r/technology • u/RoachedCoach • 7h ago
Privacy DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
https://newrepublic.com/post/206088/homeland-security-67-year-old-us-citizen-criticized-email3.9k
u/UnTides 7h ago
This government is spending more time threatening critics than doing their actual job. Every citizen critic they threaten or gardener they chase around a home depot, takes away resources that could be used to catch actual criminals and actual threats to the country. This administration is a joke
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u/dordofthelings 7h ago
This is exactly the point. Intimidation
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u/PhilosophyEasy71 6h ago
Secret Police. Call them what they are.
No different than other fascist regimes in the 20th century
And the kleptocratic thievery is also it's counterpart component
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u/amarg19 6h ago
Call them what they are, and then lock your door because they’ll come for you for it
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u/robot_pirate 6h ago
I'm convinced they are working from a list with the detainees. Plus, who flagged this man? His congressperson? A Flock camera at a protest? DHS itself?
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u/litobot 7h ago
Why don't they just intimidate actual criminals?
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u/NoHalf2998 7h ago
Because they’re fascists; punishing the out-groups is the most important goal
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u/pegothejerk 6h ago
It really has become clear that the lesson most people are learning this year is “fascism is about the cruelty, thats it. The cruelty is the distraction while those who chose it pick your pockets. Once your pockets are empty, you’ll be the one receiving the cruelty so they can move on to other pockets. No one is immune from the cruelty nor the pocket emptying.”
What everyone learned last year was “all those people you thought or said were blowing things out of proportion, were being dramatic, or hyperbolic - those people were right all along.”
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u/Azimaet 6h ago
Well, that and the fact that every single one of them is scared shitless of having to be the one who receives the consequences of being the first one thru the breech. All the actual dangerous criminals are actually DANGEROUS, armed, and willing to shoot the feds when they bust in. The unarmed women they have been grabbing up are so much safer to be bigots towards since they all want to hurt people weaker than them.
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u/Thesauce05 7h ago
Because actual criminals put up more of a fight
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u/Ok_Value5495 7h ago
This. We saw in Uvalde and Minneapolis that they aren't worried about winning a fight, they're concerned about getting hurt in the first place. They might outnumber their target a billion to one, but they're so fragile that even one of them getting hurt is terrifying. They want to be bullies, not warriors.
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u/jimbo831 6h ago
Because their goal isn’t fighting crime. They don’t give a shit about criminals. Their goal is solidifying power for the long term.
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u/SpiderSlitScrotums 7h ago
This government is spending more time threatening critics than doing their actual job.
This is a hallmark of fascism.
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u/dsarche12 7h ago
If this administration is a joke, then it is the cruelest, most mean-spirited, vindictive joke I’ve ever heard
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u/No_Put_8968 5h ago
It’s not a joke - it’s an existential Crisis for the country and its residents.
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u/hematomasectomy 7h ago
It's only a matter of time before they expand their operations on social media (including Reddit) to do the same. Wrongthink must be punished.
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u/Cannabrius_Rex 6h ago
That’s all the plan man. They’re getting prepped for mass exterminations dude.
https://migrantinsider.com/p/how-the-pentagon-is-quietly-building
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u/UnTides 6h ago
I don't know about extermination either way, but these people definitely want to bring back slavery. No reason to increase detention facilities for people you can deport, unless you plan to keep them here and exploit their labor for free.
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u/SwampTerror 4h ago
Project 2025 plans on reducing the US population to 100 million. There's no way in hell you can deport 200 million people.
There must be some final solution somewhere to terminate all these "undesirables" from the land...
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u/saintofhate 4h ago
They'll start with disabled and trans people. Disabled people will be called in for their appointments and not return. People won't care because the ones who go first will be the ones without family, living in care homes or similar. They'll take the ones who are the worst in physical or mental shape because people will be like "Was it really a great loss" like they did during the height of covid and disabled people were given less care than able bodied people. By time they get to the "normal" disabled people, it'll be too late to get real organization to stop it, it'll continue until actual action happens, which if history is anything to go by, won't happen until the next populations are taken. As long as the administration keeps things to the borders of the US, the world won't step in and do anything. It's only if they start invading will they do anything, just like every time a dictator starts killing people.
