Patriot Act to be used only in national security and terrorism investigations.  "Don't worry.  You can trust us not to use the power for anything else."

The New York Times is reporting that National Security Agency data will be shared with other intelligence agencies like the FBI without first applying any screens for privacy.

After the dust has cleared, and the camel has trotted up to the tent with his wet nose ready for insertion, the federal government is doing exactly as we feared.

Is the government above the rule of law?  Must we be content with sacrificing a little liberty for security?

Domestic law enforcement officials are not the only ones who plan to have access to huge troves of American communications, obtained without warrants.  Nobody in law enforcement, whether it is at the federal level, the State level, or locally, any longer needs to have a “national security” related reason to plug your name, email address, phone number, or other “selector” into the NSA’s gargantuan data trove.  They can simply poke around in your private information in the course of routine investigations for any reason.

Are you feeling uncomfortable, yet, you gun-clinging, Bible-clinging, right wing extremist radical potential domestic terrorists?

We know that this was already happening.  It's just that now it's becoming official.  The DEA and the IRS have been seeking information from the NSA, because getting that information, under the provisions offered by the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), can be accomplished without a warrant.  Just say it has something to do with national security, laugh it off, and then target whoever you want.  Who cares if the agents lie?  Right?  Lying has become normal procedure.  Damn the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of violating the right of the people to be unreasonably searched, right?  What do they care?  It's in the name of national security!

I believe we should protect ourselves against enemies, but is this where we want to go with that call for peace and safety?

In the name of security, the national security apparatus is spilling the beans for law enforcement agencies, despite the fact we were told this would only be for the purpose of terrorism investigations.

Give an inch, and the authoritarians of the federal government take a mile.

What we are learning is that the leviathan is bigger than we thought.  Not only is the new data-sharing policy being acknowledged, and that it is freely available for all law enforcement agencies (and other federal and State agencies, as needed) to use, but the powers the federal government is expanding in the name of national security is going outside our borders.

The United Nations has been working on internationalizing the world for as long as I can remember, and long before I was born.  One World Government, one might call it.  A New World Order.  Heck, they are even working on getting rid of the time zones so that everyone can be on the same time all the time, an idea the leftists over at the Washington Post absolutely love.  The United Nations' Agenda 2030 (formerly known as Agenda 21, but now it's bigger than ever) has in it a call for an unprecedented global data gathering program.  Under the guise of Sustainable Development, the United Nations plans to dramatically change the economic, social and environmental course of the planet through a drastic renovation of global data gathering to measure progress against its sweeping international agenda - an effort the NSA in the United States seems to be raring and ready to participate in.

If you think the socialism proposed by Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is something to fear, and that the Trans Pacific Partnership is scary, put on your seatbelts because the UN's plan to transform global society is one that jumps right out of the pages of a conspiracy theorist's worst nightmare.

Sorry, Dorothy, but you aren't in Kansas anymore.

The data gathering structure, or “draft global indicators framework,” will add huge new volumes of information that governments collect as they measure progress toward what amounts to a global socialist or progressive agenda, outlining 230 statistical indicators to measure progress.

Among the relatively novel measurements the draft framework proposes to develop:

■ The “proportion of government recurrent and capital spending going to sectors that disproportionately benefit women, poor and vulnerable groups” (redistribution of wealth)

■ The “extent to which global citizenship education and education for sustainable development . . . are mainstreamed at all levels in national education politics, curricula, teacher education and student assessment” (indoctrination)

■ The “number of countries that have implemented well-managed migration policies” (accepting influx of dangerous terrorists among the Muslim population being sent out to all points of the world)

■ The “average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status” (to better enable a redistribution of wealth)

■ The “proportion of persons victim of physical or sexual harassment, by sex, age, disability status and place of occurrence, in the previous 12 months” (to ridicule regarding adherence to a moral standard a system can't possibly be perfect in following - Alinsky tactic)

■ The “mortality rate attributed to unintentional poisoning” (to better enable control over product distribution, which will lead to government ownership of the means of production of such items - a.k.a. socialism)

■ The “proportion of national Exclusive Economic Zones [200-mile ocean limits] managed using ecosystem-based approaches” (redistribution of wealth)

■ The “number of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium or long-term conservation facilities” (redistribution of wealth)

■ “Progress by countries in the degree of implementation of international instruments aiming to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing” (authoritarian control)

Note: Even Founding Father Samuel Adams warned against the concept of a redistribution of wealth, calling it "despotic and unconstitutional."  His term for it was the Utopian Schemes of Leveling.

Karl Marx would be proud of what the world has become.

The makeup of nations involved on the Statistical Commission, interestingly enough, does not include the United States.

Among other things, the SDG indicator quest included a “really strong push,” in Pullinger’s phrase, for “disaggregation,” which has been defined by the U.N. as a breakdown of statistics by “income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographical location, or other characteristics.”  The quest runs right in line with the same goals in the Communist Manifesto.

The agenda is a way to ensure forward momentum of treaties the U.S. has refused to ratify, like the Law of the Sea treaty, and an international biodiversity convention.

Brett Schaefer, a U.N. expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, says that provisions in the Agenda 2030 monstrosity “use[s] imprecise or subjective terms that invite bias or data manipulation.”

There is a lot more going on here than mere data collection.

So, how do we stop it?

At the State level we are seeing progress against federal intrusion, and global intrusion.  In Oklahoma, a bill is working its way through the State legislature that will block national license plate tracking.  New Hampshire is working to pass a jury nullification bill.  West Virginia, and Virginia, are passing laws against the EPA Clean Power Plan.  West Virginia is also working to nullify the federal program that outlaws raw milk.  The Republican Congress has been targeting the IRS, as the States fight to regain some semblance of their sovereignty.

After the IRS scandal regarding the IRS's practice of targeting conservative groups, the IRS was threatening to impose a gift tax on donors to conservative nonprofits, which would have forced many of these groups to close their doors. So Congress passed a law to make it clear that these donations are exempt.  There is now a codified Taxpayer Bill of Rights hanging at every IRS building across the country. Because of the actions the Republican Congress has taken, agency employees like Lois Lerner can no longer use their personal email addresses for official business. Organizations can self-declare their tax-exempt status, and if the IRS rescinds their status, they have the right to appeal.  If the IRS compromises an organization’s confidential information, the organization can learn exactly what happened and who was responsible. And finally, political targeting is now a firing offense.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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