Category: ACLU

Sanders wants to fund abortions in ‘poor countries’ to fight climate change

CAP

US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he would support using taxpayer money to fund abortions in foreign countries as a means of population control in the face of climate change.

Sanders merged the hot-button issues of climate change and abortion rights, at the same time singling out developing nations as the culprits overpopulating Earth, during a six-and-a-half-hour CNN townhall on climate change on Wednesday. While his supporters appeared galvanized, the proposal invoked the wrath of his detractors online.

Sanders described the Mexico City agreement, which prevents American foreign aid from being used to fund organizations associated with abortions or birth control abroad, as “totally absurd,” while espousing the need to advocate and fund reproductive rights across the world, but especially in developing countries.

“So I think especially in poor countries around the world, where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have [is] something I very, very strongly support,” Sanders stated emphatically in response to an audience member.

While all major Democratic candidates have pledged support for reproductive rights, Sanders is the first to tie the issue to both global population control and climate change, much to the chagrin of conservative pundits and commenters online, who described the proposal as“unbelievable,” “monstrous”and“absolutely horrific.”

CAP

Meanwhile, even those who might typically agree with many of Sanders’ positions felt his stated approach was missing the mark, saying overconsumption, not overpopulation was the real issue.

CAP

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Big Tech & Big Brother meet at Facebook HQ to discuss how to ‘secure’ US elections

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Security teams for Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft met with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence’s office to coordinate a strategy to secure the 2020 elections.

The tech platforms met with government officials at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters on Wednesday, the company has confirmed, boasting that Big Tech and Big Brother have developed a “comprehensive strategy” to get control of previous election-related “vulnerabilities” while “analyzing and getting ahead of new threats.”

Facebook has scrambled to get in front of the 2020 election after being blamed for Trump’s 2016 electoral victory over merely allowing the “Russian trolls” to buy a bunch of ads, most of which appeared after the vote and had nothing to do with the election. But the company insisted last week it had tightened its rules for verifying purchasers of “political” ads, for real this time, after the 2018 contest showed they could still be duped into running obviously-fake ads “paid for by” the Islamic State terror group and Cambridge Analytica.

Big election business: Democratic candidates, even critical of Facebook, pour millions into platform

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Aside from the occasional purge of accounts accused of being linked to countries like Russia, Iran, and China on the US’ ever-lengthening enemies’ list, however, it’s hard to tell what exactly any platform has done to make itself immune to ‘manipulation’. Twitter banned state-owned media from buying ads on its platform last month, holding the move up as a victory against the dreaded “foreign meddling,” but its own founder’s account was hacked last week, suggesting it has bigger security issues than a few wrongthink-prone advertisers.

And Google’s potential to sway elections has been the subject of Senate hearings – yet the company has remained silent on addressing the problem, suggesting it doesn’t see it as a bug at all, but a feature. Subsidiary YouTube, meanwhile, conducted another round of deplatforming last month even while declaring it was an open platform for controversial ideas.

The electoral meeting of the minds came less than a week after the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) declared war on deepfakes and other potentially discord-sowing information, promising to neutralize all “malicious” content within four years – if not for this election, then certainly for the next.

Until then, there’s Microsoft’s ElectionGuard software, which the company announced in July it would provide to all the nation’s voting machines, free of charge, out of the goodness of its (and the Pentagon-owned contractor that helped develop the program’s) heart. And if Microsoft’s act of selfless charity doesn’t convince a district their democracy is worth protecting, there’s always Cyberdome, the election security nonprofit advised by half a dozen former intel agency heads who want what’s best for your vote (when they’re not authorizing torture or warrantless wiretapping).

Getting the DHS involved was a nice touch, too, after that agency was accused of attempting to hack electoral systems in multiple states thousands of times during the period surrounding the 2016 election. Unlike the “Russian hacking” allegations that remain unproven, multiple officials from Idaho, Georgia, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky claim the agency attempted to access their systems after they opposed its efforts to “secure” those systems. After initially denying any involvement, the DHS claimed the attempted breach alarms were set off accidentally, during routine “legitimate work.”

 

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IF THEY COULD THEY PUT US ALL IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS – Liberal Snowflake Melts Down after Man in Trump 2020 T-Shirt Walks into a Traders Joe’s — So Upset She Writes Letter to Editor

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By Jim Hoft

Cheryl Boyles is a liberal activist and writer from Green Valley, Arizona.