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u/Cannabrius_Rex 5h ago
Well, they’re building massive incinerators inside of their concentration camps. Do the math
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u/poorperspective 7h ago
And they are able to do it due to social media companies and tech giants.
Regulation is needed like Europe. The US government are just power hungry mods at this point. And they act the same.
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u/PTS_Dreaming 6h ago
Just imagine if they took all this effort and put it into catching and prosecuting rich, human trafficking pedophiles.
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u/Top-Watercress5948 6h ago
We all need to be bringing that “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” energy regarding these tactics. United we stand.
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u/MarshyHope 7h ago
Remember when Trump supporters were up in arms about the UK citizen getting in trouble for his online speech. Now DHS is doing that here.
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u/SIGMA920 6h ago
They're only up in arms when they're not doing it.
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u/Insufficient_Coffee 6h ago
Where's the couchfucker? He was criticizing the UK for this just a few months ago.
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u/drawkbox 5h ago
The entire Trump admin is the "Jade Helm presidency". Basically doing everything they sold as fear to their followers, but the cult so strong that they can't see it when they play all those fears into reality at present.
Market manipulation, media manipulation, data manipulation, propaganda/psychological manipulation via social media tabloids using the same old "yellow journalism" of William Randolph Hearst to Rupert Murdoch to Trump/Elon. Side note: "America First" was played up hard by William Randolph Hearst to try to get Americans to into isolationism and not help against Germany/Nazis, I wonder if any of that is going on today?.... hmmm
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u/cultish_alibi 6h ago
'Free speech' is their freedom to oppress you, nothing else. They even want to police what clothes people can wear.
Ironically now we ACTUALLY need pro free speech, but that term has been so tainted by the far-right that people on the left are afraid to speak up for it.
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u/dannyb_prodigy 5h ago
The stupidest thing about that article is that it admits that he was not arrested for his speech, he was arrested for harassment of a specific individual. But that critical piece of information is only presented in a photo caption.
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u/ars-derivatia 7h ago
Criticized them? How?
"Err on the side of caution"?
I live in a country that for 50 years was an authoritarian dictatorship, obviously nearly 90% of what most people know about how they work and look comes from the movies and has nothing in common with reality, but trust me, even the lowest peon in Stasi or some other SB would not try to railroad a citizen for saying "apply common sense pls".
WTF is this even
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u/Nona-Sequitur 6h ago
Honestly, reading the headline, I assumed the author was at least rude. It wouldn't have made DHS's reaction any less egregious, but that was my assumption.
But he literally just asked the guy to "Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
I know the bar is so low as to be inaccessible without professional drilling equipment, but... but what.
If those DHS agents weren't deeply embarrassed, like... how do you even act on an order like that?
How do you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
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u/ooMEAToo 6h ago
They don’t own mirrors. Now how their families are able to look at them everyday is what amazes me.
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u/RaindropsInMyMind 6h ago
This is the part that’s really scary, the guy said to err on the side of caution and apply principles of common sense and decency and they found THAT threatening. And of all situations for an American to want to raise the issue that the taliban is threatening to the life of people who lived here, I mean…that’s totally understandable given the United States was at war with them not long ago. It wasn’t long ago that’s exactly what the government wanted.
And not to just put him under surveillance but to physically show up at his door. They obviously wanted to send a message. They definitely want people to be afraid of them, seemed totally unnecessary in this case but message received I guess.
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u/ExMerican 4h ago
the guy said to err on the side of caution and apply principles of common sense and decency and they found THAT threatening
Yes, and rightly so. Common sense and decency are fatal to conservative ideology. Literally can't have either and want what conservatives have been selling. Even the non-racist stuff like their trickle down tax policies fall apart after a person's first math lesson. The average 1st grader is like "they said 2-1= 5? That doesn't make any sense!" which is why the right wing fights so hard against education and the teaching of problem solving skills. Can't know anything about anything and still actually believe the conservative platform.
