Tag: police state

‘Big Brother’ isn’t just watching — He’s changing how your brain works

Every time you walk down a city street, electronic eyes are watching. From security systems to traffic cameras, surveillance is ubiquitous in modern society. Yet these cameras might be doing more than just recording our movements: according to a new study that peers into the psychology of surveillance, they could be fundamentally altering how our brains process visual information.

While previous research has shown that surveillance cameras can modify our conscious behavior – making us less likely to steal or more inclined to follow rules – a new study published in Neuroscience of Consciousness suggests that being watched affects something far more fundamental: the unconscious way our brains perceive the world around us.

“We found direct evidence that being conspicuously monitored via CCTV markedly impacts a hardwired and involuntary function of human sensory perception – the ability to consciously detect a face,” explains Associate Professor Kiley Seymour, lead author of the study, in a statement.

Keep reading

Five Falsehoods About The Anti-ESG Movement

Proponents of ESG (environmental, social, and governance factors used in corporate decision-making) argue they are merely improving long-term decision-making.

Meanwhile, critics argue that ESG is in practice a Trojan horse for leftist agendas.

However, rather than debating critics, ESG proponents frequently resort to false narratives and ad hominem attacks.

The newly elected Trump administration should not be misled by these lies.

For example, this past July, an article titled Anti-ESG Proposals Surged in 2024 But Earned Less Support  attacked shareholder proposals critical of ESG, including many from my employer.

What follows are responses to five misrepresentations about the anti-ESG movement contained in that piece, which was authored by Heidi Welsh.

False Claim #1: The “Anti-ESG” Movement is Motivated by Animus Toward LGBTQ People

Welsh claims that “LGBTQ antipathy” and “a strong animus against LGBTQ people cropped up” in our proposals. These are lies that may constitute actionable defamation because our concerns are not only legitimate, but pro-child.

For example, the Trevor Project still states the following on its website despite the underlying supporting research having been effectively debunked: “Medical affirming care can include [1] treatments that postpone physical changes [i.e. puberty blockers] as well as [2] treatments that lead to changes that would affirm one’s gender identity [i.e. surgery]” (citing WPATH, 2012).

Approaching this from another perspective, consider the following:

·        Is it loving to sow the seeds of gender dysphoria in young children by pushing on them the idea that they might have been born in the wrong body?

·        Is it loving to push on young children, at a time when they are highly vulnerable to suggestion, the idea that if they are anxious about their gender identity, then they should take puberty blockers or undergo life-altering sex-change surgery?

·        Is it loving to push these ideas on children behind the backs of their parents?

·        Is it loving to do these things when the alleged consensus around this “gender affirming care” is quite predictably crumbling before our very eyes?

One can quite reasonably — and without any “animus” — answer “no” to all these questions.

Keep reading

Following Kuwait, Vietnam to De-Bank People Who Do Not Get Their Biometrics Scanned for Digital ID App

Bank accounts in Vietnam will have their online transactions halted and the transfer and withdraw of cash at ATMs blocked beginning January 1, 2025 if the account holder fails to register their biometrics (fingerprints and facial recognition) under regulations from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Vietnamese law. A similar move in Kuwait will de-bank those who fail to get fingerprinted by the start of the new year as well.

“From January 1, 2025, bank accounts that have not been reconciled or updated with biometrics will have their online transactions stopped. This is the reason why banks are simultaneously implementing programs to encourage customers to update their biometrics,” Vietnam Law Newspaper said Thursday. “Updating biometric information and identification documents is now mandatory for customers based on important regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and current laws. According to Decision 2345/QD-NHNN, SBV has required that from July 1, 2024, some types of online transactions of individual customers must be authenticated by biometric identification.”

The smartphone application is being expanded into what is described as a ‘super app’, a one-stop-shop for digital biometric identification, internet ID, medical ID and perhaps, in the future, a social credit score control grid.

“VNeID, short for Vietnam Electronic Identification, integrates various features across multiple sectors and is expected to become a national super application for digital transformation,” Tuoitre News said Saturday.

Importantly and perhaps alarmingly, the app was developed on the foundation of a vaccine passport during the Covid pandemic.

“Developed by the Ministry of Public Security’s National Center for Population Database in September 2019, VNeID, a mobile application, was built to check health and travel declarations amid the COVID-19 outbreaks,” Tuoitre News said Saturday.

There’s a carrot and stick approach to the move as well. While those who do not submit to biometric scans of their fingers and faces will be financially shut down, those who submitted their scans may earn financial rewards and prizes.

“…some banks have ‘rewarded’ customers who successfully update their biometrics. Specifically, MSB gives a 50.000 e-voucher to customers’ accounts after successfully updating from 4/12. This program applies to the list of customers who have not updated their biometrics as of 30/11. In total, there are 10.000 e-vouchers with a total value of up to 500 million VND for customers who do,” Vietnam Law Newspaper said Thursday. “Techcombank also applies a program to give 50.000 Techcombank Rewards points to the first 6.000 customers who update their biometrics each week, until the end of December 31, 2024.”

