The D.C. swamp creatures have launched their newest offensive.
Let’s call it the "Spring Campaign of 2023" under the guise of sweeping legislation that would diminish the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights of citizens.
The RESTRICT Act, or as I prefer to call it, "The End of America Act," if passed will give the federal government sweeping authority over "information and communications technology" (ICT).
Allow me to translate in We the People language.
Words simply cannot be minced.
The RESTRICT Act would give incredible power to the secretary of commerce to broadly identify threats with the authority to prohibit or mitigate IT-based threats.
This includes limiting access to ICT applications. This bans a lot more than Tik Tok.
This is Homeland Security 2.0 with more power.
Are you scared? If you aren't, you should be.
The political class wants to criminalize the use of VPNs.
Virtual Private Networks — yes, the ones you use when traveling so cyber criminals can’t have access to your personal and private information.
Over the years we have become accustomed to the growth industry called government, enlarging itself at our expense, with each side attacking the other using media, lawsuits, lobbyists, and donors as weapons.
Of course, these disgust We the People.
We look away, hoping the troglodytes leave us alone.
Fat chance.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who never saw an expansion of government he didn’t like, is making a career move.
He is the chief architect of Senate Bill S.686, The RESTRICT Act.
And if you think the "Uni-party" is populist lore, think again.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced the bill with him.
In fact, there are 25 "Red and Blue" senators conspiring against your freedoms under the proclamation that Tik Tok is the moral evil of the day.
On its retail surface, this bipartisan initiative is the "Someone-do-Something-About-TikTok Bill."
Go back to sleep America, nothing to see here. That is, unless you like your rights and your liberty.
Attention Sens. Thune and Warner!
If you don’t like Tik Tok then don’t use it.
That's how freedom works.
If a pimple-faced tween from Nebraska wants to show his latest dance moves then great —again, freedom in action (literally).
What’s in the fine print you ask? (Or at least should be asking).
The unelected technocrats in the federal government will have unfettered access to your:
- Computer
- Phones
- Security Cameras
- Digital histories
- Payment applications
The RESTRICT Act would:
- Make Virtual Private Network (VPN) software illegal, (20 years prison, $1 million in fines)
- Not allow Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) access for citizens.
- Grant the President new power to take actions regarding "undue or unacceptable risk" posed by information and communications technology (the ICT part of RESTRICT).
No warrants required.
No due process.
No transparency.
No challenge possible in court.
New, never-to-be-undone sweeping executive power.
First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments be damned.
One tech journalist from Hot Hardware proclaimed in his headline, "The Proposed RESTRICT Act Could End the Internet and Freedom As We Know It."
No dramatization here. No hyperbole. This is a fact.
Alert leaders like former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, are dubbing this bill "The Patriot Act 2.0."
This implies an incremental loss of our rights and freedoms. With great respect to Tulsi, this writer would suggest that the attack on our liberty is exponential, not incremental.
Boiling frogs well in the pot. Can they get out?!
A new foundation for the surveillance state vaporizes your right to privacy and due process. Citizens will be at the mercy of faceless, cold beltway apparatchiks who have allegiance to the state and a paycheck, first and foremost.
You are free to hire a lawyer and bankrupt yourself trying to fight bureaucrat #217307 at cubicle #423.
Good luck. You'll need plenty of that, and fortitude.
For decades our liberty has been under attack:
- A little regulation here.
- A small law over there.
- Another tax to "encourage" proper behavior.
Terrorism, banking crises, pandemics, wars, mostly peaceful protests, climate change and now China espionage.
There is always a good reason to politicize popular fears that our elected elite, as well as cubicle dwellers have citizens best interests at heart.
The red vs. blue divide is slowly being boiled away. Our nation is at the intersection of freedom versus tyranny.
Do your homework fellow citizens. Google "Smart Cities" or “15-minute Cities" and you will instantly understand why all those surveillance cameras are going up in a town near you.
The heat of Marxism is being turned up by the ruling class.
This writer implores you to reach out to your senators today and demand they support the Constitution and publicly reject Senate Bill 686.
Here is the link to the United States Senate.
Ask them to go on record and make a public statement.
Our rights do not come from the state, they come from our Creator.
Just like Obamacare or the vaccine policy for Congress, Warner and Thune will never have to comply with this law.
This is our country — and if we love our liberties then we had better get engaged and start acting like it: the day before yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt (retired) is a co-founder of Restore Liberty, a former deputy representative to NATO, a lifetime member on the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Newsmax contributor. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent the views of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, or its components. Read Gen. Holt's reports — More Here.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.