Unbeknownst to most people, there appears to be a real attempt to create a system in which all citizens are rationed their “wages” digitally each month in place of a paycheck, including the ability to gain or lose money. This system would see any form of dissent resulting in the cut off of those credits and the ability to work, eat, or even exist in society. It would not only be the end of dissent but of any semblance of real individuality.

The article points out that violating the “social code,” can result in being banned from flying or using the train, using the internet, decent schooling, getting a job, staying in hotels, and having your pet taken away. China is also taking advantage of the mob mentality by branding violators as “bad citizens.” Almost everyone one of these “punishments” have already taken place in China as of the writing of this article and the country has announced its plans to have the system fully in place and functioning by 2020.

While most Americans have scarcely noticed their descent into a police state, they are quick to dismiss the idea that such a system could be implemented in the land they still perceive to be free. However, all the moving parts are in place in the United States. They only need to come together to form the Social Credit System here. And they are coming together. Social media is one important method of judging “social scores.” This is mainly because of the willful posting of social media users on virtually every aspect of their lives. This data is extremely useful to governments who monitor and store the information acquired freely by users who give away the most personal and intimate details of their lives and do so without charge.

Whether it is political opinions, pictures of yourself and your food, or private conversations over Messenger, that data is being sent directly to the corporation and respective governments then have access to that data via a variety of means and they put that data to good use.

“All the participants had earlier filled out a personality questionnaire, and so their Big Five profile was known. The computer then went through the Facebook accounts of these test subjects looking for likes that are often associated with certain personality characteristics,” Luerweg explained. “For example, extroverted users often give a thumbs-up to activities such as ‘partying’ or ‘dancing.’ Users who are especially open may like Spanish painter Salvador Dalí.”

“Then the investigators had the program examine the likes of other Facebook users. If the software had as few as 10 for analysis, it was able to evaluate that person about as well as a co-worker did. Given 70 likes, the algorithm was about as accurate as a friend,” he reported. “With 300, it was more successful than the person’s spouse. Even more astonishing to the researchers, feeding likes into their program enabled them to predict whether someone suffered from depression or took drugs and even to infer what the individual studied in school.”

For the experiment, the researchers asked 14 participants to freely choose between two visual patterns – one of red horizontal stripes and one of green vertical stripes –  before consciously imagining them while being observed in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (fMRI). They were given a maximum of 20 seconds to choose between the patterns. Once they’d made a decision, they pressed a button and had 10 seconds to visualize the pattern as hard as they could. Next, they were asked “what did you imagine?” and “how vivid was it?” They answered these questions by pressing buttons.

The results were unsettling. Scientists were able to predict which pattern people would choose before their thoughts even became conscious.With the assistance of machine learning, the researchers were successful at making above-chance predictions of the participants’ volitional choices at an average of 11 seconds before the thoughts became conscious. This is only part of a growing problem with invasive technology.

Just last month, a team of neuro-engineers at Columbia University reported that they developed a system that can translate people’s thoughts into intelligible, recognizable speech. If you are concerned about how far all of this research is going to go, you aren’t alone.

Oh, and on that note – Facebook is really into the idea of accessing user information directly from their brains. Yes, you read that correctly: Facebook wants to read users’ minds. During a February interview with Harvard law school professor Jonathan Zittrain, CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned a brain-computer interface (it would look similar to a shower cap) the social media behemoth is researching. In response, Zittrain said, “Fifth Amendment implications are staggering.” Zuckerberg’s reply will surprise no one: “Presumably, this would be something that someone would choose to use as a product.” Technology is progressing so rapidly it is difficult to keep up. It sure seems like a dystopian nightmare is approaching.

As with all education reform trends, publishers of textbooks and educational software are eager to profit from public taxpayer dollars, promising products that can measure children’s personality traits and values when they engage in digital platforms.

“Much of this monitoring occurs without the consent of children or their parents,” Pioneer Institute states. “Some software – especially for video gaming – goes beyond assessing traits, and aims to encourage the production of students who are well suited for a workforce development-centered education.” Effrem, a pediatrician, says the combination of digital technology and the vague SEL concepts “will further spread the recent wave of amateur, unqualified psychoanalysis in schools.”