In August Boyles went with her husband to a Trader Joe’s and she suffered a severe meltdown after a Trump supporter entered the store in a Trump 2020 T-shirt.

Cheryl started panicking.  She said the entire mood of the store “shifted.”

Cheryl was so traumatized by the experience that she wrote the local paper to share her horrific story.

This was posted in the Green Valley News in August.

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Boyles even asked their cashier to convey to the management the anxiety she and her husband experienced at “suddenly finding ourselves in a confined space with a man who looked the part of a typical Trump terrorist.”

This crazy woman suffered a major anxiety attack from a Trump T-shirt.

What a nut!

The Green Valley News later reported that they printed 24 letters to the editor, all destroying Cheryl’s overwrought description of a visit to Trader Joe’s in Tucson where she was reduced to, well, snowflake status.  The paper received 50 letters to the editor.  The good news is that not one single letter supported this local nutcase.  

Hopefully Cheryl will get some medication for her severe TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Hat Tip Emmett

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YouTube to cough up $170mn in fines over charge of grabbing kids’ data

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Google’s video platform YouTube has been fined $170 million, settling allegations that it gathered children’s data online without the consent of their parents, in violation of federal law.

The fines include $136 million for the most recent charges, while the company will pay another $34 million to settle similar claims brought previously by New York state’s attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Wednesday. The settlement is the largest since a law prohibiting the collection of information on children under 13 years came into effect in 1998, known by its acronym, COPPA.

The company is accused of collecting web data on children’s YouTube channels in order to deliver millions of dollars in targeted advertisements to viewers.

“YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. “Yet when it came to complying with COPPA, the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. There’s no excuse for YouTube’s violations of the law.”

Though YouTube says its platform is intended for people aged 13 and older, the FTC found that “some of YouTube’s individual channels – such as those operated by toy companies – are child-directed and therefore must comply with COPPA.”

Outcry after study shows Google’s Android collects ten times more data than Apple’s iOS

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FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Rohit Chopa also issued dissenting statements insisting the penalties did “not go far enough” for YouTube’s “extremely serious” privacy violations.

In addition to the historic fines – which now have to be approved in the courts – going forward YouTube will also be required to notify channel owners about their obligation under federal law to obtain parental consent before grabbing any data on children’s browsing habits.

Google has not yet addressed the FTC’s findings.

The Silicon Valley titan has previously come under fire for aggressive data-collection and poor privacy protections for customers across a number of its devices and applications, while YouTube has been criticized in recent years for arbitrary and draconian enforcement of “community standards,” which has resulted in perma-bans and demonetized videos for thousands of creators.

 

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Boston Police Plead with ‘Squad’ Member Ayanna Pressley to Stop Fundraising for ANTIFA Terrorists

Pressley is fundraising for ANTIFA terrorists who attacked cops this weekend.

By Shane Trejo

Earlier today, Big League Politics reported that “Squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is helping to raise funds on behalf of ANTIFA terrorists who attacked law enforcement at the “Straight Pride Parade” in Boston, MA this past weekend.

She posted a link on her Twitter account to a crowd-sourcing page for ANTIFA to raise bail money for the terrorists who attempted to stop the lawful event from taking place with force:

Law enforcement personnel in Boston are outraged at Pressley for supporting the domestic terrorist group, and are calling her out for her despicable actions.

Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association president Michael Leary wrote her a scathing letter on Tuesday, demanding that she stop fundraising for ANTIFA terrorists who viciously attacked law enforcement:

Dear Representative Pressley:

I am writing on behalf of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association to strongly protest your decision to urge your constituents to contribute to a bail fund for protesters arrested this weekend during the Straight Pride rally in downtown Boston. The Police are assigned to work at these kind of events in order to keep the peace and control any crowds or disorder. Whether someone was there as part of the rally or as a counter protest, the Boston Police officers are there to treat all the same and to maintain order. My members have informed me that the individuals who were arrested on Saturday were not peaceful protesters but were committing crimes of assault against Boston Police Officers. In fact at least four officers were injured by actions of some of the protesters. These officers were screamed at, abused and fought by these so-called peaceful protesters. Your actions in support of these individuals serves only to encourage criminal and disruptive behaviors such as those suffered by my members this weekend. This attitude also further contributes to the growing we/they attitude against police officers in this Country. As an elected official and particularly as someone who has historically worked with the Boston Police Department and the BPPA as a member of the Boston City Council you should be working to encourage Boston city residents and visitors to respect and cooperate with Boston Police officers who are there to serve and protect. The BPPA supports the right of free speech, but free speech does not include the right to abuse and assault the men and women who are appointed to keep the peace.

