Showing posts with label snooping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snooping. Show all posts

May 17, 2020


Three reminders from the Bill of Rights

fromFFF: Our ancestors knew that historically crises and emergencies were the time-honored way by which people lost their liberties at the hands of their own government. 
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The worst is yet to come: contact tracing, immunity cards and mass testing

fromRutherfordInstitute: Yes, COVID-19 has taken a significant toll on the nation emotionally, physically, and economically, but there are still greater dangers on the horizon. 
Police State America       Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Here's who just voted to let the FBI seize your online search history without a warrant

fromGizmodo: Most of those bastards were Republican. Look at these names carefully. All of them SWORE to uphold the Constitution, yet they just gutted the Fourth Amendment, which requires probable cause for a search. 
Police State America       Government is Watching Every Move You Make            The Government is Not Us 

Democrats try to eliminate proof of who you are to vote

fromArmstrongEconomics: "Tucked inside House Democrats’ new coronavirus bill is language that would create a loophole in states’ voter ID requirements, allowing people to cast ballots without having to prove who they are." 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Take the shutdown skeptics seriously

fromTheAtlantic: This is not a straightforward battle between a pro-human and a pro-economy camp. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Can Michael Flynn be sentenced without being prosecuted for a crime?

fromPJMedia: Judge Sullivan has stepped outside his traditional role as an impartial adjudicator and become an advocate for the prosecution. That alone should disqualify him from hearing this motion.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

May 5, 2020


Your freedoms don’t have to be muzzled just because you’re wearing a mask

fromTheRutherfordInstitute: The government may act as if its police state powers suppress individual liberties during this COVID-19 pandemic, but the Bill of Rights—still stands in theory, if not in practice.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Walter E Williams: The nation's report card

fromCreators: The DOE just released results of the quadrennial National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in U.S. history, civics and geography given in 2018 to thousands of American eighth-graders.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Fever-reading drones just first of a wave of privacy challenges, civil liberties advocates say

fromPLiberty: Police departments in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Connecticut unveiled what was initially touted as a potential new tool against a pandemic: drones capable of taking a person’s temperature from 300 feet in the air.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A diseased progressive dream

fromAccuracyInMedia: Progressive ideas and global pandemics go together like a strain of COVID-19 and a mucous membrane. One progressive policy after another has been found to be a major cause of the spread of COVID-19.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

VIDEO: Why wouldn't someone buy weed from the legal market?

fromReason: Answer contained within.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

How the CDC and the FDA wrecked the economy

fromReason: The failure to conduct early and wide testing left politicians ignorant of basic facts about the COVID-19 epidemic.
Regulation Nation

April 24, 2020


The attorney general defends civil liberties against overreaching COVID-19 control measures

fromReason: While denying Donald Trump's dictatorial impulses, William Barr notes that public health emergencies do not give governments unlimited powers.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Hard times in America renew the call for mandatory national service

fromTheHill: Americans have complied in giving up Constitutional rights to comply with government dictates. So what's next? Some say indentured servitude.
The Government is Not Us

Big tech COVID-19 surveillance data and censorship threaten privacy and free speech

fromTheSociable: Big tech companies are collecting enormous amounts of data on the movement of private citizens while censoring free speech and removing any content that goes against official narratives.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make           Indoctrination and Censorship

VIDEO: What is COVID-19 'contact tracing'?

fromFoxNews: A 3 minute discussion of state efforts to track coronavirus patients with a 'contact tracing program' to identify those they’ve been in contact with.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Altruism and Selfishness

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Rand compares and contrasts the philosophies of altruism and rational self-interest as proper guides to action.

The coronavirus economy will bring inflation

fromNationalReview: It really doesn’t matter which economic theory you subscribe to, they all arrive at the same destination — more inflation.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

April 21, 2020


Suddenly states’ rights are back on the table

fromTheDailyBell: It must be confusing to be a “progressive” these days. Politicians have no principles, only strategies to get or retain power.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Army's Seattle field hospital closes after 3 days, without treating a single patient

fromMilitary.com: The downside of using expert's computer models as a guide to action.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Can you beat COVID-19 without a lockdown? Sweden Is trying

fromVanityFair: The Swedish experiment is to accept the coronavirus as a problem to be managed, rather than conclusively defeated. But will it mean more deaths?
Regulation Nation

