Showing posts with label spying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spying. Show all posts

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.  

June 5, 2019


Could prostitution be next to be decriminalized?

fromNYTimes: Marijuana has gone mainstream, casino gambling is everywhere and sports wagering is spreading. Could prostitution be next? It will happen just as soon as the government figures out how to replace the pimp as profiteer.  
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

"It's all a fraud": Deceptive edits found in Mueller Report

fromZeroHedge: Mueller's deceptive edits beg the question; what else may have been manipulated by the special counsel to make Trump look guilty?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Police to use TSA-style scanners to spy on people in public places

fromMassPrivateI: TSA-style body scanners are coming to public spaces, and that should scare the hell out of everyone.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Julian Assange - Wikileaks and the 2016 Presidential Election

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Journalist Julian Assange gives a fascinating interview in 2016 by Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi, regarding the Wikileaks disclosures that affected the 2016 presidential election.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Cops raid innocent family, stop mom from breastfeeding for ‘smelling weed’—they found none

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: If you wonder why some folks have an adversity to cops, you need only watch these bullies harassing a family under the pretense of having smelled weed. And they claim to be public servants.
Police State America

Walter E Williams: Colleges committed to ideological diversity

fromCreators: Students "have to walk on eggshells, respect taboos, snitch on fellow students for politically incorrect jokes and learn to use ad hominem arguments as a means to attack ideas they find "disagreeable."

May 22, 2019


College students believe that hate speech is not free speech

fromNewser:   They are obviously not taught that the First Amendment expressly exists to protect unpopular speech, since popular speech needs no protection.
Indoctrination and Censorship

You’ve been warned: Widespread US face surveillance is ‘imminent reality’, says tech privacy report

fromRT:   Georgetown researchers are warning Americans about a sophisticated real-time face surveillance system that’s about to become an “imminent reality” for millions of citizens across the country.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

US prosecutors to 'help themselves' to Julian Assange's possessions

fromTheGuardian:   Julian Assange’s belongings from his time living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London will be handed over to US prosecutors on Monday, according to WikiLeaks.
The Government is Not Us       Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Walter E Williams: Socialist promises

fromCreators:   Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

His house Is worth $125K. The fine over his lawn Is $30k

fromNewser:   His lawn was higher than ten inches for two months. This is one way local governments are financing their deficit spending.
The Government is Not Us       Regulation Nation

Three reasons flawed capitalism is still better than perfect socialism

fromTheDailyBell:   With the example of suffering Venezuelans right before their eyes, it seems incredible that so many Americans are still buying into the promises of socialism.

May 20, 2019


Why everyone in the U.S. who counts wants Julian Assange dead

fromCommonDreams:   It's not for being a jerk that the Establishment state wants the Wikileaks publisher dead. They want him dead for publishing videos like these. Only the bravest will watch the video contained within.
The Government is Not Us       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    Defense Versus The War Machine

Some US cities are moving into real-time facial surveillance

fromWired:   The lack of federal rules on facial recognition may create a patchwork of surveillance regimes inside the US.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Camille Paglia: Neo feminism teaching women to live in ‘a permanently juvenile condition’

fromCommonDreams:   “What I am saying throughout my work is that girls who are indoctrinated to see men not as equals but as oppressors and rapists are condemned to remain in a permanently juvenile condition for life."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Larry Elder - Reparations for Slavery

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   Commentator/author Larry Elder comments on a scheme to extract money from people who were never slave owners and give it to people who were never slaves.

Federal funding for California bullet train boondoggle formally canceled

fromReason:   Jerry Brown's bait and switch scheme goes up in flames, as taxpayers suffer another ramification of the Obama administration.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Is California ready to ban gas-powered cars? Not yet. But they're thinking about it

fromUSAToday:   Fresh of the high-speed rail fiasco, state politicians plot yet another way to torture citizens.

