Tag: police state

Surgeon General says “equity” is the reason COVID “misinformation” needs to be censored online

In his address on the administration’s concerns about online health “misinformation” surrounding the pandemic, Biden’s Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said the misinformation concerns were focused on “equity.”

The White House has come under fire for its plans for a direct approach regarding online censorship, especially when it emerged that it was flagging posts on Facebook.

“Misinformation is a threat to our health, and the speed, scale and sophistication with which it is spreading is unprecedented,” Murthy said in the Thursday morning address. “I will not hesitate to say that and to call for greater accountability and action to address health misinformation.”

“A word about equity though,” he continued. “We recognize that equity must be at the center of our work to confront health misinformation. Here’s why: Because unequal access to the health care system, education and technology, means that some people have less access to accurate health information than others. And when those people instead encounter health misinformation, it can worsen their health outcomes, which exacerbates health inequity in what becomes a vicious cycle.”

Keep reading

Company tied to Obama Foundation spying on Americans’ online activity – for the government?

This is chilling. We have seen over the past several months the Biden administration putting out continuous dog whistles about “white supremacy,” going so far as to claim that “domestic white extremism” is the biggest threat to our country since…well since forever.

Newly discovered information however shows to what extent the administration and the Pentagon are going in trying to “root out” alleged extremism.

 According to numerous sources including Fox News, the Pentagon is apparently working with a company, Moonshot CVE which has ties to—surprise, surprise—the Obama Foundation—is currently working on data which would provide military leaders which military bases and branches have the most troops searching for so-called “domestic extremist” content.

So what does Moonshot consider to be a “search for domestic extremist content?” How about if you put the following into your web browser: “The truth about Black Lives Matter.”

According to Moonshot, that along with a number of other seemingly innocent searches shows signs of either interest in or engagement with white supremacism, according to Defense One.

In June, Moonshot released a report in collaboration with the far-left Anti-Defamation League in which they identified so-called “white supremacy trends in the United States.”

Moonshot, based in the U.K. noted it “monitored a list of almost 1,600 indicators of interest in or engagement with white supremacism, focused specifically on anti-black and anti-Semitic narratives used by extremist groups.

Other “problematic” search phrases included “George Floyd deserved to die,” “Jews will not replace us” and “the truth about black lives matter.”

The latter in particular got the attention of Moonshot, which noted that: “This search suggests that the BLM movement has nefarious motives and is a disinformation narrative perpetuated by white supremacist groups to weaponize anti-BLM sentiment.”

It would seem the fact that the founders of BLM, who are admitted Marxists might draw the attention of people who care about the country, especially given the fact that politicians and businesses have allowed themselves to be shaken down by BLM.

Moreover, questions about the organization’s finances are fair game, especially since one of the founders, Patrisse Cullors has managed to acquire for herself a tidy little real estate portfolio.

Keep reading

Cybersecurity Experts Encourage System of Reporting Workers to Employers for “Online Abuse”

A new initiative launched by cybersecurity experts encourages companies to create a system that makes it easier for people to be reported to their employers for “online abuse.”

The new program is called Respect in Security and was created by Trend Micro’s Rik Ferguson and Red Goat Cyber Security’s Lisa Forte.

According to Forte, the current system, which is largely based on a combination of AI and human reviewers working for social media companies, is a “no man’s land” and not very effective.

“The best solution we have, if the culprit is identifiable, is to approach their employer,” she argues.

According to Ferguson, companies currently only deal with “abuse” that happens internally and are ill-equipped to monitor what their staff are saying online.

Companies who sign up for the initiative are required to agree to seven principles and create a public reporting system that encourages employees to keep tabs on each other’s behavior.

“If you know your organization has made that commitment, it may make you think twice about doing it,” Ferguson said. “We need to take action.”

Keep reading

A Bad Cop’s Best Friend?

One morning in late January 2019, Rhogena Nicholas texted a prayer to her mother, Jo Ann Nicholas, just as she did every day. A widow in her eighties, Jo Ann could no longer make the four-hour drive from Natchitoches, Louisiana, to visit her daughter and her son-in-law, Dennis Tuttle, at their bungalow in the Pecan Park neighborhood of southeast Houston, but the family remained close, texting and speaking on the phone regularly. Rhogena, 58, worked as a bookkeeper, among other jobs. That afternoon, on January 28, she called Jo Ann to warn her against venturing outside in the icy weather gripping central Louisiana. Then she said goodbye, telling her mother that she and Tuttle were going to take a nap.

Less than an hour later, eleven armed Houston Police Department officers broke down the door of 7815 Harding Street and killed Rhogena, Tuttle, and their dog in a fusillade of bullets; autopsies would reveal that police shot Rhogena three times and Tuttle nine times. Four officers were also shot, allegedly by Tuttle, a 59-year-old disabled Navy veteran.