Walter E Williams: Benefits vs. costs and COVID-19

fromTheDailyBell: It must be confusing to be a “progressive” these days. Politicians have no principles, only strategies to get or retain power.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why Alexis is like having a government spy living in your house

fromTheDailyMail: Couple are left shocked to discover their 'intrusive' Alexa has recorded EVERY request they've ever made - as well as saving their personal messages after using the device to phone and text people.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Fatality rate for COVID-19 Is much lower than people feared

fromReason: The tests indicate that the number of infections in the county is around 40 times as high as the number of confirmed cases.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

February 28, 2020


Trump’s betrayal of Julian Assange

fromRonPaulInstitute: It is ironic that a President Trump who has been victim of so much deep state meddling has done the deep state’s bidding when it comes to Assange and Wikileaks.

DNA databases are boon to police but menace to privacy, critics say

fromPewTrust: A Maryland lawmaker introduced a bill to regulate genetic genealogy searches — after a proposal last year to ban them failed.

Assange’s persecution has exposed media depravity the world over

fromMedium: Julian Assange started a leak outlet on the premise that corrupt and unaccountable power is a problem in our world, and that problem can be fought with the light of truth.

Encryption foes in Washington won't give up

fromReason: Government officials keep trying to make us expose our data to them—and the criminals who ride on their coattails.


Airport chaos looms with 181 MILLION Americans needing new IDs to travel

fromDailyMail: Most American travelers will need to apply for a new ID because two thirds of 276 million state driver's licenses do not comply with a security law.

The Feds' bulk collection of our data records has been expensive and useless

fromReason: But, it won't stop because it is a necessary precursor to a police state.
Police State America               Government is Watching Every Move You Make


November 25, 2019


When the villain is Obama, not Trump, news suddenly becomes not worth reporting

fromNYPost: Using, or ignoring, facts in accordance with whether they create the desired impression is the principal agenda of today’s media.
Media Bias on Parade

Roger Stone, convicted for bragging

fromTownhall: The lesson learned is if you are a high-level Trump supporter, you can expect the Deep State to come after you. The left is sending a message to Trump supporters to beware of helping him in 2020.

Giving government vast snooping authority is one thing Democrats and Republicans both like

fromReason: They simply disagree over who should be in charge of misusing and abusing those excessive powers.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - The Proper Role of the Press

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: More relevant today than ever.
Media Bias on Parade

In Virginia, and elsewhere, gun supporters prepare to defy new laws

fromMSN: The concept is modeled after the “sanctuary city” stance that some localities have taken in response to federal immigration enforcement efforts.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Vaping panic ignores how e-cigarettes save lives

fromReason: H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The rub against vaping, and other smokeless tobacco products, is that people enjoy it.

June 7, 2019


Congress proposes legislation to screen adults and children to predict if you pose a threat

fromFreeThoughtProject: The TAPS Act would encourage law enforcement to give everyone a personal threat assessment (kids and adults) and single out those that they deem as future threats.   
Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America

Republicans join Democrats to kill Rand Paul's Pennies Plan because no one cares about the debt

fromWashingtonExaminer: It wouldn't solve our debt crisis, but it would ameliorate it somewhat. So naturally, a large bipartisan majority voted to block it from the Senate floor.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Don Boudreaux - Why Free Trade is ALWAYS Best Policy

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Economist Don Boudreaux eloquently explains how, despite the economic policies of other countries, free trade is always the most beneficial policy for the citizens. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Hey Trump: Remember Wikileaks?

fromRonPaulInstitute: Governments hate it when the truth is told about them. They prefer to kill the messenger rather than face the message.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Watchdog says FBI has access to about 640M photographs

fromAP: A government watchdog says the FBI has access to about 640 million photographs — including from driver’s licenses, passports and mugshots — that can be searched using facial recognition technology.  