Getting one’s biometrics scanned by certain dates even allows one the possibility of winning an iPhone, a device which, not surprisingly, can run the digital ID app the biometrics are linked to.

“VPBank also launched a gift program for customers who complete the biometric data update before January 23, 2025, with a total gift value of up to nearly 7 billion VND. Accordingly, each customer who successfully authenticates biometric data and updates new identification documents on both the VPBank app or at the VPBank transaction counter will receive a code to participate in the weekly lucky draw, the special gift is an iPhone 1 Promax worth 16 million VND/unit. The bank also gives a cashback e-voucher code worth 35 VND to all customers who successfully update biometrics and identification documents,” Vietnam Law Newspaper said Thursday. “Agribank also implements a similar program when customers collect biometrics on the Agribank app will have the opportunity to receive iPhone 16 and many other gifts. BIDV decided to give away 130.000 VND (including 30.000 VND in transfer money and 100.000 VND in discount vouchers for movie watching, taxi calling, and shopping services on the BIDV app) if customers register and complete authentication. BIDV said that this program will be continuously deployed to December 29, 2024, applicable to the 10.000 customers who install biometrics the earliest each week.”

Keep reading

A Gift America Can’t Return: The Police State Is America’s New Crime Boss 

The American police state has become America’s new crime boss.

Thirty years after then-President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law, its legacy of mass incarceration, police militarization, and over-criminalization continues to haunt us.

It has become the gift that America can’t seem to return.

We are now suffering the blowback from the triple threats of the Crime Bill: police militarization, a warrior mindset that has police viewing the rest of the citizenry as enemy combatants, and law enforcement training that teaches cops to shoot first and ask questions later.

Too often, that “triple threat” also manifests itself in deadly traffic stops, the use of excessive force against unarmed individuals, and welfare checks turned fatal.

The Crime Bill fueled the rise of the police state by pouring funding into law enforcement agencies, particularly for military-grade weaponry and the expansion of police forces. It also laid the groundwork for mass incarceration by incentivizing the construction of more prisons and enacting harsh “three strikes” laws that mandated lengthy sentences for repeat offenders.

Most critically, the Crime Bill led to the explosive growth of SWAT teams across the country.

It’s estimated that more than 80,000 SWAT raids are carried out every year. That translates to over 200 every single day in the U.S.

Among the tens of thousands of raids that leave in their wake the wreckage of lives, homes and trust in the nation’s so-called peacekeepers, some are so egregious as to cut through the apathy and desensitization that has settled over the nation regarding police violence.

Such tragedies are not isolated incidents.

They are the direct result of a system built on policies like the 1994 Crime Bill.

The unfortunate reality we must come to terms with is that America is overrun with militarized cops—vigilantes with a badge—who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.”

It doesn’t matter where you live—big city or small town—it’s the same scenario being played out over and over again in which government agents, hyped up on their own authority and the power of their uniform, ride roughshod over the rights of the citizenry.

These warrior cops, who have been trained to act as judge, jury and executioner in their interactions with the public and believe the lives (and rights) of police should be valued more than citizens, are increasingly outnumbering the good cops, who take seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace.

Keep reading

China’s Dark Secret: The Ongoing Tragedy of Forced Organ Harvesting

At the heart of one of the most pressing ethical debates of the 21st century lies the issue of  forced organ harvesting in China.

This practice, widely condemned internationally, has been linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime and is seen as a blatant abuse of human rights.

In particular, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as prisoners of conscience—such as practitioners of Falun Gong and Uyghurs—have been identified as the primary victims of this horrific crime.

Since 2006, independent investigations have uncovered that China has carried out thousands of organ transplants under suspicious circumstances. 

Canadian lawyers David Matas and the late David Kilgour discovered that, between 2000 and 2005, China performed over 41,500 transplants without an organized organ donation system in place. 

This raises disturbing questions, especially considering that Chinese culture traditionally does not encourage voluntary organ donation.

ADVERTISEMENT

The China Tribunal, an independent tribunal based in London, concluded in 2019 that  forced organ harvesting in China has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt . The court found evidence that prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong practitioners, have been killed for their organ

Keep reading

VICTORY: Dr William Bay wins doctors’ right to criticise covid gene-vaccines

Friday marked the biggest victory yet for doctors against political persecution after the Queensland Supreme Court issued a scorching judgement against Australia’s medical regulators on Friday.

Queensland GP William Anicha Bay celebrated outside court after successfully overturning a politically motivated medical ban put on him for protesting against the covid gene-vaccines on safety grounds.

The Court did not enter into any debate about the safety of the controversial products but ruled only on whether the regulators’ decision or conduct was free from error.

The Medical Board of Australia suspended Dr Bay’s registration on August 17, 2022, less than three weeks after he accosted the Australian Medical Association (AMA) National Conference and asked the delegates to stop forcing the jabs on people in response to an infection where “there is only a 0.27 percent fatality rate”.

Dr Bay apologised for interrupting proceedings before saying the covid “vaccines” were killing people.

Keep reading

What the declared pandemic was and was not

We need to be political, in the sense of influencing people on all sides

We are not going to fix the world with science, and we are not in charge.

