Category: Bureaucraps

New Documents Reveal Huge Scale of Government Cellphone Tracking of Citizens.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used mobile location data to track people’s movements on a much larger scale than previously known, according to new documents unearthed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

It’s no secret that U.S. government agencies have been obtaining and using location data collected by Americans’ smartphones. In early 2020, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bought access to millions of smartphone users’ location data to track undocumented immigrants and suspected tax dodgers.

However, new documents obtained by the ACLU through an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit now reveal the extent of this warrantless data collection. The 6,000-plus records reviewed by the civil rights organization contained approximately 336,000 location points across North America obtained from people’s phones. They also reveal that in just three days in 2018, CBP obtained records containing around 113,654 location points in the southwestern United States — more than 26 location points per minute.

The bulk of the data that CBP obtained came from its contract with Venntel, a location data broker that aggregates and sells information quietly siphoned from smartphone apps. By purchasing this data from data brokers, officials are sidestepping the legal process government officials would typically need to go through in order to access cell phone data.

Documents also detail the government agencies’ efforts to rationalize their actions. For example, cell phone location data is characterized as containing no personally identifying information (PII) in the records obtained by ACLU, despite enabling officials to track specific individuals or everyone in a particular area. Similarly, the records also claim that this data is “100 percent opt-in” and that cell phone users “voluntarily” share the location information. But many don’t realize that apps installed on their phones are collecting GPS information, let alone share that data with the government.

The ACLU says these documents are further proof that Congress needs to pass the bipartisan Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, proposed by by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY), which would require the government to secure a court order before obtaining Americans’ data, such as location information from our smartphones, from data brokers.

Shreya Tewari, the Brennan Fellow for ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said: “Legislation like the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act would end agencies’ warrantless access to this data and head off their flimsy justifications for obtaining it without judicial oversight in the first place.”

Spokespeople for Venntel and Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the report.

Supreme Court EPA Decision may Apply to ATF Rules

On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court issued its decision on the West Virginia v. EPA case. The decision reinforced earlier precedent on the non-delegation doctrine. It is a welcome start to roll back the lawlessness of the administrative state. Might the EPA case signal a willingness to strike down arbitrary rule changes in the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) agency?

The architects of the administrative state understood very well it was a critical way to undermine the Constitution:

The reason for this is that the ideas that gave rise to what is today called “the administrative state” are fundamentally at odds with those that gave rise to our Constitution. In fact, the original Progressive-Era architects of the administrative state understood this quite clearly, as they made advocacy of this new approach to government an important part of their direct, open, comprehensive attack on the American Constitution.

In the decision, on page 4 of Justice Gorsuch’s concurrence, in footnote 1, Justice Gorsuch points out the Progressive disdain for power in the hands of the people:  

1. For example, Woodrow Wilson famously argued that “popular sovereignty” “embarrasse[d]” the Nation because it made it harder to achieve “executive expertness.”

In the EPA decision, the Court explains it is defending the Constitutional protections of separation of powers. It shows there is a long history of court decisions preventing the agglomeration of powers from one of the three governmental branches to another by improper delegation. From the decision p. 17-18:

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Dettelbach’s Confirmation Will Hasten the Neutering of the ATF

With last week’s confirmation of Steve Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, gun control advocates and other nanny-staters are celebrating the agency’s first confirmed director since 2015. But what most of them aren’t taking into account is that NYSRPA v. Bruen makes putting an aggressive new leader at the top of ATF a terrible idea for the long-term health of their anti-gun agenda.

Why Pro-Gun and Republican Politicians Have Kept BATFE Without a Permanent Director

Before I get into why nominating a strong anti-gun head is bad for their agenda right now, I want to quickly review why BATFE hasn’t had a permanent Director in so many years.

Here’s a good example of a one-sided interview showing what Democrats think is behind the lack of leadership at the BATFE . . .

No, it’s not that Republicans love guns, hate gun laws, and want to hamper the enforcement of federal gun laws (if only). The reality is basically the opposite. The BATFE has a long history of not only questionable ethics, but downright criminal activity against law-abiding gun owners and people working in the firearms industry. It would take a whole series of articles to chronicle the extent of the agency’s sorry record, but you can search our archives and I found a pretty decent summary of some of the worst abuses here.

The agency had leaders who were appointed by presidents until 2006, when it was changed to a position that requires Senate confirmation. Since then, a combination of mistrust for the agency (due to its sordid history) and the people presidents of both parties have chosen to nominate have made it difficult or impossible to get enough votes in the Senate for confirmation.

The sad truth is that most people who know much about the agency’s misconduct would rather see it dissolved altogether, but there aren’t enough votes for that. So instead, the agency as been hampered in any way possible to keep its agents from harassing law abiding companies and gun owners.

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It seems to me that they’re grasping at any straw they believe might have the barest chance of accomplishing anything.
Well, as long as it’s Bloombutt’s money they’re wasting…..

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The good news is that none of these prior complaints appear to have gone anywhere, and based on the weak sauce Everytown presents as evidence in its complaint against Daniel Defense my guess is that the same will be true here as well.

Everytown files Federal Trade Commission complaint against Daniel Defense

When you’ve got your own in-house law firm funded by your billionaire backer, its easy to waste time and effort on unserious efforts, which helps explain Everytown’s new complaint against Georgia gunmaker Daniel Defense accusing it of “deceptively marketing” firearms to teenagers through its advertising and brand placement in video games and movies. More fundamentally, however, the gun control group’s filing with the Federal Trade Commission is part of a broader strategy aimed at shutting down gun companies, and the complaint against Daniel Defense is only the latest in a string of similar filings against members of the firearms industry in recent months

We’ll get to those prior complaints in a few paragraphs, but first let’s delve into Everytown’s ridiculous assertions.

