Now that Biden has raised the cost of living by driving up inflation through gargantuan wasteful spending, freelance work is more crucial than ever, as it allows people to earn extra money to make ends meet. Many rely entirely on freelance work for their income. Some professions might not exist if they could not be pursued on an independent basis. Yet the Biden Regime moves forward with its objective of making freelance work illegal:

It isn’t only about sucking up to cancerous Big Unions in exchange for political donations. The ideological aspect is suggested in the word “freelance.” “Free” can mean two very different things. If it means someone else pays for it, Democrats are in favor. If it means people can interact with each other independently, Democrats are rigidly opposed.

In California, the war on freelancers might conceivably be ascribed to liberal foolishness and paternalism rather than sheer malice. This does not apply at the national level, now that California has presented us with the inevitable consequences. Biden et al. know full well what they are doing to us.

Alarmingly, the arrogance of potentially throwing millions out of work right before an election suggests that Democrats believe the result of the election is virtually assured.

On a tip from KirklesWorth.

It used to be only in the eastern part of Europe that dissidents were thrown in prison. Times have changed. Ask Dries Van Langenhove:

Langenhove is a former member of the Belgian parliament, founder of the Flemish Identitarian movement “Schild & Vrienden,” and an influential political dissident in Belgium.

He explains his crime…

An undercover journalist discovered allegedly politically incorrect memes in a private group chat. They were then broadcast on public television in Belgium. A huge police investigation followed which took many years, they raided my house three times. They stole my computer, my smartphone, every electronic device, every piece of paper they took away. And after four or five years of investigation, the only thing that they allegedly found was memes and a picture of a flask of pepper spray.

…and his punishment:

The punishment is one year in jail, an effective jail sentence. It’s a 16,000 euro fine and 10,000 euros in damages, then about an extra 10,000 euros in court fees. And then I also lose my political rights for 10 years, which is the harshest sentence that they could legally give me. And it means that I cannot participate in politics for 10 years, which shows ever more clearly that this is a political case.

His sentence is under appeal, which is why he can still give interviews for now.

Maybe liberty is not dead in the West. Maybe their ham-fisted tyranny will blow up in leftists’ faces:

I think there is a realistic opportunity, a realistic chance of “Vlaams Belang,” a real nationalist party, getting into power. They are right now getting a third of the votes, which is huge. And we also have a moderate nationalist party that gets about 15 to 20 percent of the votes. So together they could form a nationalist government which could light the fire of nationalism all throughout Europe, I hope, because that would turn the center of Europe, Brussels and Flanders, into a nationalist stronghold that really is our dream, our goal, and something I strive towards with all the projects that I am leading with my media channel, my videos. It sounds cliche, but the coming elections may be the most important elections in the history of our country.

As in the USA, at this point it is still largely up to voters. But it won’t be for long if voters do not choose wisely.

On a tip from seaoh.

Washington State isn’t alone. Scotland will also employ Stasi-like tactics by encouraging citizens to rat each other out for committing thoughtcrime:

The controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act is due to take effect from April 1…

The date is suitable.

While it consolidated some existing hate crime laws, it created a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.

In practice, that means citizens will be turned in for allegedly disapproving of Islamic colonization or sexual perversion.

One way to report a hate crime is through a third party reporting centre.

A list of these centres on Police Scotland’s website includes Luke and Jacks, a shop in Glasgow which describes itself as “Passionate Purveyors of Pleasure Products.”

Given that a main purpose of such laws is to establish sexual deviants as a superior class that it is literally illegal to offend, a sex shop is as appropriate as the April Fool’s Day launch date. Scotland is governed by fools on behalf of degenerates.

Even if Scotland’s rulers cannot be taken seriously, the tyranny is no joke:

Police Scotland has already said they will fully investigate each complaint and keep a record of “hate incidents” against people even if they not meet the criminal threshold.

These records will be used against the accused in ways that may never be known.

On a tip from Steve T.

The Stasi was able to inflict totalitarianism on East Germany with the help of millions of informants. Washington State is taking the same approach:

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.

This goes beyond actual crimes that are punished more severely because the victims are members of favored identity groups. The hotline is to be used to turn in those who say anything members of these groups don’t like.

It also targets reported instances of “a person’s hostile expression of animus toward another person, relating to the other person’s actual or perceived characteristics…” Literally, the hotline gives people a way of informing on others supposedly guilty of thought crimes – or, perhaps, speech crimes.

Image the laughter if someone were to report to Jay Inslee’s Stasi that they perceived animus for being white, male, Christian, an American citizen, heterosexual, to the right of Chairman Mao, et cetera. Thoughtcrime legislation only cuts one way.

The First Amendment used to protect us against such ham-fisted tyranny. But the US Constitution was written by Dead White Males, and is therefore subject to incremental cancelation.

The flaw of all hate crime legislation applies, as noted by State Rep Cyndy Jacobsen (R-Puyallup):

“I think it’s difficult to put things into law which look at the intent of people rather than the actions that they take.”

To the extent our rulers punish us for what they think we think, we are not living in a free country.

The potential scope of abuse with this new hotline is vast – especially since any identifying personal information provided to the hotline is “confidential and exempt from public inspection, copying, or disclosure.” Neither is that information to be included in any written reports. That means if anyone wanted to go after someone whose political opinions they don’t like, they could, conceivably, fabricate a “hate crime” or “bias incident” out of nothing. In fact, this new law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025, exempts so much information from public disclosure that there will be no accountability at all to the people of the Evergreen State. After all, faking hate crimes has become common practice for the progressive left.

Refer to the Hate Hoax List for confirmation.

On tips from R F, Straight Shootr, and DCGere.

Tyrannical Soros-installed New York Attorney General Letitia James has been trying to dictate to the whole country who we can vote for and what we can eat. Firefighters, being patriotic Americans, booed her Thursday and even defiantly chanted “Trump”:

What happens to heroes who defy leftist tyrants? They are subjected to reeducation:

“After NY Firefighters exercised their 1st Amdt right to protest corrupt city leaders, a letter was sent saying anyone who booed Letitia James will be sent to HQ for re-‘education’,” Rogan O’Handley, known on X as D.C. Draino, reported while providing the letter.

The dissident firefighters are now being hunted down like J6 protesters. The New York Post reports:

An FDNY retiree fumed at the department’s heavy-handed response.

“It was a political stunt for the city to have the AG there. When it backfired, they sent their fascist pit bulls after guys for exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said. “Most were off-duty and not in FDNY uniform.”

Famed constitutional and criminal law attorney Alan Dershowitz blasted the FDNY’s hunt down.

“Firefighters have an absolute constitutional right to boo the attorney general, and the government has no power to punish them for it,” Dershowitz told The Post. “So efforts to get the names of the booers is an effort by the government to chill free speech and is unconstitutional.”

If moonbattery-addled New York State were its own country, it would be North Korea, except with diversity and sexual perversion. But then, maybe it is already no longer part of the USA, which would explain why the US Constitution does not seem to apply there.

On tips from R F and . . . indistinker™.

We can stop worrying about the possibility of the USA succumbing to tyranny. Now is the time to figure out how to get out from under it now that it is here. As expected, Biden’s weaponized FBI has dragged off Blaze reporter Steve Baker in handcuffs for undermining Democrats’ January 6 narrative.

This is what tyranny looks like:

After years of Kafkaesque harassment, Baker learned the charges against him for the first time Friday. They are trivial.

The thugs in charge actually made him wear shackles on both wrists and ankles at the courtroom. Now that everyone has gotten the message, Baker has been released for the time being:

It’s not too late to prevent Democrats from consolidating power; otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. But it will be too late soon if the persecution of Steve Baker flies.

On a tip from Mr. Freemarket.

They want to take away bacon, eggs, coffee, hot showers, and even toilets. Still we tolerate moonbat rule. Maybe there will be pushback now that the Biden Regime is targeting water:

Without so much as a whisper of pushback from Congress, the White House is bulldozing forward with a regulatory proposal that could cost the average household up to $10,000 extra in water costs.

