INFORMATION
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“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to establish a national “public-private” network to sweep up unprecedented amounts of individual and community data and develop artificial intelligence (AI)-driven models to predict disease outbreaks…
As part of this effort, the agency last week announced an estimated $262.5 million in grant funding over the next five years to establish a network of 13 infectious disease forecasting and analytics centers to coordinate this work across the U.S…
Others will work with insurance companies, healthcare providers, local health departments and others to collect data from people’s search histories, personal communications, social media posts, wastewater, health records and more.”
Results of a Real Clear Politics poll on censorship:
+ Republican voters (74%) and independents (61%) believe speech should be legal “under any circumstances, while Democrats are almost evenly divided. A bare majority of Democrats (53%) say speech should be legal under any circumstances, while 47% say it should be legal “only under certain circumstances.”
+ Nearly one-third of Democratic voters (34%) say Americans have “too much freedom.” This compared to 14.6% of Republicans. Republicans were most likely to say Americans have too little freedom (46%), while only 22% of Democrats feel that way. Independents were in the middle in both categories.
+ Although majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree the news media should be able to report stories they believe are in the national interest, this consensus shifts when it comes to social media censorship. A majority of Democrats (52%) approve of the government censoring social media content under the rubric of protecting national security. Among Republicans and independents, this percentage is only one-third.
+ Poll respondents were read this statement: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Only 31% of Democratic voters “strongly agreed” with that sentiment, compared to 51% of Republicans.
+ Fully three-fourths of Democrats believe government has a responsibility to limit “hateful” social media posts, while Republicans are more split, with 50% believing the government has a responsibility to restrict hateful posts. (Independents, once again, are in the middle.)
+ Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to favor stifling the free speech rights of political extremists. Also, Republicans don’t vary by the group: Only about half of GOP voters favor censorship — whether asked about the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, or the Communist Party.
“The Biden administration has approved $5.7 million in grant funding to George Washington University to create a program that will provide psychological care to journalists who believe they are the targets of ‘misinformation-driven harassment campaigns.’
The program, called Expert Voices Together, is described in the government grant database as ‘a socio-technical system that provides real-time support to experts experiencing online harassment.’ The project’s goal is to provide journalists, and eventually other ‘experts,’ with means of ‘monitoring and reporting’ alleged abuse, as well as ‘personalized assistance with digital safety’ and access to ‘mental health care specialists’ as a form of ‘trauma-informed care.’”
“Democratic Virginia political candidate Susanna Gibson, who was outed by the Washington Post for performing sex acts online for cash – and instead of owning up to it cried ‘sex crime!’, was actually tipped off a week earlier by the Associated Press, which didn’t run the story – allowing her to delete videos before the WaPo piece hit, according to the Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak.”
“The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded 34 grants to as many organizations, worth a total of $20 million, whose role will be to undergo training in order to flag potential online “extremist” speech of Americans.
The money will be spent from the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant program for fiscal year 2023, while the recipients include police, mental health providers, universities, churches and school districts.”
“In a brazen attempt to influence the free press, the Biden administration has dispatched a memo to major news outlets such as CNN, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and Fox News. The letter is a response to the House GOP’s recent announcement of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s businesses and tells the press to cover it skeptically.
The letter’s author, Ian Sams, is a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the White House Counsel’s Office. He urges news organizations to increase scrutiny of the House GOP’s actions, accusing them of initiating proceedings based on falsehoods.”
Analyst Comment: This is desperate act that shows the Biden admin is very concerned about the impeachment inquiry: Usually these types of talking points are circulated through think tanks and third-party strategy firms.
Web browser, Google Chrome will start using user’s web history for targeted ads. Google hid the move behind a notification for “Enhanced Ad Privacy.”
Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz stadium will deploy robot security dogs created in partnership with Boston Dynamics. The robots feature a 1080p real-time video feed with facial recognition and license plate reading technology.
The NYPD used surveillance drones to monitor house parties and gatherings over Labor Day.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) V-safe website quietly stopped collecting adverse event reports with no reason or explanation. The V-safe website simply states: ‘Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023.’ If you go there today, V-safe directs users to the FDA’s VAERS website for adverse event reporting, even though officials continually derided VAERS as ‘passive’ and ‘unverified.’”
“…the Biden administration has allegedly tried to enter into a deal with the Chinese app, TikTok, to gain direct power over elements of the app that would effectively let the US government spy on its own citizens….
In return for granting permission to TikTok to continue its operations in America, US agencies could have freely searched through TikTok’s US offices, files, and servers. This blatant invasion of privacy would actually mirror tactics used by the Chinese Communist Party to keep its populace under constant vigilance.”
“California has broadened its digital driver’s license/ID initiative, prompting citizens to place sensitive ID details onto their smartphones. Dubbed “mDL” by the California DMV, this mobile driver’s license can be used in contexts like airport security or verifying age for alcohol purchases.”
“The entirety of Marion’s five-member police force and two sheriff deputies invaded the Marion County Record’s office last Friday, confiscating computers, cellphones, and other journalistic materials. The unanticipated blitz, in Kansas, spearheaded at Eric Meyer’s home as well as the newspaper’s premises simultaneously, has chillingly been called a clear assault on the free press…
This startling event follows stories from the newspaper detailing a local restaurateur, Kari Newell, chasing reporters from a meeting featuring US Rep. Jake LaTurner. Additionally, the newspaper exposed Newell for driving without a license and a history of DUI, and Newell complained saying that private information was leaked to the paper.”
“A study, funded by US taxpayers and published in the Nature Human Behavior journal, is exploring “innovative” – specifically, less easily detectable ways to censor people online.
As reported by Just The News, the research, conducted by University of Washington (its Center for an Informed Public (CIP), which is a recipient of state-funded grants), is now being slammed as a proposition to introduce “stealth” modes of censorship (that the study itself, naturally, refers to as “misinformation.”)”
“…Porcha Woodruff is suing the city of Detroit alleging false arrest based on inaccurate facial recognition data.
The local police managed to get an arrest warrant based on that data and came to Woodruff’s home to execute it, in front of her children. Woodruff was also eight months pregnant at the time, but that didn’t dissuade the officers that she was in fact a suspect in a robbery and carjacking case.”
Analyst Comment: This is a problem we’ve highlighted before; many of these “high-tech” surveillance solutions don’t work well in the real-world. Facial recognition technology performance varies greatly depending on the quality, angle and clarity of the images being compared. In real-world situations, facial images from security cameras are low-resolution, with poor lighting and are taken at angles, providing high error rates. In cities with millions of people, this means many innocent people will be targeted based on incorrect facial-recognition matches.
Iris scanning and digital ID company Worldcoin, will share biometric information with governments and certain private companies, they recently announced.
People around the world are signing up for Worldcoin voluntarily by having their eyes scanned by chrome orbs in exchange for digital tokens.
“The DMV – the Department of Motor Vehicles – in the US state of California is now testing introducing ‘mobile’ driving licenses (MDL) for its residents.
The pilot is at this time extended to about 2,000 drivers, and their job is to ‘actively use it and provide feedback…’
At this time, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Hawaii, Ohio, Utah, and Maryland are the states that have the digital (“mobile”) driver’s license implemented.”
“Amidst rising concerns surrounding digital privacy, the state of Iowa has taken a controversial leap into the world of digital identification with its new Iowa Mobile ID app. The app, now available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store, provides a new platform for users to verify their age or identity, a move that critics argue risks personal data security…
One contentious point is the creation of a scannable QR code, which carries the user’s information. Although businesses are not compelled to accept this mobile form of ID, any who do will have access to this encoded personal information. As it’s a new technology, there may also be a delay in widespread acceptance, presenting both practical and privacy issues.”
“Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House.
During the first half of 2021, social media companies like Facebook faced tremendous pressure from the Biden White House—both publicly and privately—to crack down on alleged ‘misinformation.’
In April 2021, a Facebook employee circulated an email for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, writing: ‘We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House’ to remove posts.
In another April 2021 email, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president for global affairs, informed his team at Facebook that Andy Slavitt, a Senior Advisor to President Biden, was ‘outraged . . . that [Facebook] did not remove’ a particular post…
Public pressure mounted as well. In July 2021, President Biden publicly denounced Facebook and other social media platforms, claiming they were ‘killing people’ by not censoring alleged ‘misinformation.’
On August 2, 2021, Facebook admitted it was going to change its policies because of pressure from the Biden White House.”
Whistleblower claims US has recovered biological remains and crashed alien craft.
Analyst Comment: Even if true, why release any of this information now? This is such a desperate psy-op, especially considering those coming forward with this information are being labelled as whistleblowers. If they were really exposing one of the biggest secrets in American history, why were they allowed to testify at all? In reality, if the existence of such a program were to be disclosed, the suspected leaker would drown in a paddle-boarding accident or commit suicide. The good news is the psy-op appears to be gaining very little traction.