Daniel Defense has leaned on social media, especially Instagram, which has a young user-base, to promote its weapons, the complaint says, and the company does not restrict access to its accounts to users who are old enough to buy its products.

In one Instagram post, for example, the company featured a picture of Post Malone holding one of its rifles with the caption: “MK18 got me feeling like a rockstar.”

Another post, from the same day as the Uvalde shooting, promoted the DDM4 V7 model rifle — the same one the gunman would later use — with the hashtag “loadout,” a term for the gear a soldier carries into battle that the complaint says is a reference to “Call of Duty,” a game the shooter reportedly played. The company also often uses hashtags such as #callofduty and #cod to make its “Call of Duty” references on social media, the complaint says.

That’s it? Post Malone and Call of Duty?

I’m a soon-to-be 48-year old who listens to Post Malone (ironically after my wife, who’s nine years my senior, turned me on to his music) and played Call of Duty and other first-person shooters for years until fairly recently, and I’m far from alone. In fact, according to data on Call of Duty demographics, only about 1/4 of all players are younger than 25, which makes sense given the game’s “M” rating. Everytown has absolutely no evidence that Daniel Defense is intentionally marketing its firearms to younger teenagers, which frankly would be a terrible business strategy given that you can’t even purchase a rifle until you’re 18-years old. And if Daniel Defense is marketing its products to adults under the age of 21 there shouldn’t be an actionable issue since that age group is able to lawfully purchase and possess a long gun under federal law.

This complaint has less to do with Daniel Defense specifically and much more to do with the gun control lobby’s attack on the firearms industry as a whole.

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Dept. Commerce Census Bureau Requesting Sales Records From Gun Holster Companies?

Why would the Census Bureau request customer records from American gun holster companies?

That is the question AmmoLand News is asking. Several major holster manufacturers/providers received notices from the Department of Commerce Census Bureau requesting order numbers, product descriptions, and where the items were being shipped. A few holster companies have refused to turn over the requested information to the federal government.

Two of these companies that received the letters and refused are JM4 Tactical and On Your Six Holsters.

“We will never turn over any information on our customers to the government no matter the cost us,” Chad Myers, President of JM4 Tactical, said. “To do so would violate our core beliefs. We need to stand up to an overbearing government. Our customers can rest assured that their information is safe with us!”

The Census Bureau sends out the Commodity Flow Survey to random companies every year. The purpose of the survey is to help the federal government understand the flow of commerce to help shape policies regarding transportation and shipping. This year it seems an abnormal amount of holster companies have received the notice leading some of the holster companies to wonder if the federal government has targeted them.

Some companies reached out to Arbiter Weston Martinez of Texas for help. Mr. Martinez is the former Texas Real Estate Commissioner under former Governor Rick Perry. Mr. Martinez is well connected in the political sphere and believes that the companies are being targeted to gather intel on the gun market. He has vowed to help push back against the alleged government overreach.

“Clearly, the Biden administration is saber rattling for the left in the wake of all the recent losses they have incurred by Supreme Court rulings,” Martinez said. “My clients and I will never back down from anyone that is trying to impugn our Constitutional and God-give rights like the Second Amendment.”

The Census Bureau claims that these companies are bound by law to turn over all requested information.

The Census website claims that companies who refuse to turn over the information could face a fine of up to $5000?

After looking into the law, the statutory limit on fines is $500. It is unclear if the web designer made a typo on the site or if it was a scare tactic to compel companies to turn over information.

Only one company was ever criminally charged with not filling out the survey, and that was in 1994. That doesn’t mean these companies are not in danger. The Biden administration has been hostile to the firearms industry, and these companies that make it easier to carry a concealed gun might be the next group to be targeted.

The companies worry about the Biden administration using the information to target concealed firearms carriers. Since the Bruen decision, there has been an explosion of people in the former “may issue” states looking to carry firearms. The Bruen decision confirmed that we the people have a right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense. Using holster data, the government could potentially figure out where people plan on concealing a firearm and match that up against permitting data to determine who will be carrying arms without going through the “proper” channels to carry a gun.

AmmoLand News reached out to the Census Bureau, but our calls were not returned.

Census Bureau Gun Holsters Survey_Redacted

Census Bureau Gun Holsters Co Survey

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While the supply chain crisis and the placation of the California protestors continue, for now, remember the Democratic Party ultimately intends to take AB5 national, so be on the lookout for more freedom-damaging bills just like it coming soon near you.

Truckers Say California Law Likely to Make U.S. Supply Chain Crisis Even Worse.

Since last fall, PJ Media has been chronicling the U.S. supply chain crisis at our nation’s ports, railroads, highways, airports, and supermarket shelves. Over the intervening months, no amount of presidential or gubernatorial bloviating, photo-op visits, or misguided fines has truly fixed the congested conditions to get the supply chain back on track. And this month, a 2019 Democratic law is set to go into effect which will add even more stress to the already broken system.Yes, in their oh-so-vast wisdom, California Democrats passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) to force perfectly content freelancers and independent contractors (also known as “gig workers”) to be reclassified as employees. Like most leftist regulations, AB5’s initial intentions were one thing (“to protect all the poor mistreated gig workers” who didn’t  actually need or want protection) while its real-world outcomes are something thoroughly different (forcing employers to replace gig workers and decimating the industries that rely on them).