May 13, 2019


President Trump's tariffs, once described as negotiating tools, may be here to stay

fromGreenwichTime:   Failure of the United States and China to reach agreement Friday on a comprehensive trade deal raises the possibility that high tariffs on imported goods may be a permanent feature of the U.S. economy.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Trump's Claims of Spying

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   From Tucker Carlson Tonight, a look back at Trump’s allegations that the Obama administration was spying on him and the accompanying media coverage as well as the upshot to the story.
Media Bias on Parade        Politics and Other Official Act of Corruption

Food prices to soar thanks to the trade war's tariffs

fromSHTF:   The consequences of the Trump Administration’s trade war on China and other countries will be rising food prices for the American consumer.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The new green serfdom

fromReason:   The Green New Deal is a path to a more militarized and authoritarian society.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Walter E Williams: Higher education in America

fromCreators:   "Colleges should be forced to share in covering loan defaults, namely they need to have some skin in the game. More importantly, Vedder says that we should end or revise the federal student aid program."
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Idaho repeals its regulatory code

fromMercatus:   Forcing a fresh start by repealing the entire regulatory code may be the newest arrow in the red tape cutter’s quiver.

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 26, 2019


California lawmakers propose soda tax, outlawing super-size sugary drinks

fromLATimes:  California's tyrannical politicians cannot stop minding YOUR own business.

How The Jussie Smollett hoax reveals the scope of the surveillance state

fromActivistPost:  Modern technology is changing the approach to justice right before our eyes, as well as the See Something, Say Something citizen watch program.  This is the new surveillance state.

Venezuela aid trucks set ablaze as Maduro tells Trump: "yankee, go home"

fromZeroHedge:  The socialist goals of equality will have been achieved once everyone starves to death.

Study shows concealed carry permit holders break laws far less than cops

fromFreeThoughtProject:  A study of gun statistics across the country found that concealed carry permit holders break the law far less than police officers.

Walter E Williams: Hate crime hoaxes - the bad and the good

fromCreators:  This type of hoax is part and parcel of the left's broad agenda of victimology, fraudulence and gimmickry, plus gross media gullibility, incompetence and political attention seeking.

Trump vs. the FBI: Who are the good guys?

fromDailyBell:  “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” -Frank Herbert, Author of Dune

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.

Feb 6, 2019


Donald Trump: ‘We’ve got to get out of these endless wars’

fromBreitbart:  President Donald Trump detailed his position Sunday on withdrawing troops United States from Afghanistan and Syria.
Defense Verses The War Machine

Major DNA testing company sharing genetic data with the FBI

fromBloomberg:  FamilyTreeDNA is the culprit. Unwitting citizens are paying to have their genetic information sent to the FBI and other government databases.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Are you a woman traveling alone? Marriott might be watching you.

fromReason: The surveillance tactics that have been adopted by hotel chains are part of a disturbing partnership between hospitality businesses and federal law enforcement to track the movements of people, especially women.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

How the drug war eats the poor

fromVice:  According to a new report by the NGO Health Poverty Action, prohibition drives poverty and criminality in places like Brazil and India.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Hawaii considers ban on cigarette sales

fromABC30:  Vice cops look for new products as busybodies seek to mind YOUR own business.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Capitalism has been the bane of poverty worldwide

fromReviewJournal:  Bill Gates noted that the proportion of people on Earth living in extreme poverty has declined from 94 percent in 1820 to below 9 percent today. “Most of the credit … must go to capitalism and free trade.”

Jan 23, 2019


Uncle Sam wants your DNA: The FBI’s diabolical plan to create a nation of suspects

fromRutherfordInstitute: Uncle Sam wants you. Correction: Uncle Sam wants your DNA. Actually, if the government gets its hands on your DNA, they as good as have you in their clutches.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America

Marijuana is legal in California. So why is the CHP arresting delivery drivers?

fromMercedSun-Star: The CHP hasn’t slowed down in cannabis seizures since legalization. In fact, the department seized nearly eight tons of cannabis between January and November of 2018.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange      Police State America

Homeschooling produces better-educated, more-tolerant kids. Politicians hate that

fromReason: Government officials should use the success of the competition as an educational moment.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Big Data meets Big Gov't: New IRS spy software

fromWND: Daniel J. Pilla explains agency's plan to surveil your finances.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Several states invoking nullification to rein In federal government

fromWND: From the Dakotas to Rhode Island to Kentucky, states are increasingly moving to use nullification as a method to curtail what they contend are unconstitutional actions by the U.S. government.
The Government is Not Us

