I show my driver’s license when I vote.  There’s my washed out picture next to my address.  The only worse picture ever taken of me was at Costco.  I also realize many of the people screaming the loudest against a picture ID being required at the polls are otherwise big government types.

They’re the people who support the REAL ID.  Which is now a relic from the earliest days of the War on Terrorism. 

you can’t fly, board a train or walk into a federal building.  In China it’s called a social credit score.

Thanks to COVID-19, the need for REAL ID has again been postponed.  Possibly the only thing good I can think of that came out of the pandemic.  This time the deadline is May 3rd of 2023.

People have been making the argument we need to surrender some liberties for security since the founding of the Republic.  The idea behind the REAL ID is that a terrorist won’t have one and therefore can’t blow up an airplane or a federal building.

Have you seen those deep fakes where you see a video of someone talking?  It looks and sounds just like someone you know.  Often a celebrity but it’s not them.  They aren’t within 2,000 miles of where the video originates.  If someone can use some simple software and create a moving, talking image and fool millions, someone, somewhere has figured out how to create bogus REAL IDs.

The Washington Post had a story this week about technology that allows your brain to manipulate a computer.  You place a headphone over your ears and you’re in business.  The thing is, the machine is “reading” your mind.

Your cellphone pings towers wherever you drive and the details are stored by a large system that sweeps up all of your electronic communication.

It seems to me the government, big tech and marketers already know too much about me.  How does this relate to the REAL ID or Star Card as it’s sometimes called?  Because you must provide even more personal details to get one issued.

Otherwise, you can’t fly, board a train or walk into a federal building.  In China it’s called a social credit score.

 

NEVER FORGET: Images from 9/11 and the days after

 

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