More customers from UK’s NatWest bank have shared their suspicions that the bank shut down their accounts to intimidate them:
“One of the multi-decade NatWest customers whose account was mysteriously closed, small business owner Tej Bal, is quoted in media reports as being left to wonder if the reason is his ‘political’ posts.
They included what Bal describes as ‘tongue in cheek’ musings on Covid lockdowns, and supporting a farmer’s protest in India.
Or it could be that the bank just doesn’t like the fact Bal paid off a loan early and decided he would close his credit cards.
Another customer who has come forward, also a business owner, Mayur Patel, is pretty sure NatWest’s decision to shut down his account has to do with Covid restrictions criticism – and views this as ‘personal revenge.’”
“…JP Morgan Chase has terminated a number of bank accounts associated with Florida-based health retailer, Mercola Market, along with the personal accounts of its employees and their families. The firm’s owner, Dr. Joseph Mercola, is known for his criticism of COVID-19 vaccines and promotion of natural health.
The exact reasons behind these abrupt terminations remain undisclosed. However, numerous employees speculate that these moves may be politically-driven, triggered by Dr. Mercola’s overtly dissenting stance on the public health narrative around COVID-19.”
“…a bipartisan legislative effort is under way in the US to pass a bill that would undermine end-to-end encryption (E2E) on social media and other internet services…
If the US legislators have their way with this one, companies behind social media would not only have to be sure they have ‘actual knowledge’ that illegal, drug-related activities are taking place on their platforms, but inform DEA about it.
The information required here would include the names of suspected social networks’ users, but also other personal data.
But there’s more – a company that fails to adhere to these requirements will be found to have done this deliberately – the wording is literally, ‘deliberately blinded (themselves).’
And inclusion of end-to-end encryption – which preserves security and privacy on the internet by keeping third party actors out of people’s communications – can be interpreted as an online provider ‘deliberately blinding themselves.’”
“The Senate Commerce Committee will convene on Thursday to deliberate the contentious Kids Online Safety Act, a bill that, if passed, would cause platforms to introduce ID verification for users and significantly reduce privacy online.
Despite the law’s admirable aims to regulate the way online platforms display content and ads to under-17s, its implementation could potentially jeopardize privacy, with platforms potentially needing to introduce ID checks.”
Analyst Comment: This is the backdoor to national digital ID and Republicans have become one of the biggest advocates for it. Online ID verification requires centralized ID verification systems. This is all the infrastructure required to make a national, digital ID functional.
“…UK’s largest police force, the Metropolitan Police, has been sharing sensitive data, about victims and witnesses reporting crimes via its website, with social media giant Meta for the purposes of targeted advertising. The information was gleaned using a tracking tool, Meta Pixel, which is freely offered by Facebook…
When users clicked on links to report such crimes, Facebook received details including the type of crime being reported, the user’s browsing time, and their Facebook account ID code.
The Meta Pixel tracker was also used to transmit data about web content accessed, including pages offering advice or contact options regarding crimes like rape, assaults, stalking, and fraud.”
Film companies have been battling Reddit to disclose the identity of users who have claimed to have pirated movies. So far Reddit has resisted the efforts, but the battle continues. These companies are chasing user details for comments over a decade old, even though the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is 3 years.
“A Tennessee lawmaker issued a dire warning after claiming to have seen classified UFO footage that hasn’t been released to the public.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., speculated extraterrestrial life forms could have technology that humanity ‘can’t handle’ during an appearance on the ‘Event Horizon’ podcast…
Burchett is a sitting member on the House Oversight Committee, which has held hearings about potential threats of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), a government-derived term for UFOs…
His startling comments came after whistleblower David Grusch, a decorated Air Force veteran who is considered by many to be credible, came forward with claims the government has been running a secret UFO retrieval program.”
Analyst Comment: Another attempt by the government to distract people from major failures and possibly set the stage for a future psy-op.
“Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that a China-based hacking group it identified as Storm-0558 breached email accounts from approximately 25 organizations, including government agencies.
The threat actor, the tech giant noted, primarily targets government agencies in Western Europe and focuses on espionage, data theft and credential access.”
France passed a new law allowing the remote and surreptitious activation of cell phone cameras and microphones for ” persons targeted in organized crime and terrorism investigations.”
While Google and YouTube claim to use independent fact-checkers, the companies have donated $13.2 million to the Global Fact Check fund which provides grants to fact-checking organizations across the globe.