Tag: police state

Australia will Use Military to Enforce Sydney Covid Lockdown – Troops will Knock on Doors to Make Sure Residents are at Home

Australia is sending troops to help local police enforce the new Covid lockdown in Sydney.

Australia’s largest city went into a hard lockdown – again – last Saturday amid rising Covid cases.

Sydney ordered a shutdown of all construction sites and non-essential retail.

Nearly 1 million residents are banned from leaving their neighborhood for work because a man in his 80s died from/with Covid.

Anti-lockdown protests erupted in Sydney this week because Aussies are sick of the restrictions.

So now Australia is using the military to enforce their lockdown, Reuters reported.

Beginning Monday, 300 troops will patrol Sydney and knock on doors to make sure people are following orders to stay at home.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 80% vaccination rate is needed before reopening Australia’s largest city – Only 14% of people in Australia are fully vaccinated.

“If you get vaccinated, there will be special rules that apply to you. Why? Because if you’re vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk. You are less likely to get the virus. You are less likely to transmit it,” the prime minister told reporters, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

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After failing to ban kratom domestically, the FDA is now pushing the UN and the WHO to ban it globally

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is on a mission to eliminate all consumer access to the herb mitragyna speciosa, also known as kratom – and your help is needed to stop it.

Back in 2016, the FDA tried, and was almost successful, at getting kratom banned here in the United States. The agency has long argued that kratom is a “dangerous drug” with no benefits that belongs on the Drug Enforcement Agency‘s (DEA) Schedule I list of prohibited substances.

Thanks to the diligent efforts of freedom fighters, the FDA was stopped in its tracks. Now, however, the agency is trying once again to eradicate the natural painkiller from existence – this time globally.

In a notice published in the Federal Register, the FDA is asking for feedback concerning its latest push to have the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) add kratom and its constituents to the international schedule, which would prohibit kratom from being consumed anywhere in the world.

Until Aug. 9, 2021, the FDA is accepting public comments on the matter, which means your help is needed to let the agency know that it has no right trying to prohibit nature from being accessible to the people.

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BIDEN HAS SAID POT PRISONERS SHOULD BE FREE. NOW HE’S POISED TO SEND SOME BACK TO PRISON.

DIANA MARQUEZ HAS spent the last 14 months going on long walks, hitting the treadmill, and cooking with her daughter. She’s gotten to know her grandson, a fourth grader, helping him with his math homework. She has also lived with a weight hanging over her head — and an ankle bracelet strapped to her leg.

Marquez is one of roughly 4,400 people who were released from federal prison to home confinement starting in April 2020 as part of a Department of Justice directive aimed at preventing the transmission of Covid-19 in prison. Normally, the federal government allows people convicted of nonviolent crimes to serve out the last 10 percent or the last six months — whichever is less — of their sentences from home. Their time at home requires strict state scrutiny, including ankle bracelets and daily call-ins. The Department of Justice memorandum, issued under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, asked the Bureau of Prisons to relax the eligibility standards for home confinement so that people convicted of nonviolent crimes could leave prison despite having served less of their sentences.

The status of these people has been in limbo since December, when Justice Department officials from the outgoing Trump administration issued a memo stating that people whose sentences would outlast the Covid-19 emergency order would be returned to prison.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Biden administration lawyers had concluded that the Trump administration memo correctly interpreted the law — and that thousands of people in home confinement must be returned to prison after the yet-to-be-determined end of the “pandemic emergency period.” About 2,000 people stand to be impacted, with the rest having now completed enough of their sentences to qualify for early release under the standard guidance.

The Biden Justice Department’s position is especially shocking for people like Marquez who are doing time for marijuana-related offenses. President Joe Biden, after all, campaigned on loosening drug laws and said that people with marijuana records — who comprise a relatively small percentage of the federal prison population — should be freed.

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Trudeau government proposes commission to regulate “harmful online content”

If the Trudeau Liberals are re-elected in the upcoming election, major online platforms will be subject to regulation by a new government commission.

During a technical briefing on Thursday morning, government officials proposed the creation of a digital safety commission that will have the power to regulate “harmful online content.” 

The government’s proposal will create a new legal category that specifically targets Online Communication Service Providers (OCSPs) like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. These OCSPs will be under the authority of the digital safety commission. 

The government also lists the pornographic website Pornhub as an OCSP they plan to target. 

The five categories of “harmful online content” covered under the proposed new powers will draw on offences defined under the Criminal Code: hate speech, child sexual exploitation content, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, incitement to violence, and terrorist content.

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Capitol Police Ordered to Arrest Maskless Staff, Visitors at House of Representatives

The United States Capitol Police (USCP) force that oversees the U.S. Capitol Building has been ordered to arrest visitors and staff members who go maskless on the House of Representatives’ side of the premises. The arrest order does not apply to members of Congress.

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) broke the news on Twitter on July 29 where she stated, “In today’s edition of Pelosi’s abuse of power, Capitol Police have been directed to arrest staff and visitors to comply with her mask mandate for vaccinated individuals,” along with a photo of an official USCP Bulletin outlining new instructions. 

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Disband the FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) continues its downward spiral into terminal corruption. Sadly, the scandals, criminality and ethical abuses of the organization are largely ignored by the American public and by the institutions of government charged with oversight and correction. Outrage after outrage is reported, hearings are held, Inspector General reports are issued — but the systemic corruption is never really tackled and dirty cops skate away virtually unscathed.

This situation is constitutionally unacceptable, corrosive to public trust in law enforcement, and a threat to the survival of the republic.

In the past few days alone, we have learned that the October 2020 Michigan governor kidnap plot was largely a creation of the FBI; a “senior FBI official” was on the take from media organizations; and another assistant director was in a “romantic relationship with a subordinate” and involved in “other misconduct.” The leadership failures documented by the Office of the Inspector General are now almost standard and part of a tiresome media drip-torture for the public to endure.

Meanwhile, the FBI had the audacity to issue a Stasi-like tweet urging “monitoring of ‘family members and peers’ for extremism.”

Remember: what we learn about the FBI in the press are only the stories that are SO outrageous that the FBI cannot keep a lid on them and is forced to make disclosures via a toothless Inspector General report — but never anything that results in a criminal indictment. Imagine what the ordinary day-to-day misconduct in FBI offices across the country could be. And these scandals don’t just amount to “bad press” – in several of these, federal courts scourge the FBI for lawbreaking. Additionally, Inspector General report after report details FBI abuses such as whistleblowers being retaliated against and ignoring “high-risk” employees who fail polygraph tests.

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H.R. 666 (115th): Department of Homeland Security Insider Threat and Mitigation Act of 2017

H.R. 666 requires the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish an insider threat program within the Department, mandates employee education and training programs, and establishes an internal DHS Steering Committee to manage and coordinate the Department’s activities related to insider threats.

The bill requires that the Insider Threat Program provide training and education for Department personnel to identify, prevent, mitigate, and respond to insider threat risks to the Department’s critical assets; provide investigative support regarding potential insider threats that may pose a risk to the Department’s critical assets; and conduct risk mitigation activities for insider threats.

The bill requires the Steering Committee, chaired by the Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, to meet regularly and discuss cases and issues related to insider threats to the Department’s critical assets. The bill also requires the Under Secretary, not later than one year after enactment, to develop a strategy to identify, prevent, mitigate, and respond to insider threats to the Department’s critical assets and develop a plan to implement insider threat measures.

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Scientific Authoritarianism Erodes Private Property And Human Liberty

“A fundamental difference between modern dictatorships and all other tyrannies of the past is that terror is no longer used as a means to exterminate and frighten opponents but as an instrument to rule masses of people who are perfectly obedient.”

~Hannah Arendt ~ (The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1966)

As a recipient of an E.C. Harwood Visiting Research Fellowship at the American Institute for Economic Research, I am inspired by tales of the principled battles that Colonel Harwood fought in support of the ideals behind the US Constitution. Taking his oath to support that great document as a lodestar, his support for the cause of human liberty and personal dignity led him to be a vocal opponent of the policies of FDR’s New Deal. As such, he continued doing so despite orders from his military commanders to cease his criticisms, eventually choosing to take early retirement from a promising military career as a graduate of West Point.

My lesson from his brave acts against the most powerful institutions in the US is that being a true patriot requires supporting an ideology of individual freedom rather than accepting partisan interests that violate foundational precepts. As such, Americans wishing for a united and prosperous country should follow Edward Harwood’s example to challenge the authority of government officials and question assertions of “experts” they use for support.

This contrarian behavior is even more urgent given the drift of public policy in recent years that would expand political powers beyond FDR’s wildest dreams, at the expense of private property rights and human liberty. As it is, public policies have become increasingly pointed towards responses to claims that irresponsible actions by humans are causing environmental degradation and climate change.

While the emergence of a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the disease that it might cause, Covid-19, are now at center stage, they share equal billing with the former only slightly in the background. In all events, this pair of menaces offers a convenient pretense for government officials to seek expansions in their powers that give them greater control over human actions and private resources. Initially, the specter of climate change was not enough to induce most citizens to accept enhanced political power that would diminish their liberty and curtail their personal rights.

However, fear ginned up during the recent pandemic based on pronouncements reflecting “expert” authority caused individuals to stop thinking of health as a personal issue and to embrace “public health.” The notion that “public health” reflects an objective reality must be challenged, especially since so much focus is on only one among many viruses and on only one disease among many ailments that afflict mankind. It is troubling that these political feats of legerdemain have induced many citizens to accept an artificial collective construct, with solidarity dominating individual autonomy and security elevated over human liberty.

While human health and protecting or rehabilitating the natural environment are indisputably worthy goals, a holistic approach to these matters requires considering their impact on the individual lives of humans.

Curbs on individual behavior and resource use to serve “public health” or the natural environment involve an unhealthy confusion of politics and “science.” In the end, the nonpharmaceutical interventions related to the Covid-19 pandemic might turn out to have been a dress rehearsal that serves as a roadmap for “climate action” to offset global warming.

Even if there is agreement on problems arising from human activity, the debate should be about the efficacy of the range of remedial actions that are available. As such, the quest for solutions should begin with an understanding that government interventions can often cause problems rather than be an appropriate remedy.

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NEW FBI INITIATIVE WILL PUT “HATE CRIME” QUOTAS ON LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT

The Department of Justice and the FBI have a message for local police departments: start charging more white people with hate crimes or invite an investigation. 

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta told an assembly of FBI agents yesterday that they are now tasked with hounding police departments in their district if they do not register any “hate crimes.” 

Gupta and FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division Jay Greenberg have declared “hate crimes” by “racially motivated violent extremists” (a euphemism generally reserved for right-wing white men) to be a national threat priority — a rare designation.

According to Greenberg, the FBI will be increasingly specialized in pursuing “hate crimes” through increased training in the matter, an aggressive media campaign designed to recruit victims in “underrepresented and targeted populations,” and putting federal pressure on local law enforcement to charge and report hate crimes when they otherwise wouldn’t. 

Hate crimes laws are political and racially motivated. Blacks and Jews are heavily overrepresented as supposed victims in the FBI’s “hate crime” database, while whites are charged at higher rates than general crime rates. Blacks are rarely charged with hate crimes when they commit bias crimes against whites. For example, last month a black man who shot five white men in a multi-state shooting spree told police his sole motive was that he hated white people, yet neither local prosecutors or the FBI have charged him with a hate crime.  

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