Tag: police state

The Fast-Approaching Digital Control Grid

Introduction

A digital control grid is an electronic network of digital telecommunication and information systems that allows individuals to be surveilled, tracked, and made subject to invasive controls applied to their financial transactions and resource use (such as electricity, food, water, transportation)—compromising, if not ending, all human rights and liberties. Control grids operate with significant data collection and AI to apply social credit systems that can be dictated on a highly centralized basis. A digital control grid ends financial freedom, replacing markets with technocracy—a system run by rules created and maintained centrally by “experts.”

Is the Trump Administration building a digital control grid? We provide the following checklist to assess the steps the Administration is (and is not) taking in a variety of areas to facilitate a rapid control grid build-out. We invite subscribers to post suggestions in the Comments section below.

The Big Picture

“Okay, let’s recap: REAL ID enforced; stablecoins incoming; mRNA Stargate project; TSA biometric overhaul; ICE using facial recognition; Palantir in 30+ federal agencies; Google/Amazon health data tracking; AI surveillance towers scanning highways. Surveillance State: engaged.”

Money

Summary: An all-digital currency and monetary system is essential to institute a digital control grid.

The GENIUS Act
There is support for legislation to create digital stablecoin infrastructure. Presumably, this can be used to create a programmable money system in both the U.S. and globally—in essence, a private CBDC.

More on the GENIUS Act (added July 18, 2025)
Exposing the Darkness Substack: Stablecoins “would likely eventually replace all cash, and would enable governments to freeze the accounts of anyone declared in violation of ‘lawful’ federal or state executive branch regulations, such as the vaccine mandates passed down in 2021 by [HHS]. Trump is doing the exact opposite of what he pledged…. He said he would ban CBDCs … but Stablecoins are in every important respect CBDCs.”

Armstrong Economics: “[E]ssentially, the government is turning the stablecoin into a digital dollar of sorts. The concern here is that this could delve into digitizing all currency and creating a CBDC. The act specifically provides the government with the authority to ‘block, freeze, and reject specific or impermissible transactions.’ This provision is not intended to protect the world against drug smugglers and thieves. This provision is intended to grant government unlimited control over how people spend stablecoins.”

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Over 20,000 Arrested In Iran On Suspicion Of Espionage During War With Israel

Iranian police arrested around 21,000 people on various charges during the 12-day war with Israel, Iran’s national police force reported on Tuesday. According to local media, more than 7,850 public tips were received during the fighting, leading to the arrests. 

The spokesperson of the Iranian police, Saed Montazer al-Mahdi, noted that the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA) handled 5,700 cybercrime cases, including internet fraud, unauthorized withdrawals, and a cyber attack on the Nobitex exchange.

He said 2,774 “illegal citizens” were detained, with 261 people arrested on suspicion of espionage and 172 detained for unauthorized filming – some for filming “sensitive centers” around the country. Examinations of the suspects’ mobile phones led to the opening of 30 special security cases.

Speaking on the Evin Prison incident, Mahdi stated that police arrested 127 “security and political” inmates during an escape attempt, including two of whom were dressed in firefighter uniforms.

Fars News Agency reported on July 25 that more than 700 people had been detained over the previous 12 days on charges of “security cooperation with Israel.”

Separately, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on 22 July that 75 prisoners escaped during an Israeli missile strike on Evin Prison.

According to Shargh Media Group, Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ismail Khatib said, “The intelligence and security organizations have the resources [personnel, assets, and operational capabilities] to mobilize them both internally and within the regime itself. During the imposed 12-day war, we witnessed seven million public reports.”

He added, “We hope that as this unity has been the axis of destroying all influence, hostility, conspiracy, and sedition, we will all be able to protect this unity and cohesion.”

During the June war, Israel launched coordinated attacks inside Iran, killing senior military and intelligence officials, nuclear scientists, and striking key military sites and administrative infrastructure.

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US Plan To Copy UK’s Disastrous Online Digital ID Verification Is Winning Friends in the Senate

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is moving forward in the US Senate with 16 new co-sponsors as of July 31, 2025, reviving a proposal that copies the same type of provision found in the UK’s controversial Online Safety Act, which has caused much backlash across the Atlantic.

In Britain, that measure forces online platforms to implement digital ID age checks before granting access to content deemed “harmful,” a policy that has caused intense resentment over privacy violations, the erosion of anonymity, and government overreach in the realm of free speech.

Now, US lawmakers are considering a similar framework, with more senators from both parties throwing their support behind the bill in recent weeks.

Marketed as a way to shield children from harmful online material, KOSA has gained prominent backing from Apple, which has publicly praised it as a step toward improving online safety. Yet beyond the reassuring branding, the legislation contains provisions that raise serious concerns for free expression and user privacy.

