90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, July 18, 2021

WAIT, WHAT? CAPITOL POLICE NOW OBTAINING MILITARY-GRADE SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT TO SPY ON AMERICAN CITIZENS

You may remember earlier this month when Nancy Pelosi announced that she was authorizing the Capitol Police to establish field offices in Florida and California.

'The USCP has enhanced our staffing within our Dignitary Protection Division as well as coordinated for enhanced security for Members of Congress outside of the National Capitol Region,' Pittman's statement said. 'The Department is also in the process of opening Regional Field Offices in California and Florida with additional regions in the near future to investigate threats to Members of Congress.'

'The USCP has enhanced our staffing within our Dignitary Protection Division as well as coordinated for enhanced security for Members of Congress outside of the National Capitol Region,' Acting USCP Chief Yogananda Pittman said in a statement at the time. 'The Department is also in the process of opening Regional Field Offices in California and Florida with additional regions in the near future to investigate threats to Members of Congress.'

Trending Politics outlines the problem with this branch office concept:

The issue with the Capitol Police opening branches around the United States is that the agency is exempt from normal mechanisms of public accountability. It essentially acts as the U.S. Congress's staff of bodyguards. A June 2020 article in Roll Call about the Capitol Police's 'secrecy' is relevant.

'Democrats and Republicans in Congress have called for an overhaul of law enforcement practices following the police killing of George Floyd, but those same lawmakers who want accountability and transparency nationwide aren't taking a stance on whether their own department, the Capitol Police, should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act,' the report said. 'As a part of the legislative branch, the department remains exempt from the law.'

'Despite the public outcry for more transparency, none of the lawmakers who serve on committees whose jurisdiction includes the Capitol Police said the force charged with protecting and securing Congress should be subject to the 1966 Freedom of Information Act that requires federal agencies to disclose a large amount of government information to the public,' the report added.

Now, apparently, the agency is being handed military-grade surveillance gear used by our forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Breitbart News:

The United States Capitol Police (USCP) is poised to begin using the same military surveillance systems that American troops used against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, as it moves into a 'new path towards an intelligence based protective agency' after the January 6 Capitol breach.

The USCP released a statement last week that said through a loan from the Department of Defense (DOD), it will have access to 'state-of-the-art campus surveillance technology, which will enhance the ability to detect and monitor threat activity.'

The USCP notes further:

Under this arrangement, the DoD will provide eight Persistent Surveillance Systems Ground – Medium (PSSG-M) units, on a reimbursable basis, for a period of one year. The Army will install the units and will train USCP personnel or authorized contractors to operate the systems. Except for required maintenance of the systems, no DoD personnel will operate the PSSG-M units.

The PSSG-M provides high-definition surveillance video, including night vision. This technology will be integrated with existing USCP camera infrastructure, providing greater high definition surveillance capacity to...

Three fleeing Texas Dems test positive for Covid, GOP state rep suggests ‘gimmick’ to avoid return

Three of the Texas State Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C. last week to prevent the state’s GOP-led legislature from passing a election reform bill have contracted the coronavirus, prompting condemnation and, in one case, disbelief from their critics.

The three were part of the entourage that jumped onto a private jet with no masks on but a case of beer handy last Monday to protest what they falsely claimed was “voter suppression.”

Their stunt attracted widespread criticism from the center and right, not only for their refusal to abide by democratic norms and voters’ wishes (voters had elected Republicans, not them, into a majority), but also for their mask hypocrisy.

Days later, it’s now clear that their critics had a point:

On Friday, one of the the Texas State Democrats tested positive for the coronavirus via a rapid test. The following morning, two additional Democrats tested positive as well via rapid tests. All three were reportedly vaccinated.

“The three who tested positive on the rapid tests will receive a PCR coronavirus test, a more sensitive and accurate COVID-19 test. The positive members will isolate for 10 days before taking a follow-up test,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Meanwhile, there’s reportedly been a sudden change in the entourage’s behavior.

“There was a notable increase in the use of face coverings among lawmakers and Democratic staffers at their Washington hotel Saturday morning. Since members arrived late Monday, masks have been used sparingly as they moved through the lobby and held meetings around the city,” the American-Statesman reported.

Considering how much Democrats lecture everybody else about wearing a mask, critics have been quick to bash the entourage for their “super-spreader” behavior.

Look:

But not every critic believes them. Texas Rep. Briscoe Cain thinks the positive tests are a “gimmick.”

“I say prove it. I think it’s an excuse to avoid coming back. They want a reason to do a 14-day quarantine; they don’t want to come back and do their...

Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), helped edit a radical environmental newsletter that advocated for violent action and sought to further the mission of the extremist group Earth First!, whose members committed acts of ecoterrorism in the 1980s and 1990s.

Stone-Manning testified that she “helped edit” a local Earth First! newsletter called the Wild Rockies Review while she was a graduate student at the University of Montana in Missoula 30 years ago.

Though the editors and contributors of the Wild Rockies Review at that time frequently used pseudonyms or just last names to avoid legal consequences for their writings, multiple issues listed a “Stone” under “Assistance” on their mastheads. Stone-Manning went by “Tracy Stone” before she was married.

One such issue was the “Autumnal Equinox Issue,” labeled Vol. 1, No. 3. Also named under “Assistance” on that issue’s masthead was Stone-Manning’s classmate Bill Haskins, who was one of seven, including Stone-Manning, who were subpoenaed in 1989 over a tree spiking crime.

The Autumnal Equinox Issue included an obscene letter to the editor advocating violent action, and potentially assassination, against government officials. The letter began, “Dear Weeniewanker, What is all this pussyfooting bullshit about sensitive treatment of Forest Service pigdogs who ream our public lands”:

(Wild Rockies Review, Vol. 1, No. 3)

“Rend the entire USFS [U.S. Forest Service] limb from limb and tear out its guts,” it continued. “These swine are evil and must be rubbed out.”

On page 13 of the same issue, an article outlined steps Earth First! followers needed to take to prevent the building of a road in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest, the same forest that was later the target of the 1989 tree spiking crime that Stone-Manning was...