Breakfast For The Brain Weekend Edition

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Snowden warns government surveillance amid COVID-19 could be long lasting 

Via CNET

Edward Snowden on Monday warned that high-tech surveillance measures governments use to fight the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the newly identified coronavirus, could have a long-lasting impact. That’s according to an interview with the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.

The US government, for instance, is reportedly in talks with tech companies like Facebook and Google to use anonymized location data from phones to help track the spread of COVID-19. While some say the measure could be a helpful tool for health authorities to track the virus, others have expressed concerns about their information being shared with the government.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents about mass surveillance activities, said governments can extend the access they have to people’s personal information during a crisis and use it to monitor their actions. During this pandemic, for example, governments might say they’re worried about public health and could send an order to every fitness tracker to look at measures like pulse and heart rate, and then demand access to that kind of activity, he said.

After the virus is gone and the data is still available to them, governments can use new causes like terrorist threats to justify continually gathering and analyzing people’s data, he said.

“They already know what you’re looking at on the internet,” Snowden said during the interview. “They already know where your phone is moving. Now they know what your heart rate is, what your pulse is. What happens when they start to intermix these and apply artificial intelligence to it?”

Read the entire article HERE.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti Admits Using Cell Phone Tracking to Monitor Coronavirus Compliance…

Via The Conservative Treehouse

Many people suspected this would eventually happen, including us. Follow the sequencing here; watch the natural progression of the authoritarian state. This is important.

First LA Mayor Eric Garcetti released 1,700 inmates. Then the LA Sheriff tried to shut down all gun stores. Next, Garcetti appointed neighborhood monitors and threatened to shut down electricity and water services to non-compliant citizens. In his most recent action, the mayor admits to using Big Tech to monitor the location of residents and track their coronavirus compliance.

During an interview with Chris Cuomo [segment @14:19 to 14:28] Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti discussing the ‘stay-at-home’ order says (emphasis mine):

https://youtu.be/fdBTAt6wo1Q

…”but this has been marvelously embraced by 99.9 percent of people; we see it in the traffic data, we see it in the cell phone data; but we’re going to hunt down that last point-one percent and say: ‘you’ve gotta get inside, you gotta cut it out, and you gotta distance”…

Notice how flippant and easily the totalitarian language rolls from the tongue?

Comrade citizens, we have been warning everyone about the use of their hand-held transponder (cell phone) during national and local emergencies. As the state attempts to enforce its dictates, the totalitarians will increasingly use their allies in Big Tech to enforce the rules.

Read the entire article HERE.

Police in Bellevue, Washington Launch App that Lets Citizens Snitch on Other People Who Violate Shutdown Orders

Via Big League Politics

Governor Jay Inslee recently issued a “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order for the entire state of Washington.

Now, Bellevue police are trying to develop a system for residents to report violations. Reports that citizens file on the MyBellevue app will create a heat map illustrating where there are potentially illegal gatherings or business activity.

Under the current order, people are allowed to leave their homes for certain activities, such as grocery shopping, going to medical appointments, picking up or delivering take-out food, heading to work at an essential business or leaving the house to do exercise.

Police advise residents and visitors to comply with the governor’s order, to protect the health of the community. “The vast majority of people in our community are following the “Stay Home” order and are being safe,” remarked Chief Steve Mylett. “But we need your help in reporting violations where there may be a large amount of people at risk.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Is the Wuhan Virus Being Used as a Pretext to Stop Gun Sales?

Via American Greatness

The Constitution guarantees all Americans the right to self-protection. Now is the worst possible time to curtail that right.

Are governments using the COVID-19 epidemic as an excuse to slow or stop gun sales? A little-noticed announcement from the FBI this week may soon enable bureaucratic inertia to delay legal gun sales indefinitely.

As uncertainty surrounding the social impacts of the Wuhan virus mounts, Americans increasingly have looked to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms for protection. But we’re seeing signs that governments view limiting gun sales as a legitimate part of the public health response to the epidemic.

In San Jose, California, officials shut down gun stores as “nonessential” businesses. In Fresno, California, the city council is considering bans on the sale of liquor and firearms. Similarly, in Illinois, municipal leaders are seeking emergency powers to ban gun sales. In Philadelphia, police have used the pandemic as a pretext to stop issuing license-to-carry permits. On March 11, the mayor of New Orleans issued a proclamation which authorizes the suspension of firearms sales.

For some reason, the Centers for Disease Control has also entered the gun control debate by devoting some of its “disease-fighting” resources to monitoring firearms deaths. It has lavished resources on this phenomenon, in effect equating gun violence and violent crime with infectious disease.

