Friday, March 28th, Julianne Romanello was our guest on the ROPE Report podcast to talk about REAL ID and the biometric identification methods the government is using to track US citizens in the name of safety. I suggest you watch the full video on our YouTube and Rumble channels, but I’ll include a lot of information in this blog post for you to (hopefully) read and share.
The one thing I want to stress right now is that, the whole, “they’re already doing it right now what are we going to do to stop them” mentality HAS TO END. We human individuals are given BY GOD the ability to think and reason and as long as we can do that, we can effect what happens to us. It may not be easy, but in the end, it will be worth it to stop the government from surveilling our every move. Toward that end, you must be EDUCATED about what is happening and this is the beginning of our attempt to start you on the road toward education on REAL and biometric ID.
In this video clip with Julianne, she tells us that, right now, citizens are not getting the REAL ID and it’s becoming hard for the government to institute it among men (sorry…lol). This is going to be the point at which we have to stop it OR become engrossed in a global biometric digital ID system.
In the clip below, Julianne talks about the biggest problem we have right now – UNEDUCATED ELECTED OFFICIALS! If you are concerned that ‘they’re already doing this’, the best way to get our foot in the door to stop it is to TELL OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS WHAT’S GOING ON AND WHY WE DON’T WANT REAL TIME/FULL TIME DIGITAL BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE. Don’t wait. Share this information with your Senator and Representative and educate and involve them. It’s the only way to get any headway on the issue.
Here is an information sheet that was put together a number of years ago in Oklahoma by a group called OK-SAFE. Though it’s an older document it’s a great primer on the topic. Please read it and share it.
This is another article – longer – but great in terms of learning about REAL ID.
One last thing. If you really want to know exactly what the government is expecting to do read the document below. If that doesn’t scare you, I’m honestly not sure what to say. Please, add this to your list of things we IMMEDIATELY need to stop now and get education today.
It was a really great study and brought out some very important issues that I think so many of us just going about our day, don’t really think about. Thanks to Representative Gann and the State Powers Committee for hearing the study.
Wednesday morning (10.9.24) for our regular podcast, our beloved regular guest Julianne Romanello – who was supposed to educate us about Carbon Credits – was unable to be on. Unfortunately, she ended up with sick kiddos and was unable to both be on the podcast and help sick kids at the same time! We hope everything gets back to normal for her soon – and don’t worry, we’ll have her BACK on to cover the topic next month!
Without a guest, Michael and I and our friend Whitney Mullica from PikeOffOTA, spent our time discussing the Interim Study on ALPRs.
You can find the live video on both our Rumble and YouTube channels, but below is a clip where we all three talk about the use of ALPR cameras (and software). According to the interim study, ALPR cameras were ONLY to be used to determine who was and wasn’t complying with Oklahoma’s compulsory insurance law. Below, we discuss that topic. Have you ever thought about what we discuss here?
So why are we all so fired up about this interim study and ALPRs? The video below contains the answer. Would you want to be a party to this traffic stop? How do you think the cop acted? Would you be nervous or scared in this situation? Wouldn’t you wonder how – AND WHY – this policeman had so much information about your travels?
After watching the interim study all of us were troubled, but it was after watching the chest cam video of a traffic stop that all of us became exceptionally troubled about ALPRs.
My House Representative is John George. Representative George has a degree in criminal justice and was the long-time President of the Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police.
Now, I will say this again – I am not a ‘cop hater’, I loved working with our police department when I was Mayor in Luther (OK) – however, for many years, I’ve watched policeman go from being the kind, but steely-hearted men and women willing to throw down their lives for their community, to people who are gruff or authoritarian when I encounter them. I understand that the police have had a very rough time in the PR realm in the last number of years, but someone whose job it is to ‘protect and serve’ individuals in their communities shouldn’t tend toward authoritarian, as the policeman in the video above.
I’ve also seen police departments militarize themselves by purchasing armor-plated vehicles and now, in Tulsa, robot dogs. Why? Are MOST of the people they stop horrible people just looking to give them trouble? I, of course, don’t know the answer to that, not being a beat cop, but I expect we haven’t crossed that threshold yet.
When I contacted Representative George about this issue, we had a cordial conversation. He is willing to put safeguards on the software that backs up ALPRs because he believes we don’t have any right now and we need to. However, when I asked him why we had a compulsory insurance law in the first place, his fall-back was the ‘public safety’ catch all – he didn’t really have an answer. He also believed that ALPRs are absolute necessity to find missing children, or catch murderers and other bad guys. I asked him why the police couldn’t use traditional methods for this and his answer was because with the new technology we don’t have to. I told him I disagreed with that perspective thoroughly and we ended the conversation agreeing to disagree, however, as the citizen who elected him to represent me, I don’t want the state using these things at all because there are way too many ways for their misuse.
So, let’s review – Oklahomans can buy insurance for their cars if they are financially able (I’m not going to explain socialism here, but if you blanch at that statement, please do a thorough bit of research into the topic) and if they so desire. Lots of insurance companies provide that service. Individuals can also buy insurance against an uninsured motorist. Why, then, must the state force citizens to do such a thing? If we didn’t have the compulsory insurance law, we wouldn’t have the ALPRs reading license plates in the first place. And therein the slippery slope that every legislator seems to hate for you to bring to their attention. We allowed state use of ALPRs and now the ALPR software is able to track our every movement. Bad. Deal.
But let’s continue, why do we all have to get a REAL ID? Don’t we already virtually have that with our driver’s licenses which now use facial recognition and a thumb print? Is that really necessary? If so, why? The answer, ‘public safety’, means exactly what? Whatever the person using it wants it to mean to get what they feel like is important to a concept of ‘safety’ which is not at all well drawn – we saw that in full splendor during COVID.
This quote was thrown out in the podcast, but I’ll leave it here as well. As Benjamin Franklin said so famously, but is so unheeded by both those who like being mommied and those who like being authoritarians, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” So note, when we choose not to parent ourselves – BIG BROTHER will do it for us, and if we choose not to fight for our privacy – BIG BROTHER will take it from us.
