On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives approved legislation that would threaten nonprofit organizations’ exercise of free speech rights. The legislation would accomplish this goal by empowering the US government to selectively clamp down on nonprofits to an extent that targeted organizations may cease to exist. This is all being done in the name of countering terrorism, a trusty standby excuse for the US government exercising authoritarian powers.
Tag: J.D. Tuccille
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Big Brother in the Big Apple
“Big Brother is protecting you.” That is a quote from New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a Saturday article at Politico. Adams made the comment in defense of the extensive web of high-tech surveillance his city government deploys against people in America’s most populous city, as well as the mayor’s desire to expand the surveilling.
High taxes and extensive regulation can make doing business, including providing a quality product at a low price, difficult to impossible. It looks like the New York state government is about to demonstrate this fact, as have some other marijuana-legalizing state governments before it, with the roll-out of its recreational marijuana legalization.
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Beware Coronavirus Surveillance
“Concerns about curtailing contagion help to normalize detailed scrutiny of people’s lives and drive us toward a pervasive surveillance state,” writes J.D. Tuccille in an informative and disturbing Friday article at Reason. Tuccille details in the article developments in new surveillance efforts termed “contact tracing” that are marketed as part of an effort to counter coronavirus. He also addresses the continuing and expanding employment of surveillance technologies that were in use before the coronavirus scare.