Patriot, that’s the heart of one proposal the Trump administration floated in recent weeks among its “solutions” to “keep us safe” from gun violence.
Quite simply, it means Big Government working hand-in-hand with Silicon Valley to decide who gets a gun and who doesn’t.
This is perhaps the scariest thing I’ve heard over the course of recent weeks -- if not ever -- in BOTH parties’ mad rush to enact gun control.
Gun violence and domestic terrorism are the statists' latest excuse for giving themselves unbridled surveillance authority and pushing Orwellian schemes.
In addition to nationwide gun registration and outright confiscation, the statists are also preparing to RAM through reauthorization of the so-called “USA Freedom Act” -- including Sec. 215 “bulk collection,” “lone wolf,” and “roving wiretap” authorities.
I’m counting on you to sign your “STOP THE SURVEILLANCE STATE” petition IMMEDIATELY!
It’s no stretch to imagine the Deep State’s ultimate goal using these powers to conduct dragnet spying programs on law-abiding Americans. . .
. . . Eventually implementing a so-called “social credit score” system like is now in place in China and used to punish “discredited entities” for behavior the government disapproves of -- even down to denying citizens the ability to purchase plane tickets.
So, it’s more than our Second Amendment freedoms that are on the line.
The threat this would pose to our individual liberty if implemented would be catastrophic (everything from faith, to childrearing -- you name it).
That’s why it’s vital you and I strike a blow against the surveillance state by demanding Congress oppose reauthorization of the “USA Freedom Act!”
That the Trump administration -- which clearly knows what it’s like having the Deep State on the warpath against you -- would even consider reauthorizing such a scheme is jaw-dropping.
But alarm bells should be blaring when they’re insisting on extending their spying powers while at the same time telling you and me they haven’t worked!
The fact is, liberty doesn’t exist just in our freedom to do a particular thing, own a specific item, or engage certain forms of speech -- liberty is all of those things . . . WITHOUT government agents monitoring our actions or exacting reprisals on you and me.
And when government undermines one aspect of liberty, it’s virtually guaranteed the power it takes will be used to hammer shut the next link in the chains of tyranny.
That’s why Campaign for Liberty has been fighting tooth-and-nail to stop BOTH parties from gutting our Second Amendment freedoms and it’s why you and I must do all we can to stop the Deep State’s plot to cement a surveillance state over Americans.
The good news is, with Americans increasingly aware of the dangers of handing unbridled spying authority to the government and growing more and more concerned with the rising threat of censorship, now may be our best chance ever to strike a deathblow to Big Brother.
It could also be our last.
The fact is, the Deep State is hell-bent on collecting your (and every other American’s) emails, phone records, text messages, Internet searches, instant messages, online purchases, and Facebook posts.
And they’re not letting anything get in their way.
As you may have seen, recent court documents revealed the NSA illegally collected millions upon millions of phone call and message records on innocent Americans.
Wasn’t all of this supposed to have ended after the “USA Freedom Act’s” passage in 2015, which we were all told would “reform” domestic spying procedures?
As I warned you at the time, the “USA Freedom Act” did nothing but put a fig leaf on the situation.
Instead of the NSA collecting the private communications of every American, Congress simply instructed communications companies to act as the NSA’s filing cabinet -- and insisted these companies jump whenever the NSA told them to.
Now, it appears the NSA can’t even abide by these laughably minimal restrictions.
As one Bloomberg News report stated, the NSA “deliberately ignored restrictions on their authority to spy on Americans multiple times in the past decade.”
The truth is, I believe this is a fight for the very future of our Republic.
No government in the history of mankind -- not even the Communist East German Stasi of yesteryear -- has ever held the massive spying power our federal government holds over law-abiding U.S. citizens today. . .
And no government in world history that’s ever sought this power has avoided the temptation for abuse.
Once the “experts” in Washington, D.C. know how we live, it’s only a matter of time until they start trying to “fix” us by telling us what we can and can’t own, read, watch, think, listen to, and teach our kids and grandkids. . .
Of course, I know members of the Deep State in Washington, D.C. say they’re different. They just say, “trust us and everything will be ok.”
But how can we, knowing our government has targeted political opponents like Martin Luther King, Jr. routinely in the past?
How can we after the IRS -- under the last president -- was caught red-handed targeting limited government organizations?
How can we after the last administration illegally wiretapped reporters who dared criticize them?
How can we after watching our national media elites cheerlead for the “Russian collusion” charade and watching the Deep State target a politician they HATE -- just for the “crime” of winning?
I know the statists’ excuse is “security.”
But regardless of what buzzword they use to defend their assaults on our freedoms, their enemy is ALWAYS the same.
It’s our privacy. Our liberty. Our “greed” in wanting to keep some of the money we’ve rightfully earned.
Just since the lid was blown off our federal government’s domestic surveillance programs in the summer of 2013, we’ve seen story after story hit the press regarding NSA abuses, including:
*** NSA employees spying on ex-lovers and spouses -- a practice so common, the intelligence
community has come up with their own jargon, “LOVEINT,” to describe it;
*** REFUSING to say whether or not it’s spied on members of Congress, which would effectively destroy any ability of our government’s Legislative Branch to police this rogue agency;
*** Effectively GUTTING attorney-client privilege by holding confidential records.
*** REFUSING to say whether or not it’s spied on members of Congress, which would effectively destroy any ability of our government’s Legislative Branch to police this rogue agency;
*** Effectively GUTTING attorney-client privilege by holding confidential records.
There are literally thousands of examples of abuse. The FBI has become so emboldened, they’re using DMV photos to launch a massive facial recognition database!
This should be no surprise. Men aren’t angels. Neither are politicians and government bureaucrats.
What’s made our country the greatest and freest nation in human history is that our Founders created a Constitution that’s limited the power -- and therefore the damage -- evil men can inflict.
Our Founders understood that liberty cannot exist without privacy. As Benjamin Franklin stated, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
But today, our Constitution’s Fourth Amendment -- which protects American citizens’ right to privacy from government -- is hanging by nothing but a thread.
With it, the protections you and I have against the actions of evil men holding the reins of our own government are dropping like flies.
You and I must take a stand.
The good news is, opposition to Deep State government spying is growing.
I believe you and I can STOP the reauthorization of the so-called “USA Freedom Act” and stop the statists’ all-out war on the Fourth Amendment.
But it’s vital you sign your STOP THE SURVEILLANCE STATE petition right away.
The surveillance state apologists are going to do whatever they can to reauthorize the so-called “USA Freedom Act” quickly and likely quietly.
That’s why I’ve instructed Campaign for Liberty staff to pull out all the stops using mail, email, Internet ads, and even targeted radio and TV ads if I can raise the resources.
But I can’t do any of this without you.
So won’t you please agree to your most generous gift of $50 right away?
Patriot, I know that’s a lot. If it’s too much, please give $25 or at least $10.
Like you, sometimes I feel like we’re watching the police state nightmare from George Orwell’s 1984 being built around us.
So won’t you please join me in shouting “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!” before it’s too late -- before the idea of American liberty is nothing more than a distant memory?
Please sign your “STOP THE SURVEILLANCE STATE” petition right away and if at all possible, agree to pitch in with your most generous gift of $50, $25, or at least $10 TODAY!
For Liberty,
Ron Paul
Chairman
P.S. The so-called “USA Freedom Act” -- the sham that replaced Section 215 of the phony “PATRIOT” Act and allowed the massive collection of innocent Americans’ emails, texts, phone calls, and online chats to continue -- is set to expire at the end of this year.
The Big Government statist want to extend and expand their powers to conduct dragnet spying programs on law-abiding Americans.
But if you and I turn up enough heat on Congress to stop reauthorization, I’m convinced we can bring the statists’ domestic spying programs to a crashing halt.
That’s why I’m counting on you to please sign your “STOP THE SURVEILLANCE STATE” petition and pitch in with your most generous contribution of $50, $25, or at least $10 TODAY!