Touted as the leftist cure to save gig workers from exploitation, in reality, AB5 is simply a job- and freedom-killing monstrosity. AB5 limits the freedom of California’s workers to be independent contractors. Instead, it forces them to be considered salaried employees, which means the employers are also forced to place them under the existing laws for health insurance, retirement, and a myriad of other regulations concerning full-time employees. While AB5 does exempt some specific occupations from its onerous regulations, the state’s over 70,000 independent truckers were not explicitly among those exemptions in the original bill.

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Missouri Attorney General Condemns FBI’s Illegal Attempts to Harvest Concealed Carry Permit Information from Missouri Sheriffs

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding that they cease their attempts to illegally obtain information from local sheriffs on Missourians who have concealed carry permits. Missouri law specifically prohibits the sharing of information on concealed carry permit holders to any entity – local, state, federal, or otherwise.

“The FBI has absolutely no business poking around in the private information of those who have obtained a concealed carry permit in Missouri,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “The Second Amendment rights of Missourians will absolutely not be infringed on my watch. I will use the full power of my Office to stop the FBI, which has become relentlessly politicized and has virtually no credibility, from illegally prying around in the personal information of Missouri gun owners.”

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office became aware that the FBI is planning to travel to Missouri in August to do “audits” at sheriff departments across the state, which would include harvesting information on those who have legally obtained a concealed carry permit. The letter states, “It has come to my attention that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has informed several Missouri county sheriffs that they will be showing up in August to ‘audit’ CCW permit holder records. The FBI states that, ‘The audit includes an onsite review of your Concealed Carry Weapons Permits…’ Let me be perfectly clear. Allowing federal agents from the FBI to have access to records of Missourians who have a permit to carry a concealed weapon violates Missouri law and infringes on our Second Amendment rights.”

Missouri law states, “Information retained in the concealed carry permit system under this subsection shall not be distributed to any federal, state, or private entities . . . .” § 571.101.9(2), RSMo.

At the end of the letter, Attorney General Schmitt promises to use the full power of his Office to stop the FBI’s attempts to obtain information on Missouri concealed carry weapons permit holders.

The full letter can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/2022-7-13-ltr-fbi.pdf?sfvrsn=5fbbdf7_2

it’s because they’re RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)

Why Did Two Republicans Just Save Biden’s ATF Nominee?

Yet again, Republican members of the U.S. Senate pitched in to deliver a victory for President Joe Biden and Democrats on Tuesday by helping their across-the-aisle colleagues confirm the president’s pick for ATF director.

The U.S. Senate is more of a mess than usual this week as Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is out with COVID, as is Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Sen. Patrick Leahy is still recovering from a fall that necessitated a hip replacement for the 82-year old Democrat from Vermont. The three sidelined Democrats showed how precarious the majority for Biden’s party has become.

The tight math meant that the planned confirmation vote for Biden’s second pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steve Dettelbach — was in jeopardy. Reliably, Republicans stepped up to hand Joe Biden a victory and confirm his nominee — the first Senate-approved ATF director in years.

The final vote came down 48-46, with two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio — voting with all the Democrats present to confirm Dettelbach as the ATF’s director.

Previously, Dettelbach’s confirmation was deadlocked by a tied party-line vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee that required extra steps from Schumer to move the nomination along via discharge petition, which passed the full senate with support from Sens. Portman and Collins to achieve the simple majority needed to rescue a nominee who is not reported favorably — that is with a majority-supporting vote — from the Judiciary Committee.

Both Sens. Collins and Portman also voted with Democrats to advance Dettelbach’s nomination to a final vote earlier on Tuesday as well.

Without the support from those two Republicans, Biden’s ATF nominee might not have been rescued from the unfavorable Judiciary Committee vote, not voted on this week, or perhaps never confirmed at all.

Biden previously called his ATF nominee “immensely qualified” for the job, but there were concerns from Republicans over Dettelbach’s support for restrictions on Second Amendment freedoms. The NRA slammed Biden’s nominee, noting he “endorsed gun bans, restrictions on lawful firearm transfers, and further expansion of prohibitions on who can lawfully possess a firearm. In short, it’s unclear what gun control measures Dettelbach doesn’t support,” the NRA noted.

What’s more, Gun Owners of America pointed out that Dettelbach has admitted to never owning a firearm while being considered to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Yes, this will work out well………..

Senate Confirms Obama’s Harvard Law School Classmate to Lead ATF

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Barack Obama’s Harvard Law School classmate Steve Dettelbach to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

The Hill reports that the vote was 48-46 with two Republicans siding with the Democrats in support of Dettelbach.

Those two Republicans were Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Rob Portman (OH).

On April 11 Breitbart News pointed to a Hill report which indicated that Dettelbach was Obama’s Harvard Law School classmate.

The Daily Mail observed that Dettelbach voiced support for various gun controls during an “unsuccessful” bid to become attorney general of Ohio in 2018.

The Mail noted that Dettelbach “has called for an assault weapons ban and universal background checks.”

During Dettelbach’s unsuccessful bid for attorney general of Ohio, WOSU reported that he also opposed allowing teachers and staff to be armed for classroom defense, even in situations when those teachers and/or staff were “former military or law enforcement.”

Dettelbach was President Biden’s second choice for ATF director. His first choice, David Chipman, was nominated only to have the nomination withdrawn amid public backlash and the nominee’s failure to gain enough Senate support to be confirmed.

