Today, we talk about the pending “RESTRICT Act.”
But, before that, a few corrections to recent posts:
First:
I was wrong to say that EVERY Israeli secular/left-oriented party that existed in 2001, no longer exists. After publishing, I was surprised to learn, the Labor (Avodah) party—which, as itself or its Mapai predecessor, ran Israel for the first 29 years, and is likely still the nation’s second largest party, by membership—still has FOUR seats (out of 120!!!) in parliament. Until I was corrected by my Israeli relative, I did not realize this party still existed, LOL. However, other 2001-era parties on this spectrum, have either lost all seats in parliament (e.g., Meretz), or have disestablished completely (e.g., Shinui, which at one time in the 2000’s was a tier-two party, about 14 seats.)
Second:
I was wrong to say the Ukraine needs $7 billion in monthly funding assistance. I now know the baseline “outside” funding need to be $5 billion monthly, given the shortfall between current revenue (I didn’t know the figure until yesterday) and the 2023 central budget (plus, regional spending which I’ve baselined from 2021.) HOWEVER, the budget LIKELY does not include spending such as hazard pay for frontline soldiers, as well as on refugee grants and housing. These additional items COULD add about another $1 billion to the total outside funding need. So, we know that foreign direct financing of the Ukraine MUST be AT LEAST $5 billion monthly, and POSSIBLY about $6 billion. In this context, it is CLEAR that the International Monetary Fund’s first, roughly $4 billion installment of a four-year, $15.6 billion fiscal assistance loan package MUST be disbursed, in one lump sum, IMMINENTLY, if it hasn’t been already. (I’m guessing it’s already been, without fanfare.) This money will be (or was) spent by the Ukraine IMMEDIATELY. As I wrote before, it’s CLEAR that this $4 billion from the IMF (basically, the USA under a fig leaf) is a means to fund the Ukraine’s budget WITHOUT Congressional authorization. But, what will they do in a few weeks, in a month? Ukraine needs money constantly, LOL. Obviously, they’re just delaying things, hoping Tucker Carlson finds something else to talk about!
(ALSO, I’ve learned that the World Bank—like the IMF, headquartered in Washington, DC, and basically a proxy of the U.S. Government—also provided the Ukraine with $500 million in direct budgetary support (“to pay civil service salaries”, etc., LOL) in December. Uncle Sam is pulling out ALL the stops, to delay another Congressional funding package. But, they can’t delay it for long!)
(ALSO, I would not be surprised to learn that the Pentagon or even CIA are helping pay the Ukraine’s budget out of their “black box” or (in the CIA’s case) “off the books” funds. This is not too speculative. U.S. House Republican leadership is DESPERATE to do everything possible to put off the next Congressional funding round. And, it is HIGHLY suspicious, how the Ukraine money angle has fallen out of the news in recent months. You know our State Media won’t look into or mention anything the War Machine / Foreign Clusterfuck Complex doesn’t want in the public eye. As I’ve written, in early February, the Washington Post mentioned a pending new $10 billion budget assistance package for the Ukraine… and never followed up, literally no news on that for over six weeks. Congress evidently decided against it for the time being, but you KNOW the money IS getting and WILL get to the Ukraine SOMEHOW.)
A Message to Establishmentarian Republicans
Or:
Get it through your skulls: The Republican base today, is NOT the Republican base of 2012
We’ll get to the “RESTRICT Act” in a few minutes.
Please listen to the below audio message.
The audio, and below language…..
Were all done BEFORE Trump’s indictment.
They’re even more true, now.
If you don’t want to listen…..
Here’s the short of it:
Any establishment-backed…..
…..GOP prez candidate…..
…..is NOT ELECTABLE in 2024.
Period!
(I’m NOT saying Trump is or isn’t, but he certainly has a better shot.)
Simply…..
Not enough hard-core Trumper Republicans…..
…..will vote for that person.
Yes, many will hold their nose and do it…..
But not nearly enough.
To the Party Establishment:
You don’t have the votes!
I know you’ve gotten used to it….
But, with a candidate “acceptable” to you…..
The “wayward sons and daughters“…..
…..won’t “come home“…..
…..this time.
Not at the usual rate, anyway.
The world has changed.
If YOU haven’t…..
You will LOSE.
Again.
