cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/34652626

I recently read New Bill Would Give Marco Rubio “Thought Police” Power to Revoke U.S. Passports and I wanted to read the actual amendment to the Passport Act of 1926 for myself and I thought some others might also.

I have reformatted it for markdown with hyperlinks from law.cornell.edu to laws that the amendment referenced. So that it is easier to read and cross-reference. Let me know if I made any formatting mistakes.

I want to hear everyone's thought on this.

Right now, the bill is still in committe which means that it will either be cancelled (tabled), amended further, or approved (reported). If approved, the bill will be voted on by the House and then the Senate.

Could something like this reclassify dissidents as terrorists? Maybe allow for any and all naturalized citizens to be sent to a concentration camp? Could anyone who sent political aid to the Democrats be considered a terrorist? Like what could the reprecussions be and how far might they go?

H.R. 5300, page 43

SEC. 226. NO PASSPORTS FOR TERRORISTS AND TRAFFICKERS.

The Act entitled "An Act to regulate the issue and validity of passports, and for other purposes’’, approved July 3, 1926 (22 U.S.C. 211a et seq.), commonly known as the "Passport Act of 1926’’, is amended by adding at the end the following:

"SEC. 4. AUTHORITY TO DENY OR REVOKE PASSPORT TO INDIVIDUALS PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM.

• "(a) INELIGIBILITY.—
  • "(1) ISSUANCE.—Subject to subsection (b), the Secretary of State shall refuse to issue a passport to any individual who—
    • "(A) has been charged with or convicted of a violation of section 2339A or 2339B of title 18, United States Code; or
    • "(B) the Secretary determines has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).
  • "(2) REVOCATION.—The Secretary of State shall, except as provided in paragraph (3)(A), revoke a passport previously issued to any individual described in paragraph (1).
  • "(3) EXCEPTIONS.—
    • "(A) RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES.— In order to facilitate the return of an individual described in paragraph (1) to the United States, the Secretary of State may limit a previously issued passport or passport card only for return travel to the United States, or may issue a limited passport or passport card that only permits return travel to the United States, prior to revocation under paragraph (2).
    • "(B) HUMANITARIAN AND EMERGENCY WAIVER.—The Secretary of State may issue a passport to an individual otherwise ineligible for such passport or subject to revocation of such passport under this subsection if the Secretary determines that emergency circumstances or humanitarian needs apply.
• "(b) RIGHT OF REVIEW.—Any individual who, in accordance with this section, is denied issuance of a passport by the Secretary of State, or whose passport is revoked by the Secretary, may request a hearing to appeal such denial or revocation not later than 60 days after receiving notice of such denial or revocation.
• "(c) RIGHT OF RESTORATION.—In the event that an individual described in paragraph (1) demonstrates during a hearing described in subsection (b) that the individual has been acquitted of an act described in that paragraph, or the Secretary otherwise changes a determination described in subparagraph (B) of such paragraph, the Secretary may reissue a passport to such individual.
• "(d) REPORT.—
  • "(1) IN GENERAL.—If the Secretary of State refuses to issue or revokes a passport pursuant to subsection (a), or if, subsequent to a hearing pursuant to subsection (b), the Secretary issues or cancels a revocation of a passport that was the subject of such a hearing, the Secretary shall, not later than 30 days after such refusal or revocation, or such issuance or cancellation, submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report on such refusal, revocation, issuance, or cancellation, as the case may be.
  • "(2) FORM.—The report submitted under paragraph (1) may be submitted in classified or unclassified form.
• "(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section—
  • "(1) the term ‘passport’ includes a passport card; and
  • "(2) the term ‘material support’ means the provision of any property, tangible or intangible, or service—
    • "(A) including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (one or more individuals who may be or include oneself), and transportation; and
    • "(B) excluding medicine or religious materials.
• "(f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section may be construed—
  • "(1) or applied so as to abridge the exercise of rights guaranteed under the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States; or
  • "(2) to limit the Secretary’s ability to revoke a passport.
• "(g) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this section or the application of such provision is held by a Federal court to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this section and the application of such provisions to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected.’’.

Like, I probably sound paranoid af. But I've read news about apparant "illegal CCP 'Police Stations'" operating out of NYC (and variojs places) and um... I'm Chinese-American, and I was born in mainland China, especially under current administration, I personally feel like its a very bad time to be like... flying a drone.

See, because drones are made in China, there's basically a fear of "spying" from these drones throughout the country, and DJI is already on the path of being banned, and I've seen videos of karens harassing a Youtuber, even when they are white, so I can't imagine the shit I have to face if I cross paths with a karen. I feel like they would straight up call the FBI and accuse me of "being a spy".

Same with radios. I've heard of the story where someone visited India with a radio (because they were gonna do hiking or something and there were no signal), then they got arrested and held for a few hours and investigated for being a "terrorist", so that kinda gets worrying because this fear of "terrorism" is also prevalent in the US. Someone is gonna see that radio is gonna think "this guy must be a terrorist" or "is that [the radio with antenna sticking out] a bomb?" I mean, I heard about some woman on a plane called airport security on a guys doing... algebra, like just imagine in a crowded area with a "weird device that 'looks like a bomb'".

Kinda feels anxiety-inducing to be playing around with these gadgets, don't you think? Am I worrying too much?

I hope everyone is taking appropriate steps to self-care!? As the image shows, drink some boba, or read a good book, watch a good TV program or play a game, enjoy your life as much as you can. The world can burn some other week, but this week was not that one! 😊

Good? Bad? If it was bad, may the knowledge that today is World Cat Day provide you some cheer

Context, I’m a liberal, who’s voted Democratic every election I’ve been able to.

