bill of rights

U.S. widens surveillance to include individuals with no foreign connection

"The change last year to a Department of Defense manual on procedures governing its intelligence activities was made possible by a decades-old presidential executive order, bypassing congressional and court review. The new manual, released in August 2016, now permits the collection of information about Americans for counterintelligence purposes 'when no specific connection to foreign terrorist(s) has been established,' according to training slides created last year by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI)."

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Donald Trump didn’t create presidential dictatorship — he inherited it

"Violating the Constitution is practically the job description for modern presidents. It was George W. Bush’s White House, not Trump, that asserted a 'commander-in-chief override' entitling presidents to ignore the law and the Bill of Rights. Congress utterly failed to thwart that outrageous claim. Presidents have amassed vast authority because they are judged on their rhetoric and purported goals, not on their constitutional fidelity."

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IRS Still Stealing Cash From Immigrant Business Owners

"After the gas station went under, and Kwon’s wife died amid the stress of it all, after he moved from his neighborhood in shame and the Internal Revenue Service changed its policy so no other small business would get steamrolled this way — the agency won’t give Kwon his money back. That’s $59,117.47 the IRS is holding on to. As recently as August — the last time Kwon, now 73, asked for his money back — the IRS said no. He’s heartbroken that the country he loves is treating him this way."

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Your Own Pacemaker Can Now Testify Against You In Court

"It may seem unnerving that information contained inside the body — as opposed to kept in the home or worn on the wrist — could be used in a criminal investigation. But courts have yet to distinguish between data interior to the body and data stored on the outside. Data isn’t considered more protected or more private by virtue of its personal nature or where it is stored."

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Parody a police officer on Twitter, go to jail in America

"Something similar happened back in 2014, when police in Peoria, Illinois, arrested a man for impersonating the town's mayor on Twitter. The man (Jon Daniel) sued the city with the help of the ACLU and argued that the arrest violated his First Amendment rights. Ultimately, the city was forced to pay $125,000 to settle the case."

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FBI Concocting A Terrorist Threat Out of Racial Justice Groups

"If you are black and angry about police violence, you are a potential terror threat. Or so says a newly released FBI Intelligence Assessment that concocts a non-existent movement they dub 'Black Identity Extremists.' According to the assessment, 'premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement' has been spurred on by 'Black Identity Extremist (BIE) perceptions of police brutality against African Americans.' The problems with this report are manifold. First, and foremost, it places the blame for violence on actual concerns with police brutality and racial justice, thus delegitimizing dissent."

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Let’s Make America Free Again: We’re Walking a Dangerous Road

"We can pretend that the Constitution is still our governing document. However, the reality we must come to terms with is that in the America we live in today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned. Here is what it means to live under the Constitution today."

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Sheriff Indicted For Locking Down Entire School, Sexually Assaulting Kids

"Multiple students were subjected to invasive and outright horrifying body searches during a mass — and warrantless — search for drugs at a South Georgia high school. Attorney Mark Begnaud, who filed the class-action lawsuit, called out the sheriff for conducting '900 illegal, suspicionless searches.' To highlight the sheer unnecessary police state tactics of the tyrannical Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby and his deputies — not a single bit of contraband was found."

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