Snitch  on  Your  Neighbor

The federal government got really brave in the first few months after the attacks of September 11, 2001, especially since the general public was "alarmed, and hence clamoring to be led to safety."  (Interesting phrase.  Look it up.)  In that atmosphere, the public gladly danced on a lot of slippery slopes that it would have otherwise avoided.  For example, the very sudden appearance and congressional approval of the so-called Patriot Act.

More recently, however, the White House hasn't been concerned about packs of homicidal Muslims at the major airports.  No, the real danger now is the possibility that the teeming masses won't cooperate quietly as socialized medicine is foisted upon them.  That's what the increasingly rowdy "town hall" meetings are all about.

The latest version of "Snitch on Your Neighbor" has to do with the White House soliciting tips from the public about people who dare to disagree with the President's mad rush toward socialism.

Related pages:
    "Truth Teams"
    Domestic surveillance




General commentary on government solicitation of informants:

Austria [is] Hiring People to Hunt Down Vaccine Refusers For Almost $40,000 A Year.  As per reports, the government in Austria is hiring people to hunt down vaccine refusers.  The vaccine refusenik hunters may get 2774 euros (almost $40,000 a year) as wage that will be paid 14 times in a year.  The unvaccinated people have to pay a fine as their punishment and new punishment inspectors will be hired to make sure that the process of collecting fines from unjabbed Austrians is running without any hassle.  The city of Linz has a low vaccination rate and wants to hire people to hunt down vaccine refusers and check these people pay for not getting vaccinated.

In Central Park, an unstoppable Karen meets the immovable Karen.  If you've ever smugly pulled out your cellphone to record a confrontation with a stranger, hoping to publicly humiliate that person and even destroy their life, you're probably a Karen of the worst ilk.  Likewise, if approached by an insufferable busybody who lives to scold people minding their own business, and your first reaction is to call the police, you're also a Karen.  Manhattan is filled with Karens, the meme that once referred to the 'can I speak to the manager' lady with stacked hair and chunky highlights that evolved into a way to call out any very annoying person who loves rules and tattling.  It is high Karen season across the country.  The coronavirus pandemic has been their time to shine as petty authoritarians feel emboldened to enforce their government's frivolous rules about masks and social distancing.  Not wearing a panty-liner over your face while out for a stroll, you must want people to die, according to the Karen.  But it's never really about the rules.

Karens All the Way Down.  You have, of course, seen the video: a white woman stands in a wooded area in Central Park, holding an agitated cocker spaniel by its collar.  She drags the dog in the direction of the camera, tremulously demanding that the videographer stop filming.  When he doesn't, she pulls out her own phone, pulls the mask off her face, and calls the police.  "An African-American man is threatening me and my dog," she says, over and over — oblivious not only to the frightening ugliness of what she's doing, but also to the fact that she is very nearly strangling her dog with her other hand.  It only ends when the spaniel yelps, and the woman puts the phone down (with a final quavering plea for police assistance) to clip the dog onto his leash.  "Thank you," says the videographer.  And that's the end.  Except, of course, that it's just the beginning.  The shrill voice, the right-in-your-face racism, the kneejerk weaponization of the 911 call, the spectacle of that hapless dog twisting and wriggling with the effort to keep all four paws on the ground:  this video might as well have been engineered in a lab to travel worldwide on a tsunami of outrage, one that even a cautious person could join in relative confidence.

Cops Lecture Parents About 7-Year-Old's Toy Gun.  There's really nothing worse than neighbors ratting out neighbors.  But that's what Democrats are urging citizens to do across the country.  And more often than not innocent Americans are getting caught in the crosshairs.  Sheila Perez Smith tells the Todd Starnes Show that she was stunned when the police showed up at her home near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Smith's 7-year-old son had just completed a zoom class from the den of their home when she received an urgent email from her son's first grade teacher.  It just so happened that the little boy had recently been gifted a toy gun and the child had placed his "new favorite thing" on the table next to the computer.

Reporters Snitch On Ice Cream Man For Trying To Make A Living.  A reporter from CBS' Chicago affiliate got mocked after urging citizens to call 911 on ice cream man for alleged coronavirus violation.  "That iconic music screams summer, and we all scream for ice cream, but during the pandemic... getting close to the ice cream man could mean getting something else.  Fact of life, yet here is Mr. Freeze — not his name — in his truck of treats, unmasked, ungloved, taking cash for cones."

Radical Democrat Judge Calls on Texans to Snitch on Restaurants if They Have Too Many People.  Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called on Texans this week to snitch on restaurants if they have a good crowd.  The young Houston area politician is a committed socialist.  Last year she defended her withholding of funds from flood victims based on the color of their skin.  In April Hidalgo threatened 180 days in jail for those who opposed her stay at home orders.

1-800-INFORM.  "How do I report a non-essential business that's still open?" Mayor Eric Garcetti asks.  But the real question is what sort of people want an answer to that question?  Informing on your friends and neighbors used to be something that the socialists on the other side of the Iron Curtain used to do.  What kind of people, we used to wonder, do things like that?  Wonder no more.  Cities and states across the country have made it the hour of the aspiring informant.  If you always longed to live in Cuba, North Korea, or the USSR, all you have to do is dial 1-800-INFORM.  The smiling Los Angeles boss who, despite the order to close barbershops and hair salons is neatly coiffed, warns that "business ambassadors", an Orwellian euphemism for enforcement agents who shut down businesses, will visit non-compliant businesses, followed by personnel from the Crisis Response Team, followed by law enforcement showing up, and then the barbers will be tossed into prison.  In New York City, on the other side of the country, informing on anybody violating social distancing is as easy as taking a photo with your app.

Why I Didn't Rat On My Neighbor For Cutting Hair.  [Scroll down]  According to my mayor, one Bill de Blasio, you remember him, big oafy guy who wasted everyone's time running for president?  Yeah, him.  So he says that what I should have done when I saw this illegal barber operation going on was to jump on the phone to 311 and alert the authorities so that they could send the officers from the New York Police Department to break up the crime ring.  That is not what I did.  I did something that in Brooklyn we like to call "minding your own freakin' business." [...] But let's say I did have a problem with it, that I was that guy.  You know, the self-appointed pandemic hall monitor type.  Even in that upside down universe, I'm pretty sure my first course of action would be to go talk to the guy before I request that men and women with guns show up at his door.

De Blasio's Snitch Hotline Shuts Down Because America Is Awesome.  Oftentimes we use George Orwell's seminal novel 1984 as a metaphor for something we don't like, a metaphor for government overreach and the like.  In this case, a metaphor is not necessary.  Thanks to Comrade de Blasio, we are now allowed to use the word "literally" while referencing 1984, as in de Blasio is literally embracing 1984's villainous Big Brother by literally asking Americans to snitch on their fellow Americans — to call the police should a friend or neighbor go for a walk, or something.  On Saturday [4/18/2020], de Blasio unveiled his NYC311 system to encourage New Yorkers to snitch on outlaw New Yorkers for violating the state's stay-at-home and social distancing rules.  The response was glorious.

St. Louis County Releases 'Snitch Files" — Local Citizens Who Called County Government to Snitch on Business Owners.  Responsible parents teach their children "don't be a snitch."  We do this so that our children aren't hated, because everyone knows that everyone hates a snitch.  But the Coronavirus fear mongers are turning otherwise responsible and likable people into sniveling snitches that nobody likes.  And we can prove it.  Talk radio great Jamie Allman filed a Sunshine law request for the actual emails of St. Louis County residents who've snitched on local entrepreneurs trying to make a living.  Most of the complaints were unfounded, involving people "turning in" companies that were deemed essential by the county.  But reading the actual complaints reveals just how terrified the media and corrupt academics have made good people.  The complainants are truly scared.  They believe that Coronavirus kills almost everyone who gets infected.

COVID-19 snitches in St. Louis were in for a surprise.  Every COVID-19 snitch in St. Louis has just been outed.  This undoubtedly would be embarrassing for the people who made those seemingly secret complaints, playing snitch in the same way as the ordinary snitches and their blotting-paper secret police controllers depicted in The Lives of Others, a brilliant film that won an Academy Award. [...] Leftist governments enjoy this sort of thing, and rat-out-your-neighbor programs have been put up all over.  Los Angeles's mayor called its snitch-on-business program "snitches get rewards."  Snitching to the government is a staple of socialist regimes everywhere, and Comrade Bill de Blasio, who has significant experience learning and admiring the ways of communist Cuba and Sandinista Nicaragua (that place where everyone lied to the pollsters in 1990), certainly has been upfront about the importance of snitching in New York City.  A culture of neighbor snitching on neighbor, as the Nicaraguan Sandinista example demonstrated, may be great for enforcing conformity on fealty to socialism, or social distancing, but it's a disaster for social capital.

De Blasio's social distancing tip line flooded with [nasty] photos, Hitler memes.  Mayor Bill de Blasio's critics let him know how they really felt about him ordering New Yorkers to snitch on each other for violating social-distancing rules — by flooding his new tip line with crank complaints [...] The [New York] Post has learned.  Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the Staten Island groundhog and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted on Twitter.

De Blasio Wants New Yorkers To Rat On Neighbors.  Don't Do It.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Twitter Saturday [4/18/2020] to urge his constituents to monitor, photograph and report each other if they aren't strictly obeying his social distancing guidelines.  Just fire off a photo to 3-1-1 of a few guys having a chat in a bodega and Hizzoner will send police officers, with guns and everything, to break it up.  What could go wrong?  [Video clip]  Throughout the video de Blasio holds a creepy smile as he imagines millions of New Yorkers ratting each other out to help perfect his vision of government-constructed existence.  We will be soldiers in his dream socialist army, pointing fingers and getting a nice pat on the back from the powers that be.  It is a disturbing dystopia future to imagine.

The IRS wants help scouring social media for clues on tax cheats.  Entrepreneurs who are cheating taxes with online stores, beware:  The IRS is looking for new ways to catch suspected tax cheats over social media.  Specifically, the IRS wants a new tool to help it check public social media feeds and websites for details on people already suspected of not complying with the tax code, the tax-collecting agency said in a Dec. 18 request for information from vendors.  Social media could provide investigators with a treasure trove of data, showing where taxpayers live, what they drive and what they're selling online.

FBI High School Informer Network.  In 2016, the FBI launched an effort to enlist the help of high school students to ostensibly identify terrorists, but the FBI documents in question reveal they were also urging students to report on anti-government groups such as libertarian and constitutional groups.  This effort is shockingly similar to the informant networks set up by the KGB in the USSR and the Stasi in East Germany.

15 Ridiculous Ways to get on the FBI Terrorist Watchlist.  In hopes of catching more terrorists, the FBI released twenty five instructional pamphlets intended for everyone from hobby store owners to karate instructors.  The idea being that these businesses will turn in their customers to the FBI as suspected terrorists.  Every single one of these examples were taken directly from FBI lists distributed to places of business in how they can help fight the war on terror.

Complete post of FBI Terrorist Watchlist Pamphlets.  A complete list of FBI pamphlets listing potential terrorist activities for various businesses.

The use of 9-1-1 to snitch on one's parents:
Massachusetts boy, 5, calls 911 to report his father went through a red light.  The Quincy Police Department on Wednesday [6/1/2016] posted to Facebook a recording of a 911 call the boy placed to report his father had run a red light.

The Editor says...
Of course, the leftist news media were thrilled by this reflexive dependence on the police state and the kid's allegiance to the cops above and beyond his own father, as you can see below:

Quincy 6-Year-Old Calls 911 On Father For Running Red Light.  "Every day we answer numerous 911 calls," police said.  "Often times, these calls are from individuals who are in need of immediate assistance.  Sometimes, it's a simple misdial.  Then there's Robert's 9-1-1 call.  Robert is a six year old resident of Quincy."

Boy, 5, calls 911 to report 'Daddy went through a red light'.  A 5-year-old Massachusetts boy may have a future in law enforcement.  The Quincy Police Department on Wednesday posted to Facebook a recording of a 911 call the boy placed to report his father had run a red light.  The boy tells a dispatcher:  "Daddy went through a red light." He then describes the vehicle and says it was "in the brand-new car, my mummy's car." He doesn't identify himself.

Child Calls 911 After Father Allegedly Runs Red Light in Quincy, Massachusetts.  A 6-year-old Massachusetts boy nearly got his father in trouble with the law when he called 911 to say his dad had driven through a red light.  "My daddy went past a red light.  He has a black truck.  He was in the brand new car, my mommy's car," Robbie Richardson told the 911 dispatcher in Quincy.

Boy calls 911 to report dad driving through red light.  This wasn't the kind of emergency Joleen McDonald had in mind when she taught her 6-year-old son, Robbie, to dial 911.  When Robbie took a ride with his dad and saw him drive past a red light, he did what he thought was the right thing to do:  He called the cops.

"It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.  And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which The Times did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak — 'child hero' was the phrase generally used — had overheard some compromising remark and denounced its parents to the Thought Police."

1984, Chapter two.    
 

The DHS And FBI Present: You Might Be A Terrorist If...  As we seem to be told repeatedly, seeing something and saying something is perhaps the greatest duty an American citizen can perform in service to this country.  It's simply not enough anymore to install an American flag in the front yard and purchase domestic vehicles.  Now, every citizen should be keeping his eye out for (and on) his fellow citizens.  The price of freedom may be eternal vigilance, but the price of security is endless paranoia.

Neighbors Earn — Home Schoolers Get Harassed.  The idea is really simple.  In fact, it sounds like something Adolf Hitler may have used.  Neighbors should be on the lookout for children who are not in school and when they see school-age children who may not be in school, they are encouraged to call Tarrant County "Crime Stoppers" and give them the address of the children.  "Crime Stoppers" will then call the school district, which will investigate, and if the child is truant, the government informer will get $20.  But wait, there is more; if the child has been truant for "several days," the informant gets $40.

Grain of salt:  Please note that the IRS did not exist 140 years ago.
IRS Rewarding Those Who Snitch On Tax Cheats.  If you want to blow the whistle on a small-time crook then you would be participating in the original IRS informant program that has been around for more than 140 years.  If you report someone to this program, you could receive up to 15 percent of the amount that has been underpaid up to a maximum award of $10 million.

IRS Informant Reward Program.  In the former Soviet Union, people had to be very careful about discussing their business and personal affairs because almost everyone was a spy for the secret police agency known as the KGB.  It appears that the Internal Revenue Service has studied the "Soviet Model" and has set up a new division known as The Informant Reward Program.

More about the IRS.

The snitch list.  Ann Lambert spent three years behind bars on drug charges following anonymous tips to police.  Ever since she walked out of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville in 2003, she's been going after the type of people who she says victimized her.

Police to search for guns in homes.  Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms.

High School To Pay Student Informants For Tips On Campus Crime.  Using revenue from its candy and soda sales [which many other schools are trying to ban], Model High School plans to pay up to $100 for information about thefts and drug or gun possession on campus.

Parents Urged to Ask About Guns in Other People's Homes.  Anti-gun groups are observing the fifth annual National ASK Day — ASK, an acronym for "asking saves kids."  Anti-gun activists say with most children now out of school, the question parents should be asking is this:  "Is there a gun where your child plays?"

Is it Right to 'Spy' on a Neighbor?  Apparently these [internet] sites are being used to tattle on other people. One site claims to be ready to reveal bad drivers and people who don't know how to park well, one to uncover the identity of the person who is stealing newspapers in the wee hours of the morning before the neighborhood is awake to get their morning editions, and one to highlight litterbugs.

The Snoop Next Door.  The sites documenting minor wrongs are the flip side of an online vigilantism movement that tackles meatier social issues.  Community organization Cop Watch Los Angeles encourages users to send in stories and pictures of people being brutalized or harassed by police, for posting on the Web.  The governor of Texas plans to launch a site this year that will air live video of the border, in hopes that people will watch and report illegal crossings.

In England:
'Environmental volunteers' will be encouraged to spy on their neighbours.  Councils are recruiting residents to report anyone who drops litter, fails to recycle their rubbish properly, or who allows their dog to foul the streets.  Advertisements looking for people to sign up for the unpaid "environmental volunteer" jobs have been posted across the country in recent months.

Children aged eight enlisted as council snoopers.  Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.  The youngsters are among almost 5,000 residents who in some cases are being offered £500 rewards if they provide evidence of minor infractions.

Information Fusion Centers and Privacy.  Fusion Centers are intelligence databases that collect information on ordinary citizens.

Speaking of snitches...
Citizens use Internet to spy on, thwart terrorists.  Shannen Rossmiller finds early mornings are best for hunting terrorists.  When it's 4 a.m. in this one-stoplight prairie town, it's 3 p.m. in, say, Karachi, Pakistan, the sweltering hours just before the evening call to prayer.  That's when Rossmiller, while her husband and three children sleep, finds the Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards frequented by radical Muslims and jihad warriors are busiest.  It is when Rossmiller pursues her deadly serious hobby:  Citizen cyber-spy.

The Editor says...
Snitching on your neighbor might be a good thing when your neighbor is a traitor, a wahhabi and a terrorist.  Maybe you could buy him a wireless internet hub as a housewarming gift.  I think you know what I mean.

Terror watch uses local eyes.  Federal authorities currently define suspicious activity as:  "Observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence-gathering or pre-operational planning related to terrorism, criminal, or other illicit intention." ... Here are examples of specific behaviors that terrorism liaison officers deployed in Colorado and a handful of other states are told to watch for and report.
 •  Engages in suspected pre-operational surveillance (uses binoculars or cameras, takes measurements, draws diagrams, etc.) ...
 •  Takes pictures or video footage (with no apparent aesthetic value, for example, camera angles, security equipment, security personnel, traffic lights, building entrances, etc.)

The Editor says...
Be sure every picture you take has clearly apparent aesthetic value, because you may not be afforded a jury trial before you're taken out and shot.  I sure hope everyone can see some aesthetic value in pictures like this, or I'll be in big trouble.  And I hope nobody notices that I sometimes draw diagrams on paper napkins while eating lunch.  I might be the most suspicious character I've ever known!

Increasing Information Sharing Among Independent Police Departments.  [Suspicious] activities are classified under one of the following categories:
 •  Pre-operational surveillance
 •  Engaging in counter-surveillance efforts
 •  Initiates building measurements (counts, footsteps, etc)
 •  Takes pictures or video footage with no apparent aesthetic value
 •  Persons attempting to make suspicious purchases

The Editor says...
Suspicious purchases?  Such as the purchase of over 1000 cell phones, two or three at a time, paid for with cash, in the wee hours of the morning?


2024:

California's AG Asks Residents to Snitch on Stores That Don't Comply With Gender-Neutral Toy Law.  California has many problems facing its residents, including earthquakes, wildfires, and housing crises.  People are dealing with heightened crime rates in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Homelessness has become a near-epidemic in the Golden State.  So, Californians should be comforted to know that Attorney General Rob Bonta is focused on making sure stores that sell children's products are including gender-neutral sections for their customers.  Bonta's office issued a press release on Tuesday aimed at informing residents on how to avoid shopping scams and other problems they might face as they swarm retail stores for the Christmas season.  However, in one section, the press release urges residents to snitch on retailers that fail to comply with a new state law requiring them to provide gender-neutral sections for toys and childcare products in accordance with Assembly Bill 1084.

California AG Asks Shoppers to Report Stores That Don't Have 'Gender Neutral' Kids Sections.  California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a list of suggestions Nov. 26 for shoppers to avoid scams during the holiday season and requested consumers file reports about department stores that lack gender-neutral children's sections.  State law, established by the passage of Assembly Bill 1084 in 2021, which took effect at the beginning of 2024, requires department stores with at least 500 employees across California locations to offer children's sections that do not separate items based on gender.  "By requiring large retailers to maintain a gender-neutral section, AB 1084 makes it more difficult for these retailers to engage in gender-based pricing discrimination and reduces the imposition of gender stereotypes on children," the attorney general's office wrote in a statement.

Yucky UK.  U.K. officials do not like dissent.  They do not like free speech.  And they certainly do not like it when ordinary citizens criticize the government.  For these reasons, the authoritarians across the pond caution their domestic serfs: "Think before you post."  Included in that ominous threat is the promise that the Crown will come after anyone for "inciting hatred" online.  What is "hatred"?  Why, that's for government functionaries to decide and for lowly commoners to find out!  In a bit of cowardly arm-twisting meant both to encourage community snitching and to terrify concerned family members, Big Brother underscores its warning with this doozy:  "Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences." [...] Native Brits are upset that foreign nationals are committing crimes, and domestic police officers are using their resources to incarcerate citizens for voicing their concerns.  Violent crime is okay, but denouncing violent crime is not.  How surreal is that?

Six things that prove Tim Walz is a radical progressive.  [#3] Dropping the ball on COVID:  Walz's response to COVID-19 was infamously horrible.  He had more nursing home deaths than New York under Cuomo and wasted millions of dollars on dead-end causes and fraudulent schemes.  But that wasn't enough for Walz, who instituted a snitching program that encourages neighbors to rat out each other for leaving their houses while the lockdowns were in place.  This only had to be instituted because local sheriffs refused to enforce Govoner [sic] Walz's draconian edicts.

They Create Anarchy To Impose Tyranny.  For hundreds of years, liberals have been fierce opponents of authoritarianism. [...] But increasingly, it's been liberal politicians who have demanded authoritarian restrictions on free speech and personal freedom.  In December 2022, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz claimed, "There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech and especially around our democracy."  In fact, the First Amendment protects both.  And in 2020, Walz also implemented a Covid snitch line and encouraged residents to report violations of pandemic restrictions.  It turns out he wasn't alone.  The Civil Rights Department of California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced last year a snitch line and urged citizens to report their fellow citizens for alleged hate speech.  British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for greater censorship of social media platforms, and British police have over the last few days arrested three people for what they posted online.  And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has demanded greater online censorship, froze bank accounts of protesting truckers, and is pushing legislation that could send a person to prison for life for speech.

Secretary Of State Asks Michiganders To Report Their Neighbors For Election 'Misinformation'.  Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is encouraging residents to report so-called "misinformation" from their neighbors ahead of November's election.  "Misinformation about the election process, voter rights, or even an issue on the ballot is a serious threat to election security," reads an online document from Benson's office.  "If you see misleading or inaccurate information regarding voting or elections in Michigan, please report it."  The document requests residents email reports of election "misinformation" — with "an image if possible" — to misinformation@michigan.gov.  Benson's office solicits residents to report misinformation on its "voter education resources" page.  The Federalist asked Benson's office who this email reaches and how the state responds to alleged "misinformation," but her office did not comment in time for publication.

Future Fords might detect speeding and report you to the cops.  Ford is trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police.  A patent application from the automaker titled "Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations" was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023.  In the application, Ford discusses using cars to monitor each other's speeds.  If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle.  A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a police car or roadside monitoring units via an Internet connection, according to Ford.

Columbia crackdown led by university prof doubling as NYPD spook.  Rebecca Weiner is a Columbia U. professor who also serves as intelligence director of the NYPD. Mayor Eric Adams credits her with spying on anti-genocide student protesters and directing the militarized raid that dislodged them from campus.  The violent crackdown carried out on Columbia University students protesting Israel's genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip was led by a member of the school's own faculty, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has declared.  During a May 1 press conference, just hours after the New York Police Department arrested nearly 300 people on university grounds, Adams praised adjunct Columbia professor Rebecca Weiner, who moonlights as the head of the NYPD counter-terrorism bureau, for giving police the green light to clear out anti-genocide students by force.

Feds Charge Former Government Employee With Falsely Implicating Co-Workers on Jan. 6 Capitol Breach Tip Line.  Federal prosecutors have charged a former government employee with submitting fake tips accusing several of his former co-workers of being involved in the unrest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.  Court records indicate Miguel Eugenio Zapata, 37, was arrested in Chantilly, Virginia, on Thursday on a charge of making false statements to law enforcement.  A criminal complaint states Mr. Zapata submitted at least seven tips to the FBI's tipline, purporting to identify government employees and contractors he claimed were involved in unlawful activities at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.  The alleged false tips were submitted on Feb. 10, Feb. 16, Feb. 17, and April 11, 2021, as federal law enforcement officials began ramping up efforts to identify and arrest people who entered the capitol, and called on the general public to assist in identifying individuals in the crowd.  "None of the seven government employees and contractors were in Washington, D.C., on January 6 or attacked the Capitol," the complaint states.

This Is What Your Neighbor Might Already Know About You.  Whether your home is a large sprawling property, a suburban house, or an apartment in a big city, nosey neighbors seem to always find a way to encroach on your privacy.  Some of them are blatant and others may be very sneaky about it.  As a prepper, what your neighbor already knows about you can dramatically influence how they behave towards you when a crisis arises.  At the root of prepping is the pursuit of security.  Instead of relying on others, you take the initiative to provide food, electrical, physical, and many other forms of security for yourself and your family. [...] Here are some things your neighbor may already know about you and how to make it more difficult for them to learn more.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee [is] Poised to Kill Free Speech.  The governor of Washington is poised to sign a bill that ends free speech in certain counties — and the rest of the state probably sometime thereafter.  Recently passed by the Washington state legislature, this measure creates a "bias incident hotline" to the State Attorney General's Office.  You read that right:  American citizens in the northwestern state will soon be able to turn in their friends, neighbors, family members, or even strangers for not only physical "hate crimes" but also expressions of "bias."  Substitute Senate Bill 5427 is now on the governor's desk.  Its supposed purpose is "supporting people who have been targeted or affected by hate crimes and bias incidents."  To that end, it establishes "a reporting hotline" and sets up a mechanism for "tracking hate crimes and bias incidents" that will be overseen by the Washington state attorney general's office.

Send Your Neighbor To Prison For "WrongSpeak," Get $2,000 From Taxpayers in State of Washington.  A bill has moved through the Washington State Senate and House, and is headed to Governor Jay Inslee's desk.  Since he is an extreme Leftist with no respect for others, Inslee is expected to sign this bill, thus creating a statute that violates at least the following constitutional rights:  1) The right to confront your accuser; 2) Freedom of Speech; 3) Freedom of Thought, which is implied in the First Amendment; 4) Freedom of Religion; 5) Freedom of the Press, to name a few that quickly come to mind.  Senate Bill 5427, after it is signed into law, would allow private individuals (note: this is not limited to American citizens) to report "bias incidents" to the State Attorney General's Office, with the possibility of receiving up to $2,000 of taxpayers money for this noncriminal incident.  The bill was very clear:  this is a non-crime which they will then forward to local law enforcement to investigate.  What's to investigate?  No crime, no investigation.  The Progressives & Marxists who sponsored this bill say it is intended to help "victims of hate crimes" before a crime even happens.

'Civic Listening': Political Informants and Citizen Spies, Rebranded.  Every major 20th-century regime that made policing its citizens' speech a priority ended up creating vast networks of volunteer political informants to spy on people's private conversations.  Such networks could be found in Imperial Russia, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union.  At its peak in the late 1980s, the German Stasi reportedly maintained 1 informer for every 50 citizens.  The number of KGB informants was estimated to be in the millions.  Under the brand of "Civic Listening," informant networks are now coming to the West.  The concept has been embraced by the censorship industry's network of nonprofits, research institutes and private companies that work to shut down disfavored political speech online.  Spurred by concerns about the growth of private discussion groups on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, the censorship industry has turned to the cultivation of snitches to gain access to U.S. citizens' private conversations.

PBS: Citizen investigators pursue J6 insurrectionists.  It's cases like this that help the FBI weed out honest line agents, people who won't arrest Americans for spending a few minutes in the Capital taking in the sights and taking selfies.  They have the odd notion that unless people are reasonably notified they're trespassing, it's bad form to arrest them.  It's even worse form to make up crimes and keep them for years in medieval dungeon-like pre-trial detention.  Arrest actual rioters, and those that assaulted police officers, to be sure.  I wonder how many FBI agents and plants the FBI has had to weed out of citizen dossiers?

2023:

DHS Grants Minority Groups $22 Million to Combat 'Domestic Violent Extremists' Without Defining the Term.  "They probably have me on a list somewhere."  It's an expression that could be heard from bar stools or at barbecues across the fruited plain, and reflects a deeply ingrained, even if somewhat flippant and sarcastic, belief that we could all be under the eye of some three-letter agency in D.C. due to some politically incorrect opinion we might voice over a over a couple beers or post on social media.  Make no mistake, this isn't a joke anymore, its full-on legit.  According to a Department of Homeland Security news release, DHS has issued $20 million to 34 organizations to combat "targeted violence and terrorism."  Organizations getting the taxpayer money include liberal universities, LGBT groups, and organizations located in rural communities.

