Free Republic

How much of your safety should you delegate to government?In the name of safety, the government has taken steps that critics say have denied citizens what used to be considered inalienable constitutional rights. Citizens are concerned that their right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment is being denied, ostensibly, to keep citizens safe from "harmful misinformation," and fear that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is being infringed upon to combat gun violence. Watchdogs further contend that citizens are being denied the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment's right to face one's accuser when...

A provision in the 2021 "infrastructure" spending package, as it turns out, includes a provision that directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to come up with a way to stop you from driving your car or truck if the government doesn't want you to. The measure is sold as a way to keep people from driving while impaired, but the implications are chilling. "A provision in the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed in 2021 directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to come up with a rule by this year requiring new...

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul warned of a little-known federal law that allows the president of the United States to shut down the internet with a “kill switch.” Paul warned that the government’s ” emergency powers ” can remove freedoms in the name of safety and security, including an internet “kill switch” to turn off the Internet. “We’ve also looked at the emergency powers and emergency powers — you know the courts have said you don’t throw out the Constitution during emergencies — but a lot of our legislation acts as if you could throw things away,” Paul told Atlas on...

It seems as if anything can be done – truly anything – if it is in the name of safety. From the pandemic to peanut butter, as long as a new rule, regulation, mandate, dictate is couched in the language of improving safety it is either completely cosseted from criticism or its possibilities for gross governmental misuse are downplayed as the ravings of a paranoid lunatic. California and the rest of the nation may very well soon learn that when it comes to “good intentions,” if the government is involved the true intentions are often hidden and they are very...

"Can you imagine that in 10 years, when we are sitting here, we have an implant in our brains, and I can immediately feel [what you are feeling] because you all will have implants." I suppose this is Sergey Brin of Google that Schwab is talking to in the video clip

[EXCERPT] According to an article written by former U.S. Representative Bob Barr, hidden away in the recently passed infrastructure bill, the very one I warned before would negatively impact drivers across the country if it were to pass, is a measure to install vehicle kill switches into every new car, truck, and SUV sold in this country. The regulation likely won’t be enforced for five years, so maybe there’s time to do something about this. …It gets even better: Barr points out that the bill, which has been signed into law by President Biden, states that the kill switch, which...

When it comes to the manufacturing and use of automobiles, the U.S. government enforces a long list of regulations. In the name of safety, federal law requires that all new automobiles include seat belts, air brake systems, airbags and so on. Thanks to the massive infrastructure bill passed in November and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the government soon will be enforcing a new regulation -- one that gives federal authorities the ability to shut off your vehicle at any time. Advertisement - story continues below Buried on page 403 of the legislation, the provision requires "advance drunk...

Buried deep within the massive infrastructure legislation recently signed by resident Joe Biden is a little-noticed “safety” measure that will take effect in five years. Marketed to Congress as a benign tool to help prevent drunk driving, the measure will mandate that automobile manufacturers build into every car what amounts to a “vehicle kill switch.” As has become standard for legislative mandates passed by Congress, this measure is disturbingly short on details. What we do know is that the “safety” device must “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 'is planning a "kill switch" to shut off political ads after Election Day if Trump refuses to accept defeat'. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and some company executives have reportedly been planning a 'kill switch' to shut off political advertising after the election is over to curb misinformation. Facebook is looking at post-election scenarios that include attempts by President Donald Trump or his campaign to use the platform to delegitimize the results, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. The proposed 'kill switch' for political advertising would turn off political ads after November 3...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is as of now including in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial rules a “kill switch” that effectively allows for the president’s legal team to seek an immediate verdict or dismissal of the case should Democrats engage in any shenanigans like they did in the House process. The revelation comes after the House finally late last week formally sent the Articles of Impeachment it adopted before Christmas—after holding them for more than a month without transmission—to the U.S. Senate, thereby triggering the start of a Senate trial. The Senate will formally commence its trial procedures in...