(Please note, in the audio message, by “celebrity”, I mean an overall superstar personality, not necessarily an athlete or actor or Kim Kardashian.)
(Also, please don’t confuse me with a voter, I’m out and done. It’s just fun to watch the GOP shitshow.)
(Also, I should add, if anyone thinks that after getting away with it in 2020, and—in Arizona at least—in 2022, the Dems won’t cheat in 2024, just because (hypothetically) Trump’s NOT on the ballot… Well, anyone who thinks that, needs to get their head out of their ass.)
Digital Protectionism Through A 21st Century Volstead Act
Everything you’ve heard…..
…..about the totalitarian (LOL) “RESTRICT Act“…..
…..is probably wrong.
Fox News‘ Jesse Waters said this bill…..
…..means “open season on your search history.”
LOLOLOLOL.
There’s been open season on your search history for decades, welcome to America!
Anyhow… where’s that in the bill???
It’s not in the bill.
“RESTRICT” is plainly NOT about surveillance.
You have to be DISHONEST…..
…..to find surveillance in those 55 pages.
“RESTRICT” is something else.
In the context of (as reported by the Wall Street Journal)…..
…..the top four apps, by download volume…..
…..in the U.S., today…..
…..being Chinese…..
The “RESTRICT Act” is the first comprehensive U.S. attempt…..
…..at digital protectionism.
It is a crude go…..
…..at establishing a totally arbitrary, dumbed-down…..
…..”micro CFIUS” process…..
To allow Uncle Sam to ban…..
…..any given, successful Chinese…..
…..or other “unfriendly country” app…..
…..(hello Tiktok)…..
…..or other software, cloud service, etc…..
…..from use by any given U.S. entity.
Also, under “RESTRICT“…..
They can even target the sale of Chinese…..
…..(and they’re almost all Chinese)…..
…..commercial DRONES!!!
Also, the legislation allows the President…..
…..to compel DIVESTMENT by foreign companies…..
…..of their U.S. IT-related operations.
(Hello again, TikTok.)
Back to the “ban” part…..
The legislation goes so far…..
…..as to allow the Department of Commerce…..
…..to cancel contracts already signed, or existing subscriptions.
Even, those in effect for years.
If someone ignores a Department of Commerce order…..
…..to stop dealing with a given Chinese software…..
…..they can go to jail for 20 years.
They can also have any relevant accounts and property…..
…..(used in their business)…..
…..seized and auctioned.
As if they’re a drug lord!
Between the sweeping nature of the legislation…..
…..its shocking novelty…..
…..and the “freestanding“…..
…..(i.e. not modifying any existing statute)…..
…..nature of its addition…..
…..(upon passage)…..
…..to the U.S. Code…..
There’s no recent precedent…..
…..for this sort of thing.
It’s a sort of Volstead Act (1919 prohibition of alcohol)…..
…..for Chinese software.
Now, this is a real LOL…..
…..but there’s no provision…..
…..for actually BANNING any software.
They can order the Apple store…..
…..to stop selling X…..
…..but, they’d have to separately tell the Google store…..
…..to stop selling X.
The way it’s written…..
…..(although it could perhaps be “interpreted” otherwise)…..
…..they can’t just come out…..
…..and prohibit, in one go…..
…..EVERYONE from using X.
In other words…..
…..(I know, this is splitting hairs)…..
They can’t “ban” X, per se.
Why not?
I don’t know.
Perhaps it’s to get around (or so they think)…..
…..WTO (free trade) rules.
But, that’s just a guess.
Anyway, of course…..
They can avoid…..
…..all the “don’t sell X” bullshit…..
…..by forcing divestment….
….that is, the sale of X…..
…..(obviously, at a “fire sale” price)…..
…..to a U.S. company.
So, two different hammers in the toolbox.
Now, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson…..
…..brought up free speech.
He said this bill allows the Government…..
…..to “regulate speech on the Internet.”
Well, just reading the bill…..
…..that seems false on its face.
However, Carlson is a smart guy.
I had to think about this for a minute.
Imagine if Telegram…..
…..(hands down, the world’s best all-around social media app for adults, and used as a backup, “in case I’m banned” medium by thousands of American, British, etc. tweeters and bloggers)…..
…..was still, today, a Russian company…..
…..instead of having been chased out of Russia…..
…..a few years ago.
If that was the case…..
