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There’s a lot of local US candidates running this year on pushing back on the federal government. Realistically there’s not a ton that can be done at the level

There’s a lot of local US candidates running this year on pushing back on the federal government. Realistically there’s not a ton that can be done at the level of a mayor or even state senator. However removing local passive surveillance is something that can make a genuine impact. I’d love to see people running on banning red light/license plate cameras and other passive surveillance tools. If the data is never collected it can’t be abused.

throwaway5752 5mo ago
Realistically there’s not a ton that can be done at the level of a mayor or even state senator I wish people wouldn't say that, it's not the case. First, pushback requires equivalent effort. If 10,000 towns are uncooperative because 10,000 mayors resist this, the amount of political power to overcome this is incredibly large. The mayors can delay or cancel projects with uncooperative or malicious vendors. They can slow down approvals. This administration and the powers that want this espionage power understand this, which is why they target downstream races, school boards, and sheriff positions. Second, a state senator is much, much more powerful than you give them credit. There are usually much fewer of them than members of the US House or Senate, so they individually more voting power. They can substantially influence state politics, and it is magnified with majorities and committees. Third, resources are pooled and parties coordinate, so starving them of influence, which is root of all their funding, is key to voting undemocratic parties out of office. Don't believe what you read about politics online. It is made for modern, shallow consumption. Little races matter. You can make a large difference by participating directly, too. You don't even have to make a scene about it in your platform. Just run, be boring, win, and talk with your votes.
- dangus 5mo ago
  One major example is how Chicago Public Schools has a non-cooperation policy and a policy to refuse warrantless access to school property for ICE agents. The school district also refuses to consider immigration status as a prerequisite to enrollment in the school system. This is a huge deal since any state or local school district could decide to do the exact opposite. This makes nearly every minor inaccessible to immigration enforcement officers during business hours.
  - throwaway5752 5mo ago
    Absolutely. Run for the HOA board, run for the school board, run for the town council. Write a letter. Show up to a town hall meeting. Everything makes a difference and people here are more than sufficiently qualified. We have lots of software developers being laid off. An elected position serves as resume filler, too. You'd be shocked what a difference you can make when you try a little.
    - rightbyte 5mo ago
      Ye I more or less got scared with how fast you gain real influence as a local politician by just showing up to some party meetings. I thought there would be a longer vetting period but it is like "oh you breath and don't cite opposing party lines too often we will nominate you for this and this and ...".
      - dangus 5mo ago
        It’s also kind of a beautiful thing. Our government is actually run by those who care enough to sign up to do it. There are nonpartisa and partisan resources out there that encourage people to just run for something. On the negative side, I think there’s a lot that is bad about participating in government often being thankless and financially impractical to anyone that isn’t already funded by donors and backers.
        rightbyte 5mo ago
        Ye it is kinda beautiful just not how I imagined. I thought there would be barriers for randoms like me. But that does not seem to be a problem where I live at all. I was unwarrantedly cynical about the political system, locally. YMMV.
- Forgeties79 5mo ago
  to add to this, if local governments refuse to install the hardware that the federal government wants to tap into, then there’s nothing for them to tap into. It’s a lot harder for the federal government to go around placing all these tools around the country than it is for them to simply vacuum up what is already there. If anybody wants to see the power of controlling local government and its upstream impact, look no further than mom’s for liberty and their assault on school boards nationwide.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
- throwaway85825 5mo ago
  [flagged]
dangus 5mo ago
This is also why car dependent infrastructure is a bad thing for Americans’ freedom. You have more civil rights as a pedestrian than you do in a licensed motor vehicle.
- ww520 5mo ago
  Facial and gait recognition tech make the pedestrian vs car point moot.
  - dangus 5mo ago
    Sure, but being identified is only part of the issue. It’s also about the quantity of rights you have in a vehicle versus outside of one.
    - cucumber3732842 5mo ago
      >It’s also about the quantity of rights you have in a vehicle versus outside of one. And who's fault is that? The government could decide tomorrow that driving confers implied consent for them to quarter soldiers in your home and a huge chunk of people would defend it because those people just don't like cars and want to see the users screwed at every turn in order to make other things comparatively less worse. Of course they won't tell you that because they know they're in the wrong so they'll use the pretext that driving is a privilege not a right, public safety etc. etc. Look at the discussion about ebikes. At first iw as all "look how cool and great and free of downsides these are". Now the discussion is all "those darned kids and poors are dangerous" and "nobody needs to go more than 20mph". Give it 10yr and you'll be forced to by insurance for them too. Vehicles are regulated how they are and you have less rights to the extent you do specifically because people 50-70yr ago wrung their hands about them until laws were passed, just like we're doing to ebikes now.
- engineer_22 5mo ago
  Pedestrians are limited to a ~20 mile radius. Travelling further, without a car, then requires use of public transportation and by using public transportation depending where you are you have implied consent to being searched "for safety". Acknowledging civil asset forfeiture is a problem in some jurisdictions, private automobiles still provide a greater expectation of privacy than public modes of transport.
engineer_22 5mo ago
This might seem cynical, but it appears to me the uniparty has already decided it wants a total surveillance state. Having achieved total coverage of the observable domestic cyber realm, the next objective is a physical layer. Anyone arguing against it is a terrorist sympathizer or has criminal intent. This is for the safety of the homeland, after all.
xnx 5mo ago
> I’d love to see people running on banning red light/license plate cameras Not me. We've become way too soft on vehicle crime which is often tied to other crimes. I'd love to see a lot more automated enforcement: speeding, red light running, shoulder riding, missing or fake tags, noise violations, car emissions, etc.
- sitzkrieg 5mo ago
  that’s great but these plate readers have nothing to do with that.
- c22 5mo ago
  How do you perform automated enforcement of missing or fake tags?
  - xnx 5mo ago
    2 options come to mind, neither perfect: 1) My city already has ALPR vans for finding parking ticket scofflaws. Expand use of those finds to find cars with expired, fake, or missing plates. Boot or tow the cars. 2) Use toolbooths to identify cars with expired, fake, or missing plates. Patrol cars at the ready to pull them over.

