When the physicists need burner phones, that's when you know America's changed

I&#x27;m a US scientist and the use of minimalist phone and a laptop is something I&#x27;m planning for all my travel.<p>This is for the simple reason that I have determined, based on a large body of cases that are accumulating at a disturbing rate, that the current US administration considers themselves &quot;above the law&quot;. Furthermore, the administration has shown that they are eager to carry out actions that violate due process and freedom of speech against anyone they perceive as opposing their policies&#x2F;views.<p>EDIT: I&#x27;m happy to document such cases for those who have not been paying attention, but I also encourage those who are doubtful to simply search the many examples that have been posted here on HN (unfortunately, many flagged in an attempt to suppress discussion).

One of the important things to watch for is the linkup of the papers please people with the internet scanners. Right now they seem to be limited to seizing your personal effects, but that is a matter of coordination between departments of the government. If there are laws against it, they are adjacent to other laws which were ignored even in previous years. Once that occurs the use of professional use devices will not make the crossing safe.

The lady is indeed in trouble, because she apparently broke an explicit regulation: «Biological materials imported through passenger or pedestrian travel must be presented to CBP for inspection» [1]. I very much doubt though that it&#x27;s a kind of offense that should provide grounds for deportation.<p>Deportation to the country that would certainly incarcerate her for her political position is a bad idea on may levels; first of all, it&#x27;s inhumane. If the case really devolves down to the deportation for real, I wonder if some other countries would offer her asylum, because it&#x27;s definitely better that a prison, especially a prison in Russia.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cbp.gov&#x2F;border-security&#x2F;protecting-agriculture&#x2F;importing-biological-materials-united-states" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cbp.gov&#x2F;border-security&#x2F;protecting-agriculture&#x2F;i...</a>

&quot;elite institutions devoted to freedom of inquiry and the telling of uncomfortable truths&quot;<p>That&#x27;s rich. That hasn&#x27;t been true for our &quot;elite institutions&quot; for some time now, although I do remember some notable exceptions... University of Chicago comes to mind.

I view the current political situation as a historical rhyme of the bloody wars of religion in Europe that saw Catholics and Protestants murdering each by the millions. As with the C v P wars (or Sunni vs Shia in Islam, or Hindu vs Muslim in India), taking a side is the wrong ethical stance; the right stance is to view it clearly as a brutal tribal struggle, and take steps towards a just and honest peace.

I hear Canadian&#x27;s are a nice and respectful people. Though as many as can need to stay behind as true patriots who will __actively vote__ in the every election to try to restore freedom and democracy in America.

I am wondering about hardware keyrings like Yubikeys : From a security point of view is it safe to cross international borders with them ? How do you connect back to your accounts without one when all your devices are based on two-factor authentication if your hardware keyring has been seized when by customs. Could you be detained for not &quot;remembering&quot; the second factor to unlock the keyring ?

Its basically a dead letter now, and has been fading for at least 20 years now<p>&gt;No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

I’m working at a biomedical lab at UPitt full time and another biomedical at CMU in my “free time”(lol) and it’s bizarre how it’s now totally okay to talk about politics at work. People are sharing political articles on the teams chat.

It seems that the examples given in the article are about non-US citizens caught in a tangle of sorts but some physicists are wanting to apply it to themselves as a whole.

&gt; AIPAC’s Jonathan Kessler co-authored a guide on doxing American professors who protest against Israel in 1984!<p>&gt; Here he is giving a pep talk to Zionist students on how to takeover student gov to reverse democratically voted policies “just like how AIPAC does it in Congress”<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;GenXGirl1994&#x2F;status&#x2F;1906088715249656167" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;GenXGirl1994&#x2F;status&#x2F;1906088715249656167</a>

How about this quote:<p>&gt; Perhaps that’s because most of British academia still can’t get its head around the idea that the US is now an enemy, not an ally, and that the “special relationship” is yesterday’s story.<p>That&#x27;s a bold statement. John is using language in a manipulative way. By moving the word &quot;enemy&quot; into a context where it is not justified (is it really war, rather than typical negotiations?), he aims to create a dramatic perspective on a thing that is not obviously dramatic. Drama is the basis of the argument. The cases he bring up do not seem to justify the conclusive dramatic language.

America changed right after 2001. People have been asleep this entire time, presuming that their government would never target them, even though they&#x27;ve slowly been building a giant surveillance network that could only have this ultimate purpose.<p>Pretending this is &quot;Trump&#x27;s America&quot; or &quot;Obama&#x27;s America&quot; or &quot;Bush&#x27;s America&quot; is ridiculous. They&#x27;ve all participated in building these walls around the country and our freedom.

There may be a silver lining. I think that John Roberts is in the mood to spank, and if Trump comes before him with an expansive interpretation of his plenary powers, Roberts will see him as a convincing counterargument. There could be a definitive ruling supporting the free speech right of non citizens.

Let’s not lose sight of the cause and effect here. The Israel lobby leaned hard on Trump to stamp out any whisper of criticism against Israel. Meanwhile, groups like Betar are gunning to deport pro-Palestinian students, crowing on X about how they’ve compiled lists of critics and handed them straight to the Trump administration.<p>You can spot the same playbook in Germany, where they’re scheming to strip citizenship from dual-nationality migrants if they dare speak out against Israel. In Berlin, police are brutally pummeling pro-Palestine protesters—scenes you’d never expect to see in Germany.<p>Then there’s the clampdown in UK and other European countries on journalists and everyday folks calling out Israel’s moves in Palestine.<p>Across the West, these anti-free-speech tactics are piling up, all to muzzle anyone who questions Israel.

&gt; The looming crisis in the US is beginning to remind people in Europe of the 1930s, when the UK and the US began to realise that Jewish scientists needed to be rescued from the Nazis.<p>I feel like I’m living on a different planet. I am not saying things are OK in the US at the moment, but … are you kidding me? This is one of the most asinine statements I’ve ever read.

This is a thinly sourced opinion piece selling FUD.

Yeah this is the last straw for me. This thread breaks pretty much every rule HN has, the comment thread is filled with absolutely vile, delusional, partisan hate and propaganda, it&#x27;s been on the front page for hours and no moderator has decided to remove it, not enough users have flagged it to get rid of it, I&#x27;m officially giving up on HN at this point.<p>Not going to waste my time any longer flagging and downvoting political content and trying to keep HN good. The propagandists and hate have won and have majority control over it now. Every day a third of the front page is political&#x2F;social&#x2F;mainstream news content which isn&#x27;t supposed to be here. Adios. Time to find the next place.

The sad fact is that everyone needs a “burner” laptop and phone these days for travel. Not limited to the trump administration either.

The people opposing these things do themselves a serious disservice by conflating someone who attended the funeral of the top guy of a designated terrorist group with the biologist moving biomaterial between research labs.<p>Now every time I hear one of these stories I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop and hear about how the frog biologist attended Prigozhin’s funeral (purely out of recognition for his work as a chef, of course)

The title is trying to imply that people are being targeted for being physicists or other &quot;benign&quot; scientific work, but that is not the case; Their expressed political opinions are why they&#x27;re targeted. It&#x27;s still wrong, it&#x27;s still bad, but there&#x27;s no need to mislead people.