61–70 of 894 posts
It’s cool though, this time they’ll finally get rid of COVID. All snark aside, I ask what I’ve asked everybody: at what point is the cure not worth it anymore?
I don't have any mainstream social media presence. I deleted those accounts years ago. Could the AFP create profiles in my name with my likeness?
yes >AN ACCOUNT TAKEOVER WARRANT enables the law enforcement agencies to take control of an account, and even lock the account holder out of it. This can be done covertly and without consent, so the individual wouldn’t necessarily know what is going on until or if they are ever charged. It includes removing two-factor authentication and using one account to gain access to others (directly contradicting cyber security…
We can refer to both now as acts because — in what is an increasing trend in the Australian Parliament — the bills flew through both houses in a single day. Why is this an increasing trend? Voting is mandatory…so are voters more trusting of their institutions or just apathetic? Voting is compulsory at federal elections, by-elections and referendums for those on the electoral roll, as well as for State and Territory e…
Democrats and republicans alike, let's make sure we don't do this in USA. Please donate to EFF, FIRE, ACLU, etc. I feel like both parties are becoming more authoritarian. COVID-19 is here to stay for many years if not decades. We're not going to be able to wipe off the virus from the planet. Governments will continue to use this as an excuse to erode privacy. This whole clampdown feels completely anti-Australian to m…
1. ACLU actively gives their data to Facebook:
https://www.axios.com/aclu-data-shares-facebook-4f1d21f4-d43...
https://fortune.com/2021/04/02/aclu-shares-data-facebook-thi...
2. ACLU claims Second Amendment is Racist
> "Racism is foundational to the Second Amendment and its inclusion in the Bill of Rights."
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1419294620417155074
Fun fact: Vermont ratified the individual right to gun ownership and the abolishing of slavery in their State Constitution at the same time in 1777. The second amendment actually helped defeat racism and the only thing racist about it is the disproportionate infringement against minorities.
> Vermont’s Declaration of Rights of 1777 set forth the following fundamental rights and abolished slavery: That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Therefore, no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave, or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one years; nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years.
> Vt. Constitution, Art. I, § 1 (1777). See Zilversmit at 116. The Vermont Declaration also provided: “That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the State . . . .” Id., § 15.
3. ACLU used to defend free speech of even neo-nazis but have since then abandoned their principles:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/aclu-again-cowardly-abstain...
4. ACLU's most famous lawyer calls JK Rowling and Abigail Shrier "white supremacists" without any proof whatsoever:
https://twitter.com/abigailshrier/status/1358246098364583936...
The same lawyer has also called for banning of Abigail Shrier's book.
5. ACLU now claims ‘Vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties’:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/vaccine-mandates-actually-...
The ACLU, Prior to COVID, Denounced Mandates and Coercive Measures to Fight Pandemics. Now, they have completely reversed its views, arguing vaccine mandates help civil liberties and bodily autonomy "is not absolute."
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-aclu-prior-to-covid-den...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's complex. When I first moved to Australia I rankled at compulsory voting as I believe that not participating is a valid political act. Countries without compulsory voting talk about the turnout as relative to previous years, and if it falls too far there will be questions about a mandate to govern. In Australia that can't happen as turnout is always high, this leads to very little opportunity to overhaul the mech…
If you are saying the Republican Party has spent decades trying to stop black people from voting, that is simply incorrect. It is what the other party’s propaganda would like you to believe. Same with voter suppression.
I've lived in Australia for 10 years and really considering my familys future in this country. We are sleep-walking towards a very average future. An undiversified export economy, out of control house prices, a job-market primarily focused on two cities, a government intent on selling all public assets, very limited political interest in positive climate policies. The latter is simply addressed with "technology will…
I lived in Australia for 5 years and my sense is that, as harsh as it sounds, Australia needs to go through an extreme hardship to wake up as a nation. Australia has lived true to its moniker as the Lucky Country - at least two full generations of Australians have never witnessed economic hardship or downturn of any kind. Natural disasters pass the nation by (other than wildfires). Even Covid looked like it was going…
As a result the general population is blindly letting the government erode our rights and are too pre-occupied with their own lives to actually realise what's happening.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's complex. When I first moved to Australia I rankled at compulsory voting as I believe that not participating is a valid political act. Countries without compulsory voting talk about the turnout as relative to previous years, and if it falls too far there will be questions about a mandate to govern. In Australia that can't happen as turnout is always high, this leads to very little opportunity to overhaul the mech…
As an Australian living in America for 10 years you absolutely nailed it; compulsory voting effectively prevents what is the worst part of American democracy - the unceasing efforts to stop people voting . Plenty of other bs, but at least the right to participate is guaranteed.
No, it doesn't; sloppy, deliberately overbroad purges of voter rolls (without notification of the targets) are a key voter suppression technique, and are not at all impaired by compulsory voting.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ACLU has already been taken by the new American leftist orthodoxy. Turning the tide will require new thinking.
If you're trying to argue that the ACLU is espousing authoritarian causes, I'll have to ask for a citation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes? That was the point I was making, you don’t necessarily want universal suffrage. Those with long-term interest are better for society
That didn't sound like the point you were making, and others agree with me. Everyone is responding to you thinking that you were criticizing mandatory or compulsory voting, not universal suffrage. Your choice of words "forced to vote" rather than "right to vote" conveyed that meaning.