throwaway5752 5mo ago

Realistically there’s not a ton that can be done at the level of a mayor or even state senator I wish people wouldn't say that, it's not the case. First, pushback requires equivalent effort. If 10,000 towns are uncooperative because 10,000 mayors resist this, the amount of political power to overcome this is incredibly large. The mayors can delay or cancel projects with uncooperative or malicious vendors. They can slow down approvals. This administration and the powers that want this espionage power understand this, which is why they target downstream races, school boards, and sheriff positions. Second, a state senator is much, much more powerful than you give them credit. There are usually much fewer of them than members of the US House or Senate, so they individually more voting power. They can substantially influence state politics, and it is magnified with majorities and committees. Third, resources are pooled and parties coordinate, so starving them of influence, which is root of all their funding, is key to voting undemocratic parties out of office. Don't believe what you read about politics online. It is made for modern, shallow consumption. Little races matter. You can make a large difference by participating directly, too. You don't even have to make a scene about it in your platform. Just run, be boring, win, and talk with your votes.

dangus 5mo ago
One major example is how Chicago Public Schools has a non-cooperation policy and a policy to refuse warrantless access to school property for ICE agents. The school district also refuses to consider immigration status as a prerequisite to enrollment in the school system. This is a huge deal since any state or local school district could decide to do the exact opposite. This makes nearly every minor inaccessible to immigration enforcement officers during business hours.
- throwaway5752 5mo ago
  Absolutely. Run for the HOA board, run for the school board, run for the town council. Write a letter. Show up to a town hall meeting. Everything makes a difference and people here are more than sufficiently qualified. We have lots of software developers being laid off. An elected position serves as resume filler, too. You'd be shocked what a difference you can make when you try a little.
  - rightbyte 5mo ago
    Ye I more or less got scared with how fast you gain real influence as a local politician by just showing up to some party meetings. I thought there would be a longer vetting period but it is like "oh you breath and don't cite opposing party lines too often we will nominate you for this and this and ...".
    - dangus 5mo ago
      It’s also kind of a beautiful thing. Our government is actually run by those who care enough to sign up to do it. There are nonpartisa and partisan resources out there that encourage people to just run for something. On the negative side, I think there’s a lot that is bad about participating in government often being thankless and financially impractical to anyone that isn’t already funded by donors and backers.
      - rightbyte 5mo ago
        Ye it is kinda beautiful just not how I imagined. I thought there would be barriers for randoms like me. But that does not seem to be a problem where I live at all. I was unwarrantedly cynical about the political system, locally. YMMV.
Forgeties79 5mo ago
to add to this, if local governments refuse to install the hardware that the federal government wants to tap into, then there’s nothing for them to tap into. It’s a lot harder for the federal government to go around placing all these tools around the country than it is for them to simply vacuum up what is already there. If anybody wants to see the power of controlling local government and its upstream impact, look no further than mom’s for liberty and their assault on school boards nationwide.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
throwaway85825 5mo ago
[flagged]

dangus 5mo ago

This is also why car dependent infrastructure is a bad thing for Americans’ freedom. You have more civil rights as a pedestrian than you do in a licensed motor vehicle.

ww520 5mo ago
Facial and gait recