Free Republic

Concerns about public safety will eventually recede, but Big Brother will still be watching. Did somebody say something about never letting a crisis go to waste? That may well have been on California Gov. Gavin Newsom's mind when he announced the installation of hundreds of surveillance cameras in Oakland to address public concerns about crime. Whether or not robberies and assaults decline because of police monitoring, you can bet those cameras will remain in place long after everybody has forgotten the reason for their existence. Crime Fears Become an Excuse for Surveillance"Building on public safety investments in Oakland and the...

Another step towards implementing a Social Credit system.. Financial privacy is a right under the constitution, as is free speech. Under the guise of “credit review”, Stripe is now rolling out a requirement that appears to target conservative or "anti-vax" Substack authors. Stripe is requiring that these authors provide all of their current and historic financial records associated with the bank account into which Stripe deposits Substack subscriber payments (after taking 10% off the top for Substack and 3% for Stripe). Stripe already has information concerning this bank account (including deposits from Stripe), as we have been doing business with...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is said to have delivered a stark warning to the provincial premiers. According to reports, he has given them an ultimatum: either agree to implement digital healthcare IDs or face the loss of federal healthcare funding.... a Tiktok user (@introverts008) said. "And basically told them that we would not be able to get funding for our healthcare unless the premiers agree to the digital IDs...You will not be able to access any healthcare without these digital IDs. You will actually not be able to carry a bank account or do anything online regarding financial transactions...For farmers...

The 2005 Real ID Act, which requires U.S. citizens to present more than just a basic driver's license to board domestic flights, was initially scheduled to take effect on May 3, 2023. However, after many years of delays, the Department of Homeland Security has postponed the enforcement deadline...travelers will now have until May 7, 2025, to obtain the necessary updated documents.... Soon, a Real ID may be mandatory for boarding a commercial flight. The Real ID may also be a requirement for accessing secure buildings... It could range from Capitol buildings to public schools, and even public gathering places. The...

One way to do that would be to restructure some food companies, distribution warehouses and retailers as a public utility, like how the energy grid, sewers and water delivery are managed. If some processing plants, distribution warehouses and retailers were owned by government, they could use subsidies to buy grains, legumes like beans and meat directly from farmers, and the resulting goods could be made available free to everyone. Programs could alternatively take the form of universal school meals and open-to-all cafeterias that serve meals throughout the day.

Eight House Republicans on Tuesday joined their Senate counterparts in proposing legislation aimed at curbing left-wing political bias in email services’ spam filters. The House bill, like its Senate companion, would require email companies like Gmail to release quarterly transparency reports.

Changing your idea of what robots can do – that’s the slogan of Boston Dynamics. Founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert as a spin-off company from MIT, its early days were spent making training videos for the navy. Only later did the company begin delving into the world of robots – amassing a level of expertise unsurpassed throughout the industry.In fact, Boston Dynamics’s achievements look like the opening montage from a science fiction movie. Starting with the cumbersome BigDog – a quadruped robot designed for the military – the company has seen each new generation of robots surpass the last...

On 28 March Matteo Lepore, Mayor of Bologna, and Massimo Bugani, councillor for the digital agenda and civic use of data, announced the City’s digital innovation plan 2022-2024.“We will start with a pilot project for the city: at the center is the virtuous citizen, the one who, for example, separates waste well or does not waste energy, or uses public transport and does not take fines, or is still active with the Bologna Welcome Card. The Municipality says to these people ‘we will assign you a score’, as part of a circular reward with economic benefits to individual users.” Social...

Many years ago when I was a teenage pothead, I wrote my first short story, called "The Perfect Citizen" about a young man, Justin, living in a totalitarian society where every spoken word was scripted by the state and deviation from the script was absolutely forbidden. It opened at the family breakfast table where the four members of his family (Dad, Mom, Justin and younger sister) first pulled their scripts from the wall-mounted printer and then carried on a typical conversation that involved carefully reading their lines aloud for the benefit of the state compliance agents, who – because it...

Big tech companies are doing the bidding of the U.S. government in actions that mirror China’s social credit system, and Americans must recognize what’s happening and take action, according to Kara Frederick, a former Facebook intel analyst and a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Kara Frederick, a Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Technology Policy, in Washington on Feb. 11, 2022 Frederick recently authored a Heritage Foundation report titled, “Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map,” which details how Big Tech has wielded its power to censor Americans. The report proposes a range of actions Americans...

Workplace chat software like Slack is probably the single most effective tool for making companies go woke. Organizing workers was a difficult challenge in companies that did not have unions. But while companies closely monitored union organizing, they actively encouraged the use of workplace chat software that made it all too easy for leftists to network, identify opponents, get them fired, and use those incidents to radicalize the company.The second most effective tool is the identity politics affinity group.Affinity groups or ERGs have become a popular tool by HR departments to organize internal woke caucuses. Corporate affinity groups are a...

Australia offers a cautionary tale of how an open and free society will quickly become dystopian because of fear.In a tweet that has gone viral, someone asked what the world’s largest prison looks like from space. The answer was a map of Australia. It seems a farfetched claim at first. But seeing the draconian restrictions the Australian government has put in place due to COVID-19, the tweet makes perfect sense.Before March 2020, Australia was often celebrated as a role model of liberal democracy, with free elections, a free press, an independent judiciary, a functioning political system, and a market-based economy....

As many of you already know we learned last week that Visa blacklisted Gab and we are now unable to process credit and debit card transactions. We learned more information this week and I think it’s important that I share it as a warning for others. It’s not just Gab that is blacklisted. It’s also my family. In China there is something called the Social Credit System, which was developed by the Communist Chinese Party as a “national reputation system.” This system tracks the “trustworthiness” of individuals, businesses, and organizations. “Trustworthiness” here means total and complete submission to the Chinese...

Have you heard about China’s social credit system? It’s a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior. The ultimate goal is to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step,” according to the Chinese government. In place since 2014, the social credit system is a work in progress that could evolve by next year into a single, nationwide point system for all Chinese citizens, akin to a financial credit score. It aims to punish for transgressions that can include membership in or support for...

Forget Facebook, They Want to Revoke Your Access to BankingSocial media deplatforming is only the beginning; The ultimate social credit score nightmare is coming. The biggest threat that social media censorship poses is not you being unable to access Facebook or Twitter, itÂ’s you not being able to get a mortgage or have a bank account.The end result of Big Tech silencing conservative voices is banks and corporations removing your access to the marketplace and severely restricting your basic right to buy and sell.We have already seen numerous instances of people being deplatformed by BANKS for the political opinions, from...

*China has created Big Brother* In some of China's largest cities, a high-tech effort is underway to bust low-level offenders like jaywalkers. Cameras record them going through intersections, zero in on their face and publicly shame them on nearby video screens. It's all part of the Chinese government's new social credit system where people's daily behavior is monitored and rated."I think it's a good thing," one woman said. "It makes people more honest." But this social credit rating goes far beyond a traditional credit score which is based on your finances. China's version factors in everything from jaywalking, to smoking...