Tag: police state

Bessent Taps New “CEO of IRS” Amid Rising Fears of Data-Surveillance State

The Treasury Department startled observers this week by creating a new executive position inside the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Frank Bisignano, the current Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), will now also serve as the IRS’s first Chief Executive Officer.

Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent announced the appointment Monday, describing Bisignano as “a businessman with an exceptional track record of driving growth and efficiency in the private and now public sector.” Bessent added that at the SSA, Bisignano “has already made important and substantial progress.” His expertise, Bessent said, would help sharpen the IRS’s “focus on collections, privacy, and customer service.”

The announcement also sought to justify the unusual dual appointment, claiming,

The IRS and SSA — two of the most public-facing and broadly impactful federal agencies — also share many of the same technological and customer service goals. This makes Mr. Bisignano a natural choice for this role.

Bisignano’s résumé is extensive. As chairman and CEO of Fiserv and First Data, he oversaw massive financial networks handling trillions in daily transactions and led one of the largest technology mergers in corporate history. Earlier, he held top executive roles at J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, where he managed global transaction systems and large-scale digital integrations. The official record portrays a career defined by efficiency and digital optimization — principles now being imported into government.

But the consolidation of authority across Treasury, the IRS, and the SSA signals more than a bureaucratic reshuffle. It represents a structural shift that quietly places vast amounts of taxpayerdata under a single executive hierarchy. In the name of efficiency, the administration has effectively merged two of the nation’s most data-heavy agencies — one inside Treasury (IRS) and one historically independent (SSA) — under Treasury’s command, giving one unelected appointee extraordinary reach over both.

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California “Hate Speech” Bill Would Crush Dissent

If enacted and it somehow clears legal challenges, California Senate Bill 771 will be the first online censorship law of its kind in America. It would also likely pave a path for other states run by people with no tolerance for dissent.    

On September 22, the California Legislature sent SB 771 to Governor Gavin Newsom. He has until October 13 to sign it. If he doesn’t veto or sign the proposal, it becomes law anyway.

Mainstream media outlets claim that SB 771 “targets social media platforms for the role they could play in aiding and abetting in hate crimes by pushing content that could lead to a hate crime.”

The bill allows people to sue social-media companies for up to $1 million per violation. If the litigant is a minor, the fine could double.

Tucker Carlson’s analysis of the bill is more accurate than the mainstream media’s. Carlson:

That’s a censorship law.… The state of California, under Gavin Newsom, is about to — we think — censor the opinions of Americans, not to protect anybody, but to shield themselves from criticism so they continue to do what they want to do in secret.

Coerced Censorship

The bill uses broad terms that make it easy to justify censorship. It reads:

California law prohibits all persons and entities, including corporations, from engaging in, aiding, abetting, or conspiring to commit acts of violence, intimidation, or coercion based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, or other protected characteristics.

Merriam Webster defines “intimidated” as “to make timid or fearful.” Synonyms include “bully” and “frighten.” Fear and intimidation are subjective emotions that have significantly increased among America’s younger and more unstable generations. People are swimming in pools of victimhood and mental illness today. We constantly hear about a spike in anxiety. What happens when we create laws that allow litigation on the basis of largely subjective emotions?

But the more likely primary intent here is to coerce social-media companies into pre-censoring. The senior vice president of social-media company Parler, Elise Pierotti, said of the bill:

SB 771 isn’t about protecting civil rights, it’s California’s brazen attempt to export its one-party censorship regime to every corner of the internet. This bill hands Sacramento the power to bully platforms into preemptively scrubbing dissent on everything from border security to parental rights. We’ve seen Big Tech abuse vague “hate speech” rules to throttle conservatives for years, including shutting down our platform in 2021; now, lawmakers want to make it mandatory with teeth-shattering fines. This must be stopped before it buries the First Amendment.

Shoshana Weissmann, director of digital media at the R Street Institute, also suspects this is the drafter’s main agenda. She told the Daily Caller that “rather than risk liability for showing users content one could argue (even if it doesn’t actually) violate a law, platforms will over-moderate and remove posts in order to stay out of court.”

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Ohio Governor Issues Order Banning Intoxicating Hemp Product Sales For 90 Days

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has issued a 90-day executive order banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products starting this coming Tuesday.

Intoxicating hemp products are items that contain THC that are sold anywhere other than licensed marijuana dispensaries including gas stations, smoke shops and CBD stores, among others. This ban includes THC-infused beverages.

“I am taking action today…to get these products off the streets and to have them taken off our shelves,” DeWine said Wednesday during a press conference. “Intoxicating hemp is dangerous, and we need to better protect our children… We believe this is the right thing to do.”

The 90-day executive order ends on January 12, 2026, and then it will be up to the lawmakers to decide if they want to see further action taken on intoxicating hemp.

“I’m not going to tell them what to do, but we have to have some control of this product,” DeWine said. “We can’t have a situation where it is legal for people to sell this to underage kids.”

Those shops who violate the executive order could be subject to a $500 fine for each day intoxicating hemp products remain on their shelves.

The 2018 Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3 percent THC.

“After these laws were passed, chemists began manipulating compounds in the legal, non-intoxicated hemp plant, turning these compounds into intoxicating THC, including Delta-8 and Delta-9, which are found in marijuana,” DeWine said. “It’s a totally different product.”

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Ukrainian parliament confirms local elections will not be held due to martial law

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a resolution that ensures the continuity of representative bodies of local self-government given the conditions of military aggression by Russia, Ukrinform reported, quoted by BTA.

The document states that the organization, preparation and holding of local elections in accordance with national legislation and European standards for democratic elections are impossible in the conditions of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and given the declared martial law in the country.

At the same time, the parliamentary resolution emphasizes the stable functioning of local government bodies and the exercise of their powers in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.

According to the document, mayors, municipal and city councilors and regional councils will remain in power until holding elections after the war with Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a meeting with Donald Trump earlier this year that he was ready to hold elections after the end of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

According to the Ukrainian constitution, the country was supposed to hold local elections on October 26, five years after the 2020 elections. This would affect the term of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who has been in office since 2014. Due to martial law in the country, regular parliamentary elections in October 2023 and presidential elections in March 2024 were canceled. This gives Russia reason to question Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy, DPA reports.

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TSA Watchlists Were Used as Tools of Political Warfare

The Trump administration receives well-justified criticism for using government power to punish political foes such as former FBI director James Comey, funder of left-wing causes George Soros, and law firms linked to the Democratic Party. But don’t forget that former President Joe Biden’s administration also weaponized the state against its enemies. It just did so quietly, behind the scenes, and with the approval of much of the media. The Biden administration not only leaned on tech companies to muzzle critics of the powers-that-be, but it also turned due-process-free watchlists into means of harassing people it didn’t like.

Weaponized Watchlists

On September 30, “the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the results of an internal investigation uncovering widespread abuses committed by Biden administration officials, who weaponized the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) against innocent American citizens,” according to a TSA press release.

The Biden administration is accused of adding people who “resisted mask mandates on airplanes nearly six months after the CDC relaxed its indoor mask mandate” to watchlists that subjected them to extra security. It also watchlisted not just participants in the January 6, 2021 riot, but also those merely suspected of traveling to the Washington, D.C. area in sympathy with the protesters. “This targeted campaign of harassment continued through June 2021, six months after the events in question, despite no clear or immediate threat to aviation security.” (Emphasis in original.)

With regard to the specifics of those watchlist inclusions, Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) released documents acquired by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee held a September 30 hearing on the “weaponization of the Quiet Skies program,” a TSA watchlist scheme terminated after it was found to have been abused for political purposes.

It’s been reported that former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D–Hawaii), now the Director of National Intelligence, was placed on the Quiet Skies watchlist. The Biden administration claimed her inclusion was, in part, because she attended a Vatican event organized by a suspicious European. But she and many others believe it was retaliation for her criticism of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Journalist Matt Taibbi reports that Gabbard’s name was on the list alongside three unnamed Republican members of Congress who also offended the powers that be. But you didn’t have to have a high profile to get on a watchlist.

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New AFP boss warns hate crime laws may need to be strengthened further

Hate crime offences created earlier this year after a spate of antisemitic attacks may need to be taken even further, Australia’s new top cop has flagged in her first interview as police chief.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett has also announced the creation of specialised strike teams to chase down extremists who fall short of strictly defined terrorism offences.

Commissioner Barrett, who today formally took charge of the AFP, has revealed her first act as chief is to establish specialist National Security Investigations (NSI) teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra to deal with the blurring lines between extremism, political violence, organised crime and foreign interference.

“In the past two years, particularly post-October 7, 2023, we have seen a changing operating environment for law enforcement in Australia,” Commissioner Barrett told the ABC. 

“Under my leadership, the AFP will be laser focused on protecting our sovereignty, our democracy, our social cohesion, our financial sector and our future prosperity.”

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The “Reimagined State”: Tony Blair Institute’s Blueprint for a Global Techno-Dictatorship

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has unveiled its “Reimagined State” initiative, a sweeping plan to use artificial intelligence and digital technology to reshape the way governments operate and ultimately, to change how people live their lives. The stated goal is to make public services more efficient, less costly, and more effective, but the deeper implications raise serious concerns about privacy, freedoms, centralized control, and digital autocracy.

The proposal calls for AI-powered digital assistants to streamline how citizens interact with government services, AI tools to help civil servants automate casework and routine tasks, and a “National Policy Twin,” a data platform designed to simulate policy outcomes and guide decision-making.

The TBI has already implemented this alleged aid to government decision-making in Albania’s parliament. In September 2025, Prime Minister Edi Rama appointed Diella as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, making it the world’s first AI to hold a cabinet-level position.

But the role of the AI minister, named Diella, is not to aid in decision-making but to actually make decisions, because, as Diella said in her introductory speech, the problem of the past has not been machines but rather the poor decision-making of humans. TBI will now save us from ourselves by controlling us with technology.

TBI argues that the digital transformation of the reimagined state is necessary to solve the UK’s fiscal crisis, declining public services, and stagnant economy. Embedded within this vision, however, is a plan to make government data fully interoperable across departments and to implement a nationwide digital ID system, an infrastructure that would give the state unprecedented access to personal information.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who leads the institute, has called digital ID an “essential part of modern digital infrastructure.” Under his plan, each citizen would be assigned a single digital identifier linking personal health, tax, welfare, and immigration records. More alarmingly, such a system could give the state the power to track citizens and exclude them from services as punishment.

Bank accounts could be frozen, access to air travel restricted, and movement monitored through electronic toll systems. Since the same global advocates are pushing for electric vehicles, the ability to charge one’s car could also be suspended. In effect, an individual’s mobility and financial access could be controlled from a central government computer system.

Policies like the Green New Deal could be enforced digitally by cutting off electricity or water once monthly limits are exceeded, or by canceling flights after a person’s air travel pollution credits run out. Critics warn that Tony Blair’s “Future of Britain” and “Reimagined State” initiatives are not mere modernization efforts but blueprints for a global technocratic system. By linking digital identity systems, central bank digital currencies, and cross-border data networks, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) promotes a framework that could enable digital totalitarianism, where access to essential services depends on government approval. What Blair describes as “a little work of persuasion” toward modernization, is the normalization of mass surveillance and centralized control over private life.

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Tech Firms Unite in Open Letter Against EU Chat Scanning Law

With the vote approaching, the European Commission’s plan to scan private digital messages is moving toward final approval.

The regulation, called Chat Control 2.0, has gone through a year of resistance, warnings from experts, and objections from technology companies.

It is presented as a child safety measure, designed to inspect messages, photos, and videos across the EU before they are sent.

The privacy implications are immense.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s AfD party, described the proposal as “an absolutely totalitarian project” and “a comprehensive general attack on central citizens and freedoms.”

She said the measure would install scanning software on personal devices, intercepting content before it reaches its recipient. The system would remove the protection offered by end-to-end encryption and treat every user as a potential suspect.

Weidel said the use of child safety language was “a cheap pretext” for real-time surveillance.

“Even the Stasi could only dream of such a full force,” she said, comparing the plan to intercepting and photographing every private letter for review by a government authority.

She warned that once the system exists, its function can expand to include other categories such as “politically offensive content” and “so-called hate speech.” The structure of the law allows the criteria to be adjusted through political decisions.

Technology companies have joined in opposition. Hundreds of privacy-oriented firms, including encrypted messengers, cloud storage services, and VPN providers, signed a joint letter urging EU ministers to reject the regulation.

Their message called for the protection of encryption and for an end to mandatory message scanning.

Signal has announced that it will leave the EU if forced to comply. The platform has stated that it cannot operate under a framework requiring message inspection.

The regulation creates an obligation to weaken the systems that enable private communication and turns encryption into a technical formality rather than a guarantee of privacy.

Supporters of the proposal say it will catch child abusers. Critics point out that criminal networks conduct their operations in offline settings or hidden spaces beyond the reach of such scanning.

“Criminals are already using offline or so-called dark rooms for their illegal businesses,” Weidel said.

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Trump Says He May Invoke The INSURRECTION ACT

President Trump declared Monday that he may invoke the Insurrection Act in order to restore law and order to American cities in the face of violent riots and attacks against law enforcement officers, including ICE.

During a press availability in the Oval Office, Trump addressed ongoing legal and political challenges to his administration’s deployments of National Guard troops to major U.S. cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

Trump was asked directly about invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807—a rarely used federal law that empowers the president to deploy U.S. military forces domestically to suppress insurrections, rebellions, or domestic violence when local authorities are unable or unwilling to maintain order.

The Act bypasses typical restrictions on military use for civilian policing and has been invoked only about 30 times in U.S. history, most recently during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Trump stated “Well, I’ll do it if it was necessary… We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up. I want to make sure people aren’t killed.”

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Zelensky Floated Stepping Down from Power ‘For Peace’, but Instead He Is Intimidating and Silencing Opponents, Paving the Way for a Vote That Keeps Him in Office: REPORT

Zelensky is working hard to remain in power.

Between his endless trips abroad to get support and money from his war sponsors, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is moving strongly to cement his chances in the event of an upcoming election.

But because his popularity is so low, to achieve that, he has to neutralize his opponents.

Almost no one believed his recent claims that he is ‘ready not to go for the second term’ because ‘it’s not [his] goal’, repeating the claims he made last winter.

Politico reported:

“In a move presumably aiming to take the sting out of the ‘autocrat’ allegation, Zelenskyy announced [last winter] dramatically that he was ‘ready’ to go if his resignation would help secure a ceasefire with Russia and gain Ukraine’s admission into NATO. ‘If [it guarantees] peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to resign, I am ready. I can exchange it for NATO’, he said.

This time round he told Axios: ‘My goal is to finish the war’ and not necessarily to continue to run for office. He also vowed to ask Ukraine’s parliament to organize elections if a ceasefire is agreed.”

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