Breitbart News noted that Chipman was a Gabby Giffords gun control associate, that he confirmed his support for an AR-15 ban, that he allegedly made disparaging comments about black ATF agents, and that he boasted he was not a “typical” white man (because he is progressive).

Is West Virginia v. EPA The SCOTUS Win We Didn’t Realize?

While Second Amendment supporters celebrate the 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, they may also have been given a huge win by none other than Chief Justice John Roberts in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency.

The gist of the opinion Roberts wrote in West Virginia v. EPA is that government agencies like the EPA – or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives – cannot exceed the powers granted by Congress. This opens up a whole new front in defending our Second Amendment rights in court.

Anti-Second Amendment extremists have long like to use administrative law to target our rights. For instance, in the Clinton administration, ATF cracked down on FFLs who had a low volume of sales – the so-called “kitchen table” dealers. As the NRA noted, that crackdown greatly reduced the number of FFLs. That can be dealt with by appropriate litigation now.

Congress hasn’t required FFLs to have a storefront, per 18 USC 923, so any criteria ATF uses outside what is in the laws passed by Congress could be open to a challenge in federal court. This could be a chance to really rein in this agency that many Second Amendment supporters would love to dissolve if they got the chance. It doesn’t just stop at FFLs.

Put it this way, the ban on “bump stocks” is now much more easy pickings in court, if only because it does raise questions as to whether they can be regulated administratively under 18 USC 921 and 26 USC 5845. This is just one hot button issue – there are others, like ATF records retention.

The ATF has been creative in trying to hold on to NICS information after the check says a dealer can proceed with the sale – a fight going on since NICS started in the late 1990s. Under the precedent established here, the clear Congressional prohibitions on maintaining those records – indeed, mandating “immediate destruction” – could be an avenue for litigation by pro-Second Amendment organizations.

Then there are administrative import bans of firearms. The list goes on and on, and is a target rich environment for litigation – provided that Second Amendment supporters have access to good attorneys who can see said litigation through.

Still, though, Second Amendment supporters will need to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels in order to ensure that ATF never does get that clear authority to go after our rights.

Even the author – as close as he gets to it – can’t make that philosophical leap that goobermint is supposed to secure rights, not restrict the citizens that it’s supposed to serve, not lord over.

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There is much that needs changing in federal law, from firearms regulation to environmental protections. [like maybe following the dictate of the 2nd amendment’s ‘shall not be infringed‘ perhaps?]
But these reforms require legislation written and passed by legislators, not regulatory misadventures undertaken by unelected political appointees in the executive branch. On those grounds alone, the Gun Owners of America deserves to win its lawsuit against the ATF.

That would be a good start

The ATF Can’t Write New Gun Laws

A lawsuit filed by the Gun Owners of America against the ATF seeking to stop a new rule from taking effect asks many pertinent questions — some technical, some legal — but the question at the heart of it is one that is relatively easy to answer: Is the ATF actually Congress?

No, it isn’t.

The United States has a serious problem with violent crime. As I have argued at some length, this is not a problem that is likely to be much improved by means of firearms regulation — but, to the non-negligible extent that there is room for constitutionally sound reform of U.S. firearms law, it is a job for Congress, not for the ATF. The ATF has strayed from the implementation of regulations to the creation and implementation of new policies, which is properly the job of the people’s elected representatives in the national legislature.
The ATF’s current administrative pickle is this: It is more difficult than you might think to say just what a “firearm” is. The 1938 Federal Firearms Act defined a “firearm” in the familiar way, as “any weapon, by whatever name known, which is designed to expel a projectile or projectiles by the action of an explosive” — but also added “or any part or parts of such weapon.”
To muddy the waters even more, a “firearm muffler or firearm silencer” was defined as a “firearm,” too, under the 1938 law.
There was a good reason for defining gun parts as guns, one that remains relevant today: If you want to control the sale of firearms, then you can’t allow Bob to sell Sam 99 percent of a gun as “gun parts” on Monday and the other 1 percent on Tuesday and pretend like a firearm hasn’t been sold.
But the problem there should have been obvious and soon became obvious: Firearms have dozens and dozens of parts, and the “any part or parts” language made every screw, nut, bolt, etc. a “firearm” under the law. That created obvious absurdities (selling someone a pair of fancy mother-of-pearl grips to replace the standard walnut ones on his six-shooter would be selling him a “firearm”) and unworkable ambiguities (Is a scope a part of a firearm? If so, at what point does it become a part of a firearm? Is a scope that is used for a non-firearm such as an air gun but could be used for a firearm legally a part of a firearm and hence a firearm?). Firearms are commonly modified and customized (for instance, by installing new sights or a different trigger), and some parts wear out and need replacing; that 1938 law notionally made any part acquired for such a customization or repair a firearm for legal purposes.
The unworkability of this status quo was addressed in 1968 — or, at least, Congress tried to address it, replacing the words “part or parts” with “frame or receiver.” What is a frame or receiver? According to the law, it is “that part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel.” The problem with that definition is that even in 1968, there were many firearms designs that had no single part that met the legal criterion of housing all three specified parts — hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism — and most firearms made today have no single part that satisfies the criterion. The ATF has been careering around administratively for decades trying to do something with that poorly written law.
But the ATF’s regulatory walk is not random.

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Dear Democrats, demoncraps THIS Is What Your Oppressive Global Initiatives Lead To

After suffering from weeks of brutal food and fuel shortages, as well as crippling inflation, Sri Lankans have had enough.

