Round Up Star Date 2021.264
Sep 21, 2021 Opinion, Political, Tyranny
1. Same old song and dance. Well, here we are with the government up against the debt ceiling. The minority party is balking at raising the limit while the majority is saying they all must “do the right thing” and raise the limit. The majority can do it on its own with no support from the minority but that is a political suicide waiting to happen. That amounts to giving your opponent the tools with which to beat you. A familiar story is playing out. The limit was hit in July but extreme measures will keep the US running until mid October and they have not been able to reach a deal so the compromise is to extend the limit short term, until December (and of course tack a few trinkets on for good measure), and then they will have time to accomplish raising the debt limit and funding the government. This plays out every time. Here is what will happen; they will pass the short term limit increase and then in December, right as Christmas approaches and they all want to go home they will pass a huge increase in the debt limit and spend a boatload of money to appease each other. Then they will come before the cameras with the majority telling its supporters they finally made the minority come around to the correct way of thinking. They didn’t get all they wanted but they got a lot. The minority will come before the cameras and tell us that they tried but dog gone it they just could not prevent the increase. They will all go back inside, slap each other on the back and head home for the holidays while taxpayers are left wondering how they were raped yet again. This happens all the time. If they needed more time they should have spent August working on it instead of on recess. They should be working on this instead of the BS global warming new deal crap. But this has been planned all along. They always push things until December and then work around the clock to make us think they are negotiating. Then they hit us with a predetermined outcome, they pretend they did the best they could and they pretend that it is good for the country.
2. If they want to fix the debt issue the first thing to do is to cut government spending. Both parties spend more than we have even when the government receives record levels of income from our taxes. The more they get the more they spend. We need to take a cleaver to the federal budget. I think that they should cut all unconstitutional spending. I do not want to entertain ideas about how they twist the Constitution to allow things. Nowhere in there is there a provision for paying welfare (no, the preamble and the general welfare statement are not about that kind of welfare). We do not need to send billions of dollars to other countries. We are not the world’s ATM. Let them fend for themselves. There are agencies not authorized under the Constitution, get rid of them. Pare the government down to those things only authorized by the Founding Documents and make it a lean government. Once we have cut the trillions of dollars of waste we can go about changing the budget process. Right now, federal agencies are spending billions of dollars on things they do not need and should not be buying. The government’s fiscal year ends 30 September and each year around this time agencies that have excess money go on spending sprees to buy furniture, computers, office supplies, you name it. They spend billions of dollars instead of turning the unspent money back in. They do this because next year’s budget is based on this year’s and they are afraid if they return money they will get less for next year. This is a terrible way to run anything. If a business ran like this Congress would be calling the CEOs in for a chat. I think they should go to a two year federal budget where agencies submit requests for the amount of money they need to operate. Any agency with money left over at the end of the process would return it and the agency would receive a small percentage of that money for morale, welfare and support programs as an incentive. All agencies would be barred from making huge purchases in September.
3. If it were my wife or daughter. The Biden Regime cares little about Americans or the nation. He is mandating vaccines for citizens who do not want them but allowing ILLEGAL aliens to enter the country and be released without being vaccinated. Biden had a catastrophic withdraw from Afghanistan that, after 20 years, billions of dollars, lost lives and life altering injuries, is right back where it started. Biden’s hasty and poorly conceived withdraw resulted in tens of thousands of Afghanis, mostly men of fighting age, ending up in the US. These people are being housed at military bases across the nation until Biden can release them into different states. It seems that many governors are happy to have them. That is probably because governors get armed police to protect them. Whistleblower reports indicate these Afghanis are causing problems at the military bases including criminal acts, assault and RAPE. It should come as no surprise because where ever they put Middle Eastern men there is always an uptick in crime and there is always an uptick in rape. These people do not care about women and they think it is perfectly OK to rape them. Biden is importing this. I can’t figure, for the life of me, why no member of the military who has been affected has not opened fire and eliminated the problem. If it were my wife or daughter I would hunt the bastard down and shoot him. I would then smear his body with pig grease and hang him for the buzzards to eat as a reminder to the others. Biden plans of filtering these people into your neighborhoods. All I can say is if they come to your neighborhood and cause trouble shoot them. In a sane world these people would have been put in other ME nations where they could engage in their 7th century lifestyle with like minded people. In a slightly less sane world the people will be released in the neighborhoods of liberals so they can live with their blunder. In my world they get shot if they step out of line. IOW, touch the women in my family and you die.