Then, under the RESTRICT Act…..
Uncle Sam could say…..
“We don’t like this app, it’s interfering with democracy, blah blah…..”
…..(they don’t need any other rationale, it’s all subjective)…..
…..and knock it off the app stores.
Scary!
Anyway, that’s for the future.
If passed today…..
What RESTRICT does…..
Is cements the trend towards “nationalization“…..
…..or national segmentation…..
…..of the Internet.
If (probably, when) it passes…..
It’s just another nail in the coffin…..
…..of the “World Wide Web.”
Facebook and Twitter have been banned in China since 2009.
Russia recently banned FaceBook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Viber.
They’d have banned YouTube as well…..
…..but their RUTUBE platform…..
…..isn’t ready to take up the load.
I can already see Chinese apps…..
…..pushing American ones…..
…..out of markets like India, the Arab countries, Africa, etc.
The Chinese learn fast.
10 years ago…..
No one thought they’d be cleaning our clock in software.
As they move into other markets…..
The way things are going…..
It seems to me…..
Those markets will DIVERGE from the U.S.
And…..
Given the way Uncle Sam thinks…..
They will, by default, be seen as HOSTILE.
This is also really bad for U.S. dotcom revenues.
Many of these dotcoms need global scale…..
…..or they’re not viable.
Or at least…..
Their present valuations would not be justified.
With that being said…..
I highly urge you to follow and “like” me on Twitter.
Just scroll down and “like” everything you see.
Also, feel free to give me money.
So that I’m not working for your infotainment, for free.
Thanks!
Read My Comments Policy
The first (and every subsequent) genius…..
…..who tries to leave a comment…..
…..asking me what I think of Iran, depleted uranium…..
…..or whatever else that’s NOT in the given day’s post…..
…..gets permanently banned.
Even if it’s some interesting topic…..
I’m just not taking the bait.
Please read my Comments Policy! It is below.
If you have an idea…..
…..as to what else I should write about…..
Please send me an email.
But keep the comments on-topic.
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COMMENTS POLICY
Comments and any associated weblinks or other references must be directly relevant, tangential, and responsive to specific facts or views within my own published material (not just to other comments), specifically the material above the given comments section that you are adding to. What this means, for example, is if I wrote about dogs and cats in the Ukraine, and only dogs and cats in the Ukraine, please don’t start babbling about life in Lugansk, or the horrible loss of life in general. THIS IS NOT A “DISCUSSION BOARD.” IT IS NOT A DEBATE PLATFORM TO DISCUSS IRRELEVANT HISTORICAL QUESTIONS, OR TO INJECT YOUR OWN PET SUBJECTS / INTERESTS, PHILOSOPHICAL MUSINGS, OR RANDOM RAMBLINGS THAT DON’T DIRECTLY, SUBSTANTIALLY BEAR ON WHAT I WROTE. Please, no disjointed / overcaffeinated rambling, which implies, among other things, no mentioning eight different topics in one comment, like a schizoid aiming to connect all the dots (if your mind is racing, take your Ritalin and calm the fuck down before you comment on this site); no “pet issues” or inquiries that have no direct bearing on what I wrote; no unclear/unexplained, irrelevant, or barely-relevant weblinks; no trying to write your own mini-blog news update digest in my comments; no batteries of questions like what about Donetsk and what about Kiev and what about the Big Offensive and how does this all end and where does blah blah blah (I will NOT respond to you, I will BLOCK you); no asking me what I think of some commentator whom I’ve never heard of; no Nazis; no Nazis pretending to be Jewish like “I’m a bar mitzvah boy, but I’m so ashamed of my people who are not the real Jews of Jesus’ time“; no “crypto” Jew-hating (when I have to read it three times before I’m sure it’s about Jews, then I permanently block your wise ass); no dogmatic Marxists; no using anti-Ukraine jargon or other “Nadsat” bullshit-speak that you picked up from The Saker, which no one outside of you and your freaky virtual friends can understand (e.g., Ukrops, 404, the vimiratis); no calling for the destruction or dissolution of the USA or its government; no calling for the destruction of Washington, DC; no calling for violence against current or former elected or appointed officials of the U.S. Government; no nonconstructive or hateful ranting about Jews (or Swej, Joos, Jooz, Jooze, Juice, Juize, Jewz, Jewze, J-Dogs, J-Dogz, J-Dawgz, J’s, Chews, Choos, Chooz, Chooze, Zionists, Zio-Nazis, Anglo-American Zionists, Amerizionists, Zionist Occupation