Feds press banks to turn in customers who may be Trump-supporters, outdoor enthusiasts

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) recently revealed that federal investigators in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot asked financial institutions to dig through customer data using search terms such as “TRUMP” and “MAGA.”

According to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the request to rifle though customers’ private information came from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or “FinCen.”  It’s never a good sign when your government, while purporting to look for a crime to prosecute, commits one (or more) itself.  It’s even worse when it does so by trampling on citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.

Jordan also claimed that FinCen, in passing along its analysis of alleged “Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators,” cautioned financial institutions to look for purchases such as “bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose” or “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.”  Covering all bases, FinCen also instructed the financial institutions to look for terms like “Small Arms,” “Cabela’s,” “Gander Outdoors,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” among many others.

So much for privacy and, as Jordan noted, “protected political and religious expression.”

Plan to vote for President Trump in the upcoming presidential election?  The feds could be combing through your finances, you potential Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremist!  And you’d better pray you didn’t purchase a Bible recently…or there might well be hell to pay!

Bought anything at Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, Gander Outdoors, or Fleet Farm lately?  You just might be a terrorist!  Like to hunt?  Terrorist!  Like shooting sports?  Terrorist!  Have a camper?  You are likely a threat to your fellow citizens, or, worse yet, to your government! Buying a fishing rod or backpack?  Problematic at best!  Enjoy the outdoors, do you, rube?  The feds may be watching you!

Been to Mount Rushmore lately?  Might want to pay with cash for a while…terrorist!

The United States won the Cold War under Reagan…and is becoming the Soviet Union under Biden.

Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).