4. Big brother is watching. Biden wants to have your bank report any balance over $600 to the government in order to keep tabs on what billionaires are doing with their money because everyone knows everyone with $600 in the bank is a billionaire. The government wants to keep track of your money (probably so they know if you have more for them to take) and that is never a good thing. Now there is word that instead of your standard credit score developed by looking at your loan and payment history as well as debt to income ratio they want to start using your browsing history to determine your credit worthiness. The internet already tracks a lot of what you do and you might have to provide a browser history when applying for a loan if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gets its way. The claim is that this will help the underserved or those who might not make it based on the old standards. Here is a clue, this will not be good for anyone but the government. I am opposed to government being involved in anything in my life so I am certain I will not be providing my browser history. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea deserves what happens to them. I would say that they could make it voluntary so that if your loan was not approved you could then submit your history but that would only lead to more abuse. Soon EVERYONE would be denied so that they could get a peek at your browser history. I do not need them looking at my browser to get a loan. I damn sure will not let them tell me otherwise. We are well on our way to the systems set up in Australia and China. Eventually you will comply or you will get nothing. Sounds to me like that jackass Mark Zuckerberg was involved in writing this up. He loves all the info on you he can get so he can target you with ads. Put your money in a credit union. They do not have to report your balance (I bet most of Congress has their money in a credit union).
5. It is a good start. The government is a revolving door between federal service and contractors or lobbyists. The Defense Department is a prime example. People at the Pentagon leave the service and go to work for a defense contractor drawing a huge salary for the connections they have inside the Puzzle Palace.
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that 14 major military contractors have hired 1,718 former senior Pentagon officials over a five-year span. A group of good-governance advocates are pushing reforms seeking to prevent potential conflicts of interest posed by this activity.
The Sept. 9 GAO report found that of 1,497,882 people who left the Department of Defense (DOD) between 2014 and 2019, 37,032 of them went to work for one of the 14 major contractors reviewed. Of those, 1,718 were senior officials, according to the report. ~ Source
The government is attempting to remedy this by placing a one year (or two) wait on people transitioning from the government to the contractors. I think that anyone who was involved in any aspect of the contract business regardless of which company or companies they dealt with should have to wait a long time, perhaps five years, before working for a contractor. I think any contractor who recruits should be penalized and I think anyone who uses their service to benefit themselves through the contractor (in violation of the law) should receive jail time. But let us not stop there. Members of Congress should be forbidden from leaving government and going to lobbyists, think tanks and any other groups that pay them lots of money for access to government. I personally think all lobbyists (K street) should be forced to move out of DC and not be allowed to lobby members of Congress while it is in session. I would forbid all lobbying but I imagine that would violate a right or two. I also think that people should not be allowed to come from the companies doing business with the government to work for the government. There are rules in place but Congress has exemptions it can grant so they just ignore common sense and grant exemptions. If we had followed the rules Lloyd Austin would not be the SECDEF and maybe, just maybe, 13 souls would not have been lost in Kabul. We might not have all the social justice BS distracting the military from its primary mission. We need reform but it has to have teeth so people face serious problems when they go astray.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: Afghani rapists, biden, big brother, dementia
Will Big Brother Ever Leave Us Alone?
Mar 17, 2015 Political
The EPA is working to get hotels to monitor how long people take showers. Yep, the shower is now the target of the EPA and while it is starting at hotels how long before some unelected moron in that agency decides to require all homes to have a device to monitor how long we are in the shower?
Yes, taking showers wastes water. That is the cost of being clean. Filth and disease cost a heck of a lot more than water. You pay for the water and the EPA should mind its own business.
The idea is to devise some item that can transmit water usage through a wireless connection so people can be educated on how much water they use.
I get it that some folks waste water and hotels use a lot of it. I also know they use a lot of water cleaning towels and bed linen even when it does not need to be cleaned. No matter how many times I hang my towels up they still replace them. But I digress…
In any event, it seems rather invasive to have someone monitor how long you are in the shower. It really is none of their business.
The EPA says the average shower is 8 minutes and they want people to cut 1 minute off that time. They also suggest people take Navy showers to get the time down to about 5 minutes.
If I wanted to take Navy showers I would have, you know, joined the Navy.
Perhaps the EPA should concern itself with real issues like how its policies and the pressure from environmental groups has left California with about a year’s worth of water. Perhaps they can remove the stupid restrictions so the people there can get water for things other than showers like CROPS.
I am really tired of the government involving itself in every aspect of our lives.
Will Big Brother EVER just leave us alone?
Just a note. This is not something that will happen right away. They do not have the technology to do this but are wasting a lot of money to obtain it…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Government Profiling?
