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.

Activists complain bipartisan antitrust law proposal could make online censorship more difficult

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act that is currently making its way through Senate committees before being put up for the final vote, is attracting attention both from those who support it and Big Tech’s lobbyists, who earlier reports said had already launched a broad campaign against it.

The bill that has so far received bipartisan support, aims to significantly limit the way Apple, Amazon, and Google use their monopolistic business practices to undermine competition and antitrust laws.

Either by design or coincidence, it isn’t just openly lobbying firms who are attacking the bill from various angles; they are joined by organizations like Free Press, which claims it is nonpartisan and fighting “for your right to connect and communicate.”

However, in the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, Free Press sees a “flaw” that would, essentially, make connecting and communicating easier – and doesn’t like it. Namely, the bill, if passed, they argue, could prevent censorship, specifically of what’s labeled as “hate speech or misinformation.”

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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries pays just $200 in property taxes thanks to sweetheart subsidy law

Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a potential replacement for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, already lives in a “People’s House” — that’s heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

Public records show that Jeffries and his family reside in a condo unit in red-hot Prospect Heights, paying just $213 a year in property taxes thanks to a sweetheart deal under a law he supported when he served in the state Assembly.

The condo the Jeffries bought in 2007 in the six-story, 40-unit complex on Underhill Avenue benefits from a massive property tax break granted under the 421-A abatement program that housing advocates have long complained is skewed toward wealthy developers and well-to-do tenants.

The law provides developers and residents property tax breaks over 25 or 35 years in exchange for making at least 20 percent of the apartments “affordable” for moderate- to low-income residents.

The generous subsidy program costs the city treasury up to $1.6 billion a year in property tax revenues, according to the comptroller’s office. The median property tax for city homeowners is more than $5,000.

One Staten Island condo owner told The Post their annual property tax bill is $5,000. A Queens homeowner said his bill is more than $9,000.

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Infamous ‘CHAZ’ Leader, Celebrated by MSM, Now Accused of Sick Sex Crimes

Social justice. What does it mean? It depends on whom you ask.

If you ask Solomon “Raz” Simone, the media proclaimed “warlord” of the 2020 Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — the shortlived CHAZ of Seattle, Washington — “social justice” would include a “repurposing” of police, according to an interview Simone gave to Forbes in June.

Simone said he sees community-based self-policing as a viable alternative to traditional law enforcement. This might work out well for Simone. One major responsibility of a warlord is self-policing. In CHAZ, Simone played the part of top cop (even if he demurred at being called a “warlord.”)

But who watches the watchmen? Five women have now filed suit against Simone, a Seattle rapper of some acclaim, and four of them are accusing him of sex-trafficking, according to KUOW-FM in Seattle. Each of the women is seeking $1 million in damages. Simone denies the allegations and, like everybody else in America, is innocent until proven guilty.

But Simone is no stranger to sex and violence. He was there at the beginning of the CHAZ  movement when six blocks of Seattle were occupied after Seattle police were ordered to abandon the East Precinct due to riots sparked by the death of George Floyd, as reported in  The Post Millennial.

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Biden Plans to Give Taxpayer-Funded ‘Legal Services’ to Illegal Aliens

President Joe Biden’s administration is set to roll out a new federal program, funded by American taxpayers, that will provide “legal services” to border crossers and illegal aliens, a new report details.

The plan, first reported by Axios, would ensure that private contractors working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) help provide a range of legal services to border crossers and illegal aliens arriving at United States-Mexico border stations in California, Texas, and Arizona.

Axios’s Stef Kight reports:

It will be for migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, those in Border Patrol custody, in the [Remain in Mexico] program or who may be enrolled in [Remain in Mexico] or otherwise placed in deportation proceedings, according to the published documents on SAM.gov.

Increasing migrant access to legal services has long been a goal of the administration. While the new Legal Access at the Border (LAB) program will help prepare migrants for the immigration legal process, it will not directly provide them attorneys.
…

Contractors will explain the migrants’ options for staying in the U.S. while deportation orders are pending, as well as general immigration court practices and procedures.

The expanded legal services for border crossers and illegal aliens are part of a larger plan by the Biden administration to transform the southern border into a mere checkpoint for foreign nationals seeking entry to the U.S.

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Israel insists it only ‘legally’ spies on citizens

An Israeli minister has denied reports that police illegally used Pegasus surveillance software to spy on the country’s own citizens, calling the “central claim” – that the practice was illegal – “not true.”

Several government investigations were launched this past week after the Israeli newspaper Calcalist reported that law enforcement had been using NSO Group’s infamous Pegasus spyware to illegally intercept the calls of citizens.

The newspaper claimed that police had been using the spyware since 2013 to carry out surveillance on citizens “who were not criminals or suspects.”

Omer Bar-Lev, Israel’s Minister of Public Security, told Channel 12 on Saturday that the allegations were not true, “except for the fact that the Israel Police used advanced technology.”

“The central claim that the police are illegally spying is not true,” he declared, citing the assurances of Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, before claiming to be “very happy that the Israel Police has advanced technological tools to help deal with serious crime organizations that are using advanced technology.”

Commissioner Shabtai vowed on Friday that the police’s “legal use of technological tools” would “continue,” and said the force would carry on “developing and improving these tools.”

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