The pretext for tightening the garrote another notch is regulation of polyfluoroalkyl substances a.k.a. PFAS. The authoritarian WHO recommends governments limit them to 100 parts per trillion. That’s not good enough for Biden’s EPA…

… which is trying to reduce its advisory limit of 70 ppt to a hard limit of 4 ppt for two prevalent types of PFAS, PFOA and PFOS, for all drinking water.

As Democrats consolidate power through the regulatory state, America will make the smothering nanny states of Australasia look free by comparison:

The new standard would be 4% of the WHO’s recommendation and less than one-tenth of 1% of that of Australia and New Zealand.

Typically of Biden policies, this will cost us — as much as $11,150 per year for a household, according to a Black & Veatch report commissioned by the American Water Works Association.

No worries. Biden can just print money to subsidize water, then pass it out on the basis of membership in favored identity groups.

For perspective,

The EPA limits arsenic in water at 10 parts per billion and cyanide at 200 parts per billion. Thus the EPA is asking that taxpayers pay tens of billions of dollars to bring the prevalence of some plastics to a level less than a fraction of a percent of what we allow for literal poisons.

The arbitrary limits proposed may be absurd from the perspective of public health. But with Democrats, the issue is never the issue. The issue is always increasing their power.

On a tip from R F.

When it comes to identity groups favored by the liberal establishment, membership has its privileges — including Get Out of Jail Free cards for perverts who molest babies.

Readers may recall a guy calling himself “Maria Childers,” who was arrested for sexually abusing babies at his daycare center job. The Explore Learning Academy was apparently aware of his behavior but kept him on, presumably out of fear of transgressing against a sacred transsexual. His kid glove treatment continues:

Judge Joseph Roark handed Childers a 12-month penalty, but withheld sentencing and imposed a conditional discharge for 6 months.

If Childers abides by the conditions set by the court during the 6-month period, he will not serve any prison time at all, and may not even receive a criminal record.

Childers was represented by transsexual activist lawyer Madison Leach…

…a male who began identifying as a “woman” seven years ago, was the first openly transgender candidate to seek public office in western Kentucky when he ran as a Democrat for the Calloway County attorney seat.

Just as the law goes easy on favored transsexuals, it may soon come down hard on those who fail to affirm their sexual psychosis:

[T]he Anti-Defamation League, “the leading anti-hate organization in the world,” is specifically pushing law enforcement to scrutinize viral dissenters against transgender ideology, such as The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh and The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo. …

Walsh has particularly drawn the attention of gender ideologists through his “What is A Woman” documentary and his exposés of the hospitals and medical professionals across the U.S. who perform experimental transgender medical interventions on children and young people. …

“Democrats (and the ADL is just an activist arm of the Democrat Party of course) clearly want to use force to shut down speech that threatens their narrative,” Walsh said. “We’ve been moving in that direction for some time. I expect that if Biden wins re-election we will start to see, in the next year or two, outspoken conservatives getting fined and arrested on the grounds of ‘hate speech,’ etc.”

As leftists consolidate power, those who speak up for decency will go to jail, as child molesters run free. This is known in liberal circles as “progress.”

On tips from ABC of the ANC, Ed McAninch, and Heckrules.

When UK police cracked down on the English flag because it is racist, Not the Bee wondered whether they would also come after the Union Jack, which is based on it. Looks like we have the answer:

Extended video, via Blazing Cat Fur:

In the UK as in the USA, the government is at war with the country it rules. Hence the systematic displacement of the respective native populations via mass Third World immigration.

On a tip from Brian Brandt.

As Canada slides deeper into totalitarianism, the liberals in charge are ever less willing to tolerate dissidents like clinical psychologist, professor emeritus, and online educator Jordan Peterson. Mary Anastasia O’Grady sounds the alarm:

According to Ontario court documents, he’s been the subject of complaints since 2018 about his public statements “on topics of social and political interest, including transgender questions, racism, overpopulation, and the response to COVID-19, among others.” The complainers—none of whom seem ever to have been his patients—mainly tweeted their objections to the provincial licensing board known as the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

Ostensibly,

The board’s job is to regulate for competence, not for political views.

However, the board is part of the liberal establishment. That means its true primary purpose is to impose leftism.

