Does U.S. Customs & Border Protection in the USA record all entries and exits in a common, accessible database?
Customs receives advanced arrival manifests from airlines and cruise lines. Many times, this helps them target specific individuals before an airplane touches down, or a ship docks.At airport ports of entry as well as sea ports (cruise ships) every single person, citizen, legal resident or visitor, who enters the United States has their passport run through TECS: this is an acronym for the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, which is a holdover from when Customs was under the Treasury Department instead of Homeland Security. There is a record kept of this entry. An officer may casually ask, “When is the last time you you entered the U.S.?” And already know the answer.At most land border ports of entry there are license plate readers that automatically record the license plate of vehicle entering (and at some ports exiting) the U.S. Also, officers routinely ask for and check the identification of drivers and passengers through TECS.Customs makes THOUSANDS of arrests every year by encountering folks with outstanding arrest warrants. They do this by checking identification.Again, there is a record kept of these interactions. Additionally, any time Customs does more than welcome you home, (I.e., performs an inspection of you or your vehicle) there is a report of inspection results made.All of this information is not superfluous. It is an integral component of helping Customs to target high-risk individuals.Perhaps where Hollywood gets it wrong is in the ease with which just about anybody can access these records. Nothin could be further from the truth. Just as there is a record of entries, there is also a record of any officer checking these records. Virtually every key stroke an officer makes on a government computer is recorded and can be traced back to them. Any officer that goes “fishing” for information without a justifiable reason is looking at some serious discipline, if not dismissal.
Since the White House and Congress won’t do anything about global warming, should states and local government take the lead?
Scientists have calculated the earth’s temperature for the past 500 million years (above) using various methods. The chart is a little hard to read but it shows that earth has been about the same temperature we have today for only the past 3 million years or so. Prior to that, it was much hotter than our current period and there was no global ice act all.We are currently in a warming phase since the end of the last of four major Ice Ages (the valleys between the blue spikes) about 12,000 years ago. Primitive man was hunting Woolly Mammoths to extinction then. Global temperature has been roughly stable for the past 10,000 years, the period of human existence as an evolved primate. Even without humans’ impact, the planet will be moving towards a cyclical peak of heat and all global ice will likely melt as in the past. Seas will rise as in the past and coastal land will again be underwater.We don’t know why there have been the periodic ice ages cycles but there have been four in the past 350,000 years and we have just passed the most recent one, with glacial ice that came down as far as Long Island New York, the NY Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes all carved and filled by retreating glaciers. Currently in North America, this ice zone has retreated to northern Canada, Greenland and the Arctic Cap.We think our human activity has a huge impact on global temperatures. But we don’t know the impact of the ice age cycles and solar impact. Until we do, let’s not commit globally many trillions to dollars to skim small concentrations (400 parts per million) of CO2 from the atmosphere when it might not be the problem we think it is.***BTW, there are periods in earth’s distant past where the CO2 level in the atmosphere was at much higher concentration, due to higher levels of volcanic activity and much less plant vegetation that took CO2 out of the air and converted it into bio mass. These long ago heightened CO2 periods did not result in a runaway greenhouse gas catastrophe like occurred on Venus. The earth has been cooling for the last 50 million years.
Is there any truth to the NRA's allegation that “Barack Hussein Obama and European leaders are plotting the confiscation of Americans' guns”?
I don't think this is the right question ask. It should be 'are their groups of people who want to take your guns away'?First off the probability of you getting killed by a gun is near zero. Its just media and politics that makes people think it's a big issue. Half of 'gun violence' are suicides. There were 13k KILLINGS (not murders) in 2015, out of just under 400million people, that is 1 in 30,769. You should also take into consideration that the majority of murders are directly or indirectly related to the drug trade and gangs on gangs; and really, who cares about them. The statistics are undeniable.To that question the answer is LOUD YES. Here is the evidence... 1. It has already happened before. During hurricane Katrina the New Orleans police and military went door to door confiscating weapons. Katrina GUN CONFISCATION and Witness Reports of RAPE 2. Chicago, Washing, New York have had a full out gun ban for 40 years. Chicago Gun Ban Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Judge 3. There was a ban on 'Assault' riffle purchase ban from the 80's - 90's. Here is a bill in 2015 trying to reinstate the ban Text - H.R.4269 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Assault Weapons Ban of 2015 . The4. There is a currently a ban on full auto's. exception is made if you have a class 3 weapons permit.5. The current tactic of liberals is to ban features of guns. For example, assault riffles in CA must have a bullet button, 10 bullet clip max. The list of banned 'features' keeps on growing slowly.6. Another tactic of liberals is to create registry lists. This only reason why this is being done is to keep track of who has guns.7. The final tactic is to limit ammo, outlaw certain kinds of ammo. Again, the kind of ammo used doesn't matter when it is a head shot. lol.8. In the 20th century, 100 million people were murdered by their OWN government. In almost all the cases, a gun ban and confiscation was successfully implemented beforehand.Now the stats...