At a press conference that evening, Houston police chief Art Acevedo said that a neighbor had tipped off officers that heroin was being sold at the Harding Street home, leading a judge to issue a search warrant. Then Joe Gamaldi, the 37-year-old president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, stepped up to the microphones.

A native of Long Island who started his career in the New York Police Department, Gamaldi has a slender build and short stature—his former NYPD partner affectionately calls him a “good little man”—that belie his street fighter instincts. And on this night, with four of his officers in the hospital, he was ready for a brawl.

“We are sick and tired of having dirtbags trying to take our lives,” Gamaldi announced in his reedy New York accent, jabbing his forefinger at the assembled reporters. “And if you’re the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy—well, just know, we’ve all got your number now.” To Gamaldi, the deadly Harding Street raid was the latest skirmish in what he considers a war on cops being waged by a panoply of sinister left-wing groups.

Keep reading

UK law commission recommends making speech offenses based on “likely psychological harm”

Recommendations unveiled by the UK’s Law Commission are seeking to establish a new offense by criminalizing communications that could cause “likely psychological harms.”

Another offense that is recommended in the document concerns “knowingly false communications.” This is a serious threat to freedom of expression, and a chance for the authorities to get the last word on what is perceived as true and false.

The recommendation defines “harm” as something that causes “serious distress,” while “psychological harm” is also being mentioned. As for defining “serious distress” – the Commission refers to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

The proposed reforms are aimed at protecting victims of online abuse, but there are fears that the vague language and prioritizing subjective perception of speech over objective content could have dangerous consequences.

And the fact that identity and characteristics of the recipient of a communication is also given center stage leaves the door wide open for censorship based on identity politics.

Keep reading

New Study Puts the Nail in the Coffin of the Myth that ‘Marijuana is a Gateway Drug’

Politicians defending the criminalization of recreational marijuana use have long riled up voters with dire warnings that the substance acts as a “gateway drug.” They insist that even if deaths directly caused by marijuana usage are virtually nonexistent, pot will eventually lead many users to more dangerous drugs.

President Biden himself has long made this claim, stating in 2010 that “I still believe [marijuana] is a gateway drug.” Only in 2019, while campaigning for president, did Biden begin to walk back this position. Yet he still does not fully support federal marijuana legalization. And the “gateway” position is still held by many other politicians clinging to their opposition to a widely popular legalization movement. For example, Republican Congressman Andy Harris recently referred to marijuana as “a known gateway drug to opioid addiction” while arguing against legalization.

However, a new study suggests that the notion that marijuana is a “gateway drug” is little more than political fiction.

Economists examined the impact that recreational marijuana laws passed in 18 states and the District of Columbia have had on metrics key to the “gateway” narrative. The analysis is the first to “comprehensively examine the broader impacts of state recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) on a wide set of outcomes related to hard drug use, including illicit nonmarijuana related consumption, drug-related arrests, arrests for property and violent offenses, mortality due to drug-related overdoses, suicides, and admissions for drug addiction-related treatment.”

Across four different nationwide databases, the researchers “find little consistent evidence” that recreational marijuana laws have gateway effects to hard drugs. The study finds “little compelling evidence to suggest” that marijuana legalization leads to more increases in drug use, arrests for hard drug offenses, drug overdoses, or admissions for drug addiction treatment.

They say there is even “suggestive evidence that legalizing recreational marijuana reduces heroin- and other opioid-related mortality.” Ultimately, the authors conclude that critics’ fear of marijuana’s supposed “gateway” effect appears “unfounded.”

Unfounded, indeed. But don’t expect critics to change their tune.

Keep reading

MP Calls for Unvaccinated Australians to Be Banned From Public Places

An Australian MP has called for people who refuse to take the vaccine to be prohibited from returning to their job and banned from public places.

The Independent reports: “Upper House politician Frank Pangallo from the SA-Best party, has demanded that vaccination be made mandatory for workplaces, travel and when visiting public or hospitality venues.”

According to Adelaide Now, Pangallo said unvaccinated citizens must have their movements controlled and restricted in an effort to combat the ever-evolving virus.

“While people might still have a choice whether or not to get vaccinated, what they can do in the community will need to be controlled and restricted,” Pangallo said.

“I understand people will think this is a rather drastic and draconian step, but this pandemic continues to evolve in ways and waves nobody can predict.

“There would need to be a requirement incorporated with QR code information that if you want to travel on public transport, airlines, enter venues, shopping malls, restaurants, and cafes, you will need to show you have been vaccinated.

“It might also have to apply for the workplaces,” he added.

Earlier this month, in what was described as potentially “one of the largest petitions in parliamentary history,” over 300,000 Australians called on the House of Representatives to ban mandatory vaccinations in Australia.

Keep reading