Jun 6, 2013 Political
If the government has a hunch that a person who looks Middle Eastern is up to no good and stops that person at the airport or as he crosses the border the Muslim groups (I know, not all Middle eastern people are Muslim) and the liberal PC crowd scream about racial profiling. Never mind the fact that Middle Eastern is not a race, the fact is people who do not fit the demographics of a terrorist are stopped and checked while those who fit the demographics of most who have committed acts of terror are waved through.
But the federal government, the one that is loathe to be associated with “racial” profiling (remember, it is not a race) has no problem taking the electronic devices of people, on a hunch, and copying all the information on those devices.
The government is arguing that is should have the right to take YOUR property and copy YOUR information to see if you have child pornography or information indicating you are a terrorist (or support terror) based on a hunch.
In other words, if you look like someone who might have that stuff on your electronic device the government thinks it has the right to take your stuff and copy it without a warrant or probable cause.
You see, if you LOOK like the people responsible for most of the terror we can’t profile you but if they have a hunch your electronics might have something illegal on them then they can stop you and take your stuff and copy it.
The government is out of control. Without probable cause they have no reason to search your stuff. If they do not have enough cause to get a warrant then they do not have enough cause to search your stuff, period.
The government is busy collecting information from Google and Verizon (while forbidding them from informing you your information is being released) without warrants, Eric Holder is snooping in the emails and phone records of reporters, the IRS is harassing conservative groups and the NSA is collecting phone records by the millions each day.
We live in a country that is rapidly becoming a totalitarian state where Big Brother snoops in all of our business. We are subject to more harassment than citizens of Germany in the 1930s.
This is a violation of our constitutionally protected rights and it needs to stop. We cannot allow them to do this and we can’t allow the courts to let them do it. Even if they pass some law or the court says it is OK it is NOT.
Everything Hitler did was legal under German law.
That did not make it right.
Take a stand America. It is time to abolish the IRS and severely limit the size, scope and power of the government.
And it is time to kick the bums out of office (and preferably to a jail cell).
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: big brother, constitution, hunch, lies, Obama, profiling, snooping
Big Brother; More Data Collection
May 2, 2013 Political
We already know that social media like Facebook and Twitter as well as Google’s services are used to spy on Americans (and users around the world). Law enforcement agencies scan these outlets looking for people to profile and use data, provided either by the user or by the company, to keep data bases of folks that are of interest to the agents of government.
Make no mistake, whenever there is any kind of activity that collects data or asks for information the legitimate use is not the ONLY use. Agencies keep the information.
In Maryland the site that is used by hunters and outdoorsmen collects email addresses and the site specifically states those will only be used for the purpose of whatever transactions take place. The Governor of Maryland used that database to send emails out to people in a push for support of his unconstitutional gun grab. He violated the law in using the information for reasons that are outside those stated.
This happens all the time and I would not be surprised if the federal and state governments have massive databases of people who own firearms. They are supposed to destroy the paperwork generated when a firearm is purchased but you can bet they have kept it.
All new laws being proposed by government at every level includes provisions for the collection of information and incorporation into databases. Despite what they tell you, the information is being kept.
These items are usually generated through some feel good legislation that proposes some action that seems to be in the best interests of the people. In reality, this is not the case.
In Palm Beach County Florida the Sheriff has been awarded 1 million dollars for a new violence prevention program.
Wow, that sounds great. What will they do with the money to prevent violence? Well, it looks like they will be setting up a snitch site where people can call and report anyone they feel is violent. People will be encouraged via public service announcements to report their neighbors and coworkers if there is ANY concern. So if a guy loses his temper at work or goes on a rant because someone’s dog dropped a deuce on his lawn, they could be reported to the police.
This will result in a knock on the door with concerned officers asking if all is OK? There will be no arrests, just a caring, concerned government agent asking if all is well and providing resources in case someone needs help. The people will not know who reported them or why so there will be no way to explain (as if you should have to) why you were reported.
Here is the rub. The sheriff says that this will also allow the agency to collect information:
The goal won’t be to arrest troubled people but to get them help before there’s violence, Bradshaw said. As a side benefit, law enforcement will have needed information to keep a close eye on things. [emphasis mine]
Did you get that? As a result of the campaign the police will have information to keep an eye on people. He says things but things do not cause violence; people do so he is really saying they can keep an eye on people, period.
This program sounds wonderful to the uninformed but it will do nothing more than give police information to keep in a database. This will allow them to surveil people for no particular reason and without any probable cause. It is not probable cause just because some person reported you. What evidence is there that you are a danger? What indication, other than the report of a person who saw you, is there that you might be dangerous?