Government, ZOG, IsraHell, Bibi SatanYahoo, “those of whom we cannot speak”, “your friends whom we can’t talk about”, “a certain small ethnic group”, the chosen, the tribe, the chosen tribe, the thirteenth tribe, tribe of Judah, the Khazarians, Khazarian mafia, Rothschilds, Khazarian Rothschilds, JewTube, JooTube, JewMerica, JooMerica, etc., etc.); no being nasty to other commenters; no trolling the “sysop”; no passive-aggressive needling of the “sysop” (I don’t acknowledge, I just BLOCK and you’re gone, “one strike” and your ass is out, GO GET SOME THERAPY); no dissing or ragging on the Insane Clown Posse, no Chupacabras, no “country music”, no karens or avocado toast, no complaining that your other comment wasn’t published (because you’d didn’t read this Comments Policy), and no claiming “the korona doesn’t exist because vyruses don’t exist.” Please share your ***CONCISE*** (2 smartphone screens of small font text is NOT concise, I don’t have time to read your dumb fucking manifesto, gawd dayyuuum!!!), relevant, coherent, organized thoughts, and come back for my next post. Also, by commenting, you expressly accept and agree to my “one bullet, one Nazi” policy, and please be advised, this includes Nazis everywhere, even in the Ukraine. Furthermore, if you are a LibJew/DemJew, you are BANNED from commenting on this site UNLESS you acknowledge the extensive presence and influence of Nazis and other fascists in the Ukraine, who don’t give a fuck that they have an allegedly “Jewish president”, because they’re still (in many cases) getting paid by the state, and they’ll “take their country back from the Jews” once they take care of the Russians (can’t slit all throats at once.) If you can’t acknowledge it, then get the fuck out with your “Never Again” bullshit. Also, no scrubs. If you don’t know what a “scrub” is, please consult the TLC video on YouTube. Although scrubs exist in ALL ethnic groups and populations, a very good example of scrubs, is all the poor young black men who get shot dead, and then the moms are like, “He had such aspirations, he was going to be a rapper.” Yeah, they were all going to be famous rappers, all the thousands of them! Sure!

Dreizin Report Policy On Rap, Rappers, And Thugs
I don’t know what you’re talking about regarding Telegram being “chased out of Russia.” There are zillions of Russian channels. Let me tell you some of the Russian channels I currently follow on Telegram: Dmitri Medvedev; Maria Zakharova; Intel Slava Z, which is partially funded by President Putin; and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Also,, Izvestia and Рыбарь, which are Russian news services; the activist site РИА Катюша; and the very anti-Putin Edward Slavsquat.
LOL. The COMPANY behind Telegram, famously left Russia after Russia’s communications ministry tried (and failed, due to widespread VPN usage) to shut down the product. Why do you feel the need to speak from ignorance? You can easily look all this up on Wikipedia or wherever.
No Agenda already told me like two weeks ago that the TikTok hearings & the RESTRICT Act were about protecting “our” tech from foreign competition. You’re late, dude, totally falling down on the job! That’s okay, though, you’re still my favorite single-author blog (certainly the one I read the most anyway). I’m not on your favorite list just yet, but I am planning to put my name on it sometime this year since I got such a huge cost of living adjustment on my disability payments this year, lol! (I’m actually not kidding, gonna FINALLY donate to all my favorite infotainment & intel sources this year).
Fook D, you want me to follow you which I did, but fook me, you hardly tweet at all. Get your game going as I have nothing better to do than like you!
Taking your interpretation of the bill which sounds perfectly reasonable then it seems like this could just be a platform for politicians to grandstand against the “commies” and further build on their China threat narrative leading up to the Taiwan war. I don’t know this for sure but it seems like if Tik Tok was a genuine security risk then there would/should be plenty of laws to restrict or boot them out, I mean they literally banned RT and Sputnik over night, just like that, and I heard nothing about the legality of it. Regarding free speech, all the major US tech firms have been fully infiltrated by the intelligence services and the firms themselves are run by hardcore Globohomo activists who can freely de-platform, shadow ban and de-monetise their idealogical adversaries, so yeah banning Tik tok would be like someone flicking your ear after beating the sh*t out out of you for 5 mins.
