Digital IDs coming to Canada

Digital ID in Canada. Is the US Next? | Brownstone Institute - John Mac Ghlionn: 

August 21, 2022 - "The World Economic Forum (WEF) is actively promoting digital IDs. The Known Traveler Digital Identity (KTDI) is a WEF initiative that, according to its website, 'brings together a global consortium of individuals, governments, authorities and the travel industry to enhance security in world travel.' As you can probably tell by the name of the initiative, digital IDs are a core component of the WEF’s desire to 'enhance security.' Canada is KTDI’s most prominent member. 

"Now Canada, supposedly a country interested in advancing human rights, wants to introduce a federal 'Digital Identity Program.' According to a recent report released by the Canadian government, those in charge want 'to make it easier for Canadians to interact with the Government of Canada.' For this to occur, though, 'modern, integrated systems and an unwavering focus on the needs and experience of citizens' are required. In plain human language: this will require the introduction of digital IDs....

"Last year, in a rather revealing white paper, the WEF outlined the many ways in which digital IDs will turbocharge our digital future. The authors cite China’s use of digital IDs and biometric technologies; these, they insist, have 'transformed consumer habits and delivered tangible benefits' to Chinese citizens. The fact that the WEF is using China as a shining example of why digital IDs work should worry anyone who cherishes the idea of freedom.

"Should American citizens be concerned if Canada — the United States’ neighbor — is prepared to roll out digital IDs? The answer is yes. If it can happen in one of the most developed countries in the world, it can happen in the United States. In fact, some Democrats are actively pushing for digital IDs....

"Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) first introduced the “Improving Digital Identity Act” back in 2020, but his idea never gathered momentum. Foster decided to reintroduce the measure. As the author Natalie Aims noted, the bill 'would also set up a task force on digital identity and establish a grant program at the Department of Homeland Security to support the creation of interoperable identity credentialing systems for digital identity verification on the state and local level.' Yes, the DHS, the very same federal executive department that was trying to introduce the Disinformation Governance Board earlier this year.

"Foster, as I discussed in [a recent] American Conservative piece, is not the only Democrat pushing digital IDs. He’s just one of many. Which begs the question, why are a number of politicians on the left so interested in these problematic IDs? In short, they want to address identity fraud, a growing problem in the United States.... Now, only a fool would argue that identity fraud isn’t a problem in the United States; it is. Something must be done. However, we must ensure that the so-called cure is not worse than the disease.

"You see, digital IDs are closely associated with social credit systems. When one reads the words 'social credit system,' their minds automatically jump to communist China, where 1.4 billion people are constantly monitored and graded. Those who fall short are banned from booking flights and enrolling their children in certain schools. They become prisoners, unable to relocate elsewhere and unable to give their children a better life. Nothing good comes from a social credit system. People are forced to live in a constant state of fear, constantly checking their score to see if they are considered 'good' or 'bad' by those in charge.

"With Canadian authorities creating the infrastructure required to implement a digital identification network, some are concerned that a social credit system similar to the one in China is just around the corner. Their concerns are warranted. Digital IDs lay the path for social credit systems. Without them, [one] would be impossible....

"Although there will never be a good time to introduce digital IDs (at least for us, the citizens), they appear to be unavoidable and inescapable. They are coming.... In the Metaverse — the next iteration of the internet that will see humans inhabit the digital unknown — digital identities will play a starring role. Do you know who else will play a starring role? The WEF. The elites in Davos appear very eager to govern the immersive virtual world, this 3D representation of the internet. The Metaverse includes the use of virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. And if the WEF has its way, it will also include the use of digital identities."

Reprinted from Epoch

Read more: https://brownstone.org/articles/digital-id-in-canada-is-the-us-next/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

US Disinformation Governance Board on pause – czar blames "disinformation"

Nina Jankowicz Claims 'Childish Behavior' Led to Disinformation Board Being Put on Ice | Independent Journal Review - Bradley Cortright:

May 20, 2022 - "Nina Jankowicz, who was tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Disinformation Governance Board, insists that national security is at risk because of 'childish behavior' now that the panel has been put on hold. During an interview on CBS News on Thursday, Jankowicz said, 'I would say that the Disinformation Governance Board was the victim of disinformation.'