The CDC is so invested in the study of gun violence that the term, “firearm” returns 1,784 results in a search of its website. By comparison, the “coronavirus” returns 7,893 results. We can all wish those resources instead had been devoted to controlling and preventing viral pandemics.

But more troubling is that the federal government appears poised to use state government shutdowns as a pretext for indefinitely slowing some gun sales.

Read the entire article HERE.

Democrat Governors Go Totalitarian

Via CD Media

Think back over the last three years. We have the Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, impeachment, and now…guess what, a virus outbreak, that originated in communist China, that comes right after impeachment, and right before the 2020 presidential election, where Donald Trump was, and still is, favored to win.

This all happened AFTER Trump checkmated Beijing in the trade negotiations.

As usual, the globalists have underestimated POTUS, and Trump has handled the entire situation extremely competently, with great leadership. To their chagrin, he’s still winning.

Now Trump even has the gall to discuss possible treatments for the disease on national television. This the Left cannot have.

You see all this was to completely shutdown the American economy right before November. If people are allowed to overcome the disease en masse, then the Left’s hope of creating a depression Trump cannot overcome are dashed.

Read the entire article HERE.

Shop sells ‘hundreds’ of doughnuts starring Dr. Fauci’s face

Via AP

An upstate New York doughnut shop is featuring the likeness of the doctor leading the country’s battle with coronavirus on its sweet treats.

Donuts Delite in Rochester began selling hundreds of doughnuts with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s face, surrounded by white frosting and topped off with patriotic sprinkles.

The exclusive treats have been selling “like crazy” since the store put them on display Monday, according to Nick Semeraro, franchisee of the café.

The shop’s decision was inspired by the 79-year-old doctor’s straightforward communication style and calm demeanor while he’s been advising millions of Americans amid a pandemic.

The infectious disease expert has served as an adviser to every president since Ronald Reagan and President Donald Trump has coined him as a star on his administration’s coronavirus task force.

Therefore, putting Fauci’s face smack down in the middle of a doughnut felt like an obvious choice for Semeraro.

“We’re watching the news like everyone else,” Semeraro told the Democrat & Chronicle on Thursday. “He’s on TV giving us the facts; you’ve got to respect that. We’re bipartisan, we stay neutral, but you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Progressively Perverted: Amid Chi-Com Virus Panicdemic, Democrat WA Governor Signs Bill to Sexually Brainwash Children

Via KOMO News

A controversial bill requiring comprehensive sex education for students in kindergarten through 12th grade was signed into law Friday by Gov. Jay Inslee.

The bill passed both houses of the state Legislature earlier this month despite a concerted effort by Republicans to derail it. It will take effect in the 2021-22 school year for grades six through 12, and in the following years for all grades.

Democratic state Sen. Claire Wilson, the bill’s sponsor, said the new law will improve safety for children across the state.

“This is about making sure younger children know what kind of touching is inappropriate, whether by peers or predators,” she said. “It’s about helping older students recognize and resist abusive or coercive behavior. It’s about teaching all children to respect diversity and not to bully others.”

But the bill’s opponents say the curriculum reviewed by the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is too explicit. Several of the bill’s opponents say sex education should be restricted to grades seven through 12.

“I’m not sure why we’re rushing to remove the innocence from our youth,” said state Rep. Mike Steele, a Chelan Republican who opposed the bill. “We put so much on them already.”

But supporters of the bill said all curriculum will be tailored to each child’s individual grade level.

“This bill will help schools provide students with the age-appropriate tools they need to keep themselves safe and healthy, while maintaining local control in districts,” said Democratic Rep. Monica Stonier, who sponsored companion legislation in the House.

Read the entire article HERE.

Instacart workers set to strike Monday

Via The Hill

Instacart shoppers are set to have a nationwide walk off Monday over the grocery delivery service’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The shoppers will stop accepting deliveries until Instacart provides cleanliness products at no cost to workers, hazard pay of $5 per order and an extension and expansion of pay for workers affected by the coronavirus.

“This is an extraordinary time in history, and as Shoppers, those of us who are able — and have the means to protect ourselves — do want to help those in our community by delivering groceries and supplies,” shoppers wrote in a Medium post issued with labor activism group Gig Workers Collective.

“But with Instacart neglecting the basic wellbeing of its 150,000+ drivers, we believe there is no choice but to not only walk off, but to raise awareness to the company’s practices,” the post reads.

Demand for grocery delivery has exploded as more states and cities recommend individuals stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus. Instacart last week announced it would hire 300,000 new gig workers over the next three months to match that demand.

Read the entire article HERE.

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