Tag: police state

Why the Government Won’t Protect You: The Shocking Truth Behind Their Inaction

Our country is in serious trouble. The government is supposed to protect its citizens, defend our borders, and ensure our prosperity. But what we see today is a government that seems to be doing the exact opposite. Critical issues like illegal immigration, foreign ownership of our land, the national debt, and international conflicts are being ignored—or worse, allowed to fester while the American people are left to pay the price.

It’s hard to look at what’s happening and not feel betrayed by those who claim to represent us. We deserve better, but if we don’t act soon, it might be too late.

Why Is China Buying Our Farmland?

Here’s a major red flag: foreign entities—especially those with ties to the Chinese government—are buying up U.S. farmland. And it’s not just about farmland. It’s the strategic locations of these purchases that should concern every American.

Why is this allowed to happen? Why isn’t the government stepping in to stop foreign adversaries from buying pieces of America? The answer is simple: profit. Politicians and their allies benefit financially from these deals. This isn’t about national security for them—it’s about money and power.

If our leaders truly cared about safeguarding the country, they would put a stop to this immediately. Instead, they’re letting it happen, knowing full well the long-term risks this poses to our national security and food supply. The government has been compromised by its own greed.

The National Debt: A Crisis That Can’t Be Ignored

As of 2024, the U.S. national debt has soared past $35 trillion. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s more than $100,000 of debt for every single American citizen. The government is spending money it doesn’t have, and future generations will be the ones forced to pay the price.

But here’s the part that really should get your attention: a significant portion of this debt is owned by foreign countries, including China. The same nation that’s buying our farmland also holds a large part of our financial future. Every dollar we borrow is another step closer to losing control of our own destiny.

So why isn’t the government tackling this problem? Why do politicians keep borrowing and spending like there’s no tomorrow? It’s because they don’t care about the long-term consequences. They’ll be out of office by the time the bill comes due, leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. Meanwhile, they get to look good by funding expensive programs and racking up political points, all at your expense.

This reckless spending has to stop. The national debt isn’t just a number on a page; it’s a ticking time bomb. And when it goes off, it won’t be the politicians who suffer—it will be everyday Americans.

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Swedish Police Want to Fight Crime with Live Facial Recognition

The Swedish police want to use facial recognition in real time to crack down on serious crimes.

Government investigators have already drafted a bill that will make it possible to use the technology. The regulation, however, still needs to be completed before it can be tabled, National Police Chief Petra Lundh told publicly funded radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio last week.

Lundh also noted that the legislation must comply with the EU AI Act and could potentially be temporary until crime rates settle down.

Sweden has been experiencing a flood of gang-related attacks, including firearms and explosives, leading the Scandinavian country to crown itself with the title of highest per capita gun violence rate in the European Union. Police Chief Lundh believes law enforcement agencies could use cameras to find suspects.

“It is not unusual that we have a picture of the likely perpetrator, but then we cannot find him or her,” Lundh says.

The suggestion has already been met with criticism. The technology could make incorrect matches for people with dark skin leading to perceptions that the AI is racist, says lawyer Kristofer Stahre.

“I am worried about what consequences it may have for the Swedish people,” he says.

The Swedish government has been working on expanding the use of biometric data in policing on other fronts.

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Crown cover-up? When the state turned on its victims

It was a short statement, uttered in the dry atmosphere of an international legal forum in Geneva 10 years ago. It passed unnoticed at the time. To many New Zealanders the statement would appear uncontroversial, even self-evident. But the statement was wrong. Badly wrong. And the person who uttered those words should have known better. If she’d briefed herself properly she quite likely would have.

The statement was made by the Minister of Justice at the time, Judith Collins, on behalf of New Zealand. She was appearing before the United Nations as part of New Zealand’s regular obligation to give an account of itself and its adherence to various UN conventions. Usually New Zealand takes an approach of nothing-to-see-here nonchalance.

But in 2014 a delegate from Iran had the temerity to challenge New Zealand’s casual attitude.

“We would like to express our concern over a number of human rights issues in the country as follows.

“Ensuring safeguards to protect the rights of minorities from discrimination and marginalisation which pose them a higher risk of torture and ill-treatment.”

The Iranian delegate continued to rattle off a bunch of other concerns, such as discrimination in the justice system.

After other countries gave their views, Collins gave a response for New Zealand, which she read from prepared notes. However, she paused for emphasis and looked up from her notes when responding to Iran, singling out the allegation of torture.

“In response to Iran, I can advise that there is no state torture in New Zealand.” 

The problem with this statement is that it wasn’t true.

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Expanding censorship European Style –– arrests, dire warning ‘Face the Consequences’

It’s not just happening in the U.S. Europe is also seeing shocking battles over censorship of speech.

In August, the government of the United Kingdom issued an ominous “Think before you post” statement, saying social media posts that some consider hateful are harmful could get you arrested. 

“Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences,” the government warned. 

A new documentary titled “We Will Not Be Silenced” tells the true story of censorship of a UK-based podcast titled “London Real.” Brian Rose hosts the podcast and he tells me what happened when a widely-viewed episode was deleted and banned by YouTube. 

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Under Kamala Harris, Americans Can Say ‘Good-Bye’ To Their Sacred Rights To Speak Freely, Worship, Assemble, Bear Arms, and Vote

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have made a penchant for chastising “hate speech” and “misinformation” on the campaign trail this election season.  While those words might not seem like much to those less familiar with how our constitutional form of government, and specifically the First Amendment, is supposed to work, they are offensive to those of us who understand a thing or two about the Constitution – particularly, the notable omission of a so-called “hate speech” clause.

In truth, liberals like Kamala and Walz are merely playing with words (and not particularly well) doing their best to not tell people what they truly believe.  However, Kamala and Walz are so incompetent that it should be plainly obvious to any attentive listener of what they mean by “hate speech”: they abhor – and, insidiously, think should be unlawful –any criticism personally directed at them or their woke policies.  Kamala’s leftist ideology thrives in the dark; it cannot sustain under the piercing bright light of truth.  That is why the Left – and the Democratic Party – is hellbent on silencing their critics, especially Donald Trump, by any means necessary.  The old adage is that when the ballot fails, the bullet becomes the last option.  So far, the Left has managed to rig a presidential election and install a dummy president, as well as twice attempt to kill Donald Trump. And yet, despite the titanic forces of opposition against him, is as of this writing now leading in every single one of the seven key battleground states on Real Clear Politics (he only needs to win 3 or 4 to take the electoral college).

The problem with establishing artificial barriers on speech – devised not out of reason, but emotion – is that it limits the great possibilities for a nation, economically, culturally, and technologically, stymying progress and setting the country back decades, if not centuries.  “The closing of the American mind” is a real and present danger, and it is readily manifested in the policies and persona of Kamala Harris, who, in addition to being a diehard liberal, certainly lacks the mental powers to fathom the ideas that spawned the great innovations of our country’s past and are required to – in a phrase – “build back better.”  Part of this has to do with the decades-long assault on speech, which only appeases the dregs of society, who lack the reasoning faculties to contribute anything of substance.  By pandering to the lowest common denominator (which is the only advantage of regulating free speech at all in modern societies), it allows those less intellectually and naturally gifted to receive an artificial leg up, because on an otherwise level platform, they would easily be stampeded by their natural superiors.