"'Disinformation is false information spread with malign intent. And clearly, there was a malign intent on some actors in the media and in politics who just really stood up to the formation of this board because it would be confronting disinformation,' she continued. 'They completely mischaracterized its mission. And frankly, this childish behavior is endangering our national security now. This board was set up to counter real disinformation that makes Americans less safe.... So those who stand in opposition to the board — which as the secretary said was just an internal coordinating mechanism something to make sure we were efficient and using best practices — are standing in the way of our national security,' she insisted."
Read more: https://ijr.com/jankowicz-childish-behavior-disinformation-board-put-ice/

Nina Jankowicz's Faulty Record, Not Her Critics, Doomed the Disinformation Board | Reason - Robby Soave:

May 18,2022 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has placed a 'pause' on the newly-minted Disinformation Governance Board; its first executive director, Nina Jankowicz, has resigned.... It's unclear whether plans for the board will be un-paused in the future; Jankowicz had initially decided to resign, reconsidered when she was told the pause might be temporary, and then ultimately left anyway.... 

"This news comes from an exclusive report by The Washington Post's Taylor Lorenz, whose scoop is buried underneath layers of pro-government verbiage. For WaPo, the story is not that DHS shuttered the Disinformation Governance Board — the real story is that right-wing 'coordinated online attacks' achieved this outcome after subjecting Jankowicz to an 'unrelenting barrage of harassment'....

Jankowicz's experience is a prime example of how the right-wing Internet apparatus operates, where far-right influencers attempt to identify a target, present a narrative and then repeat mischaracterizations across social media and websites with the aim of discrediting and attacking anyone who seeks to challenge them.... Experts say that right-wing disinformation and smear campaigns regularly follow the same playbook and that it's crucial that the public and leaders of institutions, especially in the government, the media and educational bodies, understand more fully how these cycles operate....

"Yet there is good reason to be skeptical of both the Disinformation Governance Board and Jankowicz's fitness to run it. Informal efforts to police disinformation on social media are beset with serious challenges, as moderators and fact-checkers routinely make odious mistakes: Just today, Facebook dubiously censored a recipe for homemade baby formula. The social media site's fact-checkers have previously flagged Reason articles as spreading false information, only to later admit the articles in question were accurate. John Stossel, host of Stossel TV and a contributor to Reason, is currently suing Facebook for characterizing his videos as misleading, even though fact-checkers eventually conceded he was right.

"Government disinformation cops are no better; time and time again, public health officials circulated false information about COVID-19, and suppressed perfectly legitimate discussion of the theory that the virus originated from a lab leak. And when The New York Post reported on the salacious contents of Hunter Biden's laptop just weeks before the election, the story was widely dismissed by so-called disinformation experts and government security experts on grounds that they presumed it to be Russian malfeasance. "Hunter Biden Story Is Russian Disinfo, Dozens of Former Intel Officials Say," reported Politico back in October 2020. 

"Jankowicz repeatedly made public statements indicating that she held this view, too.She shared national security officials' 'high confidence' that the Hunter Biden story was part of a Russian influence campaign. She described the idea that the laptop had been left behind at a repair shop as 'a fairy tale.' This was a critical test of whether disinformation experts could check their innate tendency to ascribe everything unfavorable to the Democratic Party as Russian nefariousness, and they utterly failed. Jankowicz failed as well."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/05/18/disinformation-board-nina-jankowicz-taylor-lorenz-pause-dhs/

Nina Jancowicz sings about disinformation: 

Homeland Security sets sights on "disinformation"

New DHS Board Seeks To Counter What It Thinks Is Disinformation | Reason - Joe Lancaster:

April 29, 2022 - "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that it had formed a new board meant to counter disinformation. According to the Associated Press, the so-called Disinformation Governance Board will focus, in part, on Russian disinformation campaigns. The board will be headed by Nina Jankowicz, a Wilson Center fellow who studies disinformation and technology.... Jankowicz has advocated for an anti-disinformation agency in testimony before the House's Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Regarding social media companies, she said that she 'would like to empower a new oversight body to make sure that there is transparency and that the platforms are doing their due diligence by their users.'

"But a government entity tasked with policing incorrect information online is both unlikely to succeed and also a potential threat to free speech.... Russian-affiliated entities did engage in influence campaigns targeting the 2016 presidential election. (The actual effectiveness of these efforts is far from certain.) But many politicians and pundits in the years since have painted their ideological opponents as Russian agents spreading Kremlin propaganda. Some, including sitting senators, have referred to contrarian takes on Russian actions as 'treasonous.' Even without a dedicated government entity, some politicians still tend to overprescribe the 'Russian disinformation' label.

"And there is reason to question Jankowicz's appointment. After being announced as the head of the new board, some of her past tweets resurfaced regarding her promotion of the idea that the story of Hunter Biden's laptop in October 2020 was a product of a Russian disinformation campaign. Indeed, at the time, Jankowicz referred to the official story—that then-candidate Joe Biden's son abandoned his laptop at a Delaware repair shop—as a 'fairly [sic] tale.'

"In fairness, there was plenty in that story to be suspicious about.... But despite the far-fetched details, The New York Times reported last month that the laptop's contents had been authenticated. And that is exactly why the idea of a 'disinformation' agency is so alarming: Multiple times, social media companies have responded to both public and political pressure to constrain users from sharing false stories that, with time, turned out to be either completely or partially true....

"On Thursday, Sen. Rob Portman (R–Ohio) issued a statement that he was 'deeply concerned' about the board: 'I do not believe that the United States government should turn the tools that we have used to assist our allies counter foreign adversaries onto the American people. Our focus should be on bad actors like Russia and China, not our own citizens.'

"On Wednesday, in announcing herself as the board's executive director, Jankowicz tweeted that she will seek 'to maintain the Dept's committment [sic] to protecting free speech, privacy, civil rights, & civil liberties.' But earlier this month, in an interview with NPR promoting her recent book on online harassment, Jankowicz told host Michel Martin, 'I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities all around the world… We need the platforms to do more, and we frankly need law enforcement and our legislatures to do more as well. And in other countries that are looking at this, you know, the U.K. has an online safety bill that's being considered right now where they're trying to make illegal this currently, quote, "awful but lawful content" that exists online where people are being harassed.'

"While a free and open internet may certainly facilitate abuse, it also represents one of the best ways for marginalized communities to offer and receive support. And it is not clear what she means by 'free speech absolutists,' but it is chilling that she then advocates for legislation to constrict speech that, while distasteful, is protected by the First Amendment. If Democrats lose the White House in 2024, it is not difficult to imagine a President Trump, President DeSantis, or President Haley getting to appoint his or her own Disinformation Governance Board, tasked with pressuring social media platforms to disallow information embarrassing to the administration.

"No government body should have the ability to determine what is and is not the truth, much less one headed by someone so hostile to free and unfettered speech."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/04/29/new-dhs-board-seeks-to-counter-what-it-thinks-is-disinformation/

DHS agents 'disappearing' protesters in Portland

Conservatives, libertarians push back on Portland crackdown | Washington Times - David Sherfinski:

July 21, 2020 - "President Trump’s deployment of federal officers to quell rioting in Portland, Oregon, and possibly elsewhere is seeing pushback not only from Democrats but also from conservatives and libertarians who say the federal government can’t indiscriminately throw its weight around and trample on constitutional rights. The White House insists the federal forces are necessary to stop the marauding mobs in Portland, but civil libertarians object to reports that unidentified officers are sweeping people up and detaining them.

"'It’s pretty straight-up unconstitutional,' said Nicholas Sarwark, a former chairman of the Libertarian National Committee. 'I wish I could nuance this one.... There’s nothing good there.'

"The White House said the law that created the Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks gives the agency authority to protect federal property, which is the administration’s reason for the deployment in Portland to protect a federal courthouse. Mr. Trump has [also] said he might send federal agents into Chicago and other big cities wracked by violent crime in the wake of the racial justice upheaval and calls to defund police departments.