Riots have broken out throughout the impoverished country. Police have used tear gas and water cannons but to little effect.

Shortly after thousands of angry citizens stormed the presidential palace, even going so far as to swim in his pool, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared that he will step down. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe agreed to resign as well after his home was torched.

FAST FACTS – Sri Lanka Went Woke:

  • In an attempt to improve Sri Lanka’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) score (which is totally communist), President Rajapaksa forced farmers to grow food organically and banned the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, thus causing the nation’s rice crop to fall by 20% in the first six months. Crop productions dropped 40-50%.
  • Food shortages were next. (Hey Netherlands, are you watching?)
  • Inflation rose to 54.6% as of June.
  • Sri Lanka incurred outrageous expenses importing food and “organic” fertilizer.
  • Tea production, Sri Lanka’s largest export, was decimated.
  • Inflation exploded and half a million Sri Lankans slid into poverty.

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See Also Sri Lanka

A Popular Uprising Against the Elites Has Gone Global

A popular uprising of working-class people against the elites and their values is underway—and it’s crossing the globe. There is a growing resistance by the middle and lower classes against what Rob Henderson has coined the “luxury beliefs” of the elites, as everyday folks realize the harm it causes them and their communities.

There were early glimmerings last February, when the Canadian Trucker Convoy pitched working class truck drivers against a “laptop class” demanding ever more restrictive COVID-19 policies. You saw it as well in the victory of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who ran on parents’ rights in education and went on to win both suburbs and rural areas. You can see it in the growing support of Hispanic voters for a Republican Party, which increasingly identifies as anti-woke, and pro-working class. And now we’re seeing the latest iteration in the Netherlands in the form of a farmer’s protest against new environmental rulings that will ruin them.

Over 30,000 Dutch farmers have risen in protest against the government in the wake of new nitrogen limits that require farmers to radically curb their nitrogen emissions by up to 70 percent in the next eight years. It would require farmers to use less fertilizer and even to reduce the number of their livestock. While large farming companies have the means to hypothetically meet these goals and can switch to non-nitrogen-based fertilizers, it is impossible for smaller, often family-owned farms. The new environmental regulations are so extreme that they would force many to shutter, including people whose families have been farming for three or four generations. In protest, farmers have been blockading streets and refusing to deliver their products to supermarket chains. It’s been leading to serious shortages of eggs and milk, among other food items.

But the effects will be global. The Netherlands is the world’s second largest agricultural exporter after the United States, making the country of barely 17 million inhabitants a food superpower. Given global food shortages and rising prices, the role of Dutch farmers in the global food chain has never been more important. But if you thought the Dutch government was going to take that into account and ensure that people can put food on the table, you would be wrong; when offered the choice between food security and acting against “climate change,” the Dutch government decided to pursue the latter.

What is particularly frustrating is that the government is fully aware that what it is asking farmers to do will drive many of them out of existence. In fact, the government originally planned to move at a slower pace—until a lawsuit brought by environmental groups in 2019 forced an acceleration of the timetable.

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FDA Finally Admits It Caused the Baby Formula Shortage.
The agency is now taking small steps to allow foreign formula manufacturers to import their goods into the US

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finally determined what’s to blame for America’s recent shortage of baby formula.

The FDA.

More specifically, it’s the FDA’s unnecessary and protectionist rules that effectively ban foreign-made baby formula from being imported into the United States. On Wednesday, the agency announced plans to tweak those rules so foreign formula manufacturers can permanently import their goods into the U.S., giving American consumers greater choice in the marketplace and ensuring more robust supply chains.

“The need to diversify and strengthen the U.S. infant formula supply is more important than ever,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. “Ensuring that the youngest and most vulnerable individuals have access to safe and nutritious formula products is a top priority for the FDA.”

That might be true now, but it clearly hasn’t been the case in the past. As Reason has detailed throughout the recent crisis, the FDA’s priorities have been protecting the domestic formula industry (and the dairy industry, which provides key inputs for baby formula) from foreign competition. As a result, it’s nearly impossible to find foreign-made baby formula in the U.S., even though formula manufacturers based in England, the Netherlands, and Germany are some of the biggest suppliers of baby formula to the rest of the world.

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SCOTUS ruling on right to carry invoked in challenge to machine gun ban

A Wisconsin firearms retailer and popular YouTube influencer is asking a federal court to throw out charges that he was illegally selling devices to convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic firearms, arguing that the National Firearms Act of 1934, which tightly regulated the sale of machine guns, is unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in  NYSRPA v. Bruen.

Matthew Hoover was indicted back in January alongside Kristopher Ervin of Florida for selling auto sears under the name Auto Key Card, which was marketed as a bottle opener. The feds contend, however, that the marketing of the card was simply intended to mask its real purpose; c

The cards came laser engraved showing the parts of an AR-15 automatic connector, commonly known as a “lightning link.”

The lightning link, when assembled from its separate components and installed in an AR-15, could convert it to full-auto without any additional modifications to the firearm.

Because of this, the ATF decided the cards were close enough to auto sears to fall under the machine gun restrictions under the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act amendment of the National Firearms Act.

Under the original NFA, machine guns could still be purchased, although additional paperwork and the payment of a $200 tax was required. When the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act was signed into law in 1986, however, all new machine guns were banned for purchase by civilians, and building your own is a federal no-no as well.

