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REAL ID – A liberty-destroying relic of the War on Terror

Is REAL ID a BIOMETRIC ID?

April 11th, the Department of Homeland Security released a short clip of its Trump-appointed head, Kristi Noem, commanding that all Americans must obtain a REAL ID before May 7th, in order to board domestic flights and enter federal buildings. These national ID cards, in her words, “prevent fraud and enhance security. Please do your part to protect our country.” To hear Noem speak like this, utilizing the mummified vernacular of Bush-era neoconservatives, two decades after the REAL ID Act was first passed, brings back a hideous nostalgia. How is anyone still taking this seriously?

REAL ID was passed into law in 2005 amid the hysteria of the War on Terror, a hysteria we’ve long ago emerged from. Despite this, DHS and the TSA are still hellbent on forcing a national ID card upon us. Why? Surely not to “prevent fraud and enhance security”. We’ve done just fine the past twenty years, so why do we need it now? The answer is we don’t. But they, our federal government do. They want all our information compiled in one tidy bundle, linking all state driver’s licenses together in one big database, for their ease in accessing all of our information immediately.

In response to Noem’s announcement and the coming deadline, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie posted on X:

“Real ID isn’t needed and won’t stop terrorists from hijacking planes. Most of the 9/11 hijackers held Saudi, UAE, Egyptian, or Lebanese passports. Real ID is a national standard and database of IDs that is primarily a tool for control of Americans. Trump shouldn’t enforce it.”

Resistance against REAL ID has been surprisingly vigorous over the past two decades. At one time, 25 states rejected the notion of a mandatory federal ID card, and announced their noncompliance. 15 states had laws on the books prohibiting compliance with the REAL ID Act. But as the years went on, non-compliant states began to lift their ban on REAL ID, including Oklahoma in 2017. It’s mind-boggling that agencies that should have been abolished years ago are bloated and thriving to this day, and wielding a vulgar and unchecked amount of power over the rights and privacy of American citizens.

Noem’s ridiculous announcement that the Trump administration would begin enforcing the REAL ID Act is very alarming. Is Trump’s “Golden Age” ushering in a return of domestic authoritarianism? The DHS and the TSA were products of War on Terror hysteria, and have long outstayed their welcome. The TSA famously has never captured a single terrorist, but has succeeded tremendously in humiliating travelers with strip-searches, while stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in items from luggage from the moment of creation. A quick Google search produces endless news articles of TSA agents pilfering anything and everything from unwitting fliers. If you’re a frequent flier, you know first-hand that the TSA agents aren’t exactly the best and brightest among society. More often than not, they look and behave like thugs, drunk on the power trip they receive from barking commands all day. Despite this, the TSA is now acting as the DHS’ muscle, enforcing REAL ID at our airport gates for domestic flights.

Most Americans have no idea the scope of danger inherent in REAL ID, hence their nonchalant attitude. “Compliance” could mean anything, depending on the year, the political temperature, or whether or not we’ve found ourselves in another national emergency. Personal records required for a REAL ID could, in the future, contain information on gun ownership, vaccination and medical records, employment, wealth, and all manner of biometrics. The list of requirements for compliance will grow steadily each year. Just watch. The list of “checkpoints” throughout the country will only grow. For now, it’s federal buildings and airports. In the near future, it could (and probably will) be the doctor’s office, your job, your children’s school. If we awake to find ourselves in the midst of another pandemic panic, what will DHS do with its power over our ID cards? It doesn’t take much imagination to see that we’d exist at the mercy of the federal government at the merest hint of a national crisis.

REAL ID means the federal government has us by the throat. Failure to comply means a revocation of your Big Brother hall pass that you previously used to navigate Uncle Sam’s panopticon. You will no longer exist as a functioning member of society. In this sense, REAL ID makes an American social credit system much more a possibility than before. A central bank digital currency moves much closer to reality as well. The type of control that the federal government is striving for can’t have the loopholes or exit ramps that the cash economy provides.

Trump’s victory has lulled many conservatives into indifference over privacy-obliterating legislation like REAL ID. If Biden had been re-elected, their tune might be different, but because their team is in control, there’s no need to worry. Let’s hope that conservatives reawaken to these very real issues of privacy and freedom before its too late.

Ask yourself: does our government care more about protecting us, or controlling us? This is rhetorical. The sole reason for the REAL ID is to enhance our government’s ability to monitor and compel obedience from every American citizen. REAL ID makes us less safe, because it dramatically diminishes our freedom, exposing us to the whims and insane ideologies of anyone who gains power in the future. The Constitution exists to prevent this sort of thing, do you think Kristi Noem’s heard of it?