If enacted, the bill would give the Federal Trade Commission authority to investigate and sue platforms over content labeled as “harmful” to minors. This would push websites toward aggressive content moderation to avoid liability, creating an environment where speech is heavily filtered without the government ever issuing direct censorship orders.

The legislation also instructs the Secretary of Commerce, FTC, and FCC to explore “systems to verify age at the device or operating system level.” Such a mandate paves the way for nationwide digital identification, where every user’s online activity could be tied to a verifiable real-world identity.

Once anonymity is removed, the scope for surveillance and profiling expands dramatically, with personal data stored and potentially exploited by both corporations and government agencies.

Advocates of a free and open internet warn that laws like KOSA exploit the emotional appeal of child safety to introduce infrastructure that enables ongoing monitoring and identity tracking. Even with recent changes, such as removing state attorneys general from enforcement, these core concerns remain.

Senator Marsha Blackburn defended the bill, stating, “Big Tech platforms have shown time and time again they will always prioritize their bottom line over the safety of our children.” Yet KOSA’s structure could end up reinforcing the dominance of large tech firms, which are best positioned to implement costly verification systems and handle the resulting data.

The bill’s earlier version stalled in the House after leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson, questioned its impact on free speech. Johnson remarked that he “love[s] the principle, but the details of that are very problematic,” a sentiment still shared by many who view KOSA as a gateway to lasting restrictions on online freedoms.

If this legislation moves forward, it will not simply affect what minors can view; it will alter the fundamental architecture of the internet, embedding identity verification and top-down content control into its design.

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Is OneTaste the case that finally brings down the EDNY?

It’s been 50 days since the US government locked up Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, two women convicted during a sham trial of a little-known charge called “forced labor conspiracy.” Most Americans have never even heard of it, and for good reason. This vague, elastic statute was never meant for cases like this. These women weren’t accused of abuse, trafficking, or violence of any kind. They were targeted for running a spiritual wellness company built around adult, consensual meditation practices.

On June 8, 2025, a Brooklyn jury returned a verdict that should send a chill through every educator, spiritual leader, and entrepreneur in America. With zero evidence of any sort of confinement, threats, or violence, Daedone and Cherwitz were found guilty of “forced labor conspiracy.” This is a charge usually reserved for sweatshops, not spiritual schools and meditation groups. But that didn’t matter, because this case wasn’t about justice. It was ideological “MeToo-era” lawfare dressed up as prosecution and rubber-stamped by the Eastern District of New York.

National Law Review:

The June 8, 2025, conviction in the Brooklyn federal courthouse of Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, co-founder and former sales executive, respectively, of the sexual wellness company OneTaste, marks a significant development in a controversial case that has drawn national attention.

The verdict, which found the wellness educators guilty of a single count of forced labor conspiracy, a crime typically associated with sweatshop operators and sex traffickers, relied on novel legal theories that could have far-reaching implications for educators, religious leaders, and community organizers who engage in intensive one-on-one interactions with dedicated students or followers. OneTaste, founded in San Francisco in 2004, gained prominence for its unconventional wellness practices centered around “orgasmic meditation,” which the company claimed could lead to personal growth, empowerment, and heightened intimacy.

However, in April 2023, following a series of critical media reports and a salacious Netflix documentary, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York indicted Daedone and Cherwitz on a single count of conspiracy to obtain forced labor. Notably, prosecutors did not charge any substantive counts of forced labor or sex trafficking, instead relying on a novel application of the conspiracy statute. The case against Daedone and Cherwitz raised eyebrows from the start.

Prosecutors alleged that the defendants had used psychological coercion and manipulation to compel participants’ labor and commitment, despite no evidence of physical confinement, violence, or overt threats. Over the course of the five-week trial, which began on May 5, 2025, the government presented testimony from nine former OneTaste staff and students who claimed to have felt pressured to devote increasing time and resources to the organization. A Verdict Built on Contradictions The trial’s outcome crystallized a fundamental paradox:

How can voluntary participation in educational programs constitute forced labor? All nine of the government’s complaining witnesses testified they received valuable benefits from OneTaste’s teachings on meditation and sexuality. No evidence showed physical restraint, prevented departure, or traditional markers of coercion. Indeed, prosecutor Nina Gupta conceded in closing: “There may not have been physical chains holding the victims in place. There may not have been locks on the door.” Instead, the government argued that losing “your job or your friends or your family or your belief system” constituted serious harm under the forced labor statute – establishing a precedent that could criminalize any religious community, athletic program, or dedicated community where participants develop deep commitments.

Yet after two days of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict for each defendant. The immediate remand by the court of both defendants – after two years of full bail compliance – added theatrical punctuation to what attorneys following the case characterized as a “show trial.” Judge Diane Gujarati cited media coverage as justification for detention, though that same media attention had existed throughout their pretrial release.

