Tag: police state

Governor poised to sign law making kids watch animated fetal videos from anti-abortion group

In Tennessee, whether parents like it or not, Republican Gov. Bill Lee is poised to sign a law that will make public school children watch an animated video on fetal development backed by an anti-abortion group, or some equivalent of it, after lawmakers in the state vaulted the legislation to passage.

The law, known as the Baby Olivia Act, first passed in the state’s House in March on a 67-23 vote and then sailed through the Senate last week, 21-6. The roughly three-minute animation created by the nonprofit anti-abortion group Live Action bills itself as a “Never Before Seen Look at Human Life in the Womb” and would be shown to public school children as part of the state’s family health curriculum.

Among other features in the video, it depicts sperm fertilizing an ovum and it is here that it declares: “This is the moment that life begins. A new human being has come into existence.” The animated video states that a fetus can recognize lullabies in the womb and depicts a purported fetus at 27 weeks gazing through a translucent womb while pressing its fingers against it. The shadow of the mother’s fingers press back.

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Federal Officials Are Suddenly Seizing Marijuana From State-Licensed Businesses, Leaving Industry Perplexed

Federal officials have been seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana from state-licensed cannabis businesses in New Mexico in recent weeks—detaining industry workers in what appears to be a localized escalation of national prohibition enforcement even as the federal government has largely refrained from interfering with the implementation of state legalization laws in recent years.

New Mexico marijuana businesses report that the more than dozen U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seizures, particularly at interior checkpoints around the Las Cruces area, are a relatively new phenomenon. Since adult-use marijuana sales launched in the state in 2022, the operators say they’ve generally been able to transport their products to testing facilities and retailers without incident.

Starting around two months ago, however, the agency has evidently taken a more proactive approach to enforcing federal prohibition, taking hundreds of pounds of cannabis at the checkpoints inside the state. CBP is able to carry out its activities within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

“There’s a lot of really successful important cannabis producers and cannabis manufacturers operating south of those checkpoints,” Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, told Marijuana Moment. “Basically, every road that you could take from the southern to the northern part of the state, you have to go through one of these checkpoints—and it’s just bifurcating the industry and making it impossible for people in the southern part of the state to get their products to anywhere in the central or northern part of the state.”

CBP has made at least 13 stops and seizures of state-legal marijuana products since February, Lewinger, said adding that he “wouldn’t be surprised if it’s twice that number.”

“I’m certain that it’s underreported,” he said. “I think there’s lots of people who still have that fear and the stigma, and they don’t want to rattle cages.”

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NYC agrees to pay $17.5 million after cops force Muslim women to take off their hijabs for mugshots

On Friday, New York City agreed to a settlement of $17.5 million for a class action lawsuit after the city forced Muslim women to remove their hijabs to take mugshot photos when they were arrested.

According to Fox News, the lawsuit was filed by Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz in 2018, who claimed their religious rights were violated when had to remove the head coverings after being arrested for violating orders of protection.

Clark said in a statement that she suffered trauma when forced to remove her hijab, which is worn by Muslim women in accordance with Islamic tradition. “When they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked,” she said.

“I’m not sure if words can capture how exposed and violated I felt,” Clark added. “I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”

Lawyer for the ladies, Albert Fox Cahn praised the ruling as a win for privacy and religious rights. He told the New York Times, “The NYPD should never have stripped these religious New Yorkers of their head coverings and dignity.”

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Maine lawmaker sparks fury as she asks ‘what did the Nazis do that was illegal’ while defending First Amendment rights of neo-Nazis to march through city

A Republican lawmaker has come under fire for defending Neo-Nazis’ right to assemble in Maine after Democrats shared a clip of her asking ‘what did the Nazis do that was illegal?’ 

Representative Laurel Libby made the comments on Wednesday in opposition to a bill that would ban unauthorized paramilitary training in the state, after a white supremacist tried to set up a Neo-Nazi training camp in the area last year.

Neo-Nazi groups staged several demonstrations, wearing all black, holding banners with racist slogans and giving ‘Heil Hitler’ salutes, in the state last year. 

Libby referred to their rallies, saying: ‘Let’s talk about the Nazis. I would like to know, although I’m not posing a question through the chair, I would like to know what they did that was illegal?’

Maine Democrats shared a clipped version of her speech online sparking outrage, with many accusing her of defending WWII Nazis and the Holocaust.

Libby said her comments on the floor of the State House were taken out of context ‘for fundraising purposes’ by Democrats.

She told DailyMail.com: ‘Even if I do not agree with an organization or person’s beliefs, it is my job to protect their constitutional right to free speech and association.’ 

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“We Cannot Cope”: Police Scotland Deluged With Politicized Hate Crime Reports

Entirely as predicted, Police Scotland has been deluged with vexatious and politically-driven ‘hate crime’ reports, with one top official complaining “we cannot cope.”

Didn’t see this one coming.

Under the new legislation, anyone deemed to have been verbally ‘abusive’, in person or online, to a transgender person, including “insulting” them could be hit with a prison sentence of up to seven years.

That instantly led to a flood of bad faith reports, including from conservatives making a mockery of the system and from deranged left-wing activists trying to punish their ideological adversaries.

David Threadgold, Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said that the new legislation was being exploited to pursue personal and political vendettas.

“Police Scotland have gone public and said that on every occasion, reports of hate crime will be investigated,” Mr. Threadgold told the BBC. “That creates a situation where we simply cannot cope at the moment.”

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Judge Ordered Jan. 6 Defendant’s Computer Monitored for ‘Disinformation’—Appeals Court Overturns

A sentencing requirement that Jan. 6 defendant Daniel Goodwyn have his computer monitored by the government for “disinformation” has been vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The court on March 26 published a mandate sending the case back to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to remove the computer monitoring requirement he issued as part of the sentencing judgment in the case on June 15, 2023.

“Judge Walton had no legal basis to issue the special condition,” Carolyn Stewart, Mr. Goodwyn’s attorney, told The Epoch Times in an April 3 email.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the judge “plainly erred” in imposing the computer monitoring. Judges Gregory Katsas, Naomi Rao, and Bradley Garcia issued a per curiam order vacating the monitoring provision.

Judge Walton, when imposing a 60-day jail sentence in June 2023, said Mr. Goodwyn spread “disinformation” during a broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on March 14, 2023. Judge Walton ordered that Mr. Goodwyn’s computer be subject to “monitoring and inspection” by a probation agent to check if he spread Jan. 6 disinformation during the term of his supervised release.

The judge also referred to Mr. Goodwyn spreading alleged “misinformation,” using the term interchangeably with “disinformation.”

Mr. Goodwyn, 35, of Corinth, Texas, pleaded guilty on Jan. 31, 2023, to one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. The charge could have meant up to a year in prison.

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Surprise! The IRS Lied About Who Those 80,000 New Agents Would Target

“Never trust a man who lays his hand on his heart when he assures you of anything,” goes the old axiom. That’s why I never trust a Democrat who makes any promise ever about a federal agency or program.

Take Medicare. In 1966 when Medicare began, it cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost about $12 billion by 1990. Instead, it cost $107 billion and today costs the government close to a trillion dollars.

So when Joe Biden and the Democrats assured Americans and Republicans in Congress that the $80 billion the president wanted to augment the IRS tax-collecting ability was only going to target “the rich,” everyone with two brain cells working knew it was a lie.

It will surprise no one that an audit by the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration found that “President Biden’s plan to hire a new army of tax collectors is falling flat, and the agents already at work are targeting the middle class.”  

“As of last summer, 63% of new audits targeted taxpayers with income of less than $200,000,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million.”

Bank robber Willie Sutton supposedly responded to the question of why he robs banks by saying with a shrug, “That’s where the money is.” So, too, the IRS audits well-off but not “rich” taxpayers because they can’t afford the army of tax attorneys that the super-rich can bring to the table. 

Here’s a gentle reminder of the assurances given to us by the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress.

“These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans. As we’ve been planning, our investment of these enforcement resources is designed around the Department of the Treasury’s directive that audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000,” wrote IRS commissioner Charles Rettig in an August 2022 letter to concerned senators.

Janet Yellen was even more adamant. “Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,” she wrote in a letter to Rettig.

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America’s Hypocrisy as an Authoritarian State Being Exposed as Ukraine Flounders

Even though a growing number of Western elites are awakening to the reality that Ukraine is headed for defeat and will drag NATO along with it, the so-called intellectual cognoscenti of foreign policy, like the editorial board of the NY Times, continue to indulge fantasies and delusions. They conclude a Sunday editorial pleading for more money for Zelensky and the losing cause with this:

Mr. Trump and his followers may argue that the security of Ukraine, or even of Europe, is not America’s business. But the consequence of allowing a Russian victory in Ukraine is a world in which authoritarian strongmen feel free to crush dissent or seize territory with impunity. That is a threat to the security of America, and the world.

The Washington and New York establishments continue to insist that Vladimir Putin is an “authoritarian strongman.” I have one word of advice — look in the damn mirror and pay attention to what is happening in the United States before you mount your moral high horse and gallop off to lecture other countries on democracy and human rights.

When I read the penultimate sentence in the paragraph above I asked myself the question, “How many political prisoners are there in Russia?” I was not surprised by the answer.

“For political prisoners, the situation is often worse, because the state aims to additionally punish them, or additionally isolate them from the world, or do everything to break their spirit,” Vaypan said. His group counts 680 political prisoners in Russia.

Guess what? The United States has prosecuted (and persecuted) twice as many political prisoners than Russia.

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Combating “Hate”: The Trojan Horse For Precrime

Philip K. Dick’s 1956 novella The Minority Report created “precrime,” the clairvoyant foreknowledge of criminal activity as forecast by mutant “precogs.” The book was a dystopian nightmare, but a 2015 Fox television series transforms the story into one in which a precog works with a cop and shows that data is actually effective at predicting future crime.

Canada is trying to enact a precrime law along the lines of the 2015 show, but it is being panned about as much as the television series. Ottawa’s online harms bill includes a provision to impose house arrest on someone who is feared to commit a hate crime in the future. From The Globe and Mail:

The person could be made to wear an electronic tag, if the attorney-general requests it, or ordered by a judge to remain at home, the bill says. Mr. Virani, who is Attorney-General as well as Justice Minister, said it is important that any peace bond be “calibrated carefully,” saying it would have to meet a high threshold to apply.

But he said the new power, which would require the attorney-general’s approval as well as a judge’s, could prove “very, very important” to restrain the behaviour of someone with a track record of hateful behaviour who may be targeting certain people or groups…

People found guilty of posting hate speech could have to pay victims up to $20,000 in compensation. But experts including internet law professor Michael Geist have said even a threat of a civil complaint – with a lower burden of proof than a court of law – and a fine could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

While this is a dangerous step in Canada, I also wonder if this is where burgeoning “anti-hate” programs across the US are headed. The Canadian bill would also allow “people to file complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission over what they perceive as hate speech online – including, for example, off-colour jokes by comedians.”

There are now programs in multiple US states to do just that –  encourage people to snitch on anyone doing anything perceived as “hateful.”

The 2021 federal COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act began to dole out money to states to help them respond to hate incidents. Oregon now has its Bias Response Hotline to track “bias incidents.”

In December of 2022, New York launched its Hate and Bias Prevention Unit. Maryland, too, has its system – its hate incidents examples include “offensive jokes” and “malicious complaints of smell or noise.”

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‘COVID Was A Lie, An Illusion Created by Government to Take Complete Control’ & ‘The Penny Is Dropping Everywhere!’

“We have lived through a dark time” said Professor Dr. Stefan Homburg in a speech delivered last year and was reported in the Exposé soon after. However, the video of the speech has had a new lease of life on the X platform and is said to have gone viral. Dr David Cartland shared the video and wrote in his Tweet:

“Penny is dropping everywhere! I wouldn’t want to be a covid cultist/jabaholic doctor/nurse or one that knows deep down what’s happened and the collateral harms/injuries/deaths but is remaining silent to calling out the biggest medical fraud/crime ever committed on humanity! Justice is coming…..the house of cards is collapsing!”

The speech was from the 2nd Coronavirus Symposium was held in the German Bundestag, which Dr Homburg attended on 11th November 2023 along with several prominent voices against unscientific measures and the harmful vaccination campaign.

Among others, Dr. Michael Yeadon, Prof. Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, Prof. Dr. Stefan Hockerz, Prof. Dr. Andreas Sönnichsen and many other important critical voices who have spoken out during the coronavirus era.

“Aufarbeitung”

Prof. Dr. S. Homburg’s speech, published on his website, provides a fact-based overview of the coronavirus era and although a translation of the speech has been published below, the word “Aufarbeitung” is a German word that according to Dr. Peter F Mayer is not easy to translate into English. He has however, provided what he says is best possible translation which he says is probably

“To deal with, to come to terms with the past”.

Dr Mayer has provided more of his thoughts on the word Aufarbeitung which readers may also find interesting. He continues:

“The main question of Aufarbeitung in a historical context is how Germans deal with their fascist past. This question has been addressed by the philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, among others, and their critical theory has had a profound influence on German post-war history.

Here is one of Adorno’s important thoughts:

“The past will only be dealt with when the causes of what has happened have been removed. It is only because these causes still exist that the ties of that past have not yet been severed.”

Benito Mussolini said bluntly about this thought of Th. W. Adorno: “Fascism is more appropriately called corporatism, because it is the fusion of the power of the State and the power of the corporations.”

If you want to look more closely at this subject, take the story of IBM as an example. If it had not been for this American company, Auschwitz would not have been possible on this scale. Of course, this does not mean that the German responsibility can be brushed aside. (Source)

One of the conditions for Aufarbeitung – overcoming – is that we can talk about the past without prejudice and accept it. This dialogue between our friends and acquaintances is a task for each of us. It is the only way to heal wounds and to preserve relationships. (Such a clarification of the past has not happened in Germany, or has only partially happened. For example, personal traumatic war experiences were not discussed. The consequences are still felt today.) (source)

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