FEE: The Patriot Act was passed in 2001 in the wake of the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In the name of combatting terrorism, the sweeping law vastly expanded the federal government’s surveillance powers and ability to spy on Americans. In the nearly two decades since, the National Security Agency’s mass warrantless surveillance of American citizens was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, a key government spying program was declared illegal by a federal court, and only a minuscule percentage of federal spying has been tied to terrorism.
Nevertheless, much of the Patriot Act has remained on the books and in use for decades. Two members of Congress from opposite sides of the political spectrum want to change that.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a progressive Democrat, has just introduced a bill alongside libertarian-leaning Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky to repeal the Patriot Act, revoke much of the FISA Amendments Act, and restore Americans’ privacy protections. Their legislation would do the following (and more):
- End mass telephone and email data collection with narrow exceptions
- Protect federal national security whistleblowers like Edward Snowden
read more here
Although I have little hope, it would be very good if Gabbard and Massie’s efforts are successful. The USA PATRIOT Act is an abomination and is mostly unconstitutional, SCOTUS notwithstanding.
Ahhhh… The Patriot Act… the original “Never Let a Created Crisis Go To Waste” move. Since then, our elitist overlords have been busy creating all kinds of stuff:
Disease Plandemics
Housing Crisis
Banking Crisis
H1N1
C’mon… you all give it a try. Think of a fun created crisis our government has exploited!!!
Ha! You think something like the law will stop us?!?
I’m not holding my breath.
Most people think they are law abiding, until the left comes for you for what they now declare you a criminal.
Once they have you in handcuffs they can do as they want with you. – see China.
…if a Democrat supports it, it must be bad for the County…
You guys just keep sucking back into occasionally commenting and if I’m going to do it, let’s give SNS some competition. In one of my many iterations of what I want to be when I grow up I pretended to be a jeweler. And thus ran afoul with the “Patriot Act.” My partner and I had a number of accounts that we had to cycle through acquiring the cash for a buying operation that caused…
A letter to my friends at WINTRUST
LOTS of X’s
I hope without the edit I covered myself…
XXXXXXX
President
XXXXX Bank & Trust
Re: Closing of Account XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXX DBA XXXXXXXX
Dear Mr. XXXXXXXX,
Now that it has been determined that the above account must be closed I thought that I might review what Wintrust and governmental requirements would seem to have required from me.
By way of review the business is a sole proprietorship with zero (0) employees. Having given a short synopsis of what my anti terrorist / anti money laundering procedures were in the past I believe that the missing piece for the excellent regulatory requirements is my having a meeting with myself at the beginning of each fiscal year. At this meeting I should be addressing myself as the compliance officer for the anti money laundering & anti terrorist funding procedures and making sure that I am current with any changes that have taken place in the last year regarding those procedures. I should also recertify myself as qualified and continue to talk to myself during the year to be sure that I remain qualified to function as the compliance officer. Not having every syllable of the Patriot Act and regulatory requirements committed to memory I should also probably check myself by going online for further updates during the year.
So because I have not shown myself to be “certifiable” and by not constantly talking to myself, I have not met the requirements that are deemed necessary. Being too small of a business, I do not have the viability to hire outside help that is “certifiable.” I would however imagine that Wintrust is large enough to hire individuals that are “certifiable” and that may also be found talking or not talking to themselves on an ongoing basis. At least they were able to determine that the account that was opened and numbered among the first five hundred (500) accounts at the XXXXXX branch should or must be closed.
So to recap, I find that the business won’t even reach the necessary $50,000.00 number that triggers the requirements this fiscal year and the intrusiveness of the regulations has further caused it to basically shut down operations. As I previously mentioned in our correspondence this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. One can only wonder if this is in fact the intended purpose of the current governmental regulations.
But then who is John Galt?
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX
DBA XXXXXXXXX
^^^ Try to buy a new car these days….
It also, somehow, seems to have expanded muslim-savage influence in the US – exhibit A; the criminal & seditious illhan omar.
She’s too pretty to be a Democrat!