Now attorneys for Hoover are arguing that, based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen, the indictment should be thrown out because the constitutionality of the machine gun restrictions have been called into question

What makes Bruen particularly germane to the instant matter is the announcement of a clear legal standard for the evaluation of acts regulating the peaceable keeping and bearing of arms. Bruen identified the Court of Appeals “coalesce[ing] around a ‘two-step’ framework for analyzing Second Amendment challenges that combines history with means-ends scrutiny”, the Court correctly identified this as “one step too many[.]

Those previous decisions at the various Courts of Appeal manifested deference to the Government in a manner unlike any other fundamental right, and the inexplicable consideration of regulations clearly contemplating the keeping and bearing of arms as beyond the scope of the Second Amendment.
… Finally, though, we have a standard which clearly articulates the burdens in a case involving restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. It is, as artfully penned by the Court, “when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. The Government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation. Only then may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command.’”

The Department of Justice will undoubtably argue that fully-automatic firearms are not in common use, and are therefore both unusual and dangerous and fall outside of the scope of the Second Amendment. They can even point to Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in Heller, when he implied that “M-16 rifles and the like” because they are not and were not in common use by civilians at any point in time during our nation’s history. Hoover’s attorneys anticipate that argument and reject it in their new filing, arguing that “the court’s invocation of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons in Heller and subsequently Bruen was for the purpose of discussion of what might be a constitutionally acceptable law, rather than the endorsement of any particular extant policy.”

Rather, the only way a court may conclude Defendant’s conduct falls outside the scope of the Second Amendment’s unqualified command remains clear: the Government must prove the particular regime in question is consistent with the history and tradition of the United States.

Furthermore, the question of whether a weapon is “in common use at the time,” necessarily pins the analysis to the time before the prohibition. To consider otherwise would incentivize the Government to legislate wantonly and aggressively, seizing arms, then later evade constitutional scrutiny by suggesting that the arms cannot be in common use, because the Government prohibited them. Such circular logic would be inconsistent with any fundamental rights jurisprudence.

The request for dismissal goes on to argue that Hoover and his co-defendant aren’t accused of selling actual machine guns. Rather the ATF decided that the thin, credit card-sized piece of metal can become a machine gun if purchasers use a little elbow grease.

In addition to the previously raised Constitutional questions, nothing in the applicable history and tradition of the United States supports the categorical ban of machineguns, much less the item here at issue—a tchotchke the Government alleges might possibly, with transformative labor, one day become a machinegun. Further, the ATF’s decision that the tchotchke at issue—a stainless steel card with some lines lightly thereupon engraved—was a machinegun came completely by administrative fiat, absent even notice and comment. Our Nation’s history and tradition does not, and cannot, support a finding that an alleged drawing of a part is that part merely because an unelected bureaucrat unilaterally willed it to be. To hold otherwise would be to grant the Bureau more power than Congress could have ever granted it, and make innumerable items potentially illegal.

The attorneys for Hoover then cite testimony given by then-Attorney General Homer Cummings in 1934 during debate over the NFA.

MR. LEWIS: I hope the courts will find no doubt on a subject like this, General; but I was curious to know how we escaped that provision in the Constitution.

ATTORNEY GENERAL CUMMINGS: Oh, we do not attempt to escape it. We are dealing with another power, namely, the power of taxation, and of regulation under the interstate commerce clause. You see, if we made a statute absolutely forbidding any human being to have a machine gun, you might say there is some constitutional question involved. But when you say “We will tax the machine gun” and when you say that “the absence of a license showing payment of the tax has been made indicates that a crime has been perpetrated”, you are easily within the law.

MR. LEWIS: In other words, it does not amount to prohibition, but allows of regulation.

ATTORNEY GENERAL CUMMINGS: That is the idea. We have studied that very carefully.

In other words, the NFA was intentionally never designed to be an outright ban on the possession of machine guns, but the Hughes Amendment to FOPA changed all that by banning the possession or purchase of any automatic firearm manufactured after FOPA became law.

It’s a good argument, but whether or not the judge goes for it is a different story. My gut tells me that we’re going to get the same reliance on Scalia’s aside in Heller to keep the charges against Hoover in place for now, but I’m very interested to see what happens if and when this case goes to trial. It’s hard to argue that the NFA is “longstanding” when the Court just threw out a New York law that’s twenty years older, and I’m not aware of any historical analogues to the Hughes Amendment that could come into play, which makes this case one to watch going forward.

Is this really a question?

Attorney General Garland playing favorites with civil liberties?

When discussing the Second Amendment, one of the conditioning exercises I’ve personally had to go through has to do with language. Many people did and or do have to be conditioned to look at so-called “gun rights” through the correct lens. Friend, fellow contributor at AmmoLand News, and author of the Good Gun Bad Guy book series Dan Wos, often talks about optics and language. One big takeaway I received from him many years ago, is that so-called “gun rights” are civil liberties/rights. So-called “gun control” laws are in fact anti-civil liberty laws. This is an important concept to understand because when the talking heads bring up “civil rights”, they often outright ignore the Second Amendment. It seems this includes Attorney General Garland, the Supreme Court reject and Biden-Harris flunkey.

Recently Garland delivered remarks about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) new strategic plan going forward.

“The Justice Department was founded exactly 152 years ago, on July 1, 1870. Today, the Department’s urgent mission continues: to uphold the rule of law; to keep our country safe from all threats, foreign and domestic; and to protect civil rights.

“The Strategic Plan we are issuing today reflects that charge. It organizes the Justice Department’s important responsibilities into five areas of focus that will guide our work in the years to come.”