We cannot prevent future elite assaults of this kind. We can only delay and dampen the next round by punishing those responsible, to the best of our abilities.

Responsibility for punishment is mostly individual, because virtually all the institutions are captured. Effectiveness of individual punishment relies in part on a sufficiently accurate perception of reality, which is a continuous challenge.

The need for and benefit from people defending themselves are the intrinsic societal reasons for free speech. (See many related essays here.)

Free speech (with or without permission) exists so that we can punish with words, images, disclosures, logic… and , yes, ridicule and humiliation; and so we can catalyze individual resistance and organizations of opposition. Free speech is not solely so that one can express impactless creativity and have human connection. It is a vital balancing structural mechanism in our social dominance hierarchies. (See many related essays here.)

Establishment collaborators, enablers and planners must be exposed and destabilized. The false self-image they adopt and project should be challenged. This is often the only way we can influence those agents away from their compliant and harmful behaviours.

People know this instinctively, which is why we vote to punish, rather than to reward.

Keep reading

NJ Drone ‘Invasion’ Just In Time For Congress To Reauthorize Orwellian Law

A series of drone sightings over New Jersey that began in mid-November has left residents and lawmakers spooked about the possibility of foreign adversaries breaching US airspace with drone swarms. While officials have attempted to reassure the public, some lawmakers have stoked fear, leading to widespread panic on social media, with people interpreting anything moving in the night sky as a potential drone (even commercial jets and stars). 

Days ago, the FBI and the US Homeland Security Department released a statement indicating, “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.” 

“Historically, we have experienced cases of mistaken identity, where reported drones are, in fact, manned aircraft,” the federal agencies said. 

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said many of the purported drone sightings are commercial jets with no evidence of a national security or public safety threat. 

If actual ‘truck-sized’ drones (some say Iranian origin) were flying in some of the world’s most restricted airspace, let’s use common sense—the Pentagon would have scrambled F-22s and F-35s on the East Coast almost immediately. Since that hasn’t happened (as far as we know), we can’t help but be suspicious about the whole drone situation. Additionally, no private satellite data shows that Iranian drone carriers are parked off the coast; in fact, these vessels are located 7,500 miles away.

Let’s take a step back and review some of Elon Musk’s tweets on X:

  • Sept. 30: “Drone swarm battles are coming that will boggle the mind” 
  • Sept. 29: “Epic drone wars coming” 
  • Jan. 5, 2023: “The Drone Wars are already a big deal, but we ain’t seen nothing yet …” 

What did Elon know ahead of time?

Keep reading

DEVELOPING: FBI Spied on Kash Patel, Secretly Vacuumed Up His Emails and Phone Records

The FBI spied on Trump’s nominee for FBI Director Kash Patel, according to the Justice Department’s Inspector General report.

Last month, President Trump officially nominated Kash Patel for the role of FBI Director in his next Administration.

Kash Patel played an important role exposing the Russiagate hoax when he spearheaded the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the Hillary-funded Steele dossier under Devon Nunes.

Mr. Patel detailed how Paul Ryan rigged his Russiagate investigation before he even started it in an exclusive post for TGP here.

According to the Inspector General’s report, the FBI secretly scooped up Kash Patel’s emails and phone records starting back in 2017 when he was investigating the Trump-Russia hoax.

Corrupt career federal prosecutors forced Google and Apple to hand over Kash Patel’s communications from September 2017 and March 2018 when Andrew McCabe was the Acting FBI Director.

The court orders prevented Google and Apple from notifying Kash Patel so he had no idea the FBI was spying on him.

“The IG probe reveals that the FBI had renewed the subpoenas each year, snooping on congressional staffers for up to five years. That means McCabe’s successor, Christopher Wray, signed off on the continued collections,” Paul Sperry reported.

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he will be resigning before Trump takes office next month.

Keep reading

TikTok Battles Canada’s Crackdown, Pitching Itself as a “Misinformation” Censorship Ally

In Canada, TikTok is attempting to get the authorities to reverse the decision to shut down its business operations by going to court – but also by recommending itself as a proven and reliable ally in combating “harmful content” and “misinformation.”

Canada last month moved to shut down TikTok’s operations, without banning the app itself. All this is happening ahead of federal elections amid the government’s efforts to control social media narratives, always citing fears of “misinformation” and “foreign interference” as the reasons.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, was accused of – via its parent company – representing “specific national security risks” when the decision regarding its corporate presence was made in November; no details have been made public regarding those alleged risks, however.

Now the TikTok Canada director of public policy and government affairs, Steve de Eyre, is telling the local press that the newly created circumstances are making it difficult for the company to work with election regulators and “civil society” to ensure election integrity – something Eyre said was previously successfully done.

In 2021, he noted, TikTok initiated collaboration with Elections Canada (the agency that organizes elections and has the power to flag social media content) which included TikTok adding links to all election-related videos that directed users toward “verified information.”

And the following year, TikTok was invested in monitoring its platform for “potentially violent” content, during the Freedom Convoy protests against Covid mandates.

More recently, TikTok was also on its toes for “foreign interference and hateful content” related to Brampton clashes between Sikhs and Hindus.

Keep reading