Showing posts with label surveillance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surveillance. Show all posts

Friday, January 20, 2017

15 Reasons to Protest That Have Nothing to do with Trump

It's great to see so many Americans angry enough to take time from their lives to protest in the streets. Since smashing windows, setting fires and yelling, "F-Trump" doesn't seem like a very effective form of protest, I scribbled this list of a few pressing issues that not only are worth
We have many reasons to protest that are unrelated to Trump. Photo: Variety
protesting but if the protests were successful in sparking government action then the world would be a better place. Here are some issues worth protesting, in no particular order, feel free to add others in the comments:

1. We've been at war non-stop since we needlessly invaded Iraq and thousands of innocent people have been killed in our name with insane amounts of our tax money

2. The Internet was developed with our taxes yet its control was quietly given away to the United Nations

3. 3,500 infants die each year from SIDS, according to the CDC. Really? Healthy babies just suddenly die for no reason?

4. Bankers and other financial criminals continue to engage in illegal, fraudulent activities yet rarely go to jail and when caught, any fines are paid by our own taxes

5. Police brutality and outright murder, racially motivated and otherwise, continue, along with secret locations for "questioning"

6. Ordinary Americans are subjected to abuse, theft and destruction of property at the hands of the USDA, EPA, BLM and other gov't agencies

7. The DNC Wikileaks “leak” revealed Citigroup chose the cabinet for the previous president

8. Federal housing policy keeps poor people poor and is largely racist in nature

9. The surveillance state monitors much of our activity 24/7 in violation of the Constitution and the information was very recently allowed to be shared throughout the federal gov't

10. "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," yet we're restricted by many laws that abridge our right to free speech and the free press is under siege. There's no such thing as a free speech zone – the entire country is already a free speech zone

11. The death tax continues to take our money that had already been taxed as income – this tax continues to destroy family farms and other family businesses

12. The gov't takes billions of our dollars via taxes and gives it to corrupt dictators around the world while being entirely indifferent to the thousands upon thousands of homeless people on our own streets

13. The federal reserve banking cartel has no legal right to decide the interest rate on loans or to create our currency - 1913 Act entirely unconstitutional 

14. The federal gov't has no legal or natural right to take our money via income tax

15. We're still subject to unconstitutional stop and frisk

And the last reason to protest that's more legitimate than shouting "F Trump":

16. NFL coaches still can't challenge penalties

Saturday, March 12, 2016

When the president gets a death button part II

There is no joy in typing "I told ya' so" but the Pentagon admitted this week that its drones are being used to monitor Americans over U.S. soil, and that this has been going on for more than a year. It's been almost four years since the FAA approved drone flights over U.S. soil and almost five years since I
Somalia Pentagon drone strikes to hit American soil?
wrote about it here. The Pentagon also claims it used its drones to murder 150 people in Somalia this week. It's bad enough we're killing people overseas without any declaration of war but every American has to be alarmed at the thought that the government will soon use drones to murder us on our own soil. Sure, there will be a fine excuse to do so: "He's a terrorist!", "He stole a car!", "He had a gun!", "He bounced a check!"

If this seemed outlandish four or five years ago then you had too much faith in the benevolence of our federal government. If it still seems outlandish today then you're just not paying attention.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Where the roadblocks are

"Something's happening and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?"

On a family road trip to Disney World last month, I noticed I-95 had changed quite a bit since my parents did the driving 30 years ago. The South of the Border billboard campaign needs some help, there's far less wilderness in the Carolinas and there are far more places to eat than Stuckey's and the Waffle House. I also noticed these new license plate readers:

I think these were in Georgia. I remember it wasn't too long ago when surveillance cameras were being installed on the highways in and around large cities. The people who knew what would likely follow were drowned out by the other people who couldn't wait to check the traffic flow on TV before leaving for work in the morning. Well, congratulations. Now we have surveillance cameras all over the Interstate highway system plus these new cameras shown above that automatically scan our license plates and save them in a database. As a bonus, we also get these red light cameras that automatically take your picture and send a ticket by mail for seemingly any infraction, guilty or otherwise. They also increase the number of accidents per studies cited in this editorial.

Next time you're about to say, "Don't make me stop this car!" or verbally abuse the crazy driver who almost just caused an accident, better think twice about the scene being shot on video and saved for review in a DHS fusion center. The facial recognition technology has become quite advanced and those pictures taken on nearly every ride at Disney World aren't just for your refrigerator and Facebook page per this revealing article. All those images of you behind the wheel are easily connected - automatically.

Not long after noticing the license plate readers, I noticed something bright orange sticking up from the on ramp where I-16 westbound exits onto I-95 northbound near Savannah, Ga. It was a railroad crossing style barrier and two of them were set in the upright position. They could just as easily be set in the down position to block traffic. I couldn't get a picture from the car but one of them is actually visible with Google maps per this screen shot (blue arrow added):
"This is just to check for te**orists at critical areas," you say? Plausible, though still a violation of the Constitution. Later, I noticed these new lights were installed at several on and off ramps on I-78 in western New Jersey. Not sure the Perkins in Phillipsburg is a hotbed of dangerous activity worthy of such attention. Part of the insidious nature of these installations is that when you notice them, it's hard to remember if you've seen them before. In this case, on I-78 at exit 3, I knew they were very recently installed. A crew was even busy doing another installation on a Saturday.

 


I also couldn't remember seeing these other new lighting installations (left and below). Taller and with more lights set at the top - or are some of them 360-degree cameras?










Then, only a few minutes later, I passed these cameras setup on the side of Rt. 173 between Phillipsburg and Bloomsbury, NJ (see below). It would be hard to find a more ordinary, nondescript section of roadway and the cameras certainly aren't scanning license plates since their position seems to target the drivers.



Yet DHS, TSA and even the mariners at NOAA and the Social Security Administration have been buying up millions upon millions of rounds of hollow point bullets per these articles. DHS also purchased these bullet-proof checkpoint booths. One might speculate these booths are to be installed at every on and off ramp, and elsewhere, monitored by overhead drones and manned by heavily armed, child-molesting TSA agents to keep people from fleeing their cities and towns. Remember that after Hurricane Katrina, victims were herded into the Superdome and many who tried to flee and walk to the next city were forced at gunpoint to return to their hell holes. Hurricane Sandy refugees on the Jersey Shore reported disconcertingly similar feelings at the hands of FEMA in this article (page removed).

But from what could we need to flee? That is the question. Your educated guesses are welcome in the comments.

UPDATE: Jan. 14, 2013
New cameras installed on Rt. 31 just north of Pennington, NJ. Again, these are imaging the people in the car, not the license plates. And tinted windows on the driver and passenger sides are illegal in this police state...


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