I’ve constantly see you guys complain and bash Democratic politicians pretty much since the rise of populism with Sanders in 2016.

I just want to know if populism is so great and Democrats are out of touch, and if you ran on just economic populism, and ignore social issues (which the right won’t), you’d easily win every election right? So by that logic, gaining massive support from all sides of the political spectrum should be easy right? Everyone says it’s all about messaging and vibes. And the Dems are failing at both, so wouldn’t right now be the best time to seriously back a fully populist leftist party? If a majority of the country polls high for Medicare for All, by proxy, they should vote for the candidates promising that, and they don’t talk about social issues that might scare off right wingers willing to vote for them.

I just don’t understand the mindset of constantly infighting with us liberals and protest voting hurting our causes. Just start your own party and beat us within YOUR system. We’ll never fully drop social issues, so we’ll never win a fair amount of conservatives, but you guys can.

Hopefully it's going well. If not, hopefully you can accept the love of Cookie Monster into your heart.

Trump's administration is, of course, trying to speedrun Idiocracy. I think too many people won't care until their daily life is impacted though. When they go to the store and they're out of beans, or can't get a new gas guzzling truck because the price doubled. What ICE is doing is terrible, but concentration camps are someone else's problem, somewhere far away, if you don't want to care about them.

I'm wondering where we are on that track. When you want to do something you've always done, but you just can't anymore. When even MAGAts can't pretend that things aren't worse.

I can think of one: food.

That's pretty much all I can come up with.

Trump supporters have gone down the path that I and many others believe is irredeemable. I wanted to ask the Americans here what they think will happen to trump supporters in a post trump America. Do you think there will be an offramp for them if so what do they need to do to make amends?

What's one US food invention you wouldn't want to live without? Hot dogs? Hamburgers? Something less basic?

Hi, I'm from Germany and here people can drink unlimited amounts of beer and wine in public at 16 years old and at 18 you're allowed to also drink every other strong alcoholic beverage publicly such as Vodka.

I was reading online that in the US it's not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages in public even if you're over 21 and even if it's something mild like beer. If I understood it correctly you're not even allowed to be drunk in public? I was wondering if this is actually true and why that is the case.

And I wonder how strictly this is enforced. I assume it probably varies strongly between places so maybe you could give an example for where you are from or experiences from other places.

Like even if it's technically illegal do people still drink a nice cold beer in the summer without getting in trouble? Because it's hard for me to imagine that anyone would say something when someone simply enjoys a nice cold beer during the hot summer in a park or something.

And could you even be arrested when just enjoying the summer day by drinking beer? Cause that had to be the worst vibe killing situation that would make me paranoid of ever drinking in public.

Are you prepared for the communist revolution that we're apparently having in NYC?

It would be nice if tipping was just gone, and everybody got paid a living wage, like in most of the rest of the world. We're in a Nash equilibrium right now where if you don't tip, you're an asshole. Other people might even tip more if they hear about it, which reinforces the status quo. So I keep tipping well, and disliking that we're stuck here.

How can we end tipping culture and just have everyone be paid a living wage?

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-pay-5-million-settle-lawsuit-ashli/story?id=121959389

Maybe:

• police officers who defended the Capitol
• Congresspeople, staffers etc hiding for their lives inside
• anyone who voted in the 2020 presidential election whose vote Babbit was trying to overturn

Weekly thread for talking about how your week was in the US! If that doesn't interest you, what's something you learned this week?

$15? $25? $0 because the children yearn for the mines?

How has your week been in the US, and/or how has your spring been?

Weekly thread! How was your week in the US? Answer however you'd like, or talk about the most interesting thing you saw this week.

I saw a duck with a bum leg. Seemed to be doing alright overall, hopefully it got better, poor duck.

I hope this question is not too weird (if so just tell me and I'll delete it).

As a 21 year old guy from Germany I always admired Americans. What particularly impressed me was their social skills, their outgoing/confident nature and humor.

I don't know if it's also connected with being a German but I'm generally a very shy and introverted person. I have very strong social anxiety and just when someone in public or a neighbor sees me, it creates this overwhelming anxiety because I'm so scared that I will embarrass myself and be awkward because I have very bad self esteem and don't know what to say and how to act. So most of the time I end up saying nothing and hiding myself which is very awkward or I say the bare minimum like to the grocery store cashier like only "Hello" and "Thanks, bye". I have this extreme amount of shame that's blocking me.

Germans might often generally be introverted or awkward but I'm on a whole different level.

Then Americans seem like this stark contrast which feels like the exact opposite. It feels like Americans are on a different level of confidence and extroversion than any country I know.

That makes it almost impossible for me to interact with an American as it creates this immense pressure on me (also cause English isn't my native language).

Even on a daily basis the way they're having small talks in grocery stores or talk to strangers that they're walking by seems impossible for me. And I'm afraid that if I ever would go to the US and people talk to me that I would be extremely awkward and don't say anything and wouldn't be able to smile. And I'm afraid that this might come over as rude and they think bad of me.

I really would wanna interact with an American in person cause it seems like it could be so enriching but right now that seems impossible.

I was wondering if there is anything particular that makes Americans so good at that or if they have any secret. Or maybe they're just on a different level cause they're from the best country in the world and are the best/most capable people in the world.

Cause it's my ultimate dream to be on that same level and interact with people like Americans.

Maybe it's impossible for me to get to anything near that and I will simply never be good enough.

There was talk of this Mayday sit in at the DC Mall, but for people outside the states it seems like everyone capitulated. I understand corporate media would not want to report on it, but is there anything happening on the ground where you live?