Social media outlets banned Sputnik & RT, not tbe gov’t. They are still on many alt-tech platforms & you can visit their websites directly without a VPN
I do like the segue into ‘follow and “like” me on Twitter’.
Government can lean social media companies to censor their users with the threat of forcing their apps out of the App Store. Read the twitter files and the government can never be trusted. This law will be abused by the government and used against American citizens.
Regarding your “Government can lean”……
ONLY if those social media apps are from a foreign not-friendly country, as defined in the legislation.
But, what’s the point? It’s much easier to just kick those apps off the U.S. market, entirely. If they’re a problem for any reason, disappear them. Which is obviously what the Feds plan to do.
But hey, believe whatever you want. You know best!
You tell the truth. . . even when the truth hurts and is depressing. The “usa” is done; it has become an East-German-Style-Stasi sword and shield of the Satanist, grifters and sodomites. Forget about 2024. The cake is baked and we are done.
So the US can essentially ban the avenues of distribution for foreing software.
Is this undercutting competition for Silicon Valley? Or “rah rah” against China?
Because if they wanted to target specifically China, and not use it against other countries, they would ignore the constitution or international law, and use sanctions, like with Russia. But if they want to use this on neutral or allied countries (the EU, more specifically) this would seem to make more sense.
You certainly can designate an individual as an enemy.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/4302
“The word “enemy,” as used herein, shall be deemed to mean, for the purposes of such trading and of this chapter—”
And the bill does refer to “persons.”
https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/s686/BILLS-118s686is.pdf
“To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries,
and for other purposes. “
Jesus. “Enemy” is my term. It’s not in the bill. Why don’t you read the fucking bill? Just the first 20 pages, beyond that it’s minor details. You’re so damn lazy. Why troll from ignorance? I gave you a link to the bill, just go read the first 20 pages. You will then see how ridiculous are the claims that an individual American person could be blocked or otherwise somehow designated under this bill.
But they can cut off MY ACCESS, as an individual, to information from non-American sources. And as an individual who doesn’t trust our own Lockstep Media to so much as give me the accurate time of day, that concerns me very much.
The Canadian govt
tried to introduce its Restrict Act version yesterday 03/30. Apparently the ruling Liberal party even shut down Parliamentary debate over it. Opposition put a Tik-Tok video out as practically noone knew this was going on.
Ok, so since I’m an idiot when it comes to tech and don’t really have any apps. Does anyone really need Google/Apple play store? I mean…..all these apps are available directly from the company’s website. Or would that website be banned or otherwise inaccessible as well?
Not that easy. Apple devices are locked down and only way to install apps is the Apple store. Yea, you could jail break the device but that is risky and 95% of users won’t risk it because you can “brick” your device. Android devices is a bit more flexible in that it will allow you to install from non official sources but to do that, you need to setup the device to allow that. The majority of users won’t trust the app to do that. So basically, they can lock out the majority of users and they know it.
Howdy. Re: “Just scroll down and “like” everything you see.
Also, feel free to give me money.
So that I’m not working for your infotainment, for free.”
I swear to God that as soon as I get another job I will resume buying you coffee. You are an informative and entertaining contrarian. I’ve only bought you one coffee so far and then i bailed out cuz i felt guilty, yet here i am, enjoying and benefiting from your infotaining skills.
Keep it up.
I’m pretty sure the republicans are okay with losing.
Ukraine finance intervention.
Just google UAH USD to see what has happened to the Ukrainian currency since last year.
Almost immediately the currency steadied and was a constant 30 to the dollar for 6 months. Then in July there was a devaluation to the current rate of just under 37 to the dollar.
The chart is just a straight line, clearly the FX rate is set by the massive buyer.
So clearly the dollars are going in as currency support. Kiev prints as many UAH as it wants, and thus can buy whatever it wants in other currencies because someone is underwriting the UAH.
Who is underwriting it I wonder? I guess it could just be that that is the route the US is funding Kiev, though it does feel to me like they have persuaded some central banks to get involved too.
What I am absolutely certain of is that all the top Ukrainian oligarchs have gone to the domestic banks and borrowed massive amounts of UAH so that they can short it and hold USD billons abroad. Nice kickbacks all around if they get away with it.
