Free Republic

Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger · We need digital IDs to halt migration, increase efficiency, & safeguard data, they say. But border control does not require digital IDs and centralizing data is a hacker's dream. The real reason they want digital ID is for billions in fees and the control of our behavior. Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger Everybody needs a digital ID, say heads of state and high-tech leaders. They give many reasons: it will stop illegal migration; it will increase efficiency; it will protect privacy; and it will prevent online fraud and data ransoming. But we don’t need digital IDs for any...

This entire post is the result of a thought experiment and subsequent research. The question I asked myself was, “What if, knowingly or not, the Trump administration was continuity rather than revolutionary? The Digital Control Grid: Hidden in Plain SightAmerica's digital control grid wasn't built overnight. It wasn't constructed in secret underground bunkers by shadowy figures. It was assembled piece by piece, in broad daylight, marketed as progress, convenience, and most powerfully – as patriotism. The genius of this system is in its branding. Surveillance becomes "efficiency." Digital ID becomes "sovereignty." Compliance becomes "freedom." And we're witnessing this transformation accelerate...

Big news: I reached out to Accenture in December to let them know we were considering a story on their woke policies in the early part of this year. Today, they’ve announced an end to their DEI policies and that they’ll stop working with the @HRC ’s woke CEI social credit scoring system. I can’t do a video today like we usually do where we go into more detail because I’m out sick but we are winning and we won’t stop until corporate America is sane again. ... Accenture was a founding member of CEO Action, the largest business-led initiative...

Innovation and liberty are not mutually exclusive — but the right balance requires a lot of vigilance. In December 2024, Congress quietly extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two more years. Tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act, this extension renews controversial powers originally intended to monitor foreign intelligence threats. Critics warn that Section 702’s sweeping scope enables the incidental collection of Americans’ private communications, threatening Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Once again, the delicate balance between security and liberty is on precarious ground. Federal Contracts and Concentrated Power A handful of...

“If that happens, this program could become one of the largest federal surveillance databases overnight without authorization from Congress,” said a bipartisan group of Senators in a letter to the DHS Inspector General. TSA Facial Recognition Scanning Spreading, Part of Planned ‘Across The Board’ Biometric Future “If that happens, this program could become one of the largest federal surveillance databases overnight without authorization from Congress,” said a bipartisan group of Senators in a letter to the DHS Inspector General. Posted by William A. Jacobson Sunday, December 29, 2024 at 08:30pm 12 Comments FacebookTwitterTelegramLinkedInWhatsAppRedditEmail I don’t fly that much, but I...

While Americans have been focused on the election, the European Union has been in the process of passing a new law. It’s called the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and its reach will go far beyond European borders. In fact, “It’s going to impact every single American,” Justin Haskins, author and editorial director of the Heartland Institute, tells Allie Beth Stuckey. “Essentially, what it does is create ESG social credit scores for companies. ... These ESG scores are designed to transform the way companies operate, the kinds of products and services that they can sell, and then, by extension, transform...

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has gotten Lowe's, Tractor Supply, Jack Daniel's, and John Deere to retreat from identity-based employee policies and donations to left-wing activism. Hardware retail chain Lowe’s is the latest major brand to announce a retreat from “woke” policies, again driven by pressure from conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck. Starbuck announced Monday on X that he had notified Lowe’s that he was planning another of his now-trademark exposés against the company’s left-wing corporate policies, to which Lowe’s responded by announcing multiple changes to those policies. Specifically, the company will stop participating in the Corporate Equality Index social credit system...

YGTBFKM Until today, I didn't realize that individuals are now being assigned ESG scores that some institutions use to decide whether they will do business with a person. I obviously knew about ESG scores that huge investment firms are using to force corporations to conform to ideological demands. I knew that in some cases, prominent individuals or troublemakers have been blackballed by banks and other firms. And, of course, I know that some companies that sell politically incorrect items are getting deplatformed by PayPal and even web providers. But I didn't know that an industry has sprung up to analyze...

A long-promised revolution in banking is headed to Canada, but you might not notice when it arrives, was the sinister headline to a recent The Canadian Press article.The change that is in the works is something called “open banking” and the Canadian federal government has promised framework legislation in next month’s budget to bring the system to Canada.Under open banking, banks allow access and control of customers’ personal and financial data to third-party service providers.One of the biggest areas of growth is in credit assessments, The Canadian Press reported. “Under open banking, lenders could directly access an individual’s banking data,...

Another step towards implementing a Social Credit system.. Financial privacy is a right under the constitution, as is free speech. Under the guise of “credit review”, Stripe is now rolling out a requirement that appears to target conservative or "anti-vax" Substack authors. Stripe is requiring that these authors provide all of their current and historic financial records associated with the bank account into which Stripe deposits Substack subscriber payments (after taking 10% off the top for Substack and 3% for Stripe). Stripe already has information concerning this bank account (including deposits from Stripe), as we have been doing business with...