I urge you to reconsider your support of the protest bail fund. Instead, I hope you will make it clear to your supporters that you don’t approve of violent behavior against public safety personnel.

Sincerely,
Michael Leary
President
Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association

As of Tuesday night, Pressley still has the tweet up in defiance of Leary’s wishes. State Sen. Dean Tran of Fitchburg is proposing a ban on masked activism to prevent violent displays from ANTIFA terrorists and other gangs of thugs in the future.

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“I’m a big supporter of the freedom to assemble, but the freedom to assemble does not guarantee you the right to disguise yourself and inflict harm on others,” Tran said to the State House News Service on Tuesday.

“I’ve seen actions that have been taken by ANTIFA and I compare those actions to the same actions as groups like the KKK,” Tran added. “We’re in a different era; back then the KKK did not agree with other races and they used violence to convey their messages. Now we’re seeing groups similar to that, and that is the ANTIFA, now they use the same tactics but against people who don’t share the same beliefs and views.”

More animus is building against ANTIFA on a national level, as people are becoming alarmed about the violent threat that these terrorists pose. Once President Donald Trump designates them as a terrorist group at the federal level, principal organizers can be arrested and funding sources can be punished.

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FIRST THEY WILL TAKE OUR GUNS, AFTER PUT US ALL IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS – AUSTRALIA SEIZING HUNDREDS OF FIREARMS FROM CITIZENS

 

Australia Seizing Hundreds of Firearms From Citizens

475 guns grabbed in a week

Zero Hedge – SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

Australian special police forces seized a total of 475 guns across the country in a week-long crackdown on illegal firearms, according to AAP.

Dubbed Operation Athena, the crackdown targeting firearms trafficking involved all police jurisdictions – including the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Force and the Department of Home Affairs.

According to Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham from the Victoria Police State Anti-Gangs Division, trafficking of illegal firearms remains a key law enforcement issue across the country.

“The community should be reassured we are getting results. We’re arresting people and charging them with serious offences, and we are continuing to seize illicit firearms from criminals every week,” he said.

In Victoria, 91 guns were seized and 12 people arrested – who face a total of 44 charges.

Australian Associated Press reports –

Police also served 10 new firearms prohibition orders and conducted a number of searches in relation to existing orders in the state.

“The results from the week of action not just in Victoria but right across the country are testament to the work that’s being done by a number of agencies to target those involved with the trafficking and use of illicit firearms, and try and prevent further harm to our communities,” Det. Sup Brigham said.

In New South Wales, 81 fire arms were confiscated, while in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, 14 warrants were executed by the ABF, in relation to the recent detection of suppressors at the border.

Also confiscated were a number of suppressors and unsecured ammunition.

“Our clear message is do not attempt to import firearms, parts or accessories without a proper permit. If you do, we will seize these items and pursue appropriate criminal charges.

Under the Customs Act, possible charges include ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to $525,000, or both,” said ABF Commander Graeme Grosse.

Gun ownership is heavily regulated in Australia due to restrictions put in place following the April 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded when gunman Martin Bryant opened fire at the Port Arthur Bay’s Broad Arrow Café with an AR-15.

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Seattle Officials Can’t Agree on How to Remove Human Crap from Sidewalks – Councilman Argues Power Washers are Racist, Since Hoses Used Against Blacks in Past

By Jim Hoft

This is the modern day left in action. Pure insanity.

Seattle has a human feces problem on their streets and sidewalks. But the city council cannot agree on how to remove the crap.

Councilmember Larry Gossett says power-washing the sidewalks bring up images of using hoses against civil rights activists.

The Seattle News reported:

Some committee members expressed concern about addressing the symptoms of the area’s problems without getting to the cause. Councilmember Larry Gossett said he didn’t like the idea of power-washing the sidewalks because it brought back images of the use of hoses against civil-rights activists.

Another council member, Claudia Balducci, suggested that the county consider using social-service employees in partnership with police.

So is Larry comparing crap on the sidewalk to civil rights protesters?

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REPORT: Tech Elite Building ‘Social Credit’ System Masters of The Universe to Track Everything You Do Zuckerscore: Points Control Your Freedom?

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By Allum Bokhari

Fast Company has caught on to what Breitbart News has been highlighting for some time: that the Big Tech Masters of the Universe are developing systems to monitor and regulate personal behavior that closely resemble China’s totalitarian “social credit” system.

The “social credit” system assigns all Chinese citizens a “social credit score.” A citizen’s score drops if he engages in a range of disfavored activities, ranging from littering to supporting political dissidents.

Citizens whose score drops low enough can find themselves subject to strict punishment, including bans from the use of public transport, exclusion from top jobs, and prohibitions on their children attending top-rated schools.

This may sound alien and Orwellian, but as Fast Company notes, Silicon Valley is bringing a version of this grim reality to America.

Via Fast Company:

Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies.

The articles goes on to note a range of ways in which western citizens are being systematically rated, and in some cases excluded, by corporate America. These include insurance companies scanning the social media feeds of applicants, an app called “PatronScan,” that logs the face and name of troublesome bar and restaurant clientele, and the growing tendency of services like Airbnb, Uber, and WhatsApp to ban users for arbitrary reasons.

The comparison to China’s social credit system is similar to the one this reporter made on Breitbart News Daily in June:

In China, they have what’s called a “social credit system” — in which, if you engage in behavior that the regime doesn’t like, they’ll assign you a score, and when it drops below a certain point, they’ll exclude you from certain basic services, like transportation, they might not let your kids go to good schools — all sorts of basic services, they’ll cut you off from.

We have a corporate version of this already evolving. So if you don’t do the things that Facebook approves of, they’re going to cut you off from their platform, which is now essential for maintaining a social network, building a business, running for office. We rely on Facebook and other social media platforms for so many things. Uber and Lyft will also ban you now — they’ve started to ban people for political viewpoints, so you think China is the only one that’s going to cut you off from transportation for having the wrong opinions — well, Western corporations are now doing that, too. Airbnb, Amazon, they’re all doing it.

One other comparison from the Fast Company article deserves note — the Chinese communist government’s partnership with tech platforms like Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. Far from aiding dissidents, Chinese social media companies like Weibo and WeChat aid and abet the government in the persecution of its citizens.

That too, has eerie parallels with the West, where social media platforms have become a means of extra-judicial censorship for politicians. Because America has the First Amendment, politicians can’t pass laws suppressing speech or punishing dissidents against the established order — but they can, and frequently do, bully tech companies into doing their dirty work for them.

 

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Man Assaulted by Angry, Drunk Mob For Wearing MAGA Hat into Portland Bar

By Brock Simmons – August 26, 2019

A man in Portland took his wife out for a night on the town on Friday, and he ended up with a gashed and bloody nose, with two suspects facing charges, all over the man’s apparently support of President Trump.

The modern day left strikes again.

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KPTV reports:

Portland police say a man and woman were arrested early Saturday morning for assault, and the man who was attack says it’s all because of his “Make America Great Again” hat.

At around 12:50 a.m., officers responded to the report of a disturbance at the Growler’s Taproom, located in the 3300 block of Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.

Lenzner told FOX 12 that he and his wife were on a date night. He said right when they got there, they were attacked outside the patio by people upset about the hat.

“I got mobbed by everybody that was in that bar outside. People came from the inside out – just circled me and my wife,” said Lenzner.

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Lenzner attests that things escalated between people outside the bar. That’s when police say 22-year-old Leopold A. Hauser and 23-year-old Adebisi A. Okuneye assaulted Lenzner and his wife.

“Surrounding me, like literally surrounding me, pushing me. I’m just trying to get through, trying to stop the person from hitting me, from taking my hat, and then I get sucker punched,” Lenzner told FOX 12.

The suspects were arrested a few blocks away.

Both Hauser and Okuneye were booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of third-degree assault. They are expected to be arraigned Monday.

Witnesses, including the bartender, say Lenzner was the one who started it. In security footage, he can be seen pointing to his hat and saying something as he left, and witnesses say that’s what started it all.

Police say Lenzner never involved himself physically in the altercation.

Hauser and Okuneye were released on their own recognizance, due in court on Monday. We’ll see if district attorney Rod Underhill will once again play political favorites and drop all charges.

 

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