But the downside of this, particularly over an extended period of time, is that all of society ossifies – we become paralyzed in this constant and false belief to cater to those who contribute, relatively speaking, nothing meaningful to the collective good.  In turn, those who are the most gifted – the innovators, creative geniuses, and visionary statesmen – are forced into playing along with this ridiculous charade.  The dregs of society manipulate mass opinion, and particularly Christian sentimentality, by exploiting feelings of guilt or self-righteous envy, admonishing those who do not invest everything in the dregs in the vilest of terms – racist, bigot, xenophobe, homophobe.  The more gullible of the productive group are duped into believing their pandering is moral or virtuous, when in fact it simply is accommodating to the malignant dictates of communists, spiritual if not actual, who should be spurned wholesale for the cancerous blight they thrust onto the rest of us

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Facebook Faces Heat for Blocking Report on Arrest of US Journalist in Israel

Facebook has come under scrutiny for censoring an article by Matt Orfalea that reported on the arrest of American journalist Jeremy Loffredo in Israel. Loffredo was arrested shortly after publishing a detailed investigative report on Iranian missile strikes near significant Israeli military and intelligence locations, including an Israeli Air Force base and Mossad headquarters.

Loffredo has since been released pending an investigation and is not allowed to leave the country.

Orfalea’s article highlighted the circumstances surrounding Loffredo’s arrest and his findings that reportedly contradicted some official Israeli statements about the missile attacks.

According to the Times of Israel, as noted by Orfaela, “The exact locations of such impacts and damage are barred from publication by the IDF censor.”

Facebook’s censorship of Orfalea’s piece raises significant concerns about freedom of the press and the role of social media platforms in moderating content related to sensitive geopolitical issues. Orfalea questioned the transparency and fairness of Facebook’s content moderation processes, especially given the public interest in Loffredo’s arrest and the broader implications for press freedom.

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Chinese Hackers Used U.S. Government-Mandated Wiretap Systems

For as long as law enforcement has sought a way to monitor people’s conversations—though they’d only do so with a court order, we’re supposed to believe—privacy experts have warned that building backdoors into communications systems to ease government snooping is dangerous. A recent Chinese incursion into U.S. internet providers using infrastructure created to allow police easy wiretap access offers evidence, and not for the first time, that weakening security for anybody weakens it for everybody.

“A cyberattack tied to the Chinese government penetrated the networks of a swath of U.S. broadband providers, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests,” The Wall Street Journal reported last week. “For months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communications data.”

Among the companies breached by the hacker group, dubbed “Salt Typhoon” by investigators, are Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies. The group is just one of several linked to the Chinese government that has targeted data and communications systems in the West.

While the Journal report doesn’t specify, Joe Mullin and Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believe the wiretap-ready systems penetrated by the Chinese hackers were “likely created to facilitate smooth compliance with wrong-headed laws like CALEA.” CALEA, known in full as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, dates back to 1994 and “forced telephone companies to redesign their network architectures to make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap digital telephone calls,” according to an EFF guide to the law. A decade later it was expanded to encompass internet service providers, who were targeted by Salt Typhoon.

“That’s right,” comment Mullin and Cohn. “The path for law enforcement access set up by these companies was apparently compromised and used by China-backed hackers.”

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San Francisco Bay Area Reinstates Mask Mandates as Flu Season Approaches

As COVID-19 cases increase, mask mandates are being reinstated in several counties around California.

Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area will be required to wear masks in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other healthcare facilities as flu and cold season begin, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The mandate will take effect from Nov. 1 to either Mar. 31 or April 30, 2025, the outlet reports.

Health officials are implementing the mandate as an attempt to decrease the risk of spreading COVID, the flu and other respiratory viruses during the winter and early spring in medical settings.

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What Happens When FEMA Buys Your House?

It’s been a rough hurricane season. Between them, Hurricanes Helene and Milton have devastated many communities throughout the southeast. Rebuilding what was lost will take years. 

But as devastating as these storms have been, they are sadly not unique. Property damage from storms and flooding is on the rise. Storms resulting in over a billion dollars in damages have become more frequent in recent years. 

The prospect of repeatedly having to rebuild properties in storm-prone areas has led some governments to pursue an unusual solution to the problem: buy the properties themselves. Some local governments, in partnership with federal agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), have developed programs that use disaster relief funds to purchase homes in flood- or storm-prone areas. This isn’t the only way, or even the best way, to reduce the destruction from increasingly severe natural catastrophes. But the idea is that keeping such vulnerable properties vacant will save money in the long run because they won’t need to be continually rebuilt after storms.