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Law Enforcement Use Of ‘FLOCK’ Camera Surveillance in Oklahoma Does Not Protect Our Constitutional Rights

Friday morning at 9am on the regular ROPE Report podcast, Michael and I welcomed Oklahoma Representative Tom Gann and former Logan County Commissioner, Marven Goodman, to talk about law enforcement surveillance of Oklahoma citizens through Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). This is a HUGE topic, as there are two bills in the legislature this session that need to be stopped – SB857 and HB1626.

During October of last year, Gann and Goodman discussed the problems with Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs – of which the brand Flock Safety – is probably the best known) at an Interim Study which Michael and I and our friend, Whitney Mullica from PikeOffOTA discussed via podcast, which you can find here. During that Interim Study, the video below was included. I am including it here, because so many people say things like, “If I’m not doing anything wrong, what does it matter?” They don’t realize exactly what can happen to them if they’re surveilled. Well, this man, who was simply traveling through Oklahoma did nothing wrong and yet he was pulled over and subjected to questioning and even a warrantless search by the law enforcement officer (LEO) that conducted the stop.

Hopefully, after that short – but painful – video, you now understand the reason why ALPRs are not a viable way of policing if citizens are to keep their Constitutional rights intact.

But it’s more than that. In Oklahoma, the use of ALPRs followed the genesis of a state law that required Oklahomans to buy uninsured motorist insurance. Rep. Gann and I discuss this fact in the clip below.

So why were Oklahomans required to buy ‘uninsured’ motorist protection? We’re 28th in Oklahoma in uninsured motorist coverage EVEN WITH the cameras, so what’s the point? Maybe a revenue stream for the Oklahoma District Attorney Council (ODAC)? According to Rep. Gann, the ODAC got ‘tired’ of coming before the legislature to seek funding and utilizing ALPRs to catch people without uninsured motorist coverage provided funding outside the legislative appropriation process – a process that also provides transparency for Oklahoma taxpayers that this group now DOESN’T HAVE.

But it gets worse – LEOs aren’t even legally allowed to use ALPR data the way it was used in the traffic stop above. How is it that a law enforcement agency is using technology illegally? Kind of smarts the sensibilities a bit, doesn’t it?

In the final video clip I’m going to add here, Rep. Gann points out that he’s asked how LEOs can be using this data illegally, but he gets no answer. In addition, even if a LEO does find a crime using this technology, NO PART OF THE DATA CAN BE USED IN COURT because we don’t have laws in Oklahoma that allow LEOs to collect the data in the first place. In fact, the man in the first video, sued Oklahoma and won because of that reason.

Rep. Gann and Michael talk about the Carpenter case – where cell phone data was collected by LEOs on a citizen and used against him. He then sued the government and won in the Supreme Court because this kind of tracking via technology is a violation of so many of our Constitutional rights to privacy.

This technology is also used to capture data that is then provided to OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT entities other than the one by which it was collected. So, for example, the City of Edmond collects data from ALPRs and stores the data, which can the be used by the ATF, or another state, or the FBI or the CIA – it’s ridiculous how many agencies can be allowed to see/use the data when it’s not even lawful to collect that data on residents in the state! Often, law enforcement entities – like Edmond – refuse to release the lists of law enforcement agencies using their ALPR data to the citizens they are surveilling!

Please contact your legislators – both Senators and Representatives – and ask them to VOTE NO on both SB857 and HB1626, which seek to put ‘guardrails’ (as explained to me by House author Representative John George) around the way in which law enforcement uses ALPR cameras.

Here is some suggested wording:

Dear ___________,

Please vote not on both SB857 and HB1626, seeking to put regulations around the use of ALPR (Flock Safety) cameras for law enforcement personnel in the state.

These cameras are only authorized for one use – to determine whether residents have uninsured motorist insurance. Oklahoma is 28th in the nation in uninsured motorist coverage. Clearly, the cameras aren’t solving that problem.

In addition, it’s a violation of my right to be forced to buy insurance I can choose to buy on my own.

The legislation allowing the use of ALPR cameras must be – at least – studied and completely revised, and – at most – completely repealed from law.

Protecting the individual rights of Oklahomans is the only reason you are elected by The People. Please protect my rights by working to stop the illegal surveillance of Oklahoma citizens via ALPR cameras.

Thank you,

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Weekly News Headlines And Commentary – Week Of January 20th

ROPE Report news headlines

Oklahoma schools chief sues federal government over immigration policies

Oklahoma Voice – Cynic that I am, this feels very much like a media stunt for a couple reasons; I would imagine this kind of suit would fall in the AG’s backyard, and we will be unburdened by what has been on the 20th of January, so I’m not sure how a suit like that will be dealt with, and finally, there was no dollar amount specified in the lawsuit. In October, Walters sent a letter to VP Harris demanding $474,900,000.00 in reimbursement for the education of student non-citizens, but this number wasn’t listed on the lawsuit apparently.

Cynicism aside, this should have been done at the beginning of Walter’s term when a ruling might have had a snowball’s chance of getting some kind of meaningful ruling, but it should have been done, nonetheless. For years, our immigration policy – or lack of one beyond, “let ’em all in” – has burdened schools with the cost of educating children here in this country illegally who can barely read in their own language let alone speak and/or read in English. Those on the left cry and scream when this is said, but that doesn’t make it any less true. It is a financial BURDEN to schools to staff bi-lingual classrooms for kids who should be able to speak English when they enroll – one that taxpayers foot.

The lawsuit comes hot on the heels of Walter’s proposed rule to check the immigration status of students before they are enrolled. Again, another thing which the left has screamed about, but which should be done. It never ceases to just slay me that the public school apologist crowd ALWAYS accuses those of us wanting accountability in our public schools of ‘hating children’ when we suggest a way to use tax dollars in the ways they should be used. Yet, students who don’t speak English can be disruptive to other students trying to learn. So who really ‘hates children’?

Another Oklahoma Voice article from today (the 20th) describes a hearing held by the State Board of Education which was attended by Board member Kendra Wesson and the OSDE attorney, that brought further complaint about the proposed rule.

(OK) Wetumka Schools Arrested & Confessed Pedophile Withholds Phone Passcode, Lies for Low Bail, Home Never Searched

V1SUT – Mary will be on with us on Wednesday (1.22.25) to talk about this, but please read it before hand. I’m sure you’ll have some questions for Mary to answer LIVE on the podcast (starting at 9am on all our social media channels). This is truly the perfect example of the miscarriage of justice going on in MANY small towns in Oklahoma while the victim/s have no recourse.

Commentary on State Sponsored University’s Balancing Act Between Athletic Triumph and Academic Integrity

Sooner Sentinel – writer Marven Goodman (who will be on our show next month with Representative Tom Gann talking about automated license plate readers) makes some excellent points here about the trend to make college more about sports than learning and a bit about the policies behind the ‘trend’.

From Goodman: Our colleges are at a crossroads, trying to use sports money without forgetting their educational mission. The plan includes not just giving money but also supporting athletes to finish their degrees, making sure they have something valuable when they leave college. But the big question remains: how do we judge success? If a football team wins big but the school’s academic reputation falls, what does that say about the school’s priorities?

Courage Is Contagious, and the Oklahoma House of Representatives Has Just Been Infected

The Oklahoma State Capitol – Jason Murphy writes about the 7 Representatives who were the only ones to vote NO on the new rules for the Oklahoma House on January 7th (Organizational Day) – Gann, Hildebrant, Jenkins, Shaw, Stegall, West (Rick), and Woolley – and what their leadership can mean for the House in coming sessions.

Jason will be on the podcast with us on February 12th to talk about the new House rules and I’m sure we’ll go over what happened on Organizational Day (1.7). If you haven’t seen it, you might check out the live video I did about it on the day after. Citizens of Oklahoma should know exactly what is happening at 23rd and Lincoln and this information will definitely help increase your knowledge base.

After Canoo shuttered factories, a bill seeks to keep other EV companies from getting cash from a state incentive program

Frontier – from the article, “Senate Bill 294, authored by Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, would exclude electric vehicle manufacturers from receiving payments from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund”. I don’t often agree with Senator Pugh, but I do here! Don’t forget, “EV startup Canoo files for bankruptcy and ceases operations“. This is what happens when businesses that have no business being in business are funded by tax incentives. The business goes under and the state has to try and ‘claw back’ the incentives. This needs to stop, so how about just closing the “Quick Action Closing Fund” altogether? I’ll go for that!

Another article from the Oklahoman quotes Governor Stitt as saying, “Building a business is hard,” he said. “Building a capital heavy business like this is even harder. We should never fault someone for taking a chance to chase the American dream. Canoo has been cooperative in its work with the state and I wish the best to everyone involved.”

In the event you don’t understand my frustration at this comment, let me explain.

  1. Governor Stitt pledged over 100 million dollars to a private, stockowner-held, out-of-state company to come in and supply just about 500 workers. Figure that at half a million a job?
  2. The company was in trouble from the start – in fact, investors sued Canoo in 2023 for “misstating” their financial projections. This lawsuit tells of the troubled management of this company from the beginning. Who in the Governor’s cabinet looked into this? Shouldn’t someone? Why would we have offered this out-of-state company millions in Oklahoma tax dollars when they had a proven poor track record?
  3. Offering a private company taxpayer dollars is the classic definition of CORPORATISM, not CAPITALISM.

Efforts to raise the age of consent in Oklahoma return to Legislature

Oklahoma Voice – From the article: House Bill 1003, authored by Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, would raise the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 years old in Oklahoma. The bill also includes what he calls a “Romeo and Juliet provision” which protects those who had sex with children between 14 and 18 years old from prosecution if they are within four years of age.

“We don’t want the 35 year old coach to be nice to the 16-year-old girl and gain her consent,” Olsen said. “We don’t feel like that’s a good situation. … We don’t want people taking advantage of 16 or 17 year old girls in that respect.”

We need to get behind this legislation – thank you Jim Olson. Let’s protect children from adult predators.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announces 2026 gubernatorial bid

KOCO News – In case you’ve been in a coma and didn’t see this coming from as far away as Kansas…

Tulsa police won’t share the locations of more than 200 surveillance cameras

Frontier – The headline pretty much speaks for itself. This is the reason we are having Marven Goodman and Representative Tom Gann on the program on February 7th. This is NOT okay for citizens of Oklahoma, let alone the United States of America who breaks the 4th AND 5th Amendment every time they SURVEIL their own citizens.

How Oklahoma Property Taxes Are Calculated and Who/What Really Owns Your Property

ROPE Report – Absolutely the most important article I think we’ve ever written. Please read and share.

Our Wide-Ranging Interview With Kendra Wesson, Oklahoma State School Board Member

ROPE Report – A great run-down of the interview we had with one of our favorite people. Check it out!

ARTICLES RELATING TO “GREEN” ENERGY

2024 ‘worst year on record’ for wind power lost as electricity supplied by wind falls 

GRIPT (online Irish news) – From the article: “The drop has been attributed to grid constraints by Wind Energy Ireland. The energy company has published its annual report, which said that wind farms are closing because the electricity grid is not strong enough. Despite wind supplying almost a third of all electricity to the island of Ireland last year, the share of electricity provided by wind fell by 3 per cent compared to 2023.”

Big Wind & Big Solar Are Trying To Sue Rural America Into Submission

Robert Bryce (Substack) – From the substack: “In 2017, I talked to K. Darlene Park, a resident of Frostburg, Maryland, who was leading a fight against a proposed wind project in her neighborhood. She told me, “We feel this renewable energy push is an attack on rural America.”

The fight in Maryland is one of hundreds happening across the country. The Renewable Rejection Database now includes 764 rejections or restrictions of wind and solar projects since 2015. Among the latest examples came last November. On Election Day in Harpswell, Maine, a heavily Democratic electorate overwhelmingly rejected a proposed five-acre solar project. The vote against the project was 2,344 to 1,393, or 63% to 37%. That’s a decisive vote, particularly in a town that voted heavily for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.”

Data centers, not homeowners, fueling Arizona’s steep energy demand

Channel 2 News (Phoenix) – This is a great article! It needs to be sent to every legislator. Please read the whole thing, but pay particular attention to the bulleted list about halfway down the page. Very eye-opening and just as with other ‘green’ energy projects, NONE OF THESE DEALS HAVE TAXPAYER ACCOUNTABILITY.

Top UN “Court” to Issue Landmark Ruling on “Climate Change”

New American, Alex Newman – From the article: “At the request of the United Nations and its member governments, the top UN “court” is set to rule on the supposed legal “obligations” of governments when it comes to fighting CO2 emissions and the alleged man-made “climate change” they supposedly cause. Experts say it may be the most significant case ever heard by the global body.

The Biden administration joined governments around the world asking the court to take a strong stand on the issue. But critics are sounding the alarm. Agriculture, energy, transportation, and other industries are all in the crosshairs, fueling concerns over more government-mandated economic carnage ahead.”  

Wall Street Climate Group Net Zero Suspends Activities Following BlackRock’s Exit

Breitbart News – From the article: “BlackRock, the globe’s largest asset manager with $11.5 trillion under management, walked away citing “confusion over the initiative’s climate efforts” and rising legal scrutiny from Republican lawmakers.

Far from serving the public interest, the Net Zero initiative that once had the enthusiastic backing. of BlackRock and other ESG cheerleaders on Wall Street is increasingly seen as out-of-touch with America’s economic needs and the political climate that is rejecting so many of the trendy causes adopted in 2020.”

Electric car range can plummet by up to 40% in winter, test reveals

This Is Money (UK) – Go figure…electrons don’t move very quickly in the cold…

The Cherokee Nation has been awarded $10.7 million for EV charging ports.

The Oklahoman – From Biden’s Infrastructure Bill: “The Cherokee Nation has received $10.7 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install 112 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging ports across 12 community locations.”

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