1984 in de Blasio’s New York City

1984 - Big BrotherAnd just how prescient was George Orwell?

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”

“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.”

“Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

“We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.”
George Orwell, 1984

From the WashingtonTimes.com:

New York businesses face hefty penalties for ‘misgendering’ customers

by Branford Richardson

Greeting customers as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” — or even not using the pronoun “ze” or “zir” — could prove costly for New York City businesses under rules drafted by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s bureaucrats.

But wait.

STOP THE PRESSES 2This is where I ask quite bluntly: what the fuck is a ze or a zir?

Here’s the problem with Leftists.  Force.  Conscription.  Pushing.  Leftists are not satisfied with allowing people to make their own decisions or to leave people alone.  They must, instead, tear down in order to build back up a system that only they can see and understand.  You, as a non-Leftist, do not have the mental capacity to understand their concepts and, as the menial Groundling, Prole or Serf that you are, you must be forced to comply.  Dissent cannot be tolerated.  Differing viewpoints cannot exist.  You have not the capability to perceive their higher-level thinking patterns and, because of this, there is no other option save that of duress, mandatory compulsion, intimidation and, ultimately, the law.  Further: there must be pain.  You must be punished for transgressions.

LEFTIST WORD POLICEPunished by the Leftist Word Police.

The Gotham mayor’s Commission on Human Rights says entities that fail to address customers by their preferred gender pronouns and titles are in violation of the law and could be subject to penalties of up to $250,000.

Correct.  The “wrong words” escaping your lips can subject your business, in New York City, courtesy of and endorsed and pushed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, to a quarter million dollar fine.

The maximum civil fine that the commission may impose upon “misgendering” is $125,000. But when the violation is the “result of willful, wanton, or malicious conduct,” the maximum fine can double to $250,000.

And just who determines what is “willful, wanton or malicious”?  A council of non-partisans?  A group of randomly-selected persons?  A committee consisting of an equal amount of liberals and conservatives?  No way.  That would be the very same Leftists who wrote and endorsed the original regulation itself.

Oh but wait — as I customarily say — it gets better.

While businesses are held to a strict standard, the guidance makes clear that the government is exempt from the law in “circumstances where certain federal, state, or local laws require otherwise (e.g., for the purposes of employment eligibility verification with the federal government).”

There you go.  The government itself — the entity placing this onerous harness upon the shoulders of business — is exempt.

“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
— George Orwell, “Animal Farm”

This is sheer Leftist insanity.  A truly accurate DSM V would in fact list Leftism as a mental disorder.

Which it is.

BZ

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

 

Per Walter Williams: totalitarianism?

GOVERNMENT BIG ENOUGH

A note I found scrawled inside the cab of a Union Pacific locomotive.  Truism.

From the DailySignal.com:

“Are we headed towards more liberty, or are we headed towards more government control over our lives?”

Whether you are a Conservative or a Leftist, you inherently know the answer to that question.

You answer is shaded, however, by your belief that government can free you, or squash you like a bug.

BZ

 

Privacy: again, the American Taxpayer LOSES

LPR System on Police VehicleAnd now the IRS wants access to LPR technology — license plate readers.

From Bloomberg.com:

IRS Among Agencies Using License Plate-Tracking Vendor

by Kathleen Miller

The Internal Revenue Service and other U.S. agencies awarded about $415,000 in contracts to a license plate-tracking company before Homeland Security leaders dropped a plan for similar work amid privacy complaints.

Federal offices such as the Forest Service and the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command chose Livermore, California-based Vigilant Solutions to provide access to license plate databases or tools used to collect plate information, according to government procurement records compiled by Bloomberg.

Vigilant, a closely held company, has received such work since 2009. In February, Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, ordered the cancelation of an immigration agency plan to buy access to national license plate data. While the technology can help solve crimes, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have said the mass collection of data infringes the privacy of innocent people.

“Especially with the IRS, I don’t know why these agencies are getting access to this kind of information,” said Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based privacy-rights group. “These systems treat every single person in an area as if they’re under investigation for a crime — that is not the way our criminal justice system was set up or the way things work in a democratic society.”

WHY, I ask, would the IRS require access to LPR information?  Why would the USAF Air Combat Command?  For what purpose, to what end?

See this story, also.

Because, as I am about to reveal, LPR technology is everywhere and becoming a standard in law enforcement — my agency included.

Those unfamiliar with LPR technology should realize that these systems are already in place with many local and state law enforcement agencies nationwide.  Readers, attached to the roofs of LE vehicles (see above), collect license plate information from motor vehicles parked in lots and elsewhere.

Motorola, an LPR manufacturer, writes:

Enhance your officers’ safety and productivity while maximizing your department’s revenue. Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) delivers the ability to read vehicle license plates and check them against an installed database for rapid identity verification. The license plate recognition system has been used to locate stolen or wanted vehicles and identify parking-ticket scofflaws.

This rapidly deployable, scalable solution uses rugged infrared cameras that connect to leading-edge optical character recognition (OCR) technology software, allowing you to conduct surveillance under varied lighting and weather conditions. Captured information is immediately processed, and you are alerted only when a “hit” occurs.

Back Office System Server (BOSS) Software

  • Database formatting including ability to customize PAGIS screens and alarms based on system “hits”
  • Import of national and regional databases:
  • Ability to map all locations related to a single license plate to track movements
  • Ability to cross-reference perpetrator ID number (driver’s license, social security, etc.) with license plate database

Law enforcement, therefore, has the potential to become another smaller but still intrusive NSA.  The “take” from LPR technology is sent to various LE local points and can readily be kept on local servers.  Depending upon various orders and policies, this information is dumped or stored.  I would tend to place my money on the latter.

And here comes the If/Then equation: if the information is stored and retrievable, then it can be sifted and filtered for times, dates, locations — tracking purposes.  Note the information above.  These systems can be melded and made compatible with other systems for informational sharing purposes.

That said, should not what I call the Logical Extension be implemented now?  That is, various and sundry federal LE systems demanding to tap into virtually unlimited information gathered by local and state law enforcement entities?  To be further kept on larger federal servers and systems?

Big Brother anyone?  Again?

Big Brother B&WWhen and where does it end?  And why the resounding silence on behalf of most of the media and the populace?

Might I suggest to the NSA and to the rest of the federal government that seems to have no problem intruding into every nook and cranny of my life and the lives of other Americans: do what I had to do when I was a Detective and wanted to advance my cases.

WarrantBZ

 

Police Unit That Spied on Muslims Is Disbanded

MUSLIMweb2-articleLargeFrom the NYTimes.com: