Category: Surveillance State

History Lessons

Little Known Facts nannystate Surveillance State 24 Comments

Next to FDR, Woodrow Wilson stands out as my least favorite President. Wilson ushered in the era of a meddlesome federal government and countless violations of individual rights. It’s not surprising to find that he was motivated by the collectivist philosophies that long dominated the field of education and consequently took root in our political systems.

“Wilson attended lectures about how history could be theorized in systematic terms that describe a progressive improvement of the human condition. He became absorbed by the philosophy of Georg Hegel. … In Hegel’s works, personal freedom was framed as a national ideal — only achieved when each individual fit a hierarchy that served the larger whole. Hegel’s ideas from the early 1800s aligned with an idea emergent in intellectual life in the early 1900s: applying biological principles to social and political conditions. Wilson … began to view individuals as cells or cogs within a living organism, which he analogized to the nation. As Wilson’s worldview solidified, he came to believe that the individual rights described in the Constitution, championed by Jefferson and Madison, were not immutable triumphs, but were instead subservient to transcendent ideals of national order and societal hierarchy.”

SCOTUS: Deep State vs Citizenry

nannystate Surveillance State The Deplorables 11 Comments

Boom!

The Supreme Court’s third (but not last) decision is SEC v. Jarkesy. By a 6–3 vote, the court holds that when the SEC seeks civil penalties, the defendant is entitled to a jury trial in federal court.

This sounds technical but it’s huge.

SCOTUS’ decision is Jarkesy may well hobble many federal agencies’ ability to bring meaningful enforcement actions against wrongdoers. Not just the SEC. Neither the executive branch nor the judiciary have the time or resources to try all these cases before a jury. Nowhere close.

Today’s decision in Jarkesy could kneecap enforcement by the FCC, the FTC, the NLRB, the Department of Labor, and more—it goes WAY beyond the SEC. This is a massive blow to the federal government’s ability to enforce regulations against lawbreakers.

The ruling is here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-859_1924.pdf

More from Benjamin Weingarten;

Justice Gorsuch — with whom Justice Thomas concurred — details more administrative state tyranny. We’ve been de-sensitized to an unelected, unaccountable, awesomely powerful branch of government that’s, shall we say, hard to square this with the Constitution

And another: The Supreme Court granted applications for a stay, effectively halting the enforcement of the EPA’s “good neighbor” policy. The decision underscores the limits of the EPA’s regulatory authority, emphasizing state sovereignty in managing local environmental issues.

Don’t Think Of It As “Your” Information, Think Of It As “Our” Information

Surveillance State 19 Comments

Blacklocks- Feds Likes Payroll Data Scoop

“The vision of ePayroll in Canada is a service through which Canadian employers can securely send payroll, employment and demographic information to a protected Government of Canada repository,” said the Briefing Binder. “Government departments and agencies could then access the information when they need it.”

“The scope and scale of the ePayroll project are massive,” said the Policy Brief. “It would impact every employer and every worker in Canada.”

“The sheer volume of data would be enormous, roughly equivalent to the amount of information submitted at year-end being received every two weeks,” said the Payroll Institute. “Public buy-in is essential,” it cautioned.

If You’ve Got Nothing To Hide

Surveillance State Tech 20 Comments

It shouldn’t be a problem for you.

CBC- Public servants uneasy as government ‘spy’ robot prowls federal offices

Bruce Roy, national president of the Government Services Union, called the robot’s presence in federal workplaces “intrusive” and “insulting.”

“People feel observed all the time,” he said in French. “It’s a spy. The robot is a spy for management.”

Francisco- While we’re at it the all of the information collected should be readily available to the public via the internet. In the interest of “transparency” of course.

“Not Weaponized” (Yet)

Surveillance State 27 Comments

During the next pandemic they can harass farmers in the middle of nowhere for not wearing a mask while greasing their cultivator.

Calgary Herald- ‘Game-changing’: RCMP testing crime-fighting drones in rural Alberta

The drones are purely used for observation, according to RCMP, and aren’t weaponized. Some can be equipped with loud speakers, emergency lights and sky hooks to carry emergency equipment. Officers on Friday said pre-recorded messages can be blared from certain drones equipped to do so, making them a communication tool in emergency situations.

Shut Up, You!

Freespeechers It's Probably Nothing nannystate Surveillance State 17 Comments

I always thought Canada already had laws against uttering threats, but it seems the Quebec provincial legislature thought that elected officials needed more wiggle room on that score. It’s anyone’s guess how much of a field day the courts will have enforcing it. Like our constitutional rights, everything hinges on one weasel word: reasonable.

The new Act makes anyone who hinders the exercise of an elected officer’s functions by threatening,
intimidating or harassing the officer in a manner that causes them to reasonably fear for their integrity or safety liable to a fine.

Anyone who hinders the exercise of a Member’s functions by threatening, intimidating or harassing the Member in a manner that causes them to reasonably fear for their integrity or safety is liable to a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,500.