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UK speech police could break Wikipedia, keep punishing Christian expression: critics

From crowdsourced Wikipedia entries to public religious expression, the United Kingdom’s speech regulation is drawing alarm on both sides of the pond for its potential and actual effects on shared knowledge and conscience rights at home and abroad.

The U.K. High Court knocked down a challenge to the Online Safety Act by the U.S.-based Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, on the grounds that it must wait for the Office of Communications to actually subject Wikipedia to “Category 1,” which would strip the anonymity underlying its volunteer model for creating and editing entries.

While some observers warn the ruling Monday could lead Wikipedia to go dark in the U.K., the nonprofit looked for the silver lining, noting Justice Jeremy Johnson said Ofcom and the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology do not have “a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations.”

Swiss-based Proton VPN promoted its “anti-censorship” virtual private network services to circumvent the law, given that the “government could soon be asking its citizens to provide ID to access Wikipedia … Created to ‘protect children online,’ the OSA is increasing censorship for everyone.”

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told BBC Newsnight that “forums for self-help” including a “stop-drinking app” now have to block U.K. users who refuse to identify themselves in line with the law, which he called a “human rights violation” that is not “reining in Big Tech.” He’s also promoting VPNs, or virtual private networks, to circumvent the law. 

His co-founder, Larry Sanger, has been a vocal critic of Wikipedia’s alleged capture by the “woke” left for years and has even called for some recourse for people it defames. American conservatives have aggressively targeted it for biased though decentralized editorial decisions such as trashing President Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

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Yikes: DEI D.C. Police Chief Doesn’t Know What The Term “Chain Of Command” Means

Washington D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith was humiliated earlier today after revealing that she apparently doesn’t know what the term “chain of command” means.

During a press briefing, a reporter asked Smith “Do you know what the chain of command is now?” referring to President Trump having deployed National Guard troops to the capital to restore law and order.

Smith looked puzzled and responded “What does that mean?”

How does a person get a job as a police officer, let alone Police Chief without knowing what that means?

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P’Nut The Squirrel’s Owners Sue New York For $10M After Raid, Decapitation

The owners P’Nut – a beloved squirrel that was seized and euthanized by the state of New York are suing for $10 million in damages over the death of their pets, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in New York Court of Claims.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation staged a five-hour raid on the home of Mark Luongo after an anonymous complaint was lodged against the P’nuts Freedom Farm, where internet sensation Peanut the squirrel was taken into custody along with his sidekick, Fred the raccoon – before the state euthanized both animals ‘in order to test for rabies.’

DEC officials claimed that P’Nut but an agent through thick leather gloves during the raid, necessitating both the squirrel and raccoon be decapitated and tested for rabies. The state later admitted that both tests were negative, and have never apologized nor returned the bodies of the pets. 

According to court documents, P’Nut and Fred’s execution were “not due to a fear of rabies,” but a “senseless act of violence” and “obscene demonstration of government abuse.” 

This lawsuit comes on top of a previous suit filed by Longo and Bittner on June 27 in Chemung County Supreme Court against the City of Elmira and 36 individuals from various levels of state and local office – and seeks unspecified damages via jury trial. 

The couple claims they’ve suffered emotional trauma and financial losses since losing their star squirrel – who had appeared all over social media (including OnlyFans !?), according to both lawsuits. 

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Tornado Cash Co-Founder Roman Storm Convicted, Raising Fears for Privacy Rights and Open-Source Development

Roman Storm’s guilty verdict is sending shockwaves through privacy advocates and the open-source development community, with many warning it could change how the US criminal justice system treats creators of decentralized tools.

A federal jury in New York on August 6 convicted the Tornado Cash co-founder of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, a charge that could carry up to five years in prison. Jurors could not agree on two other allegations, conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to breach US sanctions, leaving prosecutors the option to bring those charges to trial again.

Tornado Cash, launched in 2019 by Storm along with Alexey Pertsev and Roman Semenov, was designed to obscure the origins of cryptocurrency transactions and give users financial privacy.

Although the protocol never took control of user funds, US authorities claimed it had been exploited for laundering illicit proceeds and sanctioned it before later reversing that decision in March. Pertsev is facing trial in the Netherlands, Semenov is still wanted by the FBI, and Storm’s arrest took place a year after Pertsev’s.

In September 2024, Judge Katherine Failla allowed the case to move forward, ruling that Tornado Cash met the definition of a money transmitter under federal law and should have followed Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer rules. Privacy supporters have long argued that holding developers accountable for the actions of users, particularly when they lack the technical ability to intervene, creates a dangerous precedent.

The Blockchain Association, a crypto policy group, called the decision “a dangerous precedent for open-source software developers.”