April 15, 2019


Julian Assange and WikiLeaks deserve our thanks for making governments more transparent

fromReason:  The world is a better place now that it's harder than ever for governments to keep secrets.
The Government is Not Us       Government is Watching Every Move You Make     

The Washington establishment seems pretty happy about Julian Assange’s arrest

fromReason:  Deep state tyrants figure to sleep a little better if they can eliminate Assange.
The Government is Not Us       Government is Watching Every Move You Make 

Assisted dying: The death panels are coming

fromGaryNorth:  Rationing is inevitable in a world of scarcity. You can ration by price: high monetary bid wins. You can ration by standing in line: first come, first served. You can ration by bureaucratic procedure: fill out forms. 
But there is always rationing.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why an internet regulator is a bad idea

fromSpiked:  We should be stripping away curbs on speech – not adding more.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Looking into surveillance

fromProvidenceJournal:  If our government has improperly used its immense power to spy on citizens for political purposes, it is vital that it be stopped, and those involved be punished, lest we become a police state.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America

Your Volvo will soon call the cops on you if it thinks you've been drinking

fromZeroHedge:  It is unclear if demand for Volvos will collapse as a result of big brother watching over every move, or if potential customers will welcome this latest incursion of their privacy.

April 12, 2019


Alexa is listening to everything you say

fromBloomberg:  Tens of millions of very foolish people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The best reason to not buy any new car

fromEricPetersAuto:  Free health care, free college tuition, free child care are the beacons for the liberal Left. Everything but the freedom to think for yourself.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The miserable, squalid campaign to stifle Tucker Carlson

fromTheSpectator:  The Fox News host’s only real crime is daring to be provocative in a dull media world.
Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Shame of White Privilege and Other Leftist Crimes

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A look at the apologetic whining from Democratic presidential candidates for having been born white, advocating borders, failing to champion reparations to blacks and other high PC crimes.


Mar 1, 2019


The Left wants everything free, except free speech

fromAmericanThinker:  Free health care, free college tuition, free child care are the beacons for the liberal Left. Everything but the freedom to think for yourself.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Victor Davis Hanson: California's rendezvous with reality

fromTownhall:  For years, high-speed rail has drained the state budget of transportation funds that might have easily updated nightmarish stretches of the Central Valley's Highway 99.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Government is Not Us

Scientists want Orwellian A.I. sentient smart assistants to snitch on owners and discuss contacting police

fromActivistPost:  Smart assistants like Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Echo could soon be implemented with a “moral AI” to decide whether to report their owners for breaking the law. George Orwell does not hold the patent. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Military intervention in Venezuela would be a reckless, dangerous option

fromReason:  The push for intervention is no surprise, and it should be given no quarter.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Oregon passes nation's first statewide rent control law

fromReason:  The bill comes with new risks for tenants and property owners alike.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

No permit required. Oklahoma Becomes 15th gun-carry state

fromFreeBeacon:  Residents of Oklahoma just got freer and safer. Protection is everywhere

Feb 27, 2019


Trump supports for new bill giving nationwide right to carry concealed weapons

fromLATimes:  Police state advocates are not pleased.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Google’s LISTENING: Nest security system has a secret embedded microphone

fromOrganicPepper:  “The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part," says Google. After all, NSA knew all along.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Venezuelans regret gun ban, 'a declaration of war against an unarmed population'

fromFoxNews:  As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of resentment against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Please don't help the Alabama authorities catch this escaped drug dealer

fromReason:  Dyron Rashad Primus is serving 15 years for synthetic marijuana charges.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Tesla driver killed in high-speed Florida crash and fire

fromNewser:  Government-subsidized death traps. Apparently rescuers could not get to the trapped driver because there was no door handle on the outside of the door.
Economic Policy: Government Versus The Free Market      Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The AI morality push which might make climate change compliance compulsory

fromWaatsUpWithThat:  If AI researchers get their way, in the near future we may no longer have the option of straying even slightly outside the politically correct mandates of our national leaders.

Feb 22, 2019


How socialism broke Venezuela

fromCommentaryMagazine:  The tragic journey from Perez to Chavez to Maduro.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

FBI plotting to keep DNA of ENTIRE population on file to create ‘nation of suspects’

fromDailyStar:  President Donald Trump has signed the Rapid DNA Act into law which means the police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested but not yet convicted of a crime.
The Government is Not Us            Government is Watching Every Move You 

Our disastrous obsession with equality

fromMises:  “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” — Milton Friedman
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Victor Davis Hanson: Changing reality with words

fromTownhall:  Beware of euphemisms. Radical changes in vocabulary are usually admissions that reality is unwelcome or indefensible.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Study: Crackdown on prescriptions drove up Hep. C infections

fromFreeBeacon:  Government regulations succeeded only in transforming Oxycontin users into heroin addicts.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange      Regulation Nation

Arizona trying to become first in U.S. to require citizen DNA

fromActivistPost:  The ruling class finds it in their interest to know more about their human livestock.