If you want to download the whole PDF document, here’s the link.

Google Commemorative Logos You’ll Never See

Google Commemorative Logos You'll Never See Surveillance State Tech 6 Comments

FoxNews;

A six-year span of internal Google reports, unearthed by 404 Media, exposes a troubling array of privacy breaches affecting everything from children’s voice data to the home addresses of unsuspecting carpool users.

These breaches include making YouTube recommendations based on users’ deleted watch histories. These issues, though not widely known or impactful on a large scale, reveal the complex challenges faced by one of the tech world’s behemoths.

Whatsisname’s Britain

Freespeechers Surveillance State 7 Comments

Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and raising the flag ain’t what it used to be;

How did the UK military evade the ban on spying on UK citizens? A whistleblower from the 77th Brigade, who spoke to Big Brother Watch on condition of anonymity, said it did so by pretending that the British citizens who UK soldiers were spying upon could, perhaps, be foreigners

“To skirt the clear legal issues with a military unit monitoring domestic dissent,” the whistleblower told us, “the leading view was that unless a profile explicitly stated their real name and nationality, which is, of course, vanishingly rare, they could be a foreign agent and were fair game to flag up.”

By “flag up,” the whistleblower referred to the process by which UK government officials sent content to social media companies that they thought should be censored.

The New Police State

Freespeechers It's Probably Nothing nannystate Surveillance State 52 Comments

Not only can the Scottish police now charge you with “hate speech” on a wide variety of topics, but they can do so based on criteria that drops any  and all pretense of objectivity. It seems that for Scots the best way to avoid prison would be to tape their mouths shut and abandon social media.

Asked whether “misgendering” someone or making a comment about their religion would be a crime the minister replied: “This will be up to Police Scotland. I wouldn’t say misgendering if you say something on social media for example it would be up to Police Scotland to determine.”

Rest assured, however, the police will move heaven and earth to investigate such “high level” crimes:

Just last month the national force said it was no longer able to investigate every “low level” crime, including some cases of theft and criminal damage.

It has, however, pledged to investigate every hate crime complaint it receives.

I Want A New Country

nannystate Surveillance State 44 Comments

RCMP- Saskatchewan RCMP begin Mandatory Alcohol Screenings (MAS) on routine traffic stops

In 2018, the MAS became part of the Criminal Code Section 320.27(2), being a lawful demand of a breath sample from any driver of a motor vehicle, without the need for reasonable suspicion. Drivers will not be pulled over for the sole purpose of completing a MAS – the MAS will only be requested once a driver is pulled over for other various traffic violations (i.e. speeding, careless driving, brake lights not working, etc.).

Your Criminal Future

It's Probably Nothing nannystate Surveillance State 21 Comments

The notion of prior restraint, or the idea that a person can be sanctioned today for a crime that he has not yet committed, but might commit in the future, just got a whole new lease on life in Canada. This idea gained traction during the pandemic when people were forced to quarantine despite the absence of any evidence that they were carrying Covid, so it’s not surprising to see some innovative totalitarians finding new uses for evil ideas.

Justice Minister Arif Virani has defended a new power in the online harms bill to impose house arrest on someone who is feared to commit a hate crime in the future – even if they have not yet done so already.

The person could be made to wear an electronic tag, if the attorney-general requests it, or ordered by a judge to remain at home, the bill says.

The Libranos: ArriveScam

Basic Dictatorship Let Them Eat Taser Surveillance State The Libranos 6 Comments

Follow the science.

It seems the reason ArriveCan ended on Sep 30, 2022 had nothing to do with science, nor safety. It had to do with a time-limited *privacy impact exemption* that the Treasury Board/ Privacy Commissioner granted to Public Health Agency of Canada back on May 4, 2021.

Why would an App that collects data about folks’ names, addresses, cell, email, jab status, etc.- developed by a mysterious group of expensive consultants- need an exemption to a Privacy Impact Assessment? Why didn’t it want typical oversight? How & with whom was it sharing info?

Here is a link to the full ATIP, where the Treasury Board/Information Commissioner granted PHAC a time-limited Privacy Impact Assessment waiver… ending on, yup, *Sep 30, 2022*.

Once PHAC would have to account for privacy issues, it abandoned the app.

And more: Corruption, Cover-Ups, and the Battle for Accountability

He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship

Basic Dictatorship Surveillance State 17 Comments

CBC;

Spyware normally associated with the intelligence world is being used by 13 federal departments and agencies, according to contracts obtained under access to information legislation and shared with Radio-Canada.

Radio-Canada has also learned those departments’ use of the spyware did not undergo a privacy impact assessment as required by federal government directive.

The tools in question can be used to recover and analyze data found on computers, tablets and mobile phones, including information that has been encrypted and password-protected. This can include text messages, contacts, photos and travel history.

Certain software can also be used to access a user’s cloud-based data, reveal their internet search history, deleted content and social media activity.

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