Rudy Giuliani Snaps At Fox News’ Ed Henry: "THEY'RE GOING TO TRY TO KILL ME" President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani snapped at Fox News host Ed Henry during an interview Saturday, accusing Henry of covering up news about Joe Biden and Ukraine. “Are you afraid, Mr. Mayor that you could be indicted?” Henry asked. “Oh, wow, how long have you known me, Ed?” Giuliani said, adding, “Do you think I’m afraid? Do you think I get afraid? I did the right thing. I represented my client in a very, very effective way. I was so effective that I’ve discovered...

A new law requires boat operators to wear an emergency engine cutoff switch or a kill switch lanyard starting Sept. 1, 2019. So what should you know and how can this affect you? State Game Warden Shane Lewis told ABC 7, kill switches are just as important as wearing a life jacket, and he's glad now they’re legally required. “I’m actually surprised the law hadn’t been into effect prior to this, it’s a very important law and its going to really improve the safety of boating on the water,” said Lewis. “Let’s say that you were ejected from a boat...

The Supreme Court has refused to hear a petition concerning the Department of Homeland Security's secretive internet and cellphone killswitch program. On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that sought to force the Department of Homeland Security to release details of a secret 'killswitch' protocol to shut down cellphone and internet service during emergencies. EPIC has been fighting since 2011 to release the details of the program, which is known as Standard Operating Procedure 303. EPIC writes: "On March 9, 2006, the National Communications System ('NCS') approved SOP 303, however...

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) was invited Tuesday, along with fellow members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to test drive — er, test ride — a driverless car on the Capitol grounds. Well, the ride never happened, because Norton did a particularly good job of testing the car’s bright-red “kill” button — which, as captured by WRC-TV’s cameras, killed the car to the point that it could not proceed with the test ride. “Oh, no, don’t push it!” an engineer from Carnegie Mellon University cried after Norton pounded the mushroom button. “It shuts everything down.” [...]

Minnesota on Wednesday passed the nation’s first law requiring smartphones to have the ability to be remotely disabled. The law requires smartphone manufacturers to introduce so-called “kill switches” in devices to allow users to make lost or stolen phones unusable. In so doing, the state hopes to remove the incentive for such robberies, which are on the rise. A Consumer Reports survey released last month found that 3.1 million Americans had cellphones stolen in 2013, nearly double the 1.6 million thefts reported the previous year. Some of those robberies can become violent, as was the case for a Minneapolis mayoral candidate who received nine...

The California Legislature is looking at a voluntary program that would tax motorists for every mile they drive. KCAL9’s Bobby Kaple reports that Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, introduced a bill to test out the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax because the state’s gas tax was no longer bringing in the revenue it used to due to people driving more fuel efficient vehicles.

(CNN) -- The "kill switch," a system for remotely disabling smartphones and wiping their data, will become standard in 2015, according to a pledge backed by most of the mobile world's major players. Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry's largest trade group. All smartphones manufactured for sale in the United States after July 2015 must have the technology, according to the program from CTIA-The Wireless Association. Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from...

The rise in the number of mobile device theft all across the United States has prompted several Senators to introduce a smartphone kill switch on the federal level. This past Thursday, a proposed law called the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act was introduced by Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski (MD), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Mazie Hirono (HI).

When thieves steal an iPhone, it's referred to as "Apple picking." Apple's latest idea to deter such thefts is a feature called "activation lock." The company says it’ll be arming new iPhones -- and all its mobile devices -- with a kind of kill switch that can render a lost or stolen phone inoperable. The announcement comes shortly before San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, along with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is scheduled to meet with officials from several cellphone companies about how to prevent the growing number of smartphone thefts. Apple's senior vice president of software...

China’s mysterious Internet outage; speculation over a ‘kill switch’ By Hana Stewart-Smith | April 13, 2012, 5:33am PDT At approximately 11am local time yesterday, Internet users around China reported significant Internet blackouts. Not only were they unable to access some Chinese sites, but also many foreign Web sites that had not previously been blocked. The issue was not isolated to China. Web users in Hong Kong and Japan also reported issues with accessing Chinese sites. A number of explanations immediately came to light, with the most viable cause being the 8.7 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia on Wednesday, that might have...