Homeland Security awards $20 million in grants to help identify Americans as potential 'extremists'.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on September 6 that $20 million in federal grants (your tax dollars) will be handed out to 34 organizations to "prevent targeted violence and terrorism."  Since today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, you might think these 34 organizations will be focused on al-Qaeda, ISIS or the Iranian Republican Guard Corps.  But you would be wrong.  They are focused on Americans who dissent from the prevailing narratives coming out of the federal government and its collaborating partners in the corporate media and major social media platforms.  Whether it's Covid and vaccines, the war in Ukraine, immigration, the Second Amendment, LGBTQ ideology and child-gender confusion, the integrity of our elections, or the issue of protecting life in the womb, you are no longer allowed to hold dissenting opinions and voice them publicly in America.  If you do, your own government will take note and consider you a potential "violent extremist" and terrorist.

The FBI Asks Americans to Report Crimes.  Things Go About as Well as You'd Expect.  Officer, Americans would like to report the Biden Administration's FBI for the act of social media trolling.  After all, that must explain why the "premier law enforcement agency" and political monkey wenchers that interfered with the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections laughably issued an appeal for Americans to come forward and report crimes.  The FBI issued a tweet that used a flowery script against a mauve pink background inviting Americans to "Speak Now."  "Justice is better than revenge," the FBI's tweet stated.  "You may not be Superman, but you can help the #FBI protect the country.  If you have information about a federal crime, speak now."  The tweet also asked a question:  "Do you have tip about a federal crime?"  Then it listed a number of crimes, followed by the curious words "FBI's Version."

A Nation of Informers.  Looking over your shoulder?  Glancing at the next person in the pew at church?  Worrying what your neighbors will say?  Shrinking back from what your relatives said about your post on Facebook?  Watching what you say to new acquaintances?  East Germany?  North Korea?  Russia?  Communist China?  No, this is the USA 2023.  Welcome to the new normal in America, where the people around you will denounce you, vilify you on social media, shun you, get you fired from your job (canceled), or tell the FBI that you are a terrorist.  Those totalitarian countries had a secret police to keep an eye on citizens for any opinions that disagreed with the ruling elite.  In East Germany, it was the Stasi.  In Russia, it was the KGB, now the FSB (Federal Security Service).  In China, there is a "social score" system designed to control all aspects of citizens' lives.

FDA Sets Up a Stoolie Network.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched an updated "Rumor Control" hub aimed at enlisting the public to help stop the spread of "misinformation," which the agency defined as "false, inaccurate, or misleading ... spreading intentionally and unintentionally," Children's Health Defense reports.  They say the facts are found in: medical journals, a nonprofit "fact checker" or a government website.  Medical journals?  You mean the ones that told us it's not possible for COVID to have originated in the Wuhan lab?

Here's What an Ohio School District Is Telling Teachers to Do About 'Unsupportive' Parents of Trans Kids.  A public school district in Ohio reportedly advised employees to "consider" reporting child abuse to protective services if a "transgender" student's parents are not supportive of their gender identity.  Documents obtained by parental rights organization Parents Defending Education show Cincinnati Public Schools instructing its staffers to be supportive of transgender students' gender identities and to keep it a secret from parents, or, in some cases, report the parents.  The guidance states that "parents may or may not be supportive of the student's gender identity" and that information relating to a student's gender identity "should not be shared with parents if disclosing the information to parents could put the student at risk of harm at home."  And, the guidance advises school staffers to "also consider whether there is a mandatory duty to report child abuse to 241-KIDS."

FBI Used Congressional Staff as Confidential Informants and Human Assets to Build Case Against Congressman George Santos.  Congressman George Santos was indicted on thirteen counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying on financial disclosure forms during his short period in Congress.  He was taken into custody Wednesday in New York.  By most accounts and even his own words, Santos is a generally sketchy person, and I doubt there will be too many defenders of his character or the issues at stake.  However, [...] It was not that long ago when the EXECUTIVE branch, using confidential human sources to investigate the LEGISLATIVE branch, would have been a matter of incredible controversy reserved for only the most serious of criminal possibilities.  An FBI informant penetrating the congressional office to relay information back to the FBI is quite remarkable.  However, it appears we are in an era of justice administration where anything is just flippantly asserted inside the mechanisms of government.  In the big picture, beyond the selfish issues of George Santos, when we consider the Fourth Branch of Government operating to protect itself against sunlight and scrutiny, this example of the FBI operating in the shadows of congress should start to make everyone uncomfortable.

California's New Hotline Program: Snitching on Your Neighbors for 'Hateful' Activity.  Here's another example of leftists being authoritarian under the guise of trying to protect marginalized groups.  California has rolled out a program ostensibly designed to stop hate crimes and other acts of bigotry.  How?  By creating a hotline allowing residents to snitch on one another for engaging in "hateful" activity.  The program, which is called "California vs Hate," is "a non-emergency hate incident and hate crime reporting system to support individuals and communities targeted for hate," according to its website.  The state legislature provided funding to its Civil Rights Department to establish the initiative.

Tim Kaine: It's OK For The FBI To Put Informants In Churches.  Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine gave the FBI his approval to investigate Catholic parishes in his own state on Monday.  When asked by a local ABC affiliate about the FBI's Richmond division infiltrating Catholic communities to spy on the church for alleged extremism, Kaine called the revelations a misunderstanding.  "I think the key is communication," Kaine told ABC13.  "If the FBI has a concern like that, then go to the church leaders and say, 'Hey look, we have a concern and we don't want your members to get unwittingly caught up in something.'"  Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin blew the whistle on the agency's Richmond office investigating the Catholic Church with undercover informants in February.  The FBI, Seraphin wrote, "would like to protect Virginians from the threat of 'white supremacy,' which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass."  "The document assesses with 'high confidence' the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church," Seraphin warned.

House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Wray After Learning FBI Planned to 'Develop Sources' At Catholic Churches to Rat on Fellow Parishioners.  The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday, after learning that the Bureau planned to enlist sources at so-called "mainline" (Novus Ordo) Catholic parishes to inform on purportedly radicalized fellow parishioners.  In his letter to Wray, the committee's chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), revealed for the first time that the FBI "relied on information derived from at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith," Jordan wrote.  "This shocking information reinforces our need for all responsive documents," he added.  [Tweet]

In the British Commonwealth, the Stasi urge is growing.  Last month, six people — including two police officers — were shot at a remote property in Australia's northern Queensland state.  Three suspects were identified by senior police sources as the (alleged) killers, and in the press, they were identified as "far right" fanatics.  In response to the heinous crime, Queensland police decided to go full Stasi and enhance their powers on other matters by urging people to turn in fellow citizens who might not fully believe and support everything their government says, does, or its mandates.  Queensland is considered the home of Australia's version of "rednecks," who are known as "bogans."  Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Tracy Linford stated "we'd want to know about it" should there be "anybody out there that knows of someone that might be showing concerning behavior around conspiracy theories, anti-government, anti-police," or "conspiracy theories around COVID-19 vaccination."  She added, "you can either contact the police directly or go through Crime Stoppers."  Sure, let's draw a line between serial murderers and those who have the temerity to question the efficacy of COVID-1984 vaccines.  If you know of anyone who questions the government, "experts," or "settled science,"  turn them in  let those in power know about it right away, won't you?  The same goes for those trafficking in "misinformation" and/or "disinformation."

2022:

Australia Completes Its March Into Full Dictatorship As Police Urge People To Turn In Family and Friends Who Believe In 'Conspiracy Theories'.  Laws to restrict your speech, opinions, and thoughts are sneaking up on you.  The government is your single source of truth.  Anything that deviates is extremism and must be reported to the police, even if it's your family!  When the government deems something a conspiracy theory, it's usually the truth that needs a couple of weeks worth of data to prove it true.  [Video clip]

New Zealand Goes Full Police State, Tells People To Report Friends Who Disagree With The Ruling Class.  New Zealand has gone full police state.  Anyone with a different POV is an enemy.  New Zealand govt booklets are being released telling the public that if they suspect their friends or family are opposing govt policies, incl COVID measures, they should be reported as terrorists[.]  [Video clip]

Bias hotlines popping up at schools across US may foster culture of fear: experts.  Bias hotlines have been popping up at universities across the US in recent years — but experts fear such initiatives are becoming "more pervasive and more repressive" than ever.  New York University is among the handful of colleges that publicly advertise a specific "hotline" — including on the back of student ID cards — as a way for them to anonymously file complaints about discrimination, harassment and a string of other issues.  Other universities across the country appear to only have online portals, or other methods, in place for lodging complaints under their own bias response systems.

Texans [are] Encouraged to Use iWatchTexas to Report Suspicious Behavior.  Texans are being encouraged to use a free iWatch reporting system to alert local and state law enforcement about suspicious behaviors and activities that appear to be criminal, terroristic or school safety related.  To educate Texans about the service as children head back to school, the state launched a new public service announcement featuring the actor Chuck Norris, who famously played Walker Texas Ranger on TV. [...] Texans are encouraged to use the service only for community reporting and to continue to report emergencies by calling 911.

Los Angeles Group Touts Snitch Line Where People Can Report Sick Kids, Indoor Eating At School.  A shocking report from RedState's Jennifer Van Laar recently exposed the shady connections between Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer and a study the CDC used as the basis for school reopening guidelines.  As it turns out, Ferrer's daughter was the author of the study, and her mother has used it to justify keeping COVID restrictions in place for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).  It wasn't until Van Laar's investigation became public that Ferrer reversed her position on reinstating a mask mandate.  However, the effort to keep Angelenos and Californians trapped in fear continues with an advocate group called LAUSD Parents for COVID-Safe Schools.

Son Brags to CNN about Turning in His Father for 7-Year Prison Sentence Over Jan. 6.  Jackson Reffitt, whose father Guy Reffitt was sentenced to seven years in prison, says his father "absolutely" deserves it for participating in the Jan. 6 demonstration on the Capitol.  Jackson spoke out to CNN where he said he said he does not regret his decision to rat out his father.  "I mean, I'm not happy at all.  I haven't been happy to this whole situation.  No one in my family has either, but to say I'm surprised would be a lie," Jackson said to CNN's Brianna Keilar on "New Day" Tuesday after his father was sentenced.  "I mean, everything my dad did, he's his own person.  And his action has consequences.  But I'm not happy at all."

At This Manhattan Middle School School, Sixth-Graders Are Asked To Surveil Friends and Family for 'Microaggressions'.  A New York City public school encouraged students as young as 10 years old to keep a list of all the "microaggressions" they witnessed, both at school and in their own families, according to materials from the school's curriculum reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.  The same students were also asked to list their gender identity — "cisgender," "nonbinary," or "trans" — as well as their sexual orientation on a graded worksheet.  The sixth-grade humanities curriculum from Lower Manhattan Community Middle School, where just 31 percent of students are white, required students to read Tiffany Jewell's This Book Is Anti-Racist, one of only five books assigned for the 2021-2022 year.  The book contains 20 lessons on "how to wake up, take action, and do the work" — including the work of confronting the police, which Jewell suggests white students can do without ending up "in jail or harmed."

85 Percent of Liberal College Students Support 'Reporting' Their Professors for 'Offensive' Comments.  Would George Orwell, author of the iconic dystopian novel "1984," be proud?  Oh [...], no.  He'd admonish us with a stern "I warned you."  Yup, "Big Brother" is alive and well in today's America, and that reality is nowhere more apparent than on college campuses — on Twitter and Facebook, as well, but we'll get there.  According to the 2022 American College Student Freedom, Progress, and Flourishing Survey, 56 percent of undergrads support "reporting" professors who "say something offensive." Worse, but totally predictably, 70 percent of independent students also support the idea, while 85 percent of liberal students agree.

NPR's strict masking policy encourages coworkers to tattle on violators.  National Public Radio is encouraging staffers to squeal on each other if they do not comply with the company's Draconian mask-wearing policy in the office.  According to a strongly-worded memo sent out Thursday, NPR employees are not only required to wear masks in the office, but if they see someone who isn't complying with the mandate, they are encouraged to correct their coworker or rat them out to higher-ups.  "If you notice someone who has forgotten their mask, you might tell them, "Hey, you forgot your mask," the memo said, adding they can also let a superior know so they can "remind" them or they can get human resources involved.  Repeat offenses could lead to the maskless offender getting fired.

New Jersey Dept of Environmental Police, Set up Snitch Line to Report Contraband Plastic and Styrofoam Users.  Comrades, starting today [5/4/2022] it is illegal in New Jersey to have plastic or paper bags in stores for shoppers.  Additionally, restaurants, cafeterias and food trucks are forbidden to serve take-out food in Styrofoam-like products.  Also, all retailers must stop selling polystyrene foam products like plates and cups.  Drinking straws require a permit for restricted distribution as monitored by the Department of Health.  To ensure legal compliance within the Garden State, officials in New Jersey have established a snitch hotline for citizens to call the Dept of Environmental Police (DEP) and report dissident violators, while the state ministry of citizen compliance have created a "WARN DEP" app to facilitate easier snitching on your neighbors if you spot them using contraband containers.

Snitch Nation:  DC public schools command 4-year-olds to identify the 'racists' in their families.  [Scroll down]  This is no conspiracy theory from the right wing; this is what's going on now in public schools.  Not only does the book undercut the authority of the parents under the all-encompassing rubric of ending racism, but it demands that children as young as four identify family members as "racists" for their teachers.  No racists?  Better make up one, because for this crowd, the kid is already guilty and therefore hidebound to produce something or else.  It's downright child abuse, given its potential to tear apart families, an evil effect that has been within the leftist ideal-house since the days of the Bolsheviks.  Meanwhile, where that reported information from the newly minted child snitches goes is anyone's guess, but don't think this isn't the age of data science and its monetization.

Survey shows 56% of colleges encourage students to rat on one another.  Now that the wokesters have taken over universities and school administrators now outnumber professors, how's life in academia these days?  How are things now that diversity staff outnumber history professors? [...] Turns out that snitching, like the East German Stasi used to do with citizen collaborators, has become a way of life at Wokester U.  At more than half of America's very well endowed universities, students now are urged to snitch on each other in order to police thinking and actual free speech.  That's what all this flood of money going to universities has bought for America's young people — a full comformity with wokesterthink, policed with the diligence of the Stasi.