In March 2020, the board warned Peterson about his “manner and tone.” Then…

In August 2022 the board wrote to Mr. Peterson on behalf of its panel of investigators about his “demeaning, degrading and unprofessional” public statements and the “harm” they could cause people. He could solve the problem, the bureaucrats said, if he would agree to attend a re-education camp of its choosing.

Peterson’s allegedly problematic manner and tone are generally thoughtful and professorial. But he is no coward. He declined to submit to demeaning political indoctrination. The board proclaimed that this refusal “may constitute professional misconduct.”

Canadian courts sided with the board, meaning that he might lose his professional credentials over thoughtcrime like this:

Court documents cite instances of name-calling politicians and his refusal to use pronouns other than those that correspond to biological sex. In May 2022, court documents say, “he commented on a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover with a plus-sized model, tweeting: ‘Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.’”

Liberals helpfully underscored his point by attempting to silence him.

The establishment’s main problem with Peterson is not that he is an articulate opponent of its ideology, but that he is unwilling to cower in submission.

This makes him a problem for the mob and a danger to a system that relies on cultural repression to advance its agenda.

In a free society, even those who disagree with Peterson would acknowledge his right to his opinion. Canada — the moribund canary in the coalmine of moonbattery — is not a free society.

On a tip from Varla.

Dark Brandon is back, as ominous as when he posed in front of Marines under blood-red lighting to theatrically otherize his opposition. Watch as he defiles Valley Forge by boasting about the tyranny his regime has inflicted:

Brandon refers to the violence that allegedly occurred on the most sacred date of the progressive calendar, January 6, when a protest against election fraud got out of hand in a way that Democrats were able to exploit. One person was killed: an unarmed 5’2″ protester named Ashli Babbitt, who was shot in cold blood by Capitol Hill police officer Michael Byrd. Byrd received no punishment and has been coddled by the establishment media.

By choosing Valley Forge to crow about political prisoners, Biden’s handlers are deliberately poking American patriots in the eye.

This goes beyond irony to the vicious gloating of bullies who think they can’t be stopped:

Biden on Friday said “Democracy is on the ballot,” after Democrats tried to remove his political opponent, former President Donald Trump, from several state ballots.

For the first time in memory, Biden read the truth off his teleprompter:

“America, as we begin this election year, we must be clear: democracy is on the ballot,” Biden said at Valley Forge. “Your freedom is on the ballot.”

He gave the finger in the eye an extra twist:

Biden turned to the crowd and said, grinning, “I understand power.”

If Biden understands anything, that’s it. But he and his handlers may be too arrogant to understand how to hold onto it.

On a tip from Anonymous.

It may be hard to feel sorry for Southwest Airlines after it obsequiously caved to the newest Cultural Marxist crybully contingent at the expense of normal passengers. But this is tyranny:

Southwest Airlines has been hit with a $140 million civil penalty for its December 2022 service disruptions, the Department of Transportation said Monday.

As if Southwest hasn’t suffered enough:

Southwest is still reeling from last year’s debacle that cost nearly $1.2 billion between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first two months of 2023.

Pete Buttigieg, who was appointed Transportation Secretary as a reward for being noisily homosexual, decided to hurt the company some more. He barks:

“Today’s action sets a new precedent and sends a clear message: If airlines fail their passengers, we will use the full extent of our authority to hold them accountable.”

Translation: If you incur our wrath for whatever reason — or if we find it expedient to make an example out of you — we will hurt you bad.

The Federal Behemoth grabs still more of other people’s money:

The fine includes a $35 million payment directly to the government…

That should cover about 30 seconds of interest on the national debt.

Southwest has already paid more than $600 million in refunds and reimbursements to affected travelers and is expected to pay $750 million in compensatory damages.

Whatever lesson could be learned has been learned. But teaching it some more provides Big Government an opportunity to flex its growing muscles.

Southwest’s crime:

The airline had canceled nearly 17,000 flights scheduled between Dec. 21 and Dec. 29, affecting nearly 2 million customers, as a winter storm halted operations across major airports, overwhelming its scheduling crew.

Southwest had already taken steps to prevent it from happening again. But when they are down is a convenient time to kick people.