Russian state restricts direct access to linkedin, facebook and twitter. Not to viber and not to whatsapp. Not to signal. There is some discussion on the internets regarding what the ‘RESCTRICT act’ will do to humans hooked on veepee-ann. Looks like the virtual private networks (ok in Ru state) are not in violation of the said act … but some people are saying indirect access could be a problem …
Man our hostile elite is in panic mode! Like a cornered rat, they are dangerous and mean but somehow incompetent to the max. If I weren’t so heavily invested in the money system, I would be full of glee and schadenfreude as they flushed themselves down the cloaca. My investment strategy is basically follow the oligarchs but I’m really second guessing myself now as they seem intent on crashing the system like Samson. I mean, banning tiktok? Arresting Trump for paying off a whore to avoid embarrassing his wife? These are people who have lost all perspective. Let alone judgement and honor and courage- which these scurrying cockroaches never had.
It is in fact as Tucker say “regulate speech on the Internet”, if the gov blocks the door access to the medium that you use to communicate, then is indirectly regulating speech, funny thing you point out, Apple Store and Google Play is not the only way to install apps (is a more difficult for iPhone, but can be done) but is the default way include in phones, so the majority will still unaware of this modifications
1. I have seen news about € funding (Germany/EU) the past 6 weeks, and can’t tell to what extent you’ve integrated eu-imf-wb-us military & civilian funding. IMF broke its own rules with this advance, but has done so in years prior for UA.
2. Election dynamics may still change radically under influence of probabilities for crises in the shifting social and political landscape.
3. Perusal of academic literature on election cheating shows that there is a lot of evidence over decades that elections are full of (statistical) “anomalies”. Prosecutions are not rare, but are obviously only the tip of the iceberg. It is not the election manipulation that is new, but the polarization and public profile that has changed.
The term “hard-core Trumper Republicans” takes on new meaning with the indictment.
You don’t agree with Mises caucus analysis about it being used against domestic threats?
https://mobile.twitter.com/LPMisesCaucus/status/1639934790026555394
This tweeter is a lazy idiot. You can’t designate an individual as an enemy. It has to be a country. And the “threat” would be a given software from an enemy country. Why don’t you just read the bill????? The key part is only the first 20 pages, if that.
Yeah, but couldn’t they designate RT.com as a “software” threat and go after an individual accessing “foreign misinformation”? I haven’t read the bill, but the parts Carlson highlighted sound WAY too open-ended. Maybe I trust the federal government less than you do. I await being called a dipshit…
I’m with you on this Sentient. This is Jacob’s support guy replying. Jacob and I disagree on this. Laws only work for the law abiding. They have shown their colors and desire to control, Constitution be damned. They use any opportunity to spy and “find a crime” when you disagree with them. Any inch will turn into a mile. This will just be used as jumping off point for them to make us less free and further abuse citizens.
Folks,
First:
I think we can all agree that Lindsay Graham is an angry closet-homo. If we see eye-to-eye on that, then we barely disagree on anything at all.
Second:
The Dreizin Report goes on hard facts and objective analysis, not emotions, generalized feelings, and vague convictions based on preexisting biases.
Everyone is free to read the legislation. 100% of the substance, is in its first 20 or so pages, you can skip the rest. The text is in quite large font, it’s not like reading a page in a book. An intelligent person (not a speed reader) can get through those 20 pages in less than 20 minutes.
There’s no grounds, method, process, authority, resources, nor even any NEED, to sanction or otherwise target individual citizens under this bill, unless someone violates a Department of Commerce order (directed at them by name, specifically) to stop selling or hosting a foreign software program or IT service that Uncle Sam doesn’t like.
There is no process or resources in this bill, to spy on you, e.g., to identify if you’re using a Chinese app over VPN. They don’t care about YOU. Unless you’ve received a notice addressed to you personally, your use of that app will NOT be illegal. They’re not even banning the app, per se. Their crackdown is all based on PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE as to who is hosting or selling the software. They will close that market channel, and they’re done. If you as the marketer don’t comply, sure, you will have problems.
It really is much like the 1919 Volstead Act (which did not ban INDIVIDUAL use or possession of alcohol.)