Over Half Of Colleges Encourage Students To Snitch On Each Other:  Report.  Over half of the U.S.'s private and public colleges encourage students to snitch on each other, according to a report released Monday [4/25/2022] by a free speech non-profit.  Of the 821 higher education institutions surveyed, 56% of them are reported to have some form of a "Bias Reporting System" (BRS), according to the report from Speech First (SF), a free speech member organization.  The report surveyed 441 private schools, or 23% of all private four year colleges in the U.S. and 380 public schools, or 49% of the country's four-year public universities.  BRSs are university teams or procedures that aim to solicit, receive, investigate and respond to reports of "bias incidents," which are used to "silence dissenters," "stifle open dialogue" and "encourage students to turn informant on speech they seem unacceptable," according to SF.  The BRSs typically invite students and faculty to report "biased" speech on the basis of protected characteristics such as race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age disability or someone's "political affiliation."

Philadelphia reinstates mask mandate, encourages residents to snitch on non-compliant businesses.  The city of Philadelphia has reinstated a city-wide face mask mandate, public health officials announced, in an apparent attempt to quell the spread of COVID-19.  The city will become the first major U.S. city to turn back on dropping mask requirements, enacting a city-wide mandate from April 18 enforcing the wearing of face coverings in all indoor public spaces, "including schools and childcare settings, businesses, restaurants, and government buildings," an announcement from Philadelphia Public Health stated Monday [4/11/2022].  Masks were still required in healthcare settings, including in nursing homes, and on public transport in Philadelphia before the mandate was expanded. [...] The government requested that private citizens snitch on business owners who fail to implement the resurrected mandate by calling the local emergency services to lodge a complaint.

Son testifies against father charged with storming the Capitol on January 6.  The teenage son of a Texas man charged with storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 testified Thursday that he had secretly recorded his father describing his participation in the incident and given the file to the FBI after his father threatened him and his sister.  The son, Jackson Reffitt, testified in the trial of his father, Guy Reffitt.  He is charged with bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds and interfering with the law enforcement officers guarding the building.  He has additionally been charged with obstruction of justice for making threats against his children.  Reffitt was not one of the protesters who entered the Capitol building, he retreated after being pepper sprayed by an officer.

FBI Uses Son Of J6 Defendant As Main Informant Against Him.  The Biden regime has shown a complete disregard for human rights and due process in the trials of January 6th defendants.  Last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that J6 detainees were being treated worse than terrorists are Guantanamo Bay.  Other J6 prisoners have been detained for months and have yet to see any evidence against them, or what specific crime they are even being accused of.  Today, a story broke that January 6th defendant Guy Reffitt's own son was induced by the FBI to collect evidence against him and testify against him in court.  The FBI reached out to him to be an informant against his own father, and his son, Jackson Reffitt, complied and recorded their private conversations as well as sending the FBI pictures of their home, including his father's gun safe.

Hunter Biden Mocked Over 'Dumpster Gun' After ATF Asks People To Snitch On Ex-Lovers.  The social media intern operating the official Twitter account of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) thought they were witty on Valentine's Day to tweet a snitch campaign to turn in ex-lovers for "illegal gun activity."  [Tweet]  The Justice Department automatically retweeted the tweet and came as the Biden administration is preparing to wage war on law-abiding gun owners this spring.  The tweet immediately backfired as countless people provided a tip to the ATF of "Robert Hunter Biden," the president's son, who lied on ATF Form 4473, also known as a Firearms Transaction Record, about concealing his history of illegal drug use during a firearms purchase in 2018.

ATF encourages people to turn in exes involved in 'illegal gun activity'.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives on Valentine's Day sent a tweet encouraging people to turn in their exes who were involved in criminal activity.  The ATF urged the public to share any information regarding their former or current significant others' involvement in "illegal gun activity."  "Valentine's Day can still be fun even if you broke up," the agency said.  "Let us know, and we will make sure it's a Valentine's Day to remember!"

2021:

FBI Receives Major Backlash After Encouraging People to Report 'Family Members and Peers'.  A century after Soviet Russia began to encourage children to spy on their parents, the FBI wants American kids to follow in those footsteps.  On Sunday [7/11/2021], the FBI issued a tweet encouraging children to consider their parents as potential violent extremists and not to hesitate to turn them in.  "Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence.  Help prevent homegrown violent extremism.  Visit https://go.usa.gov/x6mjf to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the #FBI. #NatSec," the FBI tweeted. [...] The tweet references a publication called "Homegrown Violent Extremist Mobilization Indicators."  The guide outlines behaviors considered possibly suspicious.  Outrage erupted.

Citizen vs. Citizen:  Why Dear Leader Biden's Calls for Snitches Is So Dangerous.  There's a troubling trend emerging:  Americans are being encouraged and even incentivized to turn their fellow citizens in to the government for a myriad of reasons.  For one example, federal officials this week announced they plan to rely on informants in order to determine which companies are enforcing their new (unconstitutional) vaccine mandate.  The Biden Administration has used the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as a means of implementing the rule without Congressional approval.  Essentially the order says that companies will be heavily fined by the agency should they not demand their employees be vaccinated.  But even the administration recognizes there are limits to their ability to enforce such a rule.

Informers key in enforcing Biden vaccine mandate.  To enforce President Joe Biden's forthcoming COVID-19 mandate, the U.S. Labor Department is going to need a lot of help.  Its Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn't have nearly enough workplace safety inspectors to do the job.  So the government will rely upon a corps of informers to identify violations of the order:  Employees who will presumably be concerned enough to turn in their own employers if their co-workers go unvaccinated or fail to undergo weekly tests to show they're virus-free.  What's not known is just how many employees will be willing to accept some risk to themselves — or their job security — for blowing the whistle on their own employers.

Universities Giving Students Tools to Report Each Other's COVID Violations.  Michigan State University provides students with reporting system to achieve what the school describes as a "safe and supportive environment" for its community members.  The school's Culturally Inclusive College Sharing System (CIC) is an online submission form allows the university to "track and respond to behaviors and situations that work to support or detract from [its] goals of a safe and supportive environment."  The form tells students that some protected speech can still warrant a report.  Anything intended to "intimidate, demean, mock, degrade, marginalize, or threaten" their identities, real or perceived, is worth notifying the university about.  Actions need not be intended to harm and can do as little as promote a "negative, hostile, or unwelcoming environment for the target."

Pennsylvania House Democrat Introduces Forced Sterilization — Three-Child Limit Legislation.  Pennsylvania Democrat Christopher M. Rabb sent out a memorandum to all House members regarding his legislation that will enforce reproductive responsibility among men.  The bill will force men to undergo vasectomies within 6 weeks from having their third child or their 40th birthday, whichever comes first.  This legislation includes a $10,000 reward to whoever snitches to the proper authority on those who have failed to submit to forced sterilization within the allotted time.  This bill will also include legal actions for unwanted pregnancies against inseminators who wrongfully conceive a child with them.

Companies [are] increasingly using 'tattleware' to monitor employees working from home.  As waves of Covid-19 continue to dictate working (or not working) habits for millions of Americans, employers have been turning to digital surveillance platforms to monitor their at-home workers, according to The Guardian.  Sneek captures live photos of people every minute or so via their laptop webcams[,] which are then displayed across a wall of a 'digital conference room' that everyone else on the team can see.  If caught not working, other workers can forward the offending photos to bosses via Sneak Slack chat.

Here's What to Do if the FBI's 'Sedition Hunters' Show Up at Your Door.  There have been multiple reports that the FBI is showing up on the doorsteps of Republican voters in order to hunt down "extremists."  The AP reported that the FBI is using citizen snitch groups to hunt down January 6 protest participants. [...] Never mind that people who were at the January 6 event who did not engage in any violence and are guilty of nothing more than trespassing are facing major jail time.  One is comedian and political commentator Tim Gionet, aka "Baked Alaska."  Gionet live-streamed his walk through the Capitol and interviewed many of the protesters there.  He did not appear to engage in any violence but he is facing twenty years in federal prison.  Gionet sat down for an interview with Milo Yiannopoulos on YouTube — which is now unavailable because YouTube deleted Milo's account last week.  Gionet shared the brutal treatment he received at the hands of the FBI, including threats to lock him up for twenty years if he did not give up the identities of some of the people in the Capitol with him.

Massive Unrest as Australia Adopts China's Authoritarian 'COVID-Zero' Approach.  The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting illness, COVID-19, has caused mass hysteria on a global scale.  Perhaps no response is as shocking as what we see in Australia.  The country is included in the group of western democracies globally and among the Five Eyes intelligence community members.  Yet, the nation's response to the pandemic can only be described as authoritarian. [...] Roadblocks began in Sydney on August 15 with the military assisting.  Residents planned anti-lockdown protests in several large cities for the weekend of August 21.  When this came to the attention of law enforcement, David Elliot, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, told the public:  "If you have a loved one you believe is going to protest this weekend, you are obliged to talk them out of it.  If you know someone who attends an illegal gathering this weekend, you must call crime stoppers."

Staffer Shows How Lost Dems Are With His Narcing on Maskless GOP Staffers.  We've seen a lot of ugly authoritarian things during the pandemic.  One of the worst is how it's made some people behave.  Congress has been a bit of a microcosm of that.  As we reported earlier, masks are now being mandated again in the House.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was not only threatening people with fines, but the Capitol Police have even said that people may be subject to arrest if they don't comply.  Republicans en masse stood up against that today marching maskless out of the House to the Senate floor where there are still no mask mandates, making the point that this is all an artificial dictate.  [Tweet]  But that wasn't all.  Democratic staffer Aaron Fritschner, who is "comms in chief for Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA)," spied [maskless] Republicans playing water pong and corn hole in the hallway after hours.  So he felt the need to fink on them to all the world on Twitter.  [Tweet]

FBI: Narc on Your Loved Ones to Battle 'Homegrown Violent Extremism'.  [T]he federal government has gotten even creepier ever since Joe Biden was installed as acting president.  There's a lust for federal control on the Left that's grown immeasurably, especially since January 20, 2021.  It had been getting out of hand all during the pandemic last year.  We've witnessed the uncomfortable spectacle of almost half the country willingly ceding their freedoms and celebrating government control of their lives. [...] It's beyond unnerving that the FBI thinks it's perfectly normal to encourage Americans to behave like oppressed masses who lived behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.  This isn't just an example of the FBI's social media people being tone-deaf, the document it references says the same thing.  The rot within the Bureau was bad when Trump was in office, which means it will only get worse with this commie clown show of an administration.

Texas couple, along with their son and two daughters are charged with taking part in the Jan 6. Capitol siege after a family friend turned them in.  Five members of the same Texas family have been arrested and charged for taking part in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, federal documents reveal.  The Department of Justice has brought federal trespassing and disorderly conduct charges against Kristi Munn, Tom Munn, Dawn Munn, Josh Munn, and Kayli Munn of Borger, Texas.  During the choas, Kristi Munn is alleged to have posted a message on Facebook that read:  'Tear gas tastes like freedom.'

FBI Wants Family Members To Snitch On Each Other To Prevent 'Homegrown Extremism'.  The FBI issued an ominous tweet on Sunday which encourages "family members and peers" to "learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the FBI" in the name of national security.  The broadly-worded tweet[,] from the same agency that confiscated an unassembled Lego model of the US Capitol as evidence against a Jan. 6 protester[,] suggests that family members are "often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence."  For example, your radicalized Antifa nephew is being encouraged tell the FBI that you might be a domestic terror threat because you own guns and told the family at Thanksgiving you don't like illegal immigration.

FBI Urges Americans To Monitor 'Family Members And Peers' To 'Prevent Homegrown Violent Extremism'.  The FBI took to Twitter Sunday [7/11/2021] to encourage families to watch out for "homegrown violent extremism."  "Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence.  Help prevent homegrown violent extremism," the FBI's tweet read in part.  Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence.  Help prevent homegrown violent extremism.  Visit [link] to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the #FBI. [...]"  [Tweet]  The link included in the tweet takes readers to the 2019 edition of the Homegrown Violent Extremism Mobilization Indicators report.  The report separates extremism into three groups based on whether the action is highly, moderately, or minimally diagnostic on its own.

The Editor says...
The difference between this and SWATting is that in this case the government is initiating the process.

Facebook Takes on New Policing Role, Asks Users to Report 'Extremists'.  It is no secret that over the last several years, Big Tech has been on a wild goose chase for anyone that doesn't align with liberal ideologies, but Facebook has taken the hunt to new heights.  As reported on CharlieKirk.com, messages now pop up asking users "are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist?"  The message continues, "we care about preventing extremism on Facebook.  Others in your situation have received confidential support."  The message continues with an information icon that reads, "hear stories and get advice from people who escaped violent extremist groups."

Innocent New York City Man's Life Is Ruined When Neighbors Report Him for Going to Jan 6 Trump Speech.  Joseph Bolanos doesn't wear horns, isn't a crackpot, and isn't a terrorist.  He has been a neighborhood watch leader in New York City's Upper West Side for 23 years.  In 2012, as president of the West 76th Street Block Association, Bolanos put up signs reading "rat xing" to shame the city into cleaning up the garbage.  The neighbors loved him.  Now the 69 year old is a neighborhood pariah.  One neighbor who brought him Thanksgiving dinner recently wrote him a nasty-gram wishing him death.  "I hope Antifa gets you," the note read.

Biden Administration Wants Americans To Report 'Radicalized' Friends And Family To Government.  For four years, the left insisted that Trump was a fascist dictator.  Even people in politics and media echoed this falsehood.  No we have the Joe Biden administration urging Americans to snitch on their family and friends to the government.  What would Democrats and the media call that?

Biden Administration Asks Americans to Report 'Potentially' Radicalized Friends and Family.  President Joe Biden's administration announced their plans to create ways for Americans to report radicalized friends and family to the government, in an effort to fight domestic terrorism.  In a conversation with reporters, one senior administration official explained the importance of stopping politically fueled violence before it started.  "We will work to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs," the official said.  The official cited the Department of Homeland Security's "If you see something say something" campaign to help stop radical Islamic terror as a domestic possibility.