Garland and his ilk loves to bring up that the DOJ was founded to protect civil rights. Let’s take a look at what areas of focus are being zeroed in on to bring equality or make stuff equitable, whatever it is we’re dealing with in 2022 to say “level playing field” (even though equitable is not, and equality is considered a pejorative).

“Our first area of focus is upholding the rule of law, which is the foundation of our democracy. To that end, we will continue to work to uphold the norms and principles that are essential to the fair application of our laws and to the Justice Department’s independence and integrity.

“Our second area of focus is keeping our country safe. The Justice Department will continue to counter both foreign-based and domestic-based threats that endanger our safety and our democracy. These include the threats posed by nation-states, terrorist groups, cyber criminals, and others who seek to undermine our democratic and economic institutions, as well as the threats posed by violent crime, drug-trafficking organizations, and those who target vulnerable populations.

“Our third area of focus is protecting civil rights. We will continue to use every resource at our disposal to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement, including by defending voting rights, deterring and prosecuting hate crimes, advancing environmental justice, and expanding access to justice.

“Our fourth area of focus is ensuring economic opportunity and fairness for all. The Department will continue to strengthen its antitrust and consumer protection efforts; combat fraud, waste, and abuse; and investigate and prosecute corporate crime and the individuals responsible.

“Our final area of focus is administering just court and correctional systems. The Justice Department will continue to work to ensure that our nation’s immigration court system is fairly administered, and that our federal prisons and detention centers are safe, transparent, and effectively managed.”

Those civil rights that Garland mentioned “defending voting rights, deterring and prosecuting hate crimes, advancing environmental justice, and expanding access to justice.” are ripe to be explored. Okay, voting rights and hate crimes are real issues. Giving more access to so-called justice, also a real issue, but I’m sure Garland has a different view on what that means than we do. “Advancing environmental justice” is just another progressive mind game to push environmental terrorism upon the population, and thus control everyone through “green” initiatives and mandates. Digression, thank God the EPA got a spanking from SCOTUS. That may save the Republic in more than one way going forward. I’m talking about you ATF, as well as others.

Looking at the plan for focus 3 on civil rights specifically, we find somewhat parroted sentiments to Garland’s remarks.

STRATEGIC GOAL 3: PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS

The Justice Department was founded during Reconstruction to protect the civil rights promised by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.  This work required confronting the racist conduct of the Ku Klux Klan and others who used terror and violence to keep Black Americans from exercising their rights.

Today, more than 150 years after the Department’s founding, far too many Americans still face discrimination.  Among other things, discrimination persists in voting, housing, and the criminal justice system, and historically underserved communities have disproportionately borne the brunt of the harm caused by pandemic, pollution, and climate change.

We honor the Department’s history by committing to a whole-of-Department approach to protecting civil rights and reducing barriers to equal justice and equal enjoyment of the rights, privileges, and immunities established by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

What other rights did Black Americans have infringements placed on? The right to keep and bear arms. And like today, Black Americans, and or those in underserved communities, still have their Second Amendment rights kept out of reach in many instances due to permitting laws, other regulations, and exorbitant fees.

Garland and the DOJ can’t sit back and brag about how great they are to minorities and protecting civil liberties if they refuse to respect all the fundamental rights. Beyond respecting the fundamental rights, the DOJ should be encouraging citizens to exercise said rights.

Nowhere ever have I seen the DOJ or Garland proclaim that any person, marginalized or not, take up arms should they ever need them in the event of a self-defense situation. If Garland, the DOJ, the Biden-Harris Administration, et.al. really cared about the protection of these communities and said persons’ civil rights, don’t you think they’d also encourage them to pick up the slack where our police and justice system cannot provide the same?

It was just back in May that I pointed out the same hypocrisy coming from Garland:

Pulling a page out of history, let’s look at that Department of Justice and what they were up to from the time of its founding. Two years after the official formation of the DOJ, an April 19, 1872 letter addressed to the House of Representatives noted within Messages and Papers of the Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Grant addressed some issues that his then Attorney General and others communicated to him:

EXECUTIVE MANSION , April 19 , 1872. To the House of Representatives : …

Most, if not all, of this information, except what I derived from the Attorney – General, came to me orally, and was to the effect that said counties were under the sway of powerful combinations, properly known as “Kuklux Klans,” the objects of which were by force and terror to prevent all political action not in accord with the views of the members; to deprive colored citizens of the right to bear arms and of the right to a free ballot; to suppress schools in which colored children were taught, and to reduce the colored people to a condition closely akin to that of slavery; that these combinations were organized and armed, and had rendered the local laws ineffectual to protect the classes whom they desired to oppress; that they had perpetrated many murders and hundreds of crimes of minor degree, all of which were unpunished; and that witnesses could not safely testify against them unless the more active members were placed under restraint.

Garland, Biden-Harris, the DOJ, and the rest of the anti-freedom caucus members are silent on the deprivation of the right to bear arms. Garland’s July 1st release comes a week and a day after the Supreme Court had to lay down, yet again, the law of the land and make clear that the Second Amendment…

…is not “a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.”

But why should we split hairs over this fact that’s been stated more than once for the digestion of governmental officials? Well, maybe because they talk a big game but really do fail to deliver on their word salad. Garland can get back to us about civil rights when his DOJ looks into all the gross infringements of the Second Amendment in this country, including the topic of executive overreach. This especially needs to be brought up in light of recent events. That EPA ruling is looking better and better by the day! Until then it’s best that Garland stays in his swamp as the Biden-Harris flunkey he is, where he’s thankfully not a Supreme Court Justice.