America in the twenty-first century has been on an accelerating descent not unlike what befell ancient Rome. For some four centuries Rome’s Senate and constitution provided continuity which sustained the Roman Republic through various challenges. But in the end, what befell Rome from barbarian invasion, political corruption, and mobs that were manipulated and used by its Caesars, was a rampage against reason and freedom, leading to the Republic’s demise and transition to a centralized imperial authority under emperors. America's style and state of political decline and cultural degeneration differ in many ways from that of ancient Rome, but the big...

On Thursday’s broadcast of One America News’ “Real America,” Seamus Bruner, Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute and author of Controligarchs: Exposing the Billionaire Class, their Secret Deals, and the Globalist Plot to Dominate Your Life, stated that some officials in Ireland are essentially using the European welfare state to impose a China-style social credit score by threatening to revoke government benefits from people protesting against the government’s migrant policies.

In the ongoing project to achieve human perfection through government action, pervasive surveillance of the population plays a growing role. After all, if the government can monitor everything you do all the time, then utopia will be just around the corner. The always-observing benevolent bureaucrats will be sure to make committing a crime completely unthinkable. The same goes for not paying your bills on time, or being mean to your wife — or criticizing those in power. China, with its “social credit” system, is the leader in the movement toward pervasive government surveillance. This post of mine from September 2018...

On November 8th 2023, a virtual launch event took place for what was termed the “50-in-5” agenda. The United Nations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and partners of the Rockefeller Foundation are launching a campaign to accelerate digital ID, digital payments, and data-sharing rollouts in 50 countries under the umbrella of digital public infrastructure (DPI) by 2028. (source). The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has announced plans to roll out “digital IDs” worldwide by the year 2030, and they will be mandatory for people who wish to participate in society, say Reclaim the Net, who advocate for free speech...

Even things like the consumer’s “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” are tracked, shared, and sold. Vehicle manufacturers are now tracking and storing some very personal data inside the car’s internal computers, including things like if you have sex inside the car and even your unique genetics. As highlighted by popular YouTuber Louis Rossman, a staunch right-to-repair advocate, highlighted how vehicles are becoming more and more invasive in what they are collecting on drivers and passengers. (snip) Mozilla did not mince words when giving their judgment on Nissan’s privacy policy. The group wrote: We’re not...

Using the fake covid pandemic narrative as cover, the privileged, power-mad parasites who pilfer the world’s wealth have sharply accelerated their longstanding plan to create a single global empire that is completely under their command. This single global empire will ultimately employ the services of all the transnational institutions on the planet to regulate and control every aspect of human life. It is a global empire run by an exclusive club, perhaps 8,000 to 12,000 strong, whose members do not pledge allegiance to any national flag, who snobbishly view themselves as superior to their countrymen, and who are indifferent to...

Last month, JP Morgan Chase Bank canceled all my business bank accounts, along with the personal accounts of our CEO, CFO and their respective spouses and children. Over the past three-plus years, countless people and organizations have been cut off from online payment services and banking services for their views alone. What makes our current case unique is that Chase is expanding the punishment to key employees of my business and their families — people who literally have nothing do to with me. What we’re seeing is the weaponization of finance, where people whose views or actions go against the...

Worldcoin will expand its operations to sign up more users globally and aims to allow other organizations to use its iris-scanning and identity-verifying technology known as the World ID, want one? At the height of the Pandemic and lockdowns, a company called Worldcoin was quietly signing up millions of people around the world to have their irises scanned to create their digital ID. To date, there has been over 2,167,405 users, with new users signing up at the rate of more than 100 per minute. World ID users are located in 120 different countries, and their tagline reads ‘For Every...

The Fed is becoming quite crafty when it comes to digital currency. They’re aware that it’s not popular, mainly because Americans are wary about handing control of their finances over to a government that could cut them off with a flick of a switch. So, in typical globalist fashion, they plan to “coax” you into using it by introducing the infrastructure as an option they know you’ll love. That’s precisely what they’re doing as we speak with this new FedNow program. This payment system, recently rolled out by the Federal Reserve, sets the foundation for the US government to essentially...

Propelling ahead at breakneck speed, the globalist elite are implementing their plan to utilize CBDCs embedded under the skin, aiming to abolish the Second Amendment.The World Economic Forum has called on Western nations to “urgently” ban cash and implement a Chinese-style social credit score system amid growing public rejection of the globalist agenda.The WEF urged world leaders to begin fast-tracking the implementation of CBDC’s during the “Summer Davos” event last week.For years now the globalist elite have been telling us about their plans to seize control of every aspect of our lives and turn the world into a giant prison,...