Implicit bias reporting system
The Big Snitch Is Here — America Goes Stasi.  Many, particularly those on the right, worry the United States is turning into China, but we are a Western nation coming out of a (mostly) Western tradition.  I believe we should be as much concerned, if not more, that we are beginning to resemble East Germany with its State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst), better known as the Stasi.  As Wikipedia reminds us:  "One of the Stasi's main tasks was spying on the population, primarily through a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures, including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents ("Zersetzung," literally meaning "decomposition").  It arrested 250,000 people as political prisoners during its existence."  I was reminded of this Zersetzung and its psychological destruction of dissidents — soon we may all be classified that way, if not already — by a photo I received this morning from a (necessarily anonymous) friend who works at the Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, among the most prestigious hospitals in the country.  With his/her permission, I am sharing it with you.  This person photographed an announcement taped to a wall at the hospital that read:  "Implicit Bias Anonymous Reporting System."


FBI and DHS Attempt To Recruit Former Green Beret to Infiltrate and Spy on Oath Keepers, Proud Boys — But He Recorded The Conversation!  Jeremy Brown is a Green Beret and former Republican candidate for Congress in Florida's 14th Congressional District.  Brown served in the United States Army from 1992 to 2012 and reached the rank of Special Forces Master Sergeant.  Jeremy also attended the Stop the Steal protests in Washington DC on January 6.  Jeremy joined the Oath Keepers in November and went to Washington DC to provide security at the many protests and rallies that week.  Earlier this month Jeremy Brown started speaking out about how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) contacted him and attempted to recruit him to spy on patriots and everyday Americans.  In December FBI agents contact Jeremy Brown at his home for "posting some things online."

Neighbors turning in neighbors.  [Scroll down]  After the Capitol Rush on January 6, the FBI made available on social media images of suspects in the hope that friends, family members, co-workers, and others would inform on them. [...] Leftist Big Tech tells us what we should think, and what we cannot say on social media.  The tech companies punish anyone who violates these norms, as in the case of Amazon shutting down Parler, or Apple deleting content it deems white supremacist, or Disney firing right-leaning actors.  Are we now being monitored by our neighbors and colleagues to see if we are loyal to the leftist agenda?  Are we now prepared to turn in our neighbors, friends, and even our families?  As the left increases social and political power, will we be able to push back as the Poles did, or will we be terrorized like the Croats?

New Websites Asks Americans To Out Trump Supporters So They Can Be Blacklisted.  Conservatives are up in arms over a website that is asking people to report any acquaintance who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.  "This is insane.  The Founders are rolling over in their graves," RealClearPolitics co-founder Tim Bevan tweeted on Tuesday, including a link to the site in a subsequent tweet.  According to screenshots posted of the site, it is run by an anonymous and "diverse group of patriots and People of Color looking to make a positive difference in America by unmasking Donald Trump voters."  [Video clip]

Warren's whistleblower bill turns Americans into government spies.  Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a new bill on February 4th, titled S268, the Whistleblower Protection Act.  It reads like something you would see in pre-war Germany in that the government encourages snitching on colleagues, possibly neighbors.  If they forget to wear masks, they could be in trouble under this law.  She's broadened the definition of a whistleblower to include the pandemic.  The virus is an excuse to push the country left.  The Act's goal:  To protect certain whistleblowers seeking to ensure accountability and oversight of the Nation's COVID-19 pandemic response, and for other purposes.

Will Small Businesses Burn through Americans' Goodwill by Snitching on Their Customers?  [Scroll down]  It was my first visit to the establishment, and when I stepped inside, a pink-haired receptionist with rhinestone-studded cheekbones took my temperature and handed me the questionnaire.  I dutifully answered the 15 questions on page one pertaining to any physical symptoms I may be experiencing.  Then I turned to page two, stopping abruptly when I read the first questions:  "Did you take part in a social gathering of more than 10 people in the last week in which you were within 6 feet of others?" followed by "If yes, was everyone wearing a mask/face covering, you included?"  I puzzled over the questions.  Had I mistakenly stepped into a doctor's office rather than a hair salon?  Was a small business truly probing into my recent involvement with other people just so I could get my hair trimmed and styled?  Perhaps page three would require my blood type and Social Security number.  I also wondered what the salon's policy would be if I answered "yes" to either question.  Would they deny me service?  More importantly, would they send my private information to the Oregon Health Authority to follow up?

Facebook helped law enforcement identify rioters by monitoring the assault in real-time.  Facebook has revealed it helped law enforcement identify MAGA mob rioters by 'monitoring the assault in real-time' and identifying people who posted photos and videos of themselves at the Capitol after the attack was over.  The social media giant has been assisting authorities 'even after the attack was over' in bringing to justice those responsible for the violent January 6 insurrection that left five including a Capitol police officer dead, Monika Bickert, the company's head of global policy management said Thursday [2/11/2021].

The Editor says...
Fake news alert:  It was not a "MAGA mob."  From where I'm sitting, it appears that the violence at the US Capitol was instigated by Antifa and BLM infiltrators.

Glenn Greenwald slams culture of 'junior high hall-monitor tattling' among prominent 'woke' journalists that is like East German 'citizen surveillance'.  Glenn Greenwald has slammed what he calls the 'junior high hall-monitor tattling' among the 'woke' media, dubbing it 'Stasi-like citizen surveillance'.  The journalist, part of a team that won a Pulitzer for reports about government surveillance programs based on leaks by Edward Snowden, shared his thoughts on what he calls 'authoritarian "reporting"' on Substack Sunday [2/7/2021].  In it Greenwald points to New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz, who falsely accused a tech investor of using the word 'retarded' during an online chat she was monitoring.

How to create a surveillance state.  Thanks to the technology in our smartphones, each one of us has the capability to contribute, and many on the left seem to revel in the power.  The rest of us must weigh every action we take, every word we say.  If we say or do the "wrong" thing, we may no longer have the right to earn a living.  If our vigilant self-censorship fails, an idle thoughtcrime might occur publicly.  All it takes is a few ill advised words or actions, caught on video, to ruin us.  Censorship is swift, aggressive, and irrational, without regard to either facts or effects. [...] The news reported that a San Jose gym that stayed open got dozens of complaints from "the public"' and was fined $500K. People are turning into self-righteous tattletales, and those in charge of the companies and social media platforms that created the means for recording and for tattling automatically side with the tattler, without any thought to due process.  We no longer have the right to make our own decisions.

Proud Boys Leader Outed as Long Time FBI Snitch and He's the Tip of the Iceberg.  On Friday [1/29/2021], the Justice Department announced the indictment of two members of the "Proud Boys" stemming from their conversations before the riot at the US Capitol on January 6. [...] I'm sort of amazed by the way Justice has set out to criminalize membership in this organization by the amount of play they give to the logos and trying to portray the group as misogynistic and, possibly, white supremacist.  What is missing from this story is the extent to which the Proud Boys have been penetrated by the FBI.

DHS domestic terrorism bulletin JoeBama Administration Homeland Security Issues Terror Threat Alert Warning of Domestic Violent Extremists.  Comrades, the United States Department of Homeland Security is asking for the public's help in identifying subversives who carry thoughts against the interests of the JoeBama regime.  In a proclamation today DHS officials have elevated the national security alert against U.S. citizens who may engage in wrong-think.  Each good citizen has a responsibility to support the objectives the new Biden regime and report any friends, neighbors or community members who may need to be placed on the subversive watch list.  The FBI is awaiting your contact and information:  [Bulletin]  According to the command and control authority, the greatest threat against the interests of the new state comes from citizens who are questioning the results of the 2020 election and making inquiries into whether manipulation of ballots took place.  These thoughts are enough to warrant good citizens to report subversive activity.  The warning, and enhanced intervention by the control authority, extends from today through April 30, 2021.


John Brennan's Dark Fantasies Become a Homeland Security Bulletin.  In a shocking moment of honesty and clarity, Obama CIA Director John Brennan gave the rest of America keen insight into The Washington DC Establishment's plans and actions for the Trumpsters and other "Deplorables" populating the land.  In an interview, Brennan lies and exaggerates to the public about a supposed domestic terrorist insurgency across the country that is gaining strength and threatening the republic. [...] How do libertarians and authoritarians fit in the same rhetorical political basket?  Very tough to reconcile those positions, unless you really do not care about the "logic" of your assertion.  Why did Brennan leave out communists?  Brennan reportedly voted for Communist Party presidential candidate Gus Hall in 1976, while a student at Fordham University.  What about Islamic supremacists?  Why did Brennan leave them out of the "unholy alliance?"  Answer:  Because it STILL is really all about Trump, Trumpism, and Trumpsters, and destroying any remnant of the MAGA movement.  Anyone outside the Uniparty is suspect.

US Media Makes Heroes of Teens Who Betray Their Family Members and GoFundMe Makes It Profitable.  [Scroll down]  We're seeing the same trend towards the government attempting to enlist children as informants here.  Over Thanksgiving, we were all told by the pandemic-mongers to not visit friends and relatives but, rather, cower under our beds with facemasks and cold porridge (for the Facebook fact-checkers, that is just sarcasm and not a claim of an actual event).  To ensure that we took it all very seriously, some governors, like Vermont's Phil Scott, ordered schools to quiz returning students on what their families did for Thanksgiving. [...] It is hard to think of a more potent means of attack on that vital building block of civil society, the nuclear family, than creating fear and distrust in every interaction between parents and children.

Jonathan Turley Drops Facts on What's to Come With Twitter's New 'Birdwatch' Program.  With much predictable fanfare and hype from the mainstream media Monday [1/25/2021], Twitter announced the creation of what they call their "Birdwatch" program, which they say is designed to help counter the spread of alleged misinformation.  In a series of tweets, the popular social media platform described Birdwatch as "a community-driven approach" to combatting "misleading information."  In subsequent tweets, they gave a rough idea of how the program is supposed to work, encouraged people to sign up to be "testers", and said they will use feedback in order "to help shape this program and learn how to reach our goal of letting the Twitter community decide when and what context is added to a Tweet".

The Tech titans ignore incitement to violence against conservatives.  "Doxing" is defined as publishing on the internet private or identifying information about people with malicious intent.  People who are doxed have their lives destroyed.  Some are attacked so viciously they go into hiding.  It's therefore a dangerous incitement to violence that Don Winslow, a Russiagate conspiracy theorist, has released a video urging people to root out every single Trump supporter in America and target them for destruction.  Yet Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have allowed the video to remain, with the Twitter version having over 4 million views and getting retweeted over 28 thousand times.  The video (which I won't link but you can find [elsew]here) shows footage of Trump rallies and explains that all of the attendees are "domestic terrorists."  These domestic terrorists, he says, are hiding in plain sight.

Far-Left Activist Calls for Citizens to 'Monitor' and 'Report' Trump Supporters.  A far-left activist named Don Winslow is calling for American citizens to spy on their fellow citizens, and report any supporters of President Donald Trump to the authorities, as reported by Breitbart.  In a roughly two-minute video released by Winslow that has since garnered over three million views, he declares that all Trump supporters are "domestic terrorists," and that "they're hidden among us, disguised behind regular jobs."  Winslow also claims that even after Trump leaves office, he will "lead his army of domestic terrorists," and baselessly claims that Trump will "encourage and incite violence," and "start a civil war."  Winslow goes on to explicitly compare President Trump to the late Al-Qaeda leader and terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying that "before the Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, he had to be found." Winslow concludes that the Left must form a "citizen army patrolling the Internet," and once again blanket labels all of President Trump's supporters as an "army of white supremacy."

Scottish Police Enter Home, Arrest Family After Neighbor Snitched On Them For Violating COVID Rules.  Police in Scotland entered a home and arrested a family after a neighbor snitched on them because there were "too many people inside."  The incident happened on Wednesday night at 11:20pm in Aberdeen and a clip of the encounter has since gone viral on social media.  [Video clip]  "My house.  That is bullying.  This is my house.  Get out of my house.  I did not ask you in here," says the woman as she is confronted by officers in her hallway.  "Just stop it mum," says the woman's daughter as the situation escalates.  Particularly harrowing is that the children can be heard screaming as their parents are forcefully handcuffed.  Police Scotland later confirmed that the officers entered the home after a neighbor snitched.

2020:

Will Vermont have child COVID informants for Christmas?  Vermonters have not been advised whether their families will be allowed to gather for Christmas.  Vermont governor Phil Scott's Thanksgiving prohibition of family gatherings raised eyebrows nationally.  Post-holiday, schoolchildren were quizzed by teachers and sent home if they reported visitors in their homes.  Will Christmas be similarly policed?

Governor Wants Kids to Rat Out Their Parents for Covid Violations.  Just before Thanksgiving, the Governor of Vermont hopped on Twitter — which is apparently the only platform now for making important announcements.  He started by shaming and guilt tripping anyone who dared to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.  He continued:  ["]Unfortunately, we know some will still get together and schools have asked for help.  @VTEducation will direct schools to ask students or parents if they were part of multi-family gatherings and if the answer is yes, they'll need to go remote for 14 days or 7 days and a test.["]  So the Vermont Department of Education instructed schools to interrogate children about what they did over Thanksgiving weekend, so that they can inform on their families.

American Stasi.  Right now, here in the United States of America in the year 2020, we have governors and other elected officials (I will never refer to them as leaders!) encouraging and even urging the citizenry to spy on itself and report to the state those who transgress the various orders, mandates, edicts and requirements handed down by them.  To call the police if there are too many people in the same place at the same time, in the eyes of the person making the dreaded call.  To be, in effect, tattletales and snitches for "the state."  Folks, whatever the rationale behind those orders may be and whatever reasoning you or they might employ to justify them, actions like that by our political office holders smacks of state overbearing.  Of repression.  Of intimidation and fear.  Of tyranny.  I chose that word deliberately, and I did not do so [lightly.]  The resemblance to the tactics used by the Stasi, however cleverly camouflaged here and couched in whatever innocent sounding terms they like to use, justified by whatever seemingly compassionate motivations those officials tout, is inherently and incredibly dangerous.  Far more dangerous than any germ, virus or microbe.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown urges residents to call cops on shutdown violators.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown wants residents to call the police on their neighbors over violations of the state's latest coronavirus shutdown, which includes a six-person limit on in-home gatherings.  The temporary "freeze," which went into effect Wednesday, restricts indoor at-home and social gatherings to six people from no more than two households, with no exceptions for Thanksgiving dinner get-togethers.  In a Friday [11/20/2020] virtual interview with KGW-TV, Ms. Brown agreed that Oregonians should contact authorities if they see their neighbors hosting more than six people.