Such buyouts are hardly ideal and can lead to some perverse situations. In 2021, an NPR investigation revealed that HUD was selling homes in flood-prone areas to unsuspecting buyers even as it was buying out homes in the same neighborhoods under a flood mitigation program. While not ideal, in a world where government disaster relief is a given, a voluntary buyout program could make fiscal sense in some circumstances. Voluntary buyout programs have been implemented in over a thousand counties and have been used to relocate almost 50,000 households throughout the country. 

The situation is very different when the buyout ceases to be voluntary. A little-known provision in the Hazard Mitigation and Relocation Assistance Act of 1993 authorizes local governments to implement a mandatory buyout program for flood-prone areas. So far, just three localities—Cedar Rapids in Iowa, Minot in North Dakota, and Harris County in Texas—have adopted a mandatory buyout program. The Harris County program is the largest of the three and is expected to forcibly purchase 585 households and 390 businesses by 2026 and turn the land into green space.  

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Israeli jails Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo, releases him pending investigation

The criminal case against the American reporter fell apart after an Israeli journalist testified that his own article containing Loffredo’s full video report had cleared military censorship. Yet Israel refuses to let Loffredo leave the country.

On October 11, journalist Jeremy Loffredo was ordered released from Israeli jail.

Israeli soldiers had arrested the Jewish-American reporter and three other journalists at a checkpoint in the West Bank on October 8. According to one of the jailed reporters, the soldiers blindfolded them tightly, roughed them up and hauled them off to detention in Jerusalem. While Loffredo’s colleagues were released after 11 hours, the “Judea and Samaria” division of the Israeli police opened an investigation into Loffredo for supposedly “aiding the enemy in a time of war.”

The Israeli police’s accusation related to Loffredo’s video report for The Grayzone covering the aftermath of Iranian missile strikes aimed at Israeli military installations. According to the police, Jeremy had revealed “the locations of missile drops near or inside sensitive security facilities, with the aim of bringing this to the notice of the enemy, and thereby assisting them in their future attacks.”

Watch Jeremy Loffredo’s report, “On the ground investigating Iran’s strikes on Israel” here.

On October 9, an Israeli court declared it had “reasonable suspicion” to extend the journalist’s imprisonment. At a hearing the next day, the police insisted to Magistrate’s Court Judge Zion Sahrai that Loffredo was not an actual journalist, but did not present any evidence that he was pursuing a hostile ulterior agenda.

A journalist from the Israeli publication YNet countered the innuendo from the police by pointing out that the military censor approved his own article in which a tweet containing Loffredo’s full video report for The Grayzone was embedded. 

Judge Sahrai ordered Loffredo’s release, stating that since Israeli military censors agreed to allow Ynet to publish both “word of [Jeremy’s] arrest and the publications that led to his arrest,” Israel could “no longer justify his continued detention.”

However, the police appealed Sahrai’s decision, protesting that the censor only approved the YNet article retroactively, and would have never done so if it had been submitted in advance.

That police also complained that Loffredo had refused to unlock his phone for them, insisting they needed more time to crack the device. “We believe that we will find things on the phone and we will be able to link him [to the alleged crime],” a police representative stated.

That argument did not hold water with Jerusalem District Court Judge Hana Miriam Lomp, however. “The Court of First Instance did not err when it ordered the release of the respondent,” Judge Lomp stated during the October 11 appeal. “From the detailed investigative actions there is no fear of disruption [from Jeremy], and in light of the reasons stated above, the cause of the danger is also not clear.”

Though Lomp ordered the journalist be released, she gave police until October 20 to continue their digital strip search. Until then, Loffredo will remain without his passport and will not be permitted to return home to his family in the US.

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