Christina Pushaw & Mollie Hemingway shred ‘disgusting and evil propaganda’ from WaPo editorial board

There are many people who have been waiting for a reckoning for public officials, politicians and others who destroyed lives, harmed students and wrecked the economy all in the name of “safety” during the pandemic. If MSM outlets such as the Washington Post have their way, the truth of what really happened, why it happened, and who was horribly wrong and misguided will never be told. Christina Pushaw spotted the WaPo still going out of its way to flog those they consider Covid heretics:

The corporate media will have the backs of Fauci and Dems (mostly) no matter what facts come to light in the wake of the pandemic and the disastrous responses:

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Chemical Shortages Affecting U.S. Farms Described as ‘Off the Charts”.

A disturbing report by Reuters, featuring interviews with more than a dozen chemical dealers, manufacturers, farmers, and weed specialists, indicates chemical shortages have disrupted U.S. growers’ production strategies and points to reduced harvests this season.

The level of shortages of farm-essential chemicals (e.g., fertilizer, weed-killer) is being described as “off the charts.”

Shawn Inman, owner of distributor Spinner Ag Incorporated in Zionsville, Indiana, said supplies are the tightest in his 24-year career.

“This is off the charts,” Inman said. “Everything was delayed, delayed, delayed.”

Shortages further reduce options for farmers battling weeds that developed resistance to glyphosate, the key ingredient in the commonly used Roundup herbicide, after decades of overuse in the United Sates.

Another farmer shares his experiences, demonstrating the level of science and forethought in planting fields. It also highlights another component of challenges to farms, which will end up contributing to inflation (and potential food scarcity): EPA over-regulation.

Tennessee farmer Jason Birdsong said he abandoned plans to plant soybeans on 100 acres after waiting months to receive Liberty he ordered from Nutrien Ag Solutions. He ultimately received less than half his order for 125 gallons and planted corn on the land instead. Birdsong said he is better able to control weeds in corn than soybeans.

Nutrien (NTR.TO) said numerous events stalled the supply chain during the pandemic and the company provided alternate solutions to customers.

Birdsong said he needed Liberty to fight weeds that are resistant to glyphosate in soy fields. He said he ruled out a third option, a dicamba-based herbicide from Bayer, because of extensive federal restrictions on when and where dicamba can be sprayed.

“With the dicamba technology being so strict, Liberty is the go-to,” Birdsong said.

The Environmental Protection Agency approved new restrictions on dicamba use this year in Iowa and Minnesota, two major farm states.

On the other hand, the US government has approved half a billion dollars for wheat farmers to help with grain shortages that have resulted from Russia’s attack on Ukraine. However, this expenditure may not mitigate all the challenges currently being faced.

Kansas wheat farmer Clay Schemm, who also serves as the President of the Wallace County Farm Bureau, joined “Morning in America” to discuss the obstacles farmers are working to overcome.

“Predominantly in our state, especially in the southwest areas, we’ve had extremely hot and dry temperatures. And with the wind just coming through and really increasing the loss of moisture, we’ve been seeing a lot of struggle to get the yield production that we would see on a typical year,” Schemm said.

A heat dome over the country has sent temperatures skyrocketing, drying out farmland and making it harder for farmers to produce crops.

“But trying to keep up with it when the yields aren’t there just makes for a struggle. I know farmers are doing their best to respond to this food shortage, but with the lifecycle of wheat, it’s hard for a lot of people to respond, and turnaround on a dime and change up those cropping practices,” Schemm said.

If American farmers are hurting, then the rest of the world will follow. The situation is so concerning that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world faces a “catastrophe” because of the growing food shortage across the globe.

“There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022,” he said in a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin. “And 2023 could be even worse.”

Guterres noted that harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will take a hit as farmers around the world struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices.

“This year´s food access issues could become next year´s global food shortage,” he said. “No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe.”

Hopefully, valuable lessons about shortening supply chains and strengthening domestic production will be learned and implemented before real food scarcity slams us.

Second Amendment Foundation’s Special Report Prompts Congressional Inquiry

Twenty-five Republican Congressmen – including every Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee – sent a letter Wednesday to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Gary Restaino, demanding an explanation for “the Department’s broad and unprecedented effort to revoke Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs) from law-abiding business owners throughout the country.”

Led by Rep. Andy Biggs, (R-AZ), the Congressmen are seeking answers to issues first revealed in a Special Report by the Second Amendment Foundation, titled: “ATF Federal Firearm License revocations up a staggering 500%.”

The Special Report revealed that in the years before the Biden-Harris administration took over the White House, the ATF usually revoked an average of 40 Federal Firearm Licenses per year. But, in the 18 months since Joe Biden declared war on “rogue gun dealers,” the ATF has revoked 273 FFLs. Rather than targeting the true law breakers, Biden’s ATF is revoking FFLs for the most minor of paperwork errors, which were never a concern until Biden weaponized the agency.

“The Biden Administration’s radical anti-gun agenda is infiltrating the ATF and law-abiding business owners are having their businesses destroyed,” Congressman Biggs said in a press release. “Under this Administration, the number of FFL revocation proceedings initiated by ATF has skyrocketed and are often based on minor infractions.”

In the letter, Biggs and the other lawmakers said the ATF is launching revocation proceedings based solely on past ATF inspections, up to 18 months earlier, even after the agency decided the inspection did not merit revocation.

“This pattern is deeply troubling and makes it abundantly clear that this Administration seeks to advance its anti-firearm agenda at any cost,” Biggs said.

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