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, S. 311, failed, 53-44, with the requirement of a 60-vote supermajority for approval, and only Democrats voting against it. Perkins continued that “the optics are nauseating” for Merkley. “Here he is, arguing that America ‘must stop killing kittens,’ when, three weeks ago, he stood in the U.S. Capitol and agreed with 43 Democrats that human beings should be put down,” he said, zoning in particularly on Merkley’s urging that the kittens be “adopted” rather than killed.

“They should be treated and adopted?” Perkins asked. “That’s exactly what Americans have requested for living, breathing babies.” Perkins, however, pointed out how Democrats were not alarmed at the cruelty displayed toward human babies born alive after abortion. “Democrats said no,” he said. “Killing a child is a ‘personal decision,’ they said, and Congress shouldn’t get in the way.”

The narrative of “collusion” between President Donald Trump and the Russian state was manufactured by “the swamp” in order to protect the powers of its people, said Jarrett. “The swamp needs to be drained,” Jarrett declared. “By the way, that was the motivation behind this collusion hoax."

"The swamp, which had been in control the last eight years under the Obama administration, viewed Trump as a threat. He threatened to drain the swamp and the swamp didn’t want to be drained. There’s nothing in Washington that will motivate you more than the threat of losing power, and that’s why they cleared Hillary Clinton in this scheme and sought to frame Donald Trump.”

All along her frontbench are colleagues just waiting for her to go, so they can take her job and move into her Downing Street home. On her backbenches are MPs who shamelessly boast to journalists their fantasies about putting her in a “noose” and “knifing her in the front”. She is derided, she is hated, she is the target for some of the most outrageous abuse ever to be heaped on a 62-year-old woman from Eastbourne.

In a democracy intent on beating itself up, Theresa May has become the nation’s punchbag. On radio phone-ins, the callers pour bile upon her. On TV sofas, pundits speculate about how many days she has left at No 10. When she isn’t attracting derision, she attracts something arguably worse for a politician: pity. Her voice has gone and, the theory goes, soon she will follow.

But something more profound is going on here. The UK is in the middle of a crisis of governability. This is a country in mutinous mood. The factors driving that are complex: austerity, decades of the deliberate hollowing out of nations and regions, a form of capitalism that has lost much of its sense of responsibility and institutional counterweight. But the result is clear: whoever was governing now – however gifted in thought or word or deed – would find the task close to impossible. It just so happens that May is also especially bad at it.

Britain has spent 40-plus years arrogating more and more power to its centre – and now its centre has no idea of how to wield that power. That I think is the fundamental political and economic crisis we face today. By all means, revile May. But don’t kid yourself that her successor will do any better.

If more rockets are fired at Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot afford to look weak because that could cost him a lot of votes in this very tight election.  But he must walk a very fine line, because a military response that is seen as too harsh could potentially spark a major regional conflict. If Hamas doesn’t fire any more rockets, this will probably be the end of it for now. But with Hamas, things are never truly over.

Meanwhile, Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah in the north. In recent days, Israel has been dealing with massive tunnels that Hezbollah has constructed for the purpose of rapidly moving military forces into northern Israel. So far, five tunnels have been discovered, but there are probably a lot more. Hezbollah’s leadership continues to threaten Israel with a new war, and it has been estimated that they have built up an arsenal of approximately 150,000 missiles for the next conflict.

Israel is roughly the same size as New Jersey.  Just imagine what would happen if 150,000 missiles were suddenly fired at towns and cities all over New Jersey, and you will have some idea of what Israel is potentially facing. And then there is Syria.  After eight years of civil war, you would think that Syria would have had enough fighting by now. Unfortunately, as I pointed out in a previous article, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just threatened to attack Israel if the Israelis do not leave the Golan Heights. 

And Iran appears to be eager for a fight too.  A few weeks ago, a top Iranian general threatened to completely wipe Israel off the map… Asked by a reporter in Tehran about Israeli threats to strike Iranian forces deployed in Syria, Brigadier General Hossein Salami was quoted by Iranian news outlets as saying, “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map." Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are all fundamentally committed to the complete and total destruction of the state of Israel and nothing is going to change that.  War is coming at some point, and it is going to be extremely bloody.