Playstation Says it Will Enable Voice Chats to be Recorded So Players Can be Snitched on for Mean Words.  Sony has announced that it will allow Playstation users to record in-game voice chats so players can snitch on each other for mean words said during private conversations.  Yes, really.  The game console's latest update forces users to waive their privacy rights, allowing others to report them and get their accounts banned for speech violations.  "Following this update, users are seeing a notification about Party Safety and that voice chats in parties may be recorded," Sony announced.  "Voice chat recording for moderation is a feature that will be available on PS5 when it launches, and will enable users to record their voice chats on PS5 and submit them for moderation review.  The pop up you're seeing on PS4 right now is to let you know that when you participate in a chat with a PS5 user (post-launch), they may submit those recordings from their PS5 console to SIE."

Hello snitch line, it's Karen calling.  Every police state relies on a network of informers, as well as a secret police to run the rats.  In the old Soviet Union, there was the KGB, in East Germany, the Stasi.  In Cuba it's known as G2.  And here in Maskachusetts, we have the Department of Public Health's snitch line, among other avenues for informing on your fellow citizens.  Comrades and loyal party members are encouraged to call if they see someone who isn't buying the-sky-is-falling! being hyped around the clock by the corrupt government and media.

Northwestern University asks Evanston residents to report students who ignore COVID-19 precautions in off-campus gatherings.  Northwestern University's campus in Evanston is going to feel less crowded this fall, with residence hall capacity reduced to about 70% and more than half of all employees still working from home, school officials said Tuesday [8/25/2020]. [...] As universities nationwide navigate reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, a large share of student infections have been traced to illicit off-campus gatherings, forcing some schools to abandon plans for in-person learning.  Mona Dugo, interim dean of students, said NU is taking a stricter approach to policing off campus behavior this year and will urge students to act on behalf of the most vulnerable members of their community.  NU plans to offer a mix of online, remote and a small portion of face-to-face classes — but only to students who abide by the rules. [...] Dugo said that anyone who sees students failing to comply with public health precautions can report incidents to her office using an online form.  Dugo said the forms should include specific details and even photo evidence so NU can follow up.

Americans Must Oppose the Tyranny That Is Rapidly Spreading Across US.  As Adolf Hitler rose to power, he took control of churches, shut down businesses, encouraged neighbors to report each other, and created a public surveillance operation system.  If these actions sound familiar, they should.  Public officials and bureaucrats are now putting their own tyranny on full display, using the COVID-19 crisis to impose similar draconian tactics in the United States.  While Maryland officials keep the state in lockdown, they are encouraging citizens not only to snitch on one another for breaking "prevention guidelines," but they are allowed to do so anonymously!  The Maryland Emergency Management Agency, State Police, and Department of Health announced a "COVID Prevention Line" available 24 hours a day as well as an email address where citizens can "report situations of concern where prevention guidelines are being ignored and the potential for the spread of COVID-19 is high."  Reports will be followed up with a visit from the health department or law enforcement.  Since July 2, nearly 40 Anne Arundel County businesses and restaurants have received citations, including my church.  After an anonymous reporting on August 11, a female employee from the Anne Arundel County Department of Health showed up at our Sunday morning service.  The health official presented our associate pastor with a citation and an "Order for Immediate Compliance."

Ohio County Creates Hotline for Neighbors to Report Non-Mask Wearers.  Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has rolled out a hotline for residents to snitch on those of their neighbors who do not wear masks, in line with an executive order by Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, mandating masks in public when "social distancing" is not possible.  County Executive Armond Budish made the announcement, telling the people of Cuyahoga that individuals who witness others not wearing a mask in public spaces should make complaints to the new hotline or file on a website titled "Mask Experience."  Once a complaint has been filed, county workers contact the subject of the complaint, whether it's an individual or business, to let them know.  The complaints are also forwarded to the Board of Health and the relevant village or city.  "This is not intended to be going out and finding people not wearing masks.  We want people to wear their masks....  We want people to do it voluntarily," Budish said.

Big Bro Cuomo Now Has a 24 Hour, Turn in Your Neighbor, Tattletale Hotline.  Under the NYS PAUSE Enforcement Assistance Task Force:  "New York State created a task force to ensure compliance with NYS on Pause.  You can file a complaint if you know of a non-essential business still operating or a gathering that violates the rules by filling out this online form or by calling 1-833-███-████, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."  As you might expect with this kind of authoritarian "compliance" dictate, those making complaints can remain anonymous.

The Editor says...
The Big Brother Hotline number was redacted, as a public service.

New York City Wants You To Call the Cops on People Who Fail Social Distancing.  New York City is asking its citizens to report other people to the authorities for failing to abide by social distancing orders.  This is an unnecessary — and authoritarian — escalation of the city's coronavirus response.  "The City has enacted public health social distancing restrictions to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus," states the government's non-emergency services website.  "You can report a violation in progress for the City to enforce as appropriate."  As examples of the kinds of things that people should report, the city lists non-essential businesses remaining open, and overcrowding in general.

Californians Calling Cops on Their Neighbors if They Hear Them Coughing.  Some Californians are calling 911 if they hear their neighbors loudly coughing or sneezing, with paramedics being dispatched to homes in some cases.  Yes, really.  "Coachella Valley police departments say they've started fielding 911 reports from concerned callers convinced a neighbor's overly loud sneeze or hacking cough is proof the person has the virus," reports the Desert Sun.


2016:

DC Wants Residents To 'Report' Private Businesses Over Gender-Neutral Bathroom Law.  As the debate intensifies nationally over which bathrooms transgender people should use, the District of Columbia's city government is asking people to report private businesses that have single-occupancy bathrooms that aren't "gender-neutral.  "If you see a public bathroom with one stall that is not gender-neutral, just tweet us the business name and location using #safebathroomsDC, or fill out our five question form," states the website of the District of Columbia.  "It takes just 20 seconds to play a part in making DC a more enjoyable place for transgender and other communities!  A 2006 D.C. law requires businesses and other places with single-occupancy public restrooms to change signs that say "men" and "women" to just "restroom."

Schumer Proposes $25K Reward for Social Media Extremist Tips.  U.S. Sen.  Charles Schumer is introducing legislation requiring a $25,000 reward for information generated through social media that helps thwart a terror attack.  The New York Democrat tells The Associated Press the legislation will be introduced later this month.  Schumer will formally announce the bill at a news conference Sunday [4/10/2016].  He says the public should "say something if they see something, especially on their newsfeed."

Doctors can report some mentally ill patients to FBI under new gun control rule.  Delivering on its promise to deliver "common sense" gun control, the Obama administration on Monday [1/4/2016] finalized a rule that enables health care providers to report the names of mentally ill patients to an FBI firearms background check system.  The action was one of a series of steps that President Barack Obama had called for in January 2013 in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings to curb gun violence, but the rule was not published until today [1/4/2015].


2015:

Feds paid Amtrak worker to spy on passengers.  The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration inappropriately paid an Amtrak employee more than $850,000 over 20 years to provide information on passengers who may be smuggling drugs, according a report from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General.  The OIG also released a separate report saying the DEA arranged to pay a government airport screener to act as a confidential source.  The screener, however, never provided information of any value to the DEA.

Trump: Report your neighbors for suspicious activities.  GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said late Tuesday [11/24/2015] that everyday Americans should monitor their neighbors for questionable behavior.  "The real greatest resource is all of you, because you have all those eyes and you see what's happening," he told listeners in Myrtle Beach, S.C.  "People move into a house a block down the road, you know who's going in," Trump continued.  "You can see and you report them to the local police.  "You're pretty smart, right?" he asked his audience.  "We know if there's something going on, report them.  Most likely you'll be wrong, but that's OK.

Obama Justice Dept. Floats New Plan to Push Banks to Inform on Customers.  Obama's Department of Justice has announced new plans to give banks more power to inform on customers' "nefarious activity" and trigger immediate investigations by federal or local authorities.  One of the ways that banks currently flag the possibility of suspicious activities of their customers is to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with the federal government.  After an SAR is filed, it can sometimes take weeks, even months to see results on a suspicious bank account.  But now the Justice Dept. wants to make it easier for banks to inform on customers.  DOJ is now urging banks to contact local or federal law enforcement officials about their concerns.


2014:

New Program: Producing Do-Gooder Little Snitches.  There is a new program being started at Deer Park ISD here in the Houston area.  We have all heard of Crime Stoppers by now, where you can anonymously call in a crime in progress or a fugitive tip.  Well this same thing is being marketed in a downloadable AP for kiddies cell phones in school.  It's being offered by the Safe School Program which has been in place since 1997.  Money?  Oh yes, depending on what is reported, pay-offs range from 100 smackers to 1000 big ones.

Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America's standing army?  Terrorism Liaison Officers are firefighters, police officers, and even corporate employees who have received training to spy on and report back to government entities on the day-to-day activities of their fellow citizens.  These individuals are authorized to report "suspicious activity" which can include such innocuous activities as taking pictures with no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements and drawings, taking notes, conversing in code, espousing radical beliefs, and buying items in bulk.

The Editor says...
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Michelle Obama To High-School Grads: Monitor Your Parents For Thoughtcrime.  There can be no aspect of your daily life that's removed from politics.  Now you will be monitored by your own children for expressing unapproved opinions.  You'd better watch what you say at the dinner table, Mom and Dad.

Michelle Obama Says Kids Should Monitor Parents for Racism.  Taking a page out of the political handbook of every fascist society and dystopian Sci Fi novel, Michelle Obama is telling kids to monitor their parents for crimes against the state.  The woman who was never proud of her country until she and her husband were deposited in the White House spoke to a class in Topeka, Kansas last Friday where she told students to monitor their parents for racist speech because she and her hubby can only do so much without good little informants like them back home.


2013:

Obama's Orwellian Thanksgiving.  The idea that politics must be brought into every family discussion and every personal relationship has been a hallmark of Obama's style since the 2008 campaign, when he told his supporters to confront their neighbors, to get "in their face."  During the debate over Obamacare in 2009-10, the White House did the same — and provided an email address, flag@whitehouse.gov, to which people could report "lies" among their friends.  One of those "lies" was that people could lose their insurance coverage due to the new law — a "lie" that has since proven true for millions of Americans.

Feds Building Smart Phone App for Public to 'Report' 'Unfair' Businesses.  The Labor Department is sponsoring a "Smart Phone App contest" to allow customers to report businesses that do not treat "their workers fairly and lawfully."  According to the Weekly Standard, the Labor Dept. is asking contestants to "develop a smartphone application that will transform the way the public is able to use departmental enforcement data."

Labor Dept. to Ask Consumers to Identify Businesses Who Treat 'Their Workers Fairly and Lawfully'.  As the Department of Labor (DOL) celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act this year, the department is sponsoring a Smartphone app contest to help consumers identify businesses who treat "their workers fairly and lawfully." [...] The DOL seems to suggest the app could be used as something of a blacklist for job-seekers and other businesses.

New Android App Asks Users To Create National Database Of 'Potentially Unsafe' Gun Owners.  The Gun Geo Marker app, released to Google's Play app store on July 7, invites users to mark the homes and businesses of "suspected unsafe gun owners ... to help others in the area learn about their geography of risk from gun accidents or violence."  The app bills itself as merely a tool to collect information, but it was hit with a firestorm of negative reviews and comments from people worried that it could do more harm than good.

New York state offers $500 reward for reporting gun owners.  For more than a year, New York state has maintained a tip line allowing people to report illegal gun owners and collect a $500 reward.  CBS-6 [WRGB?] news reported the existence of the tip line on Wednesday [3/20/2013].  It was previously a "well-kept secret" that received little promotion from state officials or fanfare in the media, according to the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.

Floridians Encouraged to Report Neighbors Who "Hate Government".  That we actually have a County Sheriff, here in the great Sunshine State of Florida, a man sworn to protect and defend ALL of the Constitution, against every enemy, foreign and domestic, plus each and every word, that would want to even initiate a program like this shows that distrust for the Government is growing and that dissention has been noticed and it will not and cannot be allowed by the Progressive enemies of the Constitution.  This hot line for reporting on Patriots, Conservatives, Christians, Gun Owners, Tea Party members and yes, even probably members of this Foundation, will go into place unless Governor Scott says no and puts a veto in place.

Achtung, Baby: Are People Being Encouraged to Rat On 'Anti-Government' Neighbors?  [Scroll down]  The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed reports the Palm Beach Post.  Bradshaw makes it clear that the kind of behavior which could prompt a visit from the authorities includes anti-government political statements that may be deemed a prelude to violent action.  The program will also include "public service announcements to encourage local citizens to report their neighbors", reports the newspaper.

Sheriff Wants Residents To Report Any Neighbor Who 'Says He Hates the Government'.  Florida House and Senate budget leaders have awarded Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw $1 million for a new violence prevention unit aimed at preventing tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., from occurring on his turf.  Bradshaw plans to use the extra $1 million to launch "prevention intervention" units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers.  The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed.

Obama program requires federal workers to inform on co-workers.  Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans' phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.

The Editor says...
I predict there will be a whole lot of baseless snitching going on, and very little work being done.

Official Obama Policy: Leaking Run-of-the-Mill Non-Classified Information = Treason and Espionage.  If you don't have the right level of Team Spirit and Pro-Department of Education Morale, you're a subversive and a potential Insider Threat.  Well, perhaps I'm exaggerating.  I mean, it's not as if the government's obsession with controlling the flow of information has resulted in the Department of Agriculture now advising its workers to be on the look out for spies and traitors.

DOJ solicits email tips in Zimmerman civil rights probe.  The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday afternoon [7/15/2013] appealed to civil rights groups and community leaders, nationally and in Sanford, for help investigating whether a federal criminal case might be brought against George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, one advocate said.  The DOJ has also set up a public email address to take in tips on its civil rights investigation.

DOJ Asks Civil Rights Groups, General Public for 'Tips' on Zimmerman.  On Monday afternoon [7/15/2013], the US Department of Justice appealed to civil rights groups and the general public across the country for "tips" on George Zimmerman in their pursuit of potential federal civil rights charges against the just-acquitted defendant in the Trayvon Martin killing.  The DOJ actually went so far as to set up an e-mail address to allow such tips.

DOJ trolling for email tips in Zimmerman probe.  More than a year after an FBI report indicated there was no evidence of racial bias in George Zimmerman's history, the Justice Department is trolling for email tips on the former neighborhood watch volunteer as it weighs a possible federal civil rights case against him.  Amid pressure from the NAACP and several Democratic lawmakers to pursue Zimmerman, the department has set up a public email address asking for any tips or information regarding the case.