"The federal government does have 'disturbingly broad authorities' to send law enforcers anywhere in the country if it chooses, said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian Washington think tank. 'That doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a political fight about it,' he said....

"Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, objected to the Trump administration’s sending 'unidentified' federal agents to Portland. 'We cannot give up liberty for security,' Mr. Paul said on Twitter. 'Local law enforcement can and should be handling these situations in our cities, but there is no place for federal troops or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will.'

"Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, a Libertarian who quit the Republican Party last year, said on Twitter: 'Donald Trump is deploying unmarked federal police, decked out like a paramilitary force, to grab Americans off the streets. He’s not protecting liberty; he’s practicing tyranny'....

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection has jurisdiction of areas in the U.S. that are within 100 miles of an external boundary. 'That gives broader authority for Customs and Border [Protection] in particular to operate than folks may realize,' said Jonathan Adler, a professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. But there is no 'generic federal police authority,' he said. 'Nor should there be.... That’s the sort of power that was reserved to the states'....

"Sarwark said that people backing the president’s actions can’t seriously defend the situation from a constitutional perspective. 'This will separate the sheep from the goats,” he said. “If you don’t oppose secret police disappearing people off of American streets because they’re leftists, then you’re not really opposed to secret police — you’re just opposed to it being used against people you like.'"

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/21/federal-agents-portland-opposed-some-conservatives/

Border camp conditions dangerous, says DHS IG

DHS Watchdog Describes Crammed Detention Centers, A Ticking Time Bomb : NPR - Joel Rose & John Burnett:

July 2, 2019 - "The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General is warning about "dangerous overcrowding" in Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. In a strongly worded report, the inspector general said the prolonged detention of migrants without proper food, hygiene or laundry facilities — some for more than a month — requires 'immediate attention and action.'

"The report comes amid growing outrage over detention conditions for migrants and follows reports that migrant children were kept in squalid conditions without enough food and basic necessities in a Border Patrol station in West Texas.

"Inspectors from DHS's Office of Inspector General in June visited Border Patrol facilities and ports of entry across the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, the busiest sector in the country for illegal border crossings. 'We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained,' they wrote.

"In its response to the report, the Department of Homeland Security says the surge of migrants crossing the Southern border has led to an 'acute and worsening crisis.' In May, according to DHS, an average of more than 4,600 people a day crossed illegally or arrived at ports of entry without the proper documents, compared to less than 700 a day in the same period two years ago....

"The latest report from the Rio Grande Valley includes photos of migrants penned into overcrowded Border Patrol facilities — including one man pressing a cardboard sign to a cell window with the word 'Help.' The inspectors quote one unnamed senior manager calling the situation a 'ticking time bomb.'

"Inspectors found that hundreds of children were held for longer than the 72 hours, the maximum time federal rules allow. In some cases, kids were held for more than two weeks. And some adults were kept in standing-room-only cells, without access to showers, for more than a week."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/07/02/738179391/dhs-inspector-general-finds-dangerous-overcrowding-in-border-patrol-facilities
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Trump cracking down on legal immigration, too

Trump's Assault on Legal High-Skilled Immigration - Reason.com - Stuart Anderson:

October 30, 2017 - "Almost since day one, restrictionists in President Donald Trump's inner circle targeted not just undocumented low-skilled workers but also legal high-skilled ones.... The White House's 'Buy American and Hire American' executive order, drafted largely by restrictionist Trump aide Stephen Miller within months of Trump assuming office, ordered the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to 'rigorously enforce and administer the laws governing entry into the United States of workers from abroad' with an eye toward creating 'higher wages and employment rates for workers in the United States.' And the agencies aren't wasting any time....  Here are just a few of the things they've done:

• The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) just last week instructed its adjudicators to no longer 'defer to prior determinations,' approvals and findings of facts for the renewal of H-1Bs and other high-skilled visas. This means that when high-tech foreigners try to extend their H-1B after three years, the government having previously approved their applications — involving the same set of facts — means nothing. For employers, it will create uncertainty and additional paperwork burden.
• USCIS is also issuing 'exponentially more' of what are called 'requests for evidence' when an employer first petitions for an H-1B visa, according to BNA Bloomberg. This means that employers must submit additional evidence regarding salaries and job duties.... 
• USCIS adjudicators are also far more suspicious of H-1B petitions where employers offer the lower end of the prevailing wage spectrum, for example when hiring fresh graduates with less job experience.... 
• The Trump administration is delaying whether to defend a regulation that allows certain spouses of H-1B visa holders to work. Tens of thousands of qualified spouses are currently locked out of the job market because their visas bar them from working.

