Tag: police state

Brussels’ New Age Verification App: Hacked in Two Minutes

The European Union’s age verification app arrived on Wednesday with a promise that it was “technically ready” for deployment across the bloc. Within hours, security researchers had torn it apart.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the tool in Brussels as the answer to a continent-wide push to keep minors off social media and adult websites. “It is fully open source. Everyone can check the code,” von der Leyen said. Researchers took her at her word. What they found has turned the launch into exactly the kind of security embarrassment that should make anyone think twice about digital identity systems.

Security consultant Paul Moore published a widely shared post on X documenting what he discovered after examining the GitHub repository. The app stores sensitive data on users’ phones and leaves it unprotected. Moore claimed he hacked it in under two minutes.

Brussels is standing by its product. “Yes, it is ready. Maybe we can add, ‘and it can always be improved’,” Chief Spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters Friday. Digital spokesperson Thomas Regnier added a revealing clarification. “Now, when we say it’s a final version, it’s … still a demo version.” He said the final product is not yet available for citizens and “the code will be constantly updated and improved … I cannot today exclude or prejudge if further updates will be required or not.”

Moore led the technical takedown on X, describing the app’s architecture as broken at the foundation. The encrypted PIN the app stores locally, according to Moore, has no cryptographic link to the identity vault holding the actual verification data.

That gap enables a bypass that requires no exploit code or specialized tools. Delete a few specific values from the app’s configuration files, restart the app, set a new PIN, and the software happily hands over access to credentials that belong to the previous profile. Identity data gets reused under whatever access control the attacker defines.

The weaknesses deepen from there. Rate limiting, the standard defense against someone trying PIN after PIN until one works, lives in the same editable configuration file as a plain counter. Set it to zero and the app forgets every failed attempt.

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Digital Currency and the End of Financial Privacy

The push toward digital currency is being framed as innovation and efficiency, but when you strip away the marketing language, what is unfolding is a structural transformation of the financial system that shifts control away from individuals and concentrates it within governments and central banks. The Bank for International Settlements has confirmed that more than 90% of central banks are now actively researching, developing, or piloting central bank digital currencies, which is not coincidence or experimentation but a coordinated global direction. This aligns directly with what I have been warning, that when governments face a sovereign debt crisis they will turn to mechanisms that allow them to monitor and control capital flows because they cannot solve the debt problem through traditional means.

In the United States, more than 95% of transactions are already digital in some form, whether through credit cards, debit systems, ACH transfers, or mobile payment platforms, which means the infrastructure for surveillance is already largely in place. Cash has not been eliminated yet, but it has been marginalized, and that is the first step because once transactions become digital, every movement of money creates a permanent record. Governments already have the ability to access financial data through banks, but a central bank digital currency removes the intermediary entirely and places that visibility directly within a centralized system controlled by the state.

This is where the real shift takes place because a CBDC is not simply a digital version of existing currency, it is a programmable financial instrument. That means money itself can be controlled, restricted, or directed according to policy decisions. Transactions could be approved or denied in real time, spending could be limited to certain categories, and funds could even be given expiration dates to force consumption. These are not theoretical concerns as these capabilities have already been discussed openly in central bank reports and demonstrated in pilot programs around the world, including China’s digital yuan, which integrates payment systems with state oversight.

The connection to the sovereign debt crisis is critical because governments are reaching a point where they cannot sustain spending without either raising taxes, inflating the currency, or imposing controls on capital. Digital currency provides a mechanism to do all three simultaneously. Real-time taxation becomes possible because transactions can be monitored instantly, eliminating the lag between earning and reporting income. Capital controls can be enforced automatically by restricting transfers, preventing withdrawals, or limiting how funds are used. Inflation can be managed politically by directing spending into specific sectors or suppressing activity in others. This is the level of control that governments have never had before, and it changes the entire structure of the financial system.

The transition is being rolled out gradually because it cannot be imposed overnight without resistance. Digital systems will continue to coexist with cash and traditional banking for a period of time, but the direction is clear. As digital adoption increases, incentives will be introduced to encourage usage while restrictions on cash will slowly expand. Limits on cash transactions, reporting requirements, and regulatory pressure on banks are all part of this process. Eventually, participation in the digital system becomes not a choice but a necessity because alternatives are either restricted or eliminated.

There is also a geopolitical dimension to this shift because digital currencies can be used to bypass existing financial networks such as SWIFT, allowing countries to conduct transactions outside the traditional Western-dominated system. At the same time, within domestic economies, these systems give governments the ability to enforce policy at the individual level. This creates a dual structure where digital currencies are used externally to avoid sanctions and internally to impose control, and that combination is what makes this development so significant.

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California’s “Stop Nick Shirley Act” Would Penalize Journalism

California’s Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee voted 11-2 on April 7 to advance a bill that would let employees and volunteers at immigration service organizations demand the deletion of their images and personal information from the internet, backed by civil penalties starting at $4,000 and the threat of criminal charges.

AB 2624, authored by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, is already being called the “Stop Nick Shirley Act.”

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

The bill arrives just weeks after investigative video creator Nick Shirley published a 40-minute video on alleged hospice fraud in California that racked up 42 million views on X.

Other investigations have found that a single program is causing the state to lose an alleged $6 billion in fraud annually. Shirley had already reported on over $110 million in Somali daycare fraud in Minnesota in December 2025, with empty facilities billing taxpayers while kids were nowhere to be found.

His California reporting uncovered an alleged $170 million in similar fraud in daycares and hospices, with ghost operations registered to empty lots and strip malls. Sacramento’s response to this flood of documented waste and abuse was not an audit, not an investigation into the programs themselves, but a bill to make it harder to film the people running them.

Under AB 2624, anyone affiliated with an organization providing “designated immigration support services” can send a written demand prohibiting the publication of their personal information or image online.

That demand remains effective for four years, even after the person leaves the organization. If the demand is ignored, the person can go to court for an injunction or declaratory relief.

Fines run up to three times the actual damages, with a floor of $4,000, meaning the minimum penalty triples to $12,000 in cases where a takedown demand is defied. If a journalist or anyone else is accused of posting information with the intent to incite harm, they face criminal charges and fines of $10,000.

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Louisiana advances bill to funnel homeless people into forced treatment and unpaid labor

Yesterday, the Louisiana House of Representatives took the dangerous step of voting in favor of a truly disgusting anti-homeless bill. This bill is an extreme take on the already extreme copy-paste legislation peddled by the Palantir-funded, billionaire-backed Cicero Institute. In addition to making it a crime to sleep outside, this bill forces homeless people charged with a crime to make the false choice between jail or at least one year of forced treatment. 

But it gets worse.  

This bill requires homeless people to pay for the very treatment they are forced into. And if the person cannot pay the cost of treatment, this bill requires them to perform unpaid labor for the government or a community organization to pay off their debt. Louisiana has a long history – and present – of chain gangs, prison labor, and entrenched white supremacy. This bill clearly evokes debtor’s prisons, convict leasing, and the ugliest day of Jim Crow.   

We can all agree that the creation of a two-tiered justice system, where people are punished differently for the same crime depending simply on whether or not they are homeless, is just too extreme.  

Louisiana Governor Landry cites Donald Trump’s anti-homeless policies to justify his support of this heinous bill.  But this is not just about Louisiana – it reveals just how far many states might be willing to go to align themselves with Trump’s extreme, anti-homeless agenda. Politicians from Donald Trump on down would rather blame homeless people than use their power to address the sky-high rents that are the leading cause of homelessness.  

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California’s ‘GTFO’ Act Disqualifies ICE Agents from Local Public Employment

California’s proposed “GTFO Act” is exactly what it sounds like: “Get the Feds Out.” Well, that’s what they claim it means.

Assembly Bill 1896 by Assemblyman Mark González (D-Los Angeles), would bar ICE agents or Department of Homeland Security employees who participated in immigration enforcement during the second Trump administration from holding any public employment in California. Gonzalez claims ICE agents ignored “unlawful orders.”

AB 1896 “Disqualifies individuals who engaged in immigration enforcement activity between January 20, 2025, and January 20, 2029 from holding state, county, or local public employment in California, with exceptions for allowed conduct already permissible under SB 54, California’s law protecting community trust.”

Assemblyman González calls ICE agents “killers, terror instigators, and kidnappers.”

In March, the Globe reported that California Democrats were already seeking to disqualify federal immigration and DHS agents from future employment as California state or local police, or sheriffs, and prevent them from applying for tax breaks, because they oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

In short, this is a retroactive and prospective bar on hiring people who participated in federal immigration enforcement work during the Trump administration for any California public job.

This is the rock-bottom state of politics in California. Democrats have nothing to offer California citizens – they already gave away all of the free stuff. So they are appealing to illegal immigrants instead, prioritizing those here illegally over legal citizens and residents of the State of California.

Federal immigration law is supreme under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, meaning states cannot enact their own immigration codes, create conflicting criminal penalties for immigration violations, or directly regulate who may enter or remain in the country, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 in Arizona v. United States. The federal government holds primary authority over immigration and naturalization.

Apparently, Democrats have chosen take out their Trump Derangement Syndrome on federal law enforcement officers… because securing U.S. borders, protecting the American people against invasion, and guaranteeing the country protection against invasion displaces future Democrat voters and welfare recipients.

California is violating federal law with this bill, and many others.

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Turkey To Require National ID for Social Media Accounts

Every social media account in Turkey is about to be tied to a government-issued identity number. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced on April 3 that global platforms have agreed to the system and that a three-month transition begins once legislation passes parliament. Accounts that remain unverified get shut down.

“Social media will now be accessed with real information and personal identity. We have reached an agreement with social media platforms,” Gürlek said. He didn’t name which companies signed on.

The plan requires users to submit their TC Kimlik number, the unique 11-digit identifier assigned to every Turkish citizen from birth, linked to government databases containing names, birth dates, family records, and biometric data. Gürlek framed anonymous accounts as engines of disinformation and harassment. “If someone insults others or carries out a smear campaign online, they must face the consequences,” he said.

The official justification doesn’t survive contact with Turkey’s own record. Cybersecurity specialists have pointed out that IP addresses and internet access logs already let authorities trace anonymous users. The government doesn’t need your national ID on every post. It needs you to know it’s there.

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Gay D.C. police lieutenant arrested on child porn charges

D.C. police announced on April 14 that they have placed one of their lieutenants, Matthew Mahl, on administrative leave and revoked his police powers after receiving information that he was arrested in Maryland one day earlier.  

Although the initial D.C. police announcement doesn’t disclose the reason for the arrest it refers to a statement by the Harford County, Md. Sheriff’s Office that discloses Mahl has been charged with sexual solicitation of a minor and child porn solicitation.

“On Tuesday, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office contacted MPD’s Internal Affairs Division shortly after arresting Lieutenant Matthew Mahl,” the D.C. police statement says.

“The allegations in this case are extremely disturbing, and in direct contrast to the values of the Metropolitan Police Department,” the statement continues. “MPD’s Internal Affairs Division will investigate violations of MPD policy once the criminal investigation concludes,” it says.

“MPD is not involved in the criminal investigation and was not aware of the investigation until yesterday,” the statement adds.

Mahl served as acting supervisor of the MPD’s then Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit in 2013 when he held the rank of sergeant. D.C. police officials placed him on administrative leave and suspended his police powers that same year while investigating an undisclosed allegation.

A source familiar with the investigation said Mahl was cleared of any wrongdoing a short time later and resumed his police duties. Around the time he was promoted to lieutenant several years later Mahl took on the role as chairman of the D.C. Police Union, becoming the first known openly gay officer to hold that position.

NBC 4 reports that Mahl, 47, has served on the police force for 23 years and most recently was assigned to the department’s Special Operations Division.

Records related to Mahl’s arrest filed in Harford County District Court, show Sheriff’s Department investigators state in charging documents that he allegedly committed the offenses of Sexual Solicitation of a Minor and Child Porn Solicitation on Monday, April 13, one day before he was arrested on April 14.   

The court records show he was held without bond during his first appearance in court on April 14. A decision on whether he would be released while awaiting trial or continue to be held without bond was scheduled to be determined during an April 15 bond hearing. The outcome of that hearing could not be immediately determined.  

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‘Happy Tax Day’: NYC Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani Posts Menacing Message to New Yorkers

No one loves April 15th more than Democrats as they dream and plan how to spend your money.

On tax day, radical communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a menacing message to New Yorkers, reminding them that he is coming for them.

The video starts out with Mamdani telling viewers, “When I ran for mayor, I said I was gonna tax the rich.”

Then, with a grin and an attempt at a bit of Hollywood flair (which translated into creepiness), he leaned menacingly into the camera, tapped the lens and declared, “Well, today we’re taxing the rich.”

“I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city. Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.”

“This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich, those who store their wealth in New York City real estate but who don’t actually live here.”

“But even so, they’re able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property in, dare I say, the greatest city in the world. And most of the time, these units are sitting empty since, again, they don’t actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers.”

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House GOP passes short-term FISA deal amid Republican infighting

The House unanimously passed a short-term extension of the nation’s spy powers early Friday morning after GOP rebels dramatically rejected a late-night, last-minute deal to extend the measure for five years. 

Instead, the bill pushes the expiration of the powers to April 30 from April 20, while adding some additional reforms and language intended to woo the holdouts.

The move buys time for leaders to figure out how to address Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after the deal crumbled, while avoiding a lapse in the authorization that expires on April 20. The Senate, which gavels back in at 10 a.m. EDT Friday morning, must still pass the stopgap and get it to President Trump’s desk by the Monday deadline.

In a 200-220 vote at about 1:15 a.m. Friday morning, 12 Republicans voted with almost all Democrats against accepting the deal, text of which was revealed just hours before the vote, after two days of meetings and delays.

Republican opposition to the amendment came not only from right-wing members who pushed for more substantial reforms and who had spent hours negotiating the package with leadership, but also from some House Intelligence Committee members who had pushed for a straight reauthorization of the program.

Soon after, a procedural vote to advance a clean, 18-month reauthorization of program racked up enough votes to fail moments later, but GOP leaders held the vote open as they hashed out a fallback option.

That procedural vote, which members of the House Freedom Caucus had long objected to, officially failed in a 197-228 vote, with 20 Republicans voting against it and four Democrats — Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Jared Golden (Maine), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), and Tom Suozzi (N.Y.) — casting highly unusual votes to vote in favor of the rule, which is normally a test of party strength.

The House then brought up new legislation to extend the FISA authorization from April 20 to April 30, passing it by unanimous consent just after 2 a.m. and adjourning the House until Monday — canceling a day of previously-scheduled votes on Friday.

“We were very close tonight,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said walking off the floor in the wee hours of Friday morning. “There’s some nuances with the language and some questions that need to be answered, and we’ll get it done. The extension allows us the time to do that.”

“FISA is a critical national security tool. It’s also a very complicated piece of legislation, and what we’re trying to do is thread the needle of ensuring that we have this essential tool to keep Americans safe but also safeguard our constitutional rights, and making sure that the abuses of FISA in the past are no longer possible,” Johnson said.

It was a remarkable sequence of events even by the standards of the super-slim House majority that has given Republican leaders consistent headaches in advancing must-pass legislation.

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‘Unprecedented Mass Surveillance’: Bipartisan Senators Warn Of Privacy Threat Tied To FISA Renewal

Bipartisan senators are warning that a privacy threat tied to artificial intelligence (AI) could result in mass surveillance of American citizens if the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) does not include sufficient guardrails.

Efforts to renew the federal surveillance law ahead of its expiration have been complicated as House GOP leaders scramble to secure enough support to pass a clean 18-month extension aligned with President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s requests, according to a Politico report. Both are pushing to reauthorize the law without changes before Monday’s deadline.

The growing power of AI is driving new worries among both Republicans and Democrats about government agencies’ warrantless purchases of Americans’ sensitive data.

Commercially available information obtained from data brokers for criminal investigations, military operations and national security circumvents constitutional restrictions on information agencies can gather from Americans, Politico reported.

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