2012:  "Truth Teams"

Obama Campaign Launches 'Truth Teams'.  The Obama campaign is today beginning a new effort to enlist and educate at least 2 million supporters for a "grassroots communications team" they're calling the Truth Team.  "The goal is to ensure that when Republicans attack President Obama's record, grassroots supporters can take ownership of the campaign and share the facts with the undecided voters in their lives," the campaign said in a statement.

Obama's Goon Squads Launch "Truth Teams".  I guess owning 99% of the media isn't enough.  When the other 1% challenges them, they must "fight back" or something.  What a joke.  Can a Ministry of Truth be far behind?

Obama's Attack Watch returns as ... "Truth Team".  You can still smell the desperation in the new Truth Team effort, which incorporates Attack Watch as one of its components:  ["]President Barack Obama's reelection campaign announced early Monday [2/13/2012] that it is launching a new site to enable supporters to promote Obama's successes and 'hold Republicans accountable.' ... The campaign is also setting up 'truth teams' in swing states this week, receiving help from allied unions.["]  What a shock!  I'm sure those "allied unions" include the SEIU, AFSCME, and the NEA, the three unions that have the most to lose if Republicans make good on their pledges to shrink the actual size and cost of government.

New Obama App Rats Out Neighbors' Political Affiliation.  The Internet is abuzz with news of a new Obama campaign smart phone app that identifies all the Democrats in your neighborhood.  Released last week, the app works through Google maps.  Upon entering an address, the app reveals the registered Democrats nearby, names them, and notes their sex and age.  Consequently, it will also inform you of which households aren't registered Democrats by process of elimination and by seeing those houses not identified as Democrats!

Obama campaign mobile app reveals which of your neighbors are registered Dems.  Just when you thought the Obama campaign couldn't get any weirder, along comes its latest high-tech gift.  Meet the Obama for America app for iPhone, a tool that allows you to spy on your neighbors to determine which of them are naughty (read: not Obama supporters) and which are nice.  What you do with that information is entirely up to you.

Obama campaign app concerns some privacy advocates.  President Obama's reelection team has taken canvassing to the next technological level, introducing a free iPhone app that maps the location of nearby Democrats, identifying them by first name, last initial and home address.


2011:  AttackWatch

Seriously, Attack Watch?  In 2008, it was called Fight the Smears.  The interface was friendly and hope-colored.  This time, it's dark and angry and Web 1.0.  It looks like the guy who designs 9/11 conspiracy Web sites finally got his big break.

Obama's hokey AttackWatch comes under attack.  President Obama's campaign team has trotted out AttackWatch.com, a spooky new Web site that asks followers to report "lies" being told about the president. ... The rollout brought much derision, with The Washington Post calling the site a full-fledged "laughingstock" within hours of its launch.

AttackWatch Twits.  You know a presidential campaign is going south when its detractors have more fun with its website than do its fans.  That's the case with AttackWatch.com, the Obama site that's making him a parody.

When Community Organizers Attack.  [Scroll down]  Most curious, the donation link at Attack Watch — where "folks like you" can donate to support the truth, or volunteer to share the facts — redirects supporters to the barackobama.com site where, speaking of fact, contributions go directly to the Obama campaign. ... It reeks of juvenile insecurity and utter desperation — just stop picking on me!  Far worse, it is behavior endorsed and propagated by the sitting President of the United States.  It's a disgrace to the office.

Big Brother Obama is watching.  Be careful, if you dare to criticize Citizen Obama, comrade.  The Web is watching.  This week, President Obama's re-election team launched "Attack Watch," an interactive website that allows the president's registered supporters to report instances of "attacks" against the commander in chief or his record.  Citizen snitches are asked to detail who the attacker is, the type of attack, and whether the offending words were actually heard or passed along as second-hand rumors.

Richard E. Coyote.  The [AttackWatch] site features ominous red-white-and-black graphics and a form called "Report an attack."  There's also a Facebook page, which we're told is a parody, but who can tell?  The whole thing is both creepily paranoid and bumblingly buffoonish, as if produced by a chimera of Richard M. Nixon and Wile E. Coyote.  And the site's substance is no less marvelously mockable than its style.

Groucho Marx Saves America.  A hilarious barrage of catcalls and insults has greeted Obama's latest debacle, a Soviet-style website called Attack Watch.  With its terrifying design of red and black cellblocks, and scary photos of Obama's critics looking like Mafia hoodlums, Attack Watch openly solicits Americans to turn in their friends and neighbors for thoughtcrimes against the president. ... Within nanoseconds of Attack Watch's debut, a parody video by Ezra Dulis and Misfit Politics had blasted through the web.  Then came the howls of Hurricane Twitter, a Category 5 of one-liners, as Americans competed to turn themselves in and report anti-Obama crimes.

2009 - 2011

The DHS And FBI Present: You Might Be A Terrorist If...  As we seem to be told repeatedly, seeing something and saying something is perhaps the greatest duty an American citizen can perform in service to this country.  It's simply not enough anymore to install an American flag in the front yard and purchase domestic vehicles.  Now, every citizen should be keeping his eye out for (and on) his fellow citizens.  The price of freedom may be eternal vigilance, but the price of security is endless paranoia.

iSPY For The Government.  Enlisting untrained citizens to be the eyes and ears of the state is a classic hallmark of an authoritarian society.

EPA Celebrates 'Children Health Month,' Encourages Recruiting Students for 'Energy Patrols' at School.  On [an EPA] website page is a link to a 26-page EPA report entitled, "Sensible Steps to Healthier School Environment."  In the report's chapter on Energy Efficiency, the EPA presents a box with items to help establish "Energy Efficiency Opportunities for Schools."  One of the items in the box reads, "Educate students and staff about how their behaviors affect energy use.  Some schools have created student energy patrols to monitor and inform others when energy is wasted."

DHS Enlists Citizen Spies Via New Smartphone App.  Homeland Security officials in Delaware are hoping to enlist citizens as spies for the state by encouraging them to use a new app which allows smartphone users to attach pictures of "suspicious" vehicles or persons and send them directly to the federal government.

Obama's Disdain for Democracy and Free Expression.  [Scroll down]  Another attempt by the administration to crush dissent during the Obamacare debate occurred in August of 2009, when a post appeared on the White House blog encouraging Americans to snitch on their fellow citizens for circulating e-mails containing "fishy" information about the President's evolving health "reform" initiative:  "There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there. [...] If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."  This email address was soon deactivated after Michelle Malkin and countless other conservative bloggers organized the "go flag yourself" campaign, in which Obamacare opponents bombarded the White House with e-mails reporting themselves as disseminators of "fishy" information.

W.H. collects Web users' data without notice.  The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users, a failure that appears to run counter to President Obama's promise of a transparent government and his pledge to protect privacy on the Internet.

Critics Accuse White House of Playing 'Big Brother' in Health Care Debate.  A new White House tactic to control the message on health care reform has critics accusing the Obama administration of playing "Big Brother" and threatening the privacy of average Americans.  "No one expects that when they exercise their First Amendment rights to ask questions or complain about a proposed government program that they're going to be listed on a database in the White House," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told FOX News Thursday [8/6/2009], saying the White House effort raises serious privacy concerns.  "You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the potential for serious abuse."

Cornyn worried White House collecting personal data.  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) is worried that the White House will use a new media outreach program to collect the personal data of its political opponents.  Yesterday [8/4/2009], the White House asked supporters to forward "fishy" claims or rumors about the President's healthcare plan to a White House email address as a way to respond to "disinformation."  Cornyn says this practice would let the White House collect personal information about people who oppose the President.

Sen. Cornyn Sends Letter To President Obama About "Fishy" Activities Program.  In a letter to President Obama, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, expressed serious concern about the White House's new program requesting Americans to forward email chains and other communications opposing the President's health care policies.  Sen. Cornyn is seeking assurances that the program is being carried out in a manner consistent with the First Amendment and America's tradition of free speech and public discourse.

'Nobody Is Collecting Names'
White House Responds to Charge It's Monitoring Speech of Health Care Reform Opponents.  As ABC News' Rick Klein was first to report, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was quite taken aback by White House Director of New Media Macon Phillips's request that if citizens "get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy," they "send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."  In a White House blog, Phillips said he was trying to stem the flow of "disinformation"...

Obama's dissident database could be secret — and permanent.  The White House request that members of the public report anyone who is spreading "disinformation" about the proposed national health care makeover could lead to a White House database of political opponents that will be both secret and permanent, according to Republican lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are examining the plan's possible implementation.

Getting In Their Faces For A Change.  The candidate who told his supporters "to argue with them and get in their face" now finds the shoe on the other foot.  So they're taking names and encouraging you to turn in your neighbors.

Obama's Snitch on Your Neighbor Program:  Barack Obama has requested his supporters report on any civilians who dissent from his policies. ... There has never been an American president who has advocated turning in your neighbors for holding a different policy view.  But this is just the first step in Obama's plan to create a civilian defense force comparable to the military.

Snitch On Your Neighbor!  I wish I was making this up but my mind does not work this way.  President Barry Obama wants to know if anyone is opposing Obamacare publicly or even in causal conversation.  To make sure that dis-information about Obamacare continues to sweep the country, the Obama White House has instituted the Snitch on your Neighbor program.  Yes, you can now snitch on you friends, family, and co-workers who oppose giving up private insurance for Government-run health care.

Who's Behind the Internet Snitch Brigade?  Czardom has its privileges.  This week, President Obama's health care overlord, Nancy DeParle, launched a taxpayer-funded initiative to recruit an Internet Snitch Brigade that will combat "disinformation about health insurance reform."  As the White House explained in a special online bulletin:  "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversation.  Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help."

The Community is Organizing Against Obama Socialized Medicine.  The Organizer-n-Chief is so desperate to silence any and all debate on his plan to nationalize 1/7th of the US economy by confiscating control of the US health and insurance industry, that he has established a stool pigeon hot line on the White House web site, calling for his rat fink minions to narc out their neighbors if they dare to speak out against ObamaCare.

The Obama Civilian Police Are Ignoring the Constitution.  The First Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging the freedom of speech.  The reason the Amendment refers to speech as "the" freedom of speech is a recognition by the Framers that the right to speak freely precedes the existence of the U.S. as a country. ... The right to speak freely does not come from the government, which the Big Government folks claim; it is an indelible aspect of our humanity.  The Supreme Court has endorsed the concept of the natural, as opposed to governmental, origins of this right, and hence, even though the First Amendment only prohibits "Congress" from abridging the freedom of speech, the Court has ruled that no one in any government — from a school janitor to a state governor, from a board of education to a local cop, from the courts to the Congress to the President — may interfere with speech.

White House Move to Collect 'Fishy' Info May Be Illegal, Critics Say.  The White House strategy of turning supporters into snitches when they see "fishy" information about the health care debate may run afoul of the law, legal experts say.  "The White House is in bit of a conundrum because of this privacy statute that prohibits the White House from collecting data and storing it on people who disagree with it," Judge Andrew Napolitano, a FOX News analyst, said Friday [8/7/2009].  "There's also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives.  It can't try to rewrite history by pretending it didn't receive anything," he said.

Welcome to Gestapo-care.  So what has the White House told supporters to do when you run across those who spread "disinformation" about the new attempt by the Obama administration to install the anti-competitive practices of a "public option" into a federalized universal health care initiative?  Report them.  Whether its communicated through e-mail, websites, blogs, or even casual conversation the executive branch of the federal government is asking you to make them aware of this "disinformation" because they can't keep track of all of the dissenters themselves.

Flashback to last year:
The First Obama Misinformation Suppression Program.  Last September, in the midst of the general election campaign, two St. Louis city and county attorneys, and a local sheriff, made news with the first Obama misinformation suppression program.  Remember when this story broke last September?

New Rules for Radicals.  If you're a virtuous and patriotic American, you may find this column either offensive or misleading.  If so, please forward it to White House authorities at the Department of Fishy Activity.  (E-mail the good people at flag@whitehouse.gov.)  As many of you have heard, the White House now requests that the public tattle on those of us spreading "fishy" "disinformation" regarding Washington's proposed takeover of your health care.  This step, naturally, is for our own good.

Gibbs doublespeak on White House e-mails.  Earlier this week, the White House asked people to forward "fishy" emails they receive that may be spreading misinformation about health-care reform to flag@whitehouse.gov.  In response, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) wrote in a letter to President Obama that it's "inevitable that the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House.  You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program."

Obama's pattern of intolerance toward dissent.  Linda Douglass, communications director for Obama's Office of Health Reform, said her job includes collecting "disinformation" about health care, and the White House asked Americans, "If you get an e-mail or see something on the Web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."  What counts as "fishy"?  Is it only the e-mails falsely claiming "reform" mandates euthanasia, or is Obama also counting as "disinformation" the videos displaying his past advocacy of a single-payer plan and arguments that the plan amounts to taxpayer funding of abortions?

Conformity is now the new dissent.  [Scroll down slowly]  So, on Monday [8/3/2009], the official White House Web site drew attention to the alarming amount of "disinformation about health insurance reform."  "These rumors often travel just below the surface," warned Macon Phillips, Chief Commissar of the Hopenstasi ...whoops, I mean White House Director of New Media, "via chain emails or through casual conversation."  "Casual conversation," eh?  Why can't these "dissenters" just be like normal people and read off the teleprompter?  "Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help," continued Commissar Phillips.

My Fishy Letter of Encouragement for the Town Hall Rebels.  How the heck do you hacks think you got into the White House in the first place?  How did you arrive at that place of power where you could, possibly irrevocably, dismantle our nation?  I'll tell you how:  It was by being dissident, getting vocal, organizing, going viral ... and abracadabra, poof, you socialists won.  I believe it was Obama himself who said one should sharpen one's elbows and get in people's faces.  Yep, I'm pretty sure it was. ... What's good for the commie goose is good for the conservative gander.

White House call to 'flag' dissent loathsome.  Normally, I'm not one to get fired up about political issues, but this White House crowd is getting to be more than a little overbearing.  The paragraph [cited in this article] comes from an Aug. 4 entry on the White House blog. ... When I read it, I blew a gasket.  The White House, basically, is asking me and you to rat out anyone who disagrees with the Obama version of the "truth" on health reform.

O's Silent Majority.  Like Richard Nixon, Barack Obama wants to govern on the strength of a silent majority, although with a twist.  Obama wants the majority that opposes or questions his policies to stay silent.

Obama's Dissident Database:  The White House has asked that members of the public report to them anyone who is spreading "disinformation" about ObamaCare. ... The problem is that the White House is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act, which means that any names or information turned in would not have to be released to any member of the public who made a request, media included.  Furthermore, Senate Judiciary Committee attorneys studying the situation say that the White House doesn't appear to be covered by the Privacy Act either, which ordinarily prohibits government agencies from keeping records "describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained."

Sen. Cornyn Submits "Fishy" Claims To The White House.  "The question is not what the White House is doing, but how and why.  How are they purging names and email addresses from this account to protect privacy?  Why do they need the forwarded emails, names, and 'casual conversations' sent to them instead of just the arguments that they want to rebut?"  In addition, Sen. Cornyn is submitting a list of "fishy" claims he has heard in some not-so "casual conversations" in an effort to ensure the White House's program is successful.

Fishy.  I send in two emails to flag@whitehouse.gov.  I figure I'm already on their "list." ... I'm wondering what will happen to the people on "the list."  Audit?  Jail?  Death?  I'm starting to feel exactly the same as the Soviets and the Cubans.  I now understand perfectly why they risked their lives heading to Miami on rafts.  The fear is palpable.  The invisible oppression of being watched.  The White House is trying to intimidate my fellow Americans from speaking out, from asking questions about this Socialized Medicine.

Don't Fret Your 'Fishy' Complaints About Health Care Reform.  Several commenters, noting the chilling effect a database of opponents of the White House might have, suggested that a suit might be brought for violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, a post-Nixon statute that prohibits federal agencies from maintaining records on citizens who are exercising their free speech rights to dissent from government policy (5 U.S.C. § 552).

Does Linda Douglass know about this?  Does Linda Douglass know that Obama is likening his proposed government plan to the United States Postal Service?  Is Obama aware that the USPS has made itself a long-time laughingstock of poor service, inefficiency and waste?  Obama's sounds like the kind of fishy mockery that should be reported to Douglass via the official flag@whitehouse.gov email address and returned to sender.

Why Create an 'Enemies List' When There Are Already Campaign Finance Laws?  Last week, the debate about health care reform was transformed into one about free speech — specifically, whether the Obama administration is trying to chill the speech of its critics by creating an "enemies list."  The ruckus started when the White House called on its supporters to help it combat what it calls "disinformation" about its health care agenda that is being propagated through emails, websites, and "casual conversation."

All I Want for Christmas Is to Make Obama's Enemies List.  I was too young and too obscure to make Richard Nixon's enemies list back in the day. ... [But] you can imagine my delight when I heard that President Obama is going to be starting an enemies list of his own.  This time, I am absolutely determined to make the grade.  Nothing will stand in my way.  Come hell or high water, I am going to get my name on that list if I have to camp out in front of the office of Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform, until she slaps my moniker on that list just to get rid of me.

An Enemies List to Which we Should Aspire:  President Obama, who remains so critical of former President George W. Bush's foreign policy that he still hasn't ruled out prosecuting Bush officials for war crimes, began stifling criticism of his own policies through the compilation of an enemies list last week.  That's right:  In Nixon-like fashion, Obama is using the power of his office to compile information on private citizens "for political purposes."

The Audacity of Dissent.  Given his background, one might expect President Obama to take seriously this vigorous grassroots reaction to his policies.  Instead, aided by Congressional Democrats, the White House has taken to painting this mass outpouring of civic discontent as a fringe phenomenon — driven by extremists, un-American in its aims, and requiring careful monitoring so that any "fishy" concerns andcriticisms about the administration's health care plans are reported to the proper (read: government) channels.

More Government Does Not Equal 'Reform'.  [Scroll down slowly]  Obama loyalists were also asked to forward to the White House information regarding health care that "seems fishy."  Which means what?  And what are the authorities going to do with the information they gather?  Nobody knows.  Some sources hold the request to be illegal.  Senator John Cornyn penned a masterful response arguing, "As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights."

White House disables e-tip box.  Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag@whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on "fishy" claims about President Barack Obama's health plan.

Issa wants answers from White House on e-mails.  The ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants more answers from the White House about its e-mail policies.  In a letter to White House counsel Greg Craig, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Monday [8/17/2009] raised questions about the White House's request for supporters to forward "fishy claims" about healthcare.

White House Character:  [Scroll down]  Obama, who promised to make the public part of the legislative process, has instead tried to rush hundreds of pages of health care reform through the Democrat Congress.  When details began to leak out, and Americans protested, Obama's administration asked his supporters to report anyone who opposed his agenda to the White House.  He allowed Democrats in Congress to demonize his critics as un-American, subversive, and dangerous.

Somewhat related:
Police chiefs endorse anti-terror community watch.  A store clerk's curiosity about why Najibullah Zazi was buying large quantities of beauty supply products indicated that something about the transaction wasn't quite right — and it's an example of the kind of citizen vigilance that can combat terror, a police commander said Saturday [10/3/2009].

The Editor says...
There is very little difference between vigilance and vigilantes.

Rats!  City to Pay for Informing on Tax Cheats.  Chicago and Cook County residents aren't the only ones about to get shocking tax news; the city is debuting a "tax whistle-blower" plan that could turn neighbor against neighbor in Chicago's business community.

Chicago Seeking Tax Snitches.  In addition to double-digit tax increases, the City of Chicago is moving forward with a plan to pay "whistleblowers" for turning in tax dodgers to city hall.  According to news reports, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's 2010 budget includes a novel provision to encourage residents to report one another to the authorities for failure to fully comply with city tax rules.  It is known as the "Tax Whistleblower Program."

US Census Workers Looking for Snitches in Memphis.  A US census worker, driving a metallic gray Ford Taurus-type car, has been reported to be combing through the Memphis, TN suburb of Germantown knocking on doors asking people for information on their neighbors.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The US census worker was asking how many people lived in the house next door on or about April 1, 2010.

The Witch Hunt Begins: Citizen Spy Network Targets Political Speech and Gun Owners.  A plethora of tyrannical campaigns have been initiated and designed to break up communities and turn citizens against one another.  The justifications for these fascist programs are always a matter of national security.  The real reason for these programs and even the events that brought them into existence is to set up a police control grid.

Nazi Germany - Dictatorship.  On July 14th 1933, a law was passed making it illegal to form a new political party.  It also made the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany.  Germany became a nation of snoops.  People were employed in each street, in each building complex etc. with the sole purpose of keeping an eye on others in their 'area' and reporting them to the authorities if they believed that something was amiss.  The reputation of the Nazi police and the secret police lead by Himmler was such that no one wished to cause offence.  People kept their thoughts to themselves unless they wished to invite trouble.  In this sense, Nazi Germany was a nation run on fear of the government.

Obama's 1984.  In 2009, the White House instituted "WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck" to counter rising popular opposition to Obamacare.  "There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there," the White House noted:  ["]These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. [...]["] It wasn't enough for the administration to set up a website for Obamacare information; it was also asking supporters to report on sources of "disinformation," to alert the government about any sources of opposition.  This was essentially a call for informants.

2002: The TIPS Program

Down the Memory Hole:  Operation TIPS Website Deleted.  At some point prior to 20 November 2002, the federal government deleted the portion of the Citizen Corps Website dealing with the citizen-snitch program Operation TIPS.  This was undoubtedly because the Homeland Security Act, which had passed the House at that point, specifically canned TIPS.  Section 808 of the act, which became federal law, states:  "Any and all activities of the Federal Government to implement the proposed component program of the Citizen Corps known as Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) are hereby prohibited."  (Of course, this doesn't prohibit a similar program with a different name from being created.)

Feds' Spying Plan Fades to Black.  TIPS was quietly killed with the passage of the Homeland Security Act.

 Editor's Note:   So TIPS is a dead issue.  It didn't stand up to public scrutiny.  But don't ever forget this was attempted!

US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies:  The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.  The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police.  The program would use a minimum of 4% of Americans to report "suspicious activity".

Report TIPS informants.  The USA is building a program where over a million Americans will act as informants about any suspicious activity they observe among their neighbours and the people they visit in a professional capacity.  Your mail carrier, your meter reader — all can now be federal informants through the Terrorism Information and Prevention System.

U.S. government doesn't trust Americans:  The latest example of the government's alarming plans to target the entire population for more scrutiny is the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS.  Interestingly, the program came to light not through the reporting of any U.S. press outlets, but through a report in the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia (above) and linked by WorldNetDaily.

Monitor Thy Neighbor:  Americans are beginning to understand that many precious liberties have been put in jeopardy by the government's rush to enact new laws in the wake of September 11th.  Federal law enforcement agencies now have broad authority to conduct secret, warrantless searches of homes; monitor phone and internet activity; access financial records; and undertake large-scale tracking of American citizens through huge databases.  We're told this is necessary to fight the unending war on terror, but in truth the federal government has been seeking these powers for years.

Spying: The American Way of Life?  Last month's revelation that President Bush wants hundreds of millions of dollars to invent innovative ways to spy on Americans was greeted not with suspicion, but shoulder-shrugging indifference.  "Americans are not prepared to sacrifice their privacy and civil liberties after Sept. 11, although their political leaders are prepared to do so for them."

A Site to Despise Untrained Spies:  The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a website for people to protest the Bush administration's citizen informant program, which would enlist civilians nationwide to report suspicious behavior by their fellow Americans.  The ACLU charges that the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS), which is expected to launch this fall, is a massive invasion of privacy.

America:  a sissified nation:  Benjamin Franklin warned, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  But that's what the Bush administration and Congress have asked of Americans -- to give up essential liberty for safety that's not even guaranteed.  By not being fully appreciative of the fact that it's Washington, not Osama bin Laden, that represents the greatest threat to both liberty and security, we've gone along with the agenda.

Under Fire, Justice Shrinks TIPS Program:  Justice Department officials have decided to scale back the controversial Operation TIPS program before it even begins, saying yesterday that they no longer plan to ask thousands of mail carriers, utility workers and others with access to private homes to report suspected terrorist activity.

New "watch" program poses troubling privacy issues:  The Justice Department's Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS) goes beyond encouraging the public to report questionable behavior.  By enlisting a handpicked group of workers, some with access to private information, the program threatens Americans' privacy rights.

A War Against the American People:  The Bush administration is putting in place the neighborhood informant system used by the infamous Stasi, the communist East German secret police.  Bush's plan, known as TIPS, Terrorism Information and Prevention System, intends to turn one out of every 24 Americans into a government spy reporting on their fellow citizens.  The results in the United States will be the same as in East Germany.  Jealousies, rivalries, misperceptions and inflamed imaginations will result in the reporting of many innocent people, who will be investigated, questioned, detained and, on occasion, framed.

Planned volunteer-informant corps elicits '1984' fears:  As part of the country's war against terrorism, the Bush administration by next month wants to recruit a million letter carriers, utility workers and others whose jobs allow them access to private homes into a contingent of organized government informants.

ACLU: Operation TIPS Breeds Peeping Toms.  The government is organizing a program to encourage millions of Americans -- including utility workers and letter carriers -- to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and to report anything unusual.

Justice mum about citizen-snooping program:  The Bush administration says information published this week regarding a new government informant program was "premature" and that officials are nowhere near ready to implement it.

Postal Service Won't Join TIPS Program:  The Postal Service has decided not to take part in a government program touted as a tip service for authorities concerned with terrorism, but which is being assailed as a scheme to cast ordinary Americans as "peeping Toms."

Warning!  The Post Office could report YOU as a drug dealer or a terrorist.:  The next time you go to the Post Office to purchase a money order, you could get secretly reported to the federal government as a potential drug dealer, terrorist, or money-launderer.

Website for Operation TIPS Quietly Changes:  At some point during the resulting denunciations of this Stalinesque plan, the text on the TIPS Website was changed.


"In the continuing search for ways to build character in the leaders of tomorrow, some favor snitchlines:  "Cedar Rapids police are believed to be the first in Iowa to create a student hot line to take tips on illegal activity.  Teens who call about classmates they believe to have alcohol, drugs or weapons on school property get $50 if the police recover anything."

Quoted from Zero-tolerance spiral.  



This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart

2002:  Know Your Customer

Patriot Act:  Nationwide, banks want to know more about you:  Banking customers across the nation will notice stricter new identification rules for opening new accounts, taking out loans and other financial transactions, beginning [10/21/2002].

"Know Your Customer" Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

"Know Your Customer" as Incoherent Privacy Policy:  This proposal sidesteps the Fourth Amendment, it will not make our streets or banks safer, and it eerily recalls Communist China, where neighborhood committees of retired communist party members reported on their neighbors.

Banking with Big Brother:  US banks must monitor their customers and alert federal officials to "suspicious" behavior under a government plan that has drawn fire as an Orwellian intrusion into Americans' privacy.

Know Your Customer:  Know Your Comrade.  The next time you go to the bank, you may find your banker demanding to know where you got your money, how you got it, and whether your transaction was a "normal" one.  If a new "know your customer" rule proposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation goes through, banks would be required to collect that information from customers, monitor their accounts, and report "suspicious" activities.  And if you don't give the bank the information it wants, you could forfeit your account.

EFF Comments to FDIC on draft "Know Your Customer" bank surveillance regs:  The Know Your Customer proposal regards every bank patron as a potential suspect and eliminates financial privacy by inspecting all banking transactions and establishing customer profiles.

Victory: Know Your Customer Dies.

The Government Still Wants Your Bank to Spy on You:  "Know Your Customer" is Not Dead Yet!

Privacy Busters:  Big Bank is watchingNew FDIC Regs Require Banks to Violate Customers Privacy.  This massive new program -- euphemistically called 'Know Your Customer' -- would convert our nation's banks into wholly owned subsidiaries of the government-wide movement to invade every aspect of Americans' privacy.

"Know Your Customer" regulations go global?  Switzerland-based commission recommends intrusive banking practices

Update:
Bank on it — your every transaction triggers snooping.  I am not an Eliot Spitzer fan.  The now-former New York governor and I have disagreed privately and publicly on any number of issues, mostly involving questions of prosecutorial abuse.  Still, I have great concern with the manner in which his fall from grace was orchestrated, and with the federal laws and regulations on which it was based.  The sad saga of Spitzer should concern every American, or at least all those who maintain accounts at any financial institution or who engage in any form of electronic financial transactions.

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Updated November 30, 2024.

©2024 by Andrew K. Dart