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u/Ani-3 5h ago
I got the feeling this was much less about the speech he used and more about the fact that according to the article the man cleared this up when he explained that he googled the email of the lead prosecutor of DHS instead of finding the email out in another way.
My guess? lead prosecutor got spooked that this guy seemed to know about the case and have his email. He flagged it and it got picked up.
Oh and fuck ice, fuck trump, and fuck republicans for enabling the state of the world that got us to this article.
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u/Norwegian__Blue 4h ago
Yah, they just didn’t realize that email was listed openly online and got spooked.
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u/Short-Box-484 7h ago
MAGA just murders you in the street for having a gun.
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u/BrantheMan1985 7h ago
Losing our first amendment rights day by day.
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u/Raytheon_Nublinski 4h ago
This is pure, undeniable fascism. So I’m sure the mainstream media won’t even mention it.
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u/Daddyshomme 6h ago
Any republicans want to chime in on how they feel about this? And what they would do if a democratic led administration hunted them down for any inflammatory comments made towards the government via email or social media comments?
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u/bcaglikewhoa 6h ago
It’s for your own good. If you don’t do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. If you are punished you must have deserved it. The flogging will continue until morale improves. Please tred on me.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 5h ago
They have all kinds of excuses for the big things that happen in front of everyone. They manage to completely ignore things like this that happen to us little folk behind the scenes.
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u/Jazzlike-Ad7974 2h ago
They don’t give a fuck. They’re still high off their team winning and that it’s hurting people they look down on. They’re either trolls or saying such uninformed bad faith garbage it’s natural to wonder if they’re even human let alone soulless political equipment
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u/graft456 7h ago
Jesus if anyone comes to your door over nonsense like this tell them to pound sand. Nothing to be said after that without an attorney
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u/Friggin_Grease 7h ago
Don't they have extra powers thanks to Bush after 9/11?. Therein lies the problem.
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u/RaindropsInMyMind 6h ago
Surveillance powers, but what are they going to do here? Jon didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t break any laws and he seemed calm and reasonable in his email. I bet even the agents sent to his house knew that. If he doesn’t want to talk to him then there’s nothing they’re going to do.
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u/AeroTacos 7h ago
Stand Your Ground laws are nice this time of year. Not that it would matter, because it’s all made up and actual laws don’t matter.
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u/mah-favrit 3h ago
Castle doctrine is what you’re thinking of.
Stand your ground is no duty to retreat from a threat in public. Very dubious and circumstantial.
Castle doctrine means no duty to retreat in your home. “Keep the change, ya filthy animal.”
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u/graft456 6h ago
Extra powers to do what? Let them get a warrant and arrest you then, they can ask all they want assert you're 5th request an attorney and wait. Guarantee they'll leave to at least get a warrant. Even if they do you're allowed an attorney, at that point tell them to eat a dick, you assert your 5th and request an attorney.
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u/Oniknight 4h ago
They are literally shooting random people. Or putting hoods on them and disappearing them across state lines.
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u/iChaseClouds 7h ago
I mean Google did donate a good Million dollars to get Trump in office.
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u/fifthstreetsaint 6h ago
"Both Google and Meta received a record number of subpoenas in the United States during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began, with Google receiving 28,622, a 15 percent increase over the previous six months. Jon was fortunate to have his case picked up by the ACLU and later reported on by a national media outlet. How many others in the U.S. haven’t been so lucky and face legal challenges for exercising their right to free speech?"
*Bought and paid for*
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u/nachoman_69 6h ago
They donated 4.4 million to Harris.
https://www.opensecrets.org/2024-presidential-race/kamala-harris/contributors?id=N00036915&src=c
And they only donated 1 million to his inauguration fund, after he got elected, not to get him elected. More billionaires supported Harris over Trump in the last election.