Furthermore, there is no authority in this legislation to label any websites or social media accounts/channels as enemy or subversive. That may be a general fear we have, and it’s a valid one, but it’s NOT in this bill. It is not even remotely relevant to this bill. Just because we don’t like where the U.S. Government is going, does not mean it’s in this bill.
Political or “counterintelligence” targeting occurs, all the time, on existing authorities (e.g., FISA.) It will continue to occur. It has nothing to do with this legislation.
Our Government can do anything to you that you can’t stop it from doing (the “Catch 22”), but that’s a broader problem, it has nothing to do with the RESTRICT Act.
This bill is about kicking TikTok and other successful Chinese apps out of the U.S. market.
Rather than speaking from a fog of unknowing, everyone is free to read those first 20 pages. Just bite the bullet and do some original, primary source research, for once. It is an empowering experience!
And, no one gets called a dipshit today. We’re in a good mood, today.
Sincerely,
Chief Customer Experience Officer,
The Dreizin Report
Dear Mr. Dreizin,
I read the 50-odd pages of the bill, and, at first glance, it would appear you are correct in your analysis. That said, I would like to make the following observations.
1. Anytime a bill contains the phrase, “and for other purposes” as in:
“To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.”
I figure that the intent of the bill and its actual application can be “flexible” in a way which favors the government. It is too open-ended. I understand this phrase has become common in Bills today, but it wasn’t so in earlier Congressional Bills. The first act passed by the U.S. Congress reads, “An Act to regulate the Time and Manner of administering certain Oaths.” The line “and for other purposes” was not included.
2. I will have to spend some time on looking up the cross-references to other statues mentioned in the Bill. Damning things can possibly be found in such cross-referencing.
3. I will have to re-read the Bill and then cogitate for a while to see if I find any new sly or tricky clauses or phrases.
I am not a legislator, but I have read and signed a boat-load of contracts in my life, and have found that taking time to consider their content is always something worth doing.
I believe it is not surprising that so many people mistrust everything the government does. I know I do and I believe it is a healthy attitude. On the other hand, I also know everyone cannot spend the time on, or have the knowledge of, government workings/actions that you do/have. Your taking the time to share your knowledge and experience is much appreciated, I’m sure. At least it is by this old man.
Thanks. “….and for other purposes” is near the start of almost every piece of Federal legislation, nowadays. In this particular case, there are “other” aspects to the bill, beyond the prohibitions. First and foremost, the divestment angle, which I mentioned. That’s your other purpose, right there. They don’t want to make the headline summary sentence too long and awkward.
“That’s your other purpose, right there.”
No doubt you are correct. Confiscation of foreign assets for the profit of US interests is a powerful “purpose.”
I suppose another such purpose might be to eventually restrict, or at least minimize, the amount of information one receives from selected foreign sources. As bad as the coverage of the Ukraine is in Western Europe and the USA, I know it could get worse. Imagine how ignorant we would all be without other sources of information?
“2. I will have to spend some time on looking up the cross-references to other statues mentioned in the Bill. Damning things can possibly be found in such cross-referencing.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the first cross reference in this bill is at the top of the second page of the Bill. It refers to Executive Order 13526 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; ….) So in order to understand the “Restrict Bill” one has to first read the above mentioned Executive order. This order is 25 pages long and itself refers back to previous orders, rules and bills which must themselves be referred to in order to understand the Executive Order in question. I read the first 10-15 pages or so and skimmed the balance.
The above is just one example of numerous other statutes, orders and codes included in the Restrict Act, all of which must be referred to in order to understand the Restrict Act itself. Suffice to say, that such legislation as the “Restrict Act” and the accompanying codes in the Federal Register make a mockery of “self-rule.” I don’t exactly recall, but I believe the Federal Register has something like 60-70,000 pages. These basically fill in the blanks of the Bills and Executive Orders issued by our betters. How can anyone come close to perusing, much less understanding these Augean Stables of law? Do our betters even read this stuff?
The above notwithstanding, I agree with Mr. Dreizin’s view that this bill is primarily a means for the government to Americanize the digital sphere. It will be very hard for anyone to question the government’s reasons or grounds for its actions as the FOIA is not applicable to this Bill. What a way to run a government.
I believe WhatsApp is still allowed in Russia, just Facebook and instagram that are banned. Only Russia tv they bring it up once in a while why it’s weird that WhatsApp is allowed to stay up.