Identity politics has worked out well for Pete Buttigieg. Just a few years ago, he was the mediocre mayor of a minor city. Now he is unelected judge, jury, and executioner. Other airlines had better be very nice to Mayor Pete.

On a tip from Franco.

The FBI had better monitor the conflict between pederasts and lesbians. If the L gets ejected from LGBTetc, the agency must stand ready to issue another official statement:

An email reportedly from the bureau’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion to all FBI employees was leaked online.

“The FBI has officially adopted the LGBTQIA+ acronym in place of LGBT+. This change was proposed by Bureau Equality, one of our nine Diversity Advisory Committees, and approved by FBI executive management to help promote a more welcoming workplace for members of our LGBTQIA+ community,” read the email.

Eight Diversity Advisory Committees wouldn’t be enough for the agency tasked with imposing leftist ideology on a nation of 333 million.

The email went on to explain what each part of the LGBTQIA+ acronym meant.

The Deep State cares deeply about promoting sexual perversion. Even so, it struggles to keep pace with the personification of moonbattery, Justin Trudeau:

Trudeau was mocked online after he began using the even more inclusive acronym, 2SLGBTQQIA+.

You can see why the FBI requires a massive new headquarters twice the size of the Pentagon. If it has fallen behind Canada, it must need to hire more leftist bureauweenies — though it already has impressive reach:

The email from the FBI claimed that more than 30 federal agencies were to use the expanded acronym, including the Department of Justice.

The repurposing of the FBI as an enforcement arm of the Democratic Party has not gone unnoticed by the people it stands ready to terrorize:

Only 37 percent of registered voters held a positive view of the FBI, almost as many as said they had a negative view (35 percent). Furthermore, only 17 percent of Republicans polled held a positive view, compared with 56 percent negative. This was a stark change from 2018, when the bureau held a 52 percent positive rating with just 18 percent of registered voters viewing it negatively.

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. Already the FBI has been spying on Catholics, intimidating parents who speak up at school board meetings, and siccing SWAT teams on prolife activists. It needs to be disbanded before it has finished transforming into an American KGB.

On a tip from WDS 2.0.

Imagine living under tyrants who not only forbid you to speak the truth but who demand that you state indisputable lies in violation of your conscience. That will be America if the American “Civil Liberties” Union has its way. Fortunately, this malevolent organization has suffered a setback in Virginia in the case of Vlaming v. West Point School Board:

Peter Vlaming was a high school French teacher with six years of experience and consistently positive evaluations. The school board fired him, however, when he refused to refer to a biological female by the male pronouns she preferred, even though Vlaming readily referred to her by her self-chosen, male-sounding name and did not use pronouns at all.

Refraining from calling her “her” wasn’t good enough. Vlaming was commanded to kneel before the Alphabet Mob by actively calling her “him.”

Even though Vlaming explained that his religious beliefs precluded him from calling a biological girl a boy, the board would not relent. It said that Vlaming was not only forbidden to use pronouns that contradicted the student’s chosen “identity” but that he had no right to avoid pronouns altogether.

So they fired him.

And when he filed suit saying that his free speech and free exercise of religion rights were violated, the ACLU filed a brief against him.

In open hostility to basic civil rights, the ACLU proclaimed that it constitutes “discrimination” for him not to reject his faith and biological reality to cater to her deranged if trendy whims.

This time there was a happy ending:

The Virginia Supreme Court rightly swatted down both the school board and the ACLU. It ruled that the school board had violated both the Virginia state constitution and the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Our sense is that if this case had been in federal courts, the board also would have been found in violation of the well-established prohibition of “compelled speech,” as the right not to speak is as equally protected by the First Amendment as the right to speak freely.

Let’s hope so. But the longer Democrats are in a position to place leftist apparatchiks on the bench, the less likely this is to be the case.

The ACLU reminds us that moonbats know they are wrong, or they would not talk in Orwellian euphemisms. If killing your offspring in the womb is good, why call it “reproductive healthcare”? If sex change surgery is good, why call it “gender-affirming care”? If bigotry against whites, men, and Christians is good, why call it “inclusion”? If tyranny is good, why call it “civil liberties”?

On a tip from Blackjack.