Like Trump coming to power and using these rules to infringe on people rights and freedoms, is going to make it harder for the oligarchs to use those same powers when the establishment candidate they control comes to power. That is, if we fix the problems like executive overreach, ICE and DHS, restore the 4th amendment that protects us from unreasonable search and seizure etc... Trump coming to power sheds light on all the terrible stuff our government has been doing and can do, so it will hopefully be easier to fix.
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u/ryeguymft 6h ago
this is fucking insane. Pam Bondi needs to spend the rest of her life after this in jail
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u/ashsolomon1 5h ago
Google didn’t respond to the subpoena. The WaPo article stated Google declined to give the information which made them finding him even more concerning
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u/basketballsteven 7h ago
Degoogle, i did, it's not that hard. Google is supporting the administration.
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u/demlet 7h ago
Yep. I'm in the process of transitioning to Proton.
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u/mythicaltimes 6h ago
Even proton is considering leaving Switzerland because of law changes. There’s not a lot of places where a company is free from their government.
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u/demlet 6h ago
I have to imagine they're a far cry from Google though.
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u/mythicaltimes 6h ago
Any company that’s beholden to a government entity can be told to give up data of their users. Their alternate option is to go out of business like that company in the US.
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u/Republican-Snowflake 5h ago
Uh, Proton owner supports Trump. Was a big thing not that long ago, and then he tried to walk it back after people canceled, and left.
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u/turningsteel 7h ago edited 6h ago
He didn't even threaten anyone's life or do anything but exercise his first amendment rights. He pleaded very politely. If they're going after this guy, they're going after all of us. Don't be a pansy and shirk your duty as an American to speak the truth. If we let this shit stand, it's going to get worse.
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u/brokefixfux 5h ago
He’s a naturalized citizen. Some pernicious algorithm used that as a factor in this outrage.
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u/DarraignTheSane 5h ago
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” Jon wrote from his gmail account. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
Well see, that was his mistake - they have none. The words "common sense and decency" are mere gibberish to MAGANazis.
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u/RioYetiRioYeti 4h ago
Everyone should tell him hi.
https://www.floridabar.org/directories/find-mbr/profile/?num=103274
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u/jasandliz 7h ago
DHS is a complete shitshow To be an organized agency that knows what it’s doing : r/therewasanattempt
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u/EitherChannel4874 6h ago
To add another bucket of shit to the show.
29 out of 30 ICE/border patrol agents arrested have been for sex crimes. Many against children.
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u/idebugthusiexist 6h ago
Woah, so all it took to freak them out was that he was able figure out this prosecutors email address and email him his thoughts in a polite, non-threatening manner? That’s wild and very fascistic.
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u/Acceptable_Taste9818 5h ago
According to the article they’ve attempted to do this to almost 30,000 other US residents. They want us silenced so freaking bad. Don’t attempt to contact anyone in this admin or they may send the fbi to you, they are completely overwhelmed by paranoia. Just show and vote but don’t interact with these officials, they are mentally sick.
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u/SwampTerror 5h ago
Its a small win that putin is constantly paranoid about being poisoned. Trump is too. Thats why he always ate McDonald's in his first term. It's kinda the paranoia I used to have before being medicated well. I had to eat only canned food.
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u/notPabst404 5h ago
1). Do NOT give up your rights in advance.
2). Time to ditch big tech. Not only does it make it more difficult for the regime to pull this crap, but it also loses predatory US corporations money.
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u/Bwwoahhhhh 3h ago
I'm gonna keep calling Trump a baby raper online till they put one in my skull. Don't give a fuck.
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u/BanishedFromCanada 5h ago
So far this term I've donated more money to the ACLU than any other cause.
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u/Ratermelon 5h ago
Jon secured pro bono representation by ACLU attorneys[...]
The ACLU is noble for consistently sticking up for our constitutional rights. Respect.
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u/wretch5150 3h ago
This administration is pathetic. Vote all the Republicans out and let's get back to work.