How can we take power away from criminal gangs? Legalize drugs

fromTheGuardian: Prohibition makes our world a more dangerous place, trapping people in poverty

Jan 19, 2019


Congressman slams civil forfeiture as 'a series of government shakedowns'

fromForbes: Under federal law, property owners facing civil forfeiture are essentially guilty until proven innocent and must bear the burden of proof, unlike criminal cases.
Police State America     Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

VIDEO: John Stossel: Government shutdown shows private Is better

fromReason: Shutdown teaches us that much of government is NOT essential.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market       The Government is Not Us

How long can Congress keep pretending marijuana legalization isn’t the norm?

fromCourant: As more states vote to legalize adult recreational use, they are creating a powerful coalition against the federal government, which continues to classify marijuana as an illegal Schedule 1 drug on par with heroin.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

How U.S. surveillance technology is propping up authoritarian regimes

fromWashingtonPost: The sale of technologies such as spyware and facial-recognition systems to human rights abusers enables insidious social control and encroachment on basic civil liberties.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Why they keep coming - The migrant caravans

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A look at the incentives that attract migrants and have politicians blocking attempts to secure the border. Also, a look at the political dynamics driving the government shutdown.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Norway readies 'Big Brother' GPS-based taxation per mile-driven

fromZeroHedge: Coming to a tyranny near you. The idea is to transform the public to electric cars, then make up lost fuel tax revenue with a scheme like this.

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.

Jan 4, 2019


The establishment will never say no to a war

fromNYMag: The question before us is a relatively simple one: What would be the criteria for removing our remaining troops from the Iraqi, Syrian, and more general Middle Eastern conflicts?
Defense Versus The War Machine

Defending a court’s discretion to allow arguments for conscientious acquittal

fromCATOInstitute: Throughout the entire Anglo-American legal tradition, the independence of citizen juries has been understood to be an indispensable structural check on executive and legislative power. Jury nullification!
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

78-Year-Old man in wheelchair evicted to freezing streets for treating pain with legal medical pot

fromFreeThoughtProject: He had to steer his electric wheelchair half a mile in subfreezing temperatures to get to a homeless shelter.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Top 12 debunked climate scares of 2018

fromWaatsUpWithThat: From hurricanes to polar bears, a review of debunked climate change deceptions.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us

fromTheGuardian: We knew that being connected had a price – our data. But we didn’t care. Then it turned out that Google’s main clients included the military and intelligence agencies.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Feds spend $1,788,748 on virtual reality game for young gay men

fromFreeBeacon: Your tax dollars at work. The study, which began during the Obama administration in 2014, recruited young men over Craigslist and Grindr to practice different ways of disclosing they have HIV. 

Dec 24, 2018


Chinese-style social credits system a harbinger of US's future?

fromTownhall: With the nation’s increasing embrace of socialism and the rise of the PC snowflake culture, government intrusion into the minutest details of our lives is a commonplace today, it is not implausible.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Name one government agency that doesn’t do the exact opposite of its purpose

fromDailyBell: Case in point: The EPA and their continuing love affair with Monsanto (one of the worst environmental offenders, besides the government itself), producer of the alleged bee killer, Roundup.
Regulation Nation

Court Rules That Medical Marijuana Card Holders Can't Buy Firearms

fromFortune: In review: State agents (cops) are allowed to carry lethal weapons while under the influence of opiates such as hydrocodone but a citizen is stripped of their Constitutional RIGHTS to protect themselves.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     2nd Amendment Assaults     The Government is Not Us

Voters have high tolerance for politicians who lie, even those caught doing it

fromArcaMax: Even in the face of immediate and authoritative corrections, we humans don't budge easily, or for long, from established opinions about politics, politicians and the coverage they receive.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

'Smart' uniforms track Chinese students in truancy fight

fromFrance24: China today, America tomorrow.

Cops force doctors to sodomize man to look for non-existent drugs, injure him, then make him pay for it

fromFreeThought Project: Cops pulled a man over for failing to signal a turn fast enough and the stop turned into a nightmare in which this man was forced to undergo medical procedures to look for non-existent drugs.