Feb 11, 2019


The real reason 4 cops got shot in Houston last week

fromDailyBell:  When you look deeper at the case, you realize these cops didn’t get shot because of anti-police rhetoric. They got shot because they invaded an innocent couple’s home without announcing themselves.
Police State America   

Green new deal—same old progressive policies

fromReason:  Using climate change to justify government-guaranteed jobs, health care, and housing.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Jackboots in the morning: No one Is spared from this American nightmare

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now— rest assured, these same practices can and will be used against you when the government decides it wants.
Police State America

Bezos protests invasion of his privacy, as Amazon builds sprawling surveillance state for everyone else

fromTheIntercept:  If the surveillance powers of the NSA, FBI or other agencies were used to obtain incriminating information about Bezos due to their view of him as a political enemy ...
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

New York police killed her son, then refused to answer her questions. The law they’re hiding behind.

fromReason:  An obscure provision designed to protect personnel records makes it nearly impossible to hold the state’s cops accountable.
Police State America      Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

The libertarian case for a border wall

from71Republic:  Though the wall would require a small amount of force, its long-term savings in government spending shows a principled and pragmatic necessity.

Jan 9, 2019


When it comes to surveillance, who will watch the watchman?

fromMoneyControl: Without proper checks and balances such powers could be misused.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

"The criminals who run the Deep State will be exposed": Kim Dotcom teases "next round of leaks"

fromZeroHedge: Hacker and serial entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is out with a new prediction for 2019.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

2018 brought a bumper crop of bad gun laws to disobey

fromReason: Control freaks have turned to dishonest rulemaking and outright censorship in doomed but still dangerous efforts to take people's weapons away.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Kiss what is left of your medical data privacy goodbye

fromNakedCapitalism: Zuboff warns the state won’t do much to stop this trend, because it is often a beneficiary and co-conspirator. So it falls to us to throw sand in the gears when we can.

October 31, 2018


A national debt 6 times the size of the economy? That's where America is heading.

fromReason: While federal revenue will continue to rise as well, it will not keep up with spending.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

3 steps to get the government out of your life

fromTheDailyBell: Step one: stop taking the bait
The Government is Not Us

Trump’s tariffs are backfiring even on industries that were supposed to benefit from trade protectionism

fromAEI: Trump’s steel tariffs are backfiring even for the US steelmakers who were supposed to be the main beneficiaries of tariffs since the whole point of Trump’s protectionism was to artificially prop up high-cost.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Parents outraged after school shaved large patches of hair from kids’ heads to drug test them

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Government's compliant slave training. Students in a Kansas middle school were humiliated after officials removed large chunks of their hair to comply with the school's drug test policy.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     The Government is Not Us

How the government uses its giant facial recognition database

fromTheDailyBell: Government used the terrorism crisis to deploy its massive domestic surveillance scheme
Read about the real reason it exists.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Walter E Williams: Democratic-controlled House

fromCreators: The Founders recognized that we need government; however, they also recognized that the essence of government is force and that force is evil.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

May 5, 2016

Spy agency NSA triples collection of U.S. phone records: official report

fromForbes: The U.S. National Security Agency collected 534,000,000 records of phone calls and text messages of Americans last year, more than triple gathered in 2016, a U.S. intelligence agency report released on Friday said. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Surveillance oversight across the Golden State

fromEFF: Too often, law enforcement makes unilateral decisions about surveillance equipment in the dark, driven by the sales pitches of vendors rather than an open dialogue about the public safety needs of the community.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Venezuela hikes minimum wage by 155% -- should McDonald's and Walmart match it?

fromForbes: The ugly truth about Venezuela’s minimum wage hikes: they are part of the country’s problem rather than solution.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

John Stossel: Propaganda Networks

fromForbes: Why does American journalist Abby Martin do propaganda for socialist murderers? Few viewers know that teleSUR is funded by the tyrants who control Cuba and Venezuela. 
Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Cathy Areu - Sherpa Guides Tucker Carlson Through Leftist Nitwittery

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, Cathy Areu (publisher of Catalina magazine) explains the finer points of progressive thinking (also known as leftist nitwittery) to the traditional-thinking host. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Public support for marijuana is growing. Will lawmakers follow?

fromPBS: Politicians may wind up under so much duress that they are actually forced to represent the will of the people.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange