Tag: police state

Property Tax Anger is Growing Across America

Americans are growing increasingly frustrated at property tax levels, a new poll has shown.

According to a new UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll, around two thirds of Americans surveyed believe their property tax rate is too high. The poll was conducted in 2023, between December 14 to 18, with 1,024 participants across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The survey found 69 percent of adults in the U.S. believe their property tax rates were “unfair”, with 27 percent saying they were “about right”, and 3 percent claiming they are taxed too little.

Across the country, property taxes, also known as real-estate taxes, are imposed at a local level, with homeowners in each state paying different amounts. Property taxes go back into local communities, helping to pay for infrastructure improvements, public services and schooling. According to retail lender Rocket Mortgage, the highest rates are applied in New Jersey, Illinois and New Hampshire, whereas the lowest taxes are paid in Hawaii, Alabama and Colorado.

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‘Can’t Make This Up’: Journalist Arrested Under UK Anti-Terror Law Hours After Criticizing It

Richard Medhurst, a Syrian-British independent journalist who defends Palestinians’ right to resist Israeli apartheid, occupation, and other crimes, said this week that he was recently arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly running afoul of a highly controversial anti-terrorism law critics say is used to silence legitimate dissent.

Medhurst – who is known for his work opposing U.S., British, and Israeli war crimes in the Middle East and for his advocacy for formerly imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – said on social media Tuesday: “I criticized the Terrorism Act before getting on the plane, then got arrested under the Terrorism Act upon landing. Can’t make this up.”

In a nearly nine-minute video posted Monday night on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, Medhurst said that “on Thursday, as I landed in London Heathrow Airport, I was immediately escorted off the plane by six police officers who were waiting for me at the entrance of the aircraft.”

“They arrested me – not detained – they arrested me under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 and accused me of allegedly ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a prescribed organization,’ but wouldn’t explain what this meant,” he continued.

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Massachusetts shuts down 12-year-old’s ice cream stand supporting special needs kids

A boy from Norwood, Massachusetts, has gotten creative after town officials shut down his ice cream stand, citing a food code violation.

Danny Doherty, 12, and his mother, Nancy Doherty, began a small stand in their neighborhood with some profits going to a charity that hits close to home for them.

After only one week, they had to stop the sales of their homemade ice cream.

“I think the most disappointing part of that was that someone, one of our neighbors, somebody driving by, decided to take time to complain about a kid’s stand,” Nancy Doherty told Fox News Digital.

“I was really not mad. I’d say more disappointed that [it] happened,” she added. 

When her son became bored during summer vacation, Nancy Doherty gave him the idea to start an ice cream stand and donate half the proceeds to charity.

“I suggested to him, ‘Instead of a lemonade stand, if you really want to generate some interest, why don’t you make ice cream?’” the mom said, noting that her family makes their own ice cream at home.

Danny Doherty loved the idea and worked with his mom to come up with various flavors for his “Tree Street Treats” stand.

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Oath Keepers Attorney Kellye SoRelle Pleads Guilty to J6 ‘Crimes’ – Here’s the Real Story Behind Her Horrific Suffering and How the Biden Regime Locked Her Up in a Psych Ward to Prevent Her from Talking

On Wednesday, Kellye SoRelle, the former attorney for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, pleaded guilty to charges related to the January 6, protests and riot.

The Associated Press reported the news – but sadly, it was another typical disgusting AP propaganda piece filled with lies and half-truths.

SoRelle pleaded guilty to two crimes – one felony and one misdemeanor.

The alleged felony she committed was that SoRelle the vague accusation that she obstructed justice – a complete lie.
The misdemeanor was for standing outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Standing outside the US Capitol was deemed a crime by the Biden regime—these are the same people who are running on “freedom” and “democracy” this year.

What the AP report did not tell you was that the government put Kellye SoRelle through complete hell for over three years since the January 6 Pelosi Insurrection.

And what they don’t tell you is that the demons in the Biden regime even jailed the ATTORNEYS for the J6ers!

The AP reported that SoRelle “reported to” a federal Bureau of Prisons facility for treatment after medical “experts” found her mentally incompetent to stand trial.

They’re not going to tell you what really happened – Here is the rest of the story.

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Zelensky Officially Bans The Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, has adopted a law allowing a ban on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The law was backed by 265 MPs with 226 needed for a majority.

The chairman of the Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said that as a result of the adoption of this law, the UOC “will be prohibited”, and that “the bill provides for its immediate ban.” The law is expected to come into force 30 days after its publication. The move is the latest example of the outright disdain for democratic values and the freedom of religion exemplified by the regime of Ukraine’s unelected leader Volodomir Zelensky.

The bill was drafted on direct instructions from Zelensky. It passed a first reading in the Rada in October 2023, but a second reading was delayed due to fears that it would not have enough votes from MPs and that it would cause discontent in the West. On 16 August 2024, final amendments to the document were made, giving it a new Orwellian name, “For the protection of constitutional order in the field of religious organizations.”

The new state sponsored church organized by the Ukrainian regime had forcibly taken over the churches of the UOC, as well as those of ethnic minorities, and attacked priests. Local authorities deprived the canonical church of the right to lease land to churches. The Security Service of Ukraine, as of November 2023 admitted that authorities have opened 70 criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, 19 of which resulted in convictions and stripping the clergy of citizenship, something unheard of in the civilized world.

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Big Brother Goes Digital: The Feds’ Race to Integrate Mobile IDs in America

The push to develop digital ID and expand its use in the US is receiving a boost as the country’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a new project.

NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has teamed up with 15 large financial and state institutions, as well as tech companies, to research and develop a way of integrating Mobile Driver’s License (mDL) into financial services. But according to NIST, this is just the start and the initial focus of the program.

The agreement represents an effort to tie in yet more areas of people’s lives in their digital ID (“customer identification program requirements” is how NIST’s announcement describes the focus of this particular initiative). These schemes are often criticized by rights advocates for their potential to be used as mass surveillance tools.

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GOP Senators Claim Marijuana Is A ‘Gateway Drug’ As They Oppose Rescheduling And Legalization

Two GOP senators said recently that they remain opposed to marijuana reform—in part, because they believe cannabis is a “gateway drug,” perpetuating the dubious claim as other Republican lawmakers members raise concerns about the Biden administration’s push to enact rescheduling.

In an interview with St. Louis Public Radio that aired on Monday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was asked about his views on various cannabis reform proposals, including comprehensive legalization and bipartisan legislation to protect banks that work with state-licensed marijuana businesses.

“I just think that marijuana is still a gateway drug,” Hawley said. “We have medicinal marijuana, which I did support in Missouri. So if you want to get the medicinal benefits, there’s a way to capture that.” He did caveat, however, that he thinks “the medicinal benefits of it are limited.”

But while he knows the state’s voters have since approved adult-use legalization and would “abide by” the law, he said he didn’t vote for it and “wouldn’t support extending it.”

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Judge Ho rules that geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment” – “general, exploratory rummaging” by law enforcement is ILLEGAL

The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is maintaining its position that so-called geofence warrants, which were used to track Jan. 6, 2021, “insurrection” participants, are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment,” which protects We the People from unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement and other arms of the government.

Judge James C. Ho issued an opinion that while geofence warrants “are powerful tools for investigating and deterring crime,” they overtly violate the U.S. Constitution and the protections it affords to people living in this country.

“The defendants here engaged in a violent robbery – and likely would have gotten away with it, but for this new technology,” Judge Ho wrote. “So I fully recognize that our panel decision today will inevitably hamper legitimate law enforcement interests.”

“But hamstringing the government is the whole point of our Constitution. Our Founders recognized that the government will not always be comprised of publicly-spirited officers – and that even good faith actors can be overcome by the zealous pursuit of legitimate public interests.”

Justice Ho also quoted The Federalist No. 51, at 349 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) which reads in support of his ruling:

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary,” but “experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions” because of “human nature,” which makes it “necessary to control the abuses of government.”

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Digital IDs are coming, whether you like it or not

The Biden administration is reportedly preparing to launch an initiative that could significantly alter the way Americans prove their identities. A draft executive order, which has been reviewed by journalists from Notus (a new, Washington DC-based publication), would push for the widespread adoption of mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) and other forms of digital identification.

If implemented, this would mark a fundamental shift in how citizens interact with government and private sector services online — everything from how you access public benefits to how you verify your age before viewing adult-only content online.

The party line is that we need digital IDs because the government incurred staggering losses as a result of fraudulent claims during the pandemic. Over $100 billion was reportedly lost to unscrupulous unemployment claims between March 2020 and March 2023. Rather than understanding that government had failed in its duty to properly vet claimaints, the Biden administration would rather have us believe these failures highlight vulnerabilities in current identity verification systems such as physical driver’s licenses, which have proven easy to forge. The rise of AI-driven “deep fake” technology just makes matters worse.

They say digital IDs, supported by biometric technologies like facial recognition, are a robust solution. By moving identity documents onto smartphones, the government hopes to create a more secure and efficient way for Americans to verify their identities when accessing both public and private services online.

According to the draft of the executive order obtained by Notus, the Biden administration intends to “strongly encourage the use of digital identity documents” across federal and state levels. The order would mandate federal agencies to adopt a unified identity verification system, Login.gov, as the primary gateway for accessing federal websites. This system would also be made available to state and local governments for integration into their services.

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California’s Digital Plates Plan Raises Privacy Fears

California is one of the US states that have introduced digital license plates, amid opposition from a number of rights advocates.

Now, there is a legislative effort to have GPS location tracking embedded in these, to all intents and purposes, devices attached to the car.

Sponsored by Democrat Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, Bill 3138 is currently making its way through the state’s legislature. It refers to “License plates and registration cards: alternative devices,” and the bill has another sponsor – Reviver.

The company was founded by Neville Boston, formerly of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and promotes itself as the first digital license plates platform. It has made its way to both this proposal, and the law the current draft builds on – AB 984 (also sponsored by Wilson) – which was signed into law two years ago.

The problem with Reviver is that it has already had a security breach that allowed hackers to track those using the company’s digital plates in real-time. It doesn’t help, either, that the company is effectively a monopoly – the only one, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes, “that currently has state authorization to sell digital plates in California.”

Meanwhile, the key problem with AB 3138, warns EFF, is that it “directly undoes the deal from 2022 and explicitly calls for location tracking in digital license plates for passenger cars.”

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