From the Trump Administration:
Attorney General Pam Bondi warned against committing acts of vandalism or terrorism against Tesla products or other Elon Musk-owned properties.
Bondi said those committing those acts would face the full brunt of federal law enforcement without the possibility of plea agreements.
That thumping noise you hear is that of my heart, having burst right out of my ribcage, doing a
around the house.
Seems as though you can’t do anything these days without being spied on by the fucking Government:
Recent revelations confirm that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has been aggressively expanding its use of facial recognition technology, raising significant concerns about mass surveillance and unconstitutional tracking of law-abiding gun owners.
For years, gun rights advocates have warned that the ATF’s use of facial recognition would lead to mass surveillance of American citizens—particularly those who exercise their Second Amendment rights. Despite repeated claims that the ATF doesn’t engage in biometric tracking, a 2021 Government Accountability Office report revealed that between October 2019 and March 2022, the ATF conducted at least 549 facial recognition searches.
Of course, it’s not actually the ATF doing this (a.k.a. plausible deniability):
The technology was largely powered by third-party vendors, including Clearview AI and Vigilant Solutions, both of which have amassed vast databases of billions of images scraped from social media, DMV records, and security footage. This means the ATF has been leveraging private sector databases to track and identify gun owners without their consent.
The full scale of this surveillance remains unclear, but newly surfaced documents indicate that the ATF has been working with FBI fusion centers, state and local law enforcement, and even foreign intelligence agencies to develop more comprehensive tracking capabilities.
Here’s the thing: I don’t want to be spied on by anyone, let alone these government thugs.
I don’t care that it helps “security” or any other such panacea. Take your snooping devices and go fuck yourselves.
That said:
Oh, and new-FBI Director / ATF Acting-Director Patel? Take a long, hard look at those “FBI fusion centers” and make them less malevolent — lest you too be labeled as just another government thug.
Information, we’re always being told, is power. And I want the government to have a lot less of both.
In the above post, I refer to the FBI “fusion centers”. For those who went “Huh?” at the term, here’s a good background piece, framed inside an overall theme of the militarization of the police (which I’ve ranted about often before, as it happens). Here’s an excerpt:
Fusion Centers are hubs for local, state and federal police to share information. They’re effectively intelligence-gathering done by various police agencies who pool their resources. While this isn’t an uncommon practice, the Fusion Centers have virtually no oversight and are filled with zeal for the War on Terror. While its primary existence was to surveil in the fight against terrorism, Fusion Centers have quickly ballooned to gather intelligence on just about anything – and it’s not just the police. The military participates in Fusion Centers, as does the private sector, which means they’re a privacy nightmare.
The federal government has pushed Fusion Centers and largely bankrolled them. Hundreds of FBI agents work with Fusion Centers, with the federal government providing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid. In the case of the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, the federal government created a Fusion Center at the state level, only eventually turning control of an ostensibly state agency to the state. 30 percent of these “state” agencies are physically located in federal office space.
Private sector companies collect, store and analyze data for Fusion Centers. This would be dangerous on its own, but the lack of any oversight makes it particularly troublesome. Even if a private sector has the best of intentions, malicious third-party actors could access some of your most sensitive data if it’s been datamined by a Fusion Center. A company without the best intentions can do all kinds of “government-approved” snooping into your personal affairs.
And there you have it, in a nutshell.
Read the whole thing, because while it may contain a whole bunch of stuff you already know about, there’s no harm in being reminded about it, as I was.
That lovely quote from the movie Tombstone came to mind when I read that Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI Director by the Senate.
I hope, nay even expect that there’s going to be some kind of Mass Resignation Event among the Fibbie senior management — and there fucking well should be.
There has been a lot wrong with the various alphabet agencies who are nominally charged with looking after the American people, in that they seem to have misinterpreted their remit as “looking at” the American people, much in the way that an owl looks at a mouse.
The FBI has proven itself to be particularly at fault because they’ve gone after concerned parents, Catholics and who knows who else in a totally misdirected — and I use the word advisedly — identification of harmless folks like these as “enemies of the nation”.
How they might regard gun owners like myself we will not speak, because the actions of their vaunted SWAT teams speak for themselves.
So Kash, ol’ buddy, get in there and start rooting out the assholes — I’m pretty sure you know who they are — and don’t content yourself with just firing them; prosecute all those worth prosecuting, just as they have unjustly done to otherwise-innocent people in the past. (Ask the President how it feels.)
And while you’re there, shut down the stupid departments like Human Rights, not because the motives behind their creation were incorrect, but because the people managing them ended up using those motives as a pretext for harassing and indicting people in the most aggressive and venal manner.
It’s called “turning the tables”, and I can think of no worthier targets than the people who initiated and carried out those actions. They have, in short, betrayed their public trust and caused the public to fear, loathe and despise them, and they deserve to be severely punished in consequence.
Well now, lookee here:
Newly-minted Attorney General Pam Bondi has wasted no time, issuing directives that call for “aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress” and “vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges.”
And on Thursday, Bondi made another big move, filing a lawsuit against Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois related to their so-called “sanctuary” laws.
Priceless.
“The challenged provisions of Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County law reflect their intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe.”
Here’s what I’m seeing:
Sadly, though, she had to file the suit in Chicago — probably because she had to, although I’m pretty sure a court outside the city would give her better treatment — so it’s anyone’s guess what happens next. But if the suit is tossed out, expect it to go to the Supremes.
Oh what fun.
Am I a bad person for admitting that this news item made my aged loins stir, just a little?