Will the information be used to confiscate firearms a person might own? Will the police look at the database and determine that someone reported that they FELT you might harm yourself or others be enough for them to take away your firearms or perhaps, your children?
This is dangerous and nothing more than an escalation of the police state we saw blatantly displayed in Boston.
We already have a system where people can report something they feel is a problem. They can call the police as they have been doing for decades on end. Police can take a report and determine if some kind of crime occurred. This new program encourages people to seek out and report others who might be doing nothing more than having a bad day. It allows officers to knock on the door to check people out but most concerning is the compilation of data that can be used against people in any fashion government chooses.
Free people do not live like this.
Many of the people who have committed these mass casualty crimes were on the radar of law enforcement and nothing was done about them. So contrary to the sheriff’s claim that someone knew and could have reported it, the reality is the police knew and did nothing about it.
Therefore, the entire scheme is nothing more than a data collection operation that will provide more information on people so government can further violate their rights.
Freedom is not free. It costs a lot in blood, sweat, and tears. It costs way too much to give it up without a fight…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: abuse, big brother, data collection, florida, freedom, Maryland, oppression, palm beach
The Number of the Beast
Jul 12, 2009 Political
It’s been coming down the pike for awhile, so slyly that many people aren’t aware of it in any way, or if they are, it is probably dismissed as a false concern.
The problem is micro-chips embedded in everything from your passports to your phone, all capable of providing information about you to whoever has the capability to read them, and it’s becoming increasingly easy to do so. The Federal government has been embedding RFID chips, or radio frequency identification chips into the new passports, presumeably to facilitate the flow of information, but apparently this chip is very open to abuse.
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he’d bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with one objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker’s gold.
Zipping past Fisherman’s Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians’ electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags.
Within an hour, he’d “skimmed” the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Embedding identity documents — passports, drivers licenses, and the like — with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials.
Increasingly, they are promoting it as 21st century technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
chron.com
Once again, we see that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I approve of an idea that keeps terrorists at bay- who wouldn’t? But I do think that whoever thought this up didn’t think this through to it’s complete end game, or they would have safeguarded these chips from illicit hacking before sticking them into passports, driver’s licenses, ID cards, cell phones, cars, and every other thing they think they need to keep track of us “just in case” we get unruly, we’re late for dinner, or they need our advice on international policy and/ or fiscal restraint.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone’s radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
“Little Brother,” some are already calling it — even though elements of the feared global surveillance web exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won’t be long before governments could be able to find anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
The key to getting such a system to work, opponents say, is making sure everyone carries an RFID tag linked to a biometric data file.
chron.com
This sounds like so much fun, being at the beck and call of anyone who seriously wants to find out who you are, and your credit score, and any other records they might want to access- including, possibly, your medical records and/ or DNA. This might be a good thing, in that a person would not have to carry around a slew of documents- instead, your chip would be scanned- but to do this right, the government, or whoever is going to be in charge of this needs to get it right, and can you really trust the government to get anything right?
The probability and opportunity of and for abuse is too easy by far at the moment. And there are other considerations.
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but rather “to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you.”
Likewise, U.S. border agents are “pinging” databases only to confirm that licenses aren’t counterfeited. “They’re not pulling up your speeding tickets,” she says, or looking at personal information beyond what is on a passport.
The change is largely about speed and convenience, she says.
An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential, Callahan says, “only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational.”
Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee warned that radio-tagged IDs have the potential to allow “widespread surveillance of individuals” without their knowledge.
In its 2006 draft report, the committee recommended that “RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings.”
For now, chipped PASS cards and enhanced driver’s licenses are optional and not yet widely deployed. Roughly 192,000 EDLs have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
But as more Americans carry them “you can bet that long-range tracking of people on a large scale will rise exponentially,” says Paget, a self-described “ethical hacker” who works as an Internet security consultant.
Mark Roberti, editor of RFID Journal, an industry newsletter, recently acknowledged that as the use of RFID in official documents grows, the potential for abuse increases.
“A government could do this, for instance, to track opponents,” he wrote in an opinion piece discussing Paget’s experiment. “To date, this type of abuse has not occurred, but it could if governments fail to take privacy issues seriously.”
chron.com
Now, I am not one for “conspiracies”- personally, I feel that people are too stupid and venal to hold a conspiracy together for long; however, I am not necessarily in favor of allowing the ease by which venal and corrupt people can take advantage of us either. We need to be very, very careful in what we do and how we do this- we cannot rely on others’ altruism.
The chains we put on ourselves we cannot blame on others.
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Tags: big brother, orwell, rfid, unwarranted intrusions