The Never-Ending Battle Between Leviathan and Liberty
March 22nd, 2021Via: Mises Institute:
History is a chronology of nations pillaged by reckless regimes.
…
American presidents take an oath of office solemnly swearing to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” But this has long been an empty ritual, akin to Roman emperors making public sacrifices to pagan gods they knew did not exist. Fealty to the Constitution has evaporated in part because philosophical trends have long favored absolute power.
…
Author Robert Anton Wilson observed, “Every national border in Europe marks the place where two gangs of bandits got too exhausted to kill each other any more and signed a treaty.” Similarly, the current extent of government power marks the boundary of political onslaughts into the private domain of liberty.
…
For many people, liberty is an abstraction until government agents ravage their lives. A lucid recognition of the coercive nature of Leviathan is vital for the defense of freedom.
…
Expecting liberty to permanently triumph would require rulers to miraculously become selfless if not self-sacrificing. But, as Hayek warned in his essay “Why the Worst Get on Top,” power is a magnet for the dregs of humanity. Faith in the state will continue reviving as long as some people feel entitled to domineer other people. Political action pays a higher premium on deceit than almost any other human activity and thus will remain perilous to everything decent.
UK Announces Vaccine ‘Certificates’, Says They Are Not Vaccine Passports
March 22nd, 2021Via: Summit News:
The UK government Culture Secretary announced Thursday that “Covid-19 certification” is coming to enable people to attend sports events and go to theatre performances, but in the same breath denied that COVID passports are being introduced.
Appearing on Sky News, Oliver Dowden said that the government is trialling a system to ensure those who can prove they have taken a vaccine will be able to attend mass gatherings.
“We will be testing whether we can use Covid-19 certification to help facilitate the return of sports,” Dowden said, adding it will “help the return of the things that we love.”
Gunmen Kill 13 Police in Daytime Ambush in Central Mexico
March 18th, 2021Via: Reuters:
Gunmen killed at least 13 Mexican police in an ambush a short distance outside the capital on Thursday, local authorities said, in one of the worst mass slayings of security forces to rock the country in recent years.
50% of French and Swiss Care Workers and 70% of German Care Workers Will NOT Take COVID Vaccines
March 18th, 2021Via: Reuters:
Around half of health workers in French care homes do not want to be vaccinated, according to the group of experts guiding the state’s vaccine rollout…
The issue is not unique to France.
In Germany, care home operator BeneVit Group surveyed staff in November and found only 30% wanted to get vaccinated.
Peter Burri, head of ProSenectute, Switzerland’s biggest advocacy group for seniors, said at most half of nursing staff in the medical sector were willing to get inoculated.
Northern Ireland: Dr. Anne McCloskey on COVID Fraud
March 17th, 2021Via: Freedom Alliance Island of Ireland:
U.S. Army Prepping Robotic Combat Vehicles for Big Test with Soldiers in 2022
March 17th, 2021Via: Defense News:
The U.S. Army has taken receipt of its light and medium Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) prototypes from industry teams and is putting them through the paces this year ahead of a major company-level soldier assessment in 2022.
More: Textron Systems Readies All-Electric Ripsaw M5 UGV
Philadelphia: Kensington Ave at Night
March 17th, 2021I noticed a store there called, “Dollar Heaven.”
Via: HoodTime:
Lobbyist in $60 Million Ohio Bribery Probe Found Dead in Florida
March 17th, 2021Update: USA Today: Unlimited Dark Money Available
Clark, who founded Columbus lobbying firm Grant Street Consultants, was accused last year of playing a key role in a $61 million scheme to elect Larry Householder to the House Speaker post and pass a bailout for two Ohio nuclear plants. Clark pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
The FBI recorded conversations between Clark and Householder as part of their investigation into the bribery scheme. In those conversations, Clark described himself as Householder’s “proxy” and the dark money available to them as “unlimited.”
—
Via: Tampa Bay Times / AP:
A longtime Ohio lobbyist who had pleaded not guilty in a sweeping federal bribery investigation has been found dead.
In response to a request about information concerning Neil Clark’s death, the sheriff’s office in Collier County, Florida, where Clark had been living, provided a report describing a man’s body being found near a pond Monday morning by a bicyclist. The county medical examiner confirmed to AP it was Clark’s body and that a medical investigation and autopsy are underway.
When officials reached out to the man’s wife, she said the couple was having financial issues and that she had not heard from her husband for a couple of hours, according to the report.
Clark, 67, had pleaded not guilty in August over an alleged role in a $60 million scheme in which federal prosecutors say FirstEnergy companies funneled money through a network of dark money entities to then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder in exchange for the passage of a $1 billion nuclear bailout bill.
Company Offering Realtime Tracking Information For “Specific Cars In Nearly Any Country On Earth”
March 17th, 2021Mobile phone tracking: Check
License plate tracking: Check
Vehicle telematics tracking: Check
Via: Vice:
A surveillance contractor that has previously sold services to the U.S. military is advertising a product that it says can locate the real-time locations of specific cars in nearly any country on Earth. It says it does this by using data collected and sent by the cars and their components themselves, according to a document obtained by Motherboard.
“Ulysses can provide our clients with the ability to remotely geolocate vehicles in nearly every country except for North Korea and Cuba on a near real time basis,” the document, written by contractor The Ulysses Group, reads. “Currently, we can access over 15 billion vehicle locations around the world every month,” the document adds.
Although the company told Motherboard it has not sold the product to the U.S. government at this time, the news highlights the scale and reach of car-tracking technology, and the fact that car location data is of interest not just to insurance companies and the finance sector, but to government contractors who explicitly say they want to source the data for intelligence and surveillance purposes.
Ulysses previously had a contract with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), though for a different piece of technology.
“Scientists Create Living Entities In The Lab That Closely Resemble Human Embryos”
March 17th, 2021“Growing these sort-of humans…”
Via: NPR:
For decades, science has been trying to unlock the mysteries of how a single cell becomes a fully formed human being and what goes wrong to cause genetic diseases, miscarriages and infertility.
Now, scientists have created living entities in their labs that resemble human embryos; the results of two new experiments are the most complete such “model embryos” developed to date.
In Other News: Scientists Grow Mice Embryos in a Mechanical Womb