In an earlier amicus brief, it said Storm had no custody or control over the funds moving through Tornado Cash and warned the ruling could lead to criminal charges against creators of browsers, messaging apps, or other tools if those were misused.

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Push To Cut Livestock For Climate Goals (Due To Burping & Farting) Worries UK Farmers, Ecologists

UK government advisers have urged deep cuts to the country’s cattle and sheep numbers to reduce the overall levels of methane emissions.

Officials insist no mass cull is planned.

But farmers are concerned that it’s part of a growing push to reduce livestock levels, which could sacrifice traditional grazing and damage the fragile ecosystems it supports. 

The UK’s net-zero policies go further than those of the European Commission, where cattle farms remain outside regulatory crosshairs until next year.

In February, the UK’s independent adviser on climate action, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), whose advice strongly guides government policy, recommended a 27 percent decrease in cattle and sheep numbers by 2040 in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the UK government, agriculture is the country’s largest source of domestic methane emissions, accounting for 49 percent of total emissions. Of this, around 85 percent of agricultural methane comes from cows and other ruminant animals through enteric fermentation and is released as mostly burps but also flatulence.

One discussed option in the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee’s 2024 report as a mitigation strategy included “reducing ruminant livestock numbers, enabled by dietary change and reduced food waste.”

‘It’s Completely Backwards’

Britain’s livestock farms, which are mostly grass-based, are integrated into the iconic patchwork countryside, with sheep and cattle grazing in open fields divided by hedgerows and stone walls as part of a complex natural ecosystem.

Alan Hughes, a fourth-generation tenant farmer who is part of the Farmers to Action agricultural rights campaign, told The Epoch Times that wider net-zero proposals on livestock ignore the ecological function of grazing.

“It’s completely backwards to stop grazing. It causes fires, which then releases far more CO₂ than the livestock sequence by grazing,” he said.

He added that without sheep grazing, “sheep don’t eat the dry matter,” which then turns to kindling.

“This then starts wildfires, from the peat and from the crops which should have been eaten by the sheep, which causes a massive release of CO₂,” he said.

Beyond fire risk, Hughes said that reducing livestock also damages food security and degrades natural ecosystems.

“The biggest issue we’re going to have before long is not enough protein to feed our population, which is why they’re looking at bugs,” he said.

“If they force us to do more, I call it ‘less natural’ ways of production. If you don’t have livestock grazing, you don’t have the manure or improve the biodiversity of soil, and that’s when you get soil erosion, which causes deserts, or you’re forced to do vegetable crops.

“Now, when you plow up a field for vegetable crops, you kill the root structure of grass. Now that then turns to methane and carbon dioxide, which is actually released.”

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Age-Restricted Taxi Tracking? The Absurd Consequences Of Britain’s Online Safety Act

I was recently travelling in the UK and, after a lot of sightseeing on foot, decided to order a taxi to go back to my hotel.

I searched the internet for a local taxi firm and found one with relative ease. I called the number and went through an automated process which worked well. I managed to book a taxi quickly. The computer-generated voice told me that my taxi was on its way. I was sent a link so that I could monitor the progress of my taxi. The message also said that I would know the taxi driver’s name and the type of vehicle and registration number that was on its way….

I can’t understand why anyone would consider a link to show you the progress of a taxi that you have ordered to be age-inappropriate content.

I can only assume that it is to do with the recent Online Safety Act, although coincidentally I had recently changed mobile providers, so it might purely have been that the mobile provider that I’d switched to had a different standard as to what was considered adult content.

I doubt this on the basis that the company I moved to, Talkmobile, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company I had used previously, Vodafone, and, as you can see, the block was from Vodafone.

Whoever has decided that this link contains age-restricted content hasn’t necessarily thought this through.

Consider the scenario where a 17 year-old girl can’t get hold of her parents and it’s too far away or she does not want to walk home, so she orders a taxi through a reputable taxi service.

A link is sent to her so she can see the progress of the taxi that she has ordered.

Of course, she can’t open it because it’s considered age-inappropriate and, being only 17, she’s not in a position to prove that she’s over 18 and thus get the link to the taxi.

Thankfully it’s rare, but we do know that there are predators out there who will look for people who are vulnerable, and it’s not difficult to spot someone who’s waiting for somebody to pick them up or waiting for a taxi, because every time a car approaches the person will look up from whatever they’re doing to see if it’s the car that’s picking them up.

All it would take would be for a predator to be around at that time, pull the window down and say, “Did you call for a taxi?” and, of course, because she’s just ordered one, she believes this is her taxi, so she gets in, perhaps never to be seen again — all because some moron has decided that a link to follow the progress of a taxi is something you’re not allowed to see if you’re under the age of 18.

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