Tag: police state

California Bill Requires ‘Gender Neutral’ Stores, Fines Retailers $1000 For Having Separate ‘Boy’ And ‘Girl’ Toy Departments

California’s Assembly is slated to consider a new bill requiring department store childrens’ sections to be largely “gender-neutral” in order to combat “prejudice” and “judgment” against gender non-conforming children.

“Large retailers that sell toys, clothes, and other children’s items in California would have to devote floor space to merchandise marketed to both boys and girls under a new bill,” Politico reported earlier this week. “Stores would be able to sell the same products they do now as long as they maintain some areas where shoppers can find all toys or clothes, regardless of gender-based marketing, under CA AB2826 (19R) from Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell). It would apply to department stores with 500 or more employees beginning in 2023.”

Lowe told Politico that the idea for the bill, which he also introduced last year to little effect, came from one of his staffers, who claims her daughter wanted an item in the “boys” section but felt slighted because she felt the toy was designated for a male child.

“This is an issue of children being able to express themselves without bias,” Lowe told the outlet.

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No Warrant, No Problem; How Government Buys Its Way Around the 4th Amendment

When the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that law enforcement agencies need warrants before they can request geolocation data from cell phone companies, civil liberties advocates touted the judgment as a major win for privacy.

But since then, government agencies have devised a new surveillance method: instead of getting warrants to force companies to provide data, they simply purchase the information from brokers. Call it entrepreneurial innovation in the market for tyranny.

The scope of this activity has been slowly revealed over the last year, beginning with a February 2020 Wall Street Journal article, which reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has “bought access to a commercial database that maps the movements of millions of cellphones in American and is using it for immigration and border enforcement.” Later reports revealed that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) purchase similar data.

Had the world not essentially collapsed about a month later, this might have been big news. Alas, government’s data purchases have gone largely unpublicized in the midst of pandemics, riots, elections, and so on.

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“Spot’s Rampage” Event Awakens Us With Reality Of Dystopian World Ahead

To summarize the company’s manifesto. It said: “See Spot KILL!! Spot is an empathy-building tool, because: Cute and approachable!” 

Here’s the manifesto: 

See Spot Run. It tops out at a blistering 3mph.

See Spot Roll Over. Spot is an empathy missile, shaped like man’s best friend and targeted straight at our fight or flight instinct. When killer robots come to America they will be wrapped in fur, carrying a ball. Spot is Rob Rhinehart’s ideal pet: it never shits.

Good Boy, Spot! Everyone in this world takes one look at cute little Spot and knows: this thing will definitely be used by police and the military to murder people. And what do police departments have? Strong unions! Spot is employee of the month. You never need to union bust a robot – but a robot can union bust you.

The manifesto continued, “Boston Dynamics and they HATED this idea.” They said the robotics company even offered them two free robots to call off the event. 

See Spot KILL!! Spot is an empathy building tool, because: Cute and approachable! We talked with Boston Dynamics and they HATED this idea. They said they would give us another TWO Spots for FREE if we took the gun off. That just made us want to do this even more and if our Spot stops working just know they have a backdoor override built into each and every one of these little robots.

See Spot Fall Over And Freak Out. Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave. Our saving grace: Spot is evil but not very good at its job.

Boston Dynamics wasn’t thrilled with the stunt. 

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Gretchen Whitmer Requires Masks in Michigan Smoking Lounges ‘at All Times’

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) administration issued a new order Monday requiring masks in smoking lounges.

The Center Square reported the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued the surprise edict:

Michigan cigar and vaping lounges were caught off guard Monday afternoon by a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services memo effectively prohibiting smoking in their facilities.

The enforcement, according to the memo, was prompted by MDHHS efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19. All smoking lounges in the state must require face masks be worn at all times. …

The memo, signed by MDHHS Departmental Analyst Jason Osoff, Policy Enforcement & Monitoring/Tobacco Section, states the department’s emergency powers grants it the authority to implement and enforce measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

As of Wednesday morning, the order was not listed on the MDHHS website.

According to the news site, violations of Whitmer’s order are considered a misdemeanor, carry a $200 fine, and could include a $1,000 fine per day.

Whitmer’s agency is also targeting businesses for violations.

“Businesses that permit smoking on their premises may also be cited for violations of the order,” it said.

Whitmer allows the removal of a mask for eating or drinking, according to a February 4 edict, but participants in “in gatherings for any exercise activities, group fitness, or organized sports” must wear one.

The latest order pointed out smoking is not included in the exemptions.

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Liberty Activist Arrested, Held on $1M Bond Over Entirely Legal Facebook Posts Criticizing Gov’t

Last Wednesday Martinez posted a Facebook photo of a flag-draped coffin carried by uniformed officers with the caption, “How police officers take out their trash.” Above the photo, Martinez said, “I can’t wait to see the news and hear that Detective Kenneth Mead is in that casket.”

Showing how ridiculous the charges are, that post didn’t even violate Facebook’s terms of service and it is still up on Martinez’s Facebook page.

In another post, Martinez posted a photo of Dickerson with the statement, “This is Michael Dickerson. He is Detective Kenneth Mead’s bitch. Dickerson, I hope you and Mead die a slow and painful death… Mead, I have a message for you — Molon Labe.”

Again, though this post was distasteful, it was entirely legal. One need only scroll through Twitter or Facebook for a few seconds to find millions upon millions of similar posts about Trump, Biden, cops, judges, local politicians, and individuals whose politics draw them the ire of the political foes.

According to the criminal complaint against Martinez — which apparently justified the million dollar bond — Martinez threatened Mead with the intent that Mead be “placed in reasonable fear of death or substantial bodily harm.”

The idea that these posts placed him in “reasonable fear” is laughable. Literally every single day, TFTP gets hate mail and death threats, directed at our employees and even their families and children, and no one is ever placed in “reasonable fear” because of them.

The emails directly threaten our families, claiming they will murder, rape, etc. If you are reading this now, you can probably even scroll down to the comments and find a threat below. But we don’t even report them, as some pissed off asshole ranting on the internet does not justify reasonable fear.

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FBI SEIZED CONGRESSIONAL CELLPHONE RECORDS RELATED TO CAPITOL ATTACK

WITHIN HOURS OF the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting — including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions.

Using special emergency powers and other measures, the FBI has collected reams of private cellphone data and communications that go beyond the videos that rioters shared widely on social media, according to two sources with knowledge of the collection effort.

In the hours and days after the Capitol riot, the FBI relied in some cases on emergency orders that do not require court authorization in order to quickly secure actual communications from people who were identified at the crime scene. Investigators have also relied on data “dumps” from cellphone towers in the area to provide a map of who was there, allowing them to trace call records — but not content — from the phones.

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