"But what's sending fear and trembling in the high-tech community is an expected rule change that will eliminate the STEM OPT (Optional Practical Training) program that the Bush administration first implemented.... This program allows about 45,000 new foreign STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students annually to work in the country after graduation not just one year, as is the case with non-STEM students, but three. This adds an important 'practical' aspect to their education and gives them much-needed time to land jobs and stay in America via an H-1B....

"In the absence of STEM OPT, American companies that want to hang on to these students will hire them and place them outside the United States. 'Without an H-1B program supported by the current STEM OPT option, Cummins and other employers will be forced to move our employees and their jobs outside the U.S.,' said Lorrie Meyer, executive director for global talent management at Indiana-based manufacturer Cummins Inc.... That is the opposite, of course, of the goal of 'America First.'"

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2017/10/30/trumps-assault-on-legal-high-skilled-imm?utm_medium=email
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T-shirt maker wins legal fight against NSA & DHS

Exclusive: Business Owner Sues The NSA & DHS and WINS! | Ben Swann Truth In Media - Ben Swann:

February 20, 2014 - "A small business owner and T-shirt maker who had his products forced off of internet marketplaces by the NSA [National Security Agency] has won his fight against the agency.

"Dan McCall is the owner of Liberty Maniacs which is a T-shirt company based out of Minnesota....

"The NSA has backed off its claim that McCall’s T-shirt 'The NSA' had infringed on their intellectual property rights.... Shortly after the NSA began getting McCall’s shirts pulled from online marketplaces like Zazzle.com, DHS or the Department of Homeland Security began doing the same thing claiming that T-shirts that mocked their agency were also infringing on intellectual property.

"McCall’s lawyer recently contacted him saying that both agencies wanted to settle. This is a huge victory for those who believe in Liberty and are taking a stand against federal agencies that are bullying the public ... to be able to force the NSA and DHS to contact online marketplaces and admit that they were wrong to try to force his products off the marketplaces and that McCall does in fact have every right to create his parody shirts."

Read more: http://benswann.com/exclusive-business-owner-sues-the-nsa-dhs-and-wins/
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Presumed guilty in the name of fighting terrorism

Presumed Guilty in the Name of Fighting Terrorism | The Moral Liberal - Bob Barr::

Jan. 1, 2013 - "The legal principle placing the burden of proof on accusers rather than the accused can be traced back to Second and Third Century Roman jurist, Julius Paulus Prudentissimus. Yet, this ancient concept, which forms the legal and moral cornerstone of the American judicial system, is quickly being undermined in the name of 'national security.' "In August 2004, President George W. Bush created the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) via Executive Order 13354.... The primary purpose of this secretive government agency is to serve as a clearinghouse for information related to terrorism, at home and abroad.... However, in a classic example of mission creep, over the last eight years the scope and power of the NCTC have slowly expanded....

"In 2012, the operating guidelines for the NCTC were updated to include previously prohibited activities; prohibitions intelligence officials claimed had inhibited their ability to find and disseminate terror threats.... According to the Wall Street Journal, whose Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests unearthed much of the internal debate behind the changes to the guidelines, the chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security called these new powers 'a sea change in the way that the government interacts with the general public.' In a word, it is simply unconstitutional.

"The change in the standards by which the NCTC now is able to troll data means every action a person takes that is logged into a government database, is subject to scrutiny for criminal behavior. Probable cause or reasonable suspicion – constitutional standards for invading a person’s privacy by government snooping — are irrelevant in such a scenario. We are all presumed guilty of engaging in potential terrorist acts."

Read more: http://www.themoralliberal.com/2012/12/31/presumed-guilty-in-the-name-of-fighting-terrorism/
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