Some of those federal agencies are real head scratchers for having been combined into DHS.
The Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) in Suffolk County, NY, is a high-security research facility that studies and develops defenses against foreign animal diseases. It also sometimes is used for animal quarantine, although that’s mostly Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, also on the list and both formerly USDA. Plum Island also once stored some really nasty stuff like anthrax and one of two depositories of small pox. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is mostly made up of veterinarians and has locations around the country dealing with outbreaks such as avian and swine flu domestically. They also work with customs on the illegal plant and animal trade.
That’s really interesting. Thanks for that. Yes, some odd choices there. Back then, nobody cared. Everyone was still freaked out over 9/11, which also begat the Patriot Act, another wonderful legacy from that era. Much of the Patriot Act, I am pretty sure, still remains in various pieces absorbed into other laws after it expired. That might be worth taking a deep dive into sometime.
“personal and biometric data on over 270 million people, including 6.7 million iris scans and 1.1 billion face images.”
I’m anticipating the whole government database system tie-in.
I’ve read interviews of peaceful protesters being phone photographed up close by ICE personnel and when asked why they are being photographed the response given is “We have a nice little database. You’re now a domestic terrorist.”
Go through airport security - they can quick check a database or enter you into it. Apply for or renew a passport - they can quick check a database or enter you into it. Coming back into the country from a foreign country - they can quick check a database or enter you into it. Applying for a job with a company with a federal contract - they can quick check a database or enter you into it.
Big Brother is watching, collecting, combining data, acting. Airport security - maybe you’ll miss that flight when taken to a room for further questioning. Passport - no way buddy. Returning from your dream tropical vacation - we have a nice cage waiting for you in the middle of nowhere Texas. Want that job - lol.
A decade or two ago California tried to combine all of its state vendor databases for contracts and payments. Similar with EDD unemployment payments, DMV and Superior Courts. Years latter a complete mess and nothing worked. Similar debacles at city and county levels. Who would have ever guessed an entity as huge and mostly incompetent as the federal government would get it straight.
I blame Obama. I know, old joke, but in this case, his was the first administration to develop a relationship with Palantir, which has always been a dangerous organization. It would take a deeper dive to find out the motives and purposes behind that.
Palantar might have been the “right” (that’s a descriptor not a compliment) company with the “right” product at the right time when no one else had anything remotely like it. The problem with some of Obama’s policies and decisions was some of the people working underneath him pushing for certain ideas and things. Remember “clean coal”?
How do you know all this? It is so impressive. And how to make use of this treasure? Some decent smarts are getting written now, and I just left this for @Ava DuVernay, another one who is delivering good stuff.
It's not so much what I know, but what I learn when my brain is exposed to a nugget of interesting information. I take a deep dive. My curiosity drives me to burrow into a topic. Not all topics. Not all the time. Just whatever my mind chooses for that moment or for that day. This is reflected in the 20 or so footnotes on this one. I guess it would be fair to say that I have a good general idea of what's going on for a topic like this, since I've been following it for some time now, but overall, it's always a learning experience for me.
I like to make my sources available to others through the footnotes so they can make their own objective analysis about what I'm writing. There's still much more that I don't know than I do know. That's a challenge for all of us who write a lot. We have to be willing to make mistakes, not get tormented when people correct us, and hope that as a community, we find our way to an answer to this mess.
Wow, the 'Trump regime' framing is so spot-on. Will mainstream media ever catch up to that accurasy? Brilliant.
Some of those federal agencies are real head scratchers for having been combined into DHS.
The Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) in Suffolk County, NY, is a high-security research facility that studies and develops defenses against foreign animal diseases. It also sometimes is used for animal quarantine, although that’s mostly Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, also on the list and both formerly USDA. Plum Island also once stored some really nasty stuff like anthrax and one of two depositories of small pox. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is mostly made up of veterinarians and has locations around the country dealing with outbreaks such as avian and swine flu domestically. They also work with customs on the illegal plant and animal trade.
That’s really interesting. Thanks for that. Yes, some odd choices there. Back then, nobody cared. Everyone was still freaked out over 9/11, which also begat the Patriot Act, another wonderful legacy from that era. Much of the Patriot Act, I am pretty sure, still remains in various pieces absorbed into other laws after it expired. That might be worth taking a deep dive into sometime.
A lot of the APHIS veterinarians left when tRump 2.0 came in. The veterinarians put science over ideology.
“personal and biometric data on over 270 million people, including 6.7 million iris scans and 1.1 billion face images.”
I’m anticipating the whole government database system tie-in.
I’ve read interviews of peaceful protesters being phone photographed up close by ICE personnel and when asked why they are being photographed the response given is “We have a nice little database. You’re now a domestic terrorist.”
Go through airport security - they can quick check a database or enter you into it. Apply for or renew a passport - they can quick check a database or enter you into it. Coming back into the country from a foreign country - they can quick check a database or enter you into it. Applying for a job with a company with a federal contract - they can quick check a database or enter you into it.
Big Brother is watching, collecting, combining data, acting. Airport security - maybe you’ll miss that flight when taken to a room for further questioning. Passport - no way buddy. Returning from your dream tropical vacation - we have a nice cage waiting for you in the middle of nowhere Texas. Want that job - lol.
A decade or two ago California tried to combine all of its state vendor databases for contracts and payments. Similar with EDD unemployment payments, DMV and Superior Courts. Years latter a complete mess and nothing worked. Similar debacles at city and county levels. Who would have ever guessed an entity as huge and mostly incompetent as the federal government would get it straight.
I blame Obama. I know, old joke, but in this case, his was the first administration to develop a relationship with Palantir, which has always been a dangerous organization. It would take a deeper dive to find out the motives and purposes behind that.
Palantar might have been the “right” (that’s a descriptor not a compliment) company with the “right” product at the right time when no one else had anything remotely like it. The problem with some of Obama’s policies and decisions was some of the people working underneath him pushing for certain ideas and things. Remember “clean coal”?
How do you know all this? It is so impressive. And how to make use of this treasure? Some decent smarts are getting written now, and I just left this for @Ava DuVernay, another one who is delivering good stuff.
"Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour,
Rains from the sky a meteoric shower
Of facts...they lie unquestioned, uncombined.
Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
Is daily spun, but there exists no loom
To weave it into fabric..."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay-
This, of hers, is worth a read: https://avaduvernay.substack.com/p/the-narrative-war/
I wonder if perhaps the good writers here would read each other to make for some high-level exchanging????
Thank you.
It's not so much what I know, but what I learn when my brain is exposed to a nugget of interesting information. I take a deep dive. My curiosity drives me to burrow into a topic. Not all topics. Not all the time. Just whatever my mind chooses for that moment or for that day. This is reflected in the 20 or so footnotes on this one. I guess it would be fair to say that I have a good general idea of what's going on for a topic like this, since I've been following it for some time now, but overall, it's always a learning experience for me.
I like to make my sources available to others through the footnotes so they can make their own objective analysis about what I'm writing. There's still much more that I don't know than I do know. That's a challenge for all of us who write a lot. We have to be willing to make mistakes, not get tormented when people correct us, and hope that as a community, we find our way to an answer to this mess.