Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Criticism of Canada’s Digital ID is dismissed as based on “misinformation”

There is pushback in Canada against the introduction of digital ID programs – but proponents of these schemes are referring to criticism based on civil liberties and privacy concerns as, “digital ID misinformation.”

Reports to this effect are appearing, spurred by a petition launched by the Ontario Party, that calls for “zero tolerance” toward the implementation of such programs in the province.

At the same time, IdentityNORTH – which says it brings together Canadian and global leaders to discuss “the big ideas and innovations” driving digital transformation – was holding its spring workshop.

The petition, meanwhile, calls on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to prevent the planned introduction of a comprehensive Digital ID program, that would centralize citizens’ personal, financial, business, medical, and social information, and assign each an ID number.

In view of the fact that Canada’s central banks, and others around the world, plan to also introduce their own digital currencies, these would eventually also become part of digital IDs, the Ontario Party warned.

And that, in turn, spells trouble for civil liberties and privacy rights, creating “clear opportunities” for abuse by the authorities, the party believes.

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‘If we do this right …’: The new Dem organizing strategy catching fire ahead of the midterms

A group of Democratic strategists is trying to spread a novel organizing tactic in this year’s election. Technically, it’s called “paid relational organizing,” but it boils down to this: paying people to talk to their friends about politics.

Democrats think it helped them win the Senate in 2020 — and are hoping the get-out-the-vote strategy will help limit the pain of a brutal 2022 election environment.

Conversations with friends, family members or neighbors are more likely to earn a voter’s support than chats with a stranger at their front door, which is the traditional way campaigns have run paid canvassing programs in the past. And an important test case for deploying the strategy at scale came out of the Georgia Senate runoffs in 2021 when now-Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-Ga.) campaign, flush with nearly unlimited cash but only two months to spend it, used a paid and volunteer relational program to get people talking to acquaintances instead of strangers about the election.

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Fury as theatre company stages naked show exploring ‘sexuality, sexual pleasure and queerness’ aimed at children as young as FIVE

A theatre company has sparked fury by staging a show featuring naked bodies that explores ‘love, sexuality and sexual pleasure’ aimed at children as young as five.

The Family Sex Show’s producers boast it’s a performance for families about sex and relationships – with parents encouraged to bring their children along.

The website describes it as ‘a fun and silly performance about the painfully awkward subject of sex, exploring names and functions, boundaries, consent, pleasure, queerness, sex, gender and relationships.

It goes on: ‘Using real life bodies, personal stories, songs and movement, The Family Sex Show puts the good stuff at the forefront of conversation and imagines a future where there is no shame; but a celebration of difference, equality and liberation.’

But the show has prompted outrage from parents who are considering protesting outside Bath’s Theatre Royal when it opens next month.

The backlash began on the social media site Mumsnet after a user called Matthew Taylor posted: ‘This show is aimed at children five years old and up. The performers get naked. The discussion with the children is on sex, sexuality and sexual pleasure.

‘I cannot imagine bringing a five-year-old child to a theatre where people will tell her/him about sex and show their naked bodies to her/him. Am I the crazy one?’

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“Gary Is Just Making Up Random #s” – San Francisco Homeless Officials Caught Lying About Fabricated Data

The operator of San Francisco’s supervised drug use site fabricated the number of people who the site allegedly served, according to a San Francisco Department of Public Health executive, whose emails were released as part of California’s Public Records Act.

“I think Gary is just making up random #s,” wrote Dr. Rob Hoffman, Special Project Manager with the San Francisco Department of Health, in a February 8 email to other city employees including ones with the Department of Emergency Management and city homeless service agencies.

Gina McDonald, co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Deaths, filed the public records request, and was the first to report that of the 23,367 drug users who have visited the Tenderloin Linkage Center, just 18 have received drug treatment. 

The Gary in question is Gary McCoy, an employee of city contractor HealthRight360, which is one of the private sector operators of the Tenderloin Linkage Center, which San Francisco Mayor London Breed created last December as part of her proposed crackdown on the open drug market in United Nations Plaza in downtown San Francisco.

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