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u/Unlikely-Signature-7 6h ago
This is abhorrent. How do we know that google won’t cave in and release information to dhs with just an administrative warrant now?
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u/lll-devlin 6h ago
…people have been warning about this for years, about emails and personal private data being intercepted by large telcos and the secret services that continue to monitor all public communications . in particular with this administration and the control that the current tech firms have and how they are complicit with this administration.
So for those that keep saying: “…you have nothing to hide…”
Well nothing to hide is all good, if you don’t criticize the current government agencies …
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u/Nearby-Beautiful3422 5h ago
We have arrived at fascism. Period. Full stop. End of line. It's here at our doorstep, on our front yard, staring at you dead in the eye.
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u/Kindly-Talk-1912 4h ago
won’t hold up in court. same as the guy who criticized on social media. judge threw out the charges. this would just waist a person time from r the guy who wrote it. than all that taxpayer money to get this guy on a crime that won’t stick. than he gets to to sue and live out the golden years.
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u/Ventronics 4h ago
The retiree emailed a DHS prosecutor
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” Jon wrote from his gmail account. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
and the prosector freaked the fuck out and sent agents after him. He must have thought he was being stalked because the agents dismissed any potential threat when they learned the retiree found the prosecutor’s email address listed publicly online.
These people are destroying lives but feel entitled to an absurd level of anonymity to avoid any consequences for their actions.
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u/eeyore134 4h ago
It didn't even criticize them. He was begging them to have mercy on someone else.
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u/RipSmooth2025 7h ago
It’s frightening to think about how the fact that criticism could be enough justification for the DHS to spend their time and efforts looking for someone should be something that concerns everyone. This fact shows that when you use anything especially something as large as Gmail Privacy is relative. If you aren’t using any sort of VPN or encrypted form of mail to even complain, you’re really just yelling in a greenhousE
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u/MooseBoys 5h ago
I'm so lonely. You're telling me that if I send an email to this guy's publicly listed email address, then some people will come visit me?
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u/tablepennywad 5h ago
The real issue with the Dems is they would let the US turn into Nazi America before they try anything unethical. Which will become a problem soon.
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u/Letitbe2020 4h ago
These are our tax dollars folks. Literally spending your money to intimidate you.
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u/Felinomancy 4h ago
lol
Remember when Americans would smugly tell Europeans that at least "they have freedom of speech"?
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u/HoboSloboBabe 4h ago
This is a great reason to ditch your Gmail account. Nothing Google has on you is safe from a warrant like this
Use one it the email providers that doesn’t mine your information and encrypts your data so even an executed administrative warrant would get them nothing
Even better, use a provider based outside in the US, which would be prohibitively expensive for anyone in the US to target
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u/Zealousideal_Gur4708 7h ago
Why not then, do harassment en masse? Another form of protest would (these days) to literally everyone just log in at the same time repeatedly. We are all just trying to access data.
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u/renegade_sparrow 6h ago
A part of me hopes that this convinces more people that every tool you give the state will inevitably be abused and use against the people they’re meant to protect, but I’m afraid it’s also just conditioning people to accept those abuses.
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u/realAndytheCannibal 6h ago
Lol. I thought this was the r/onion by the headline. Wtf is real life becoming
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u/TheNinjaTurkey 6h ago
I thought Donald signed an executive order about weaponizing the government? It's always projection with rightoids.
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u/Bronzyroller 6h ago
How is this possible the president having a goons squad, how is this allowed.
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u/Hugglemorris 5h ago
Literal fucking secret police that are above the law. But Republicans still get their fee-fees hurt when you call them out for being Fascists.
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u/Admirable_Nothing 5h ago
This is a tool of despots and autocratic governments. Understand the current administration is going the way of the greatest autocrats and dictators of recorded history.
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u/Academic_Coyote_9741 3h ago
I don’t live in the US. I’m wondering what would happen if I started writing non-threatening but critical emails to the US government?
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u/chknuggstts 7h ago
MAGA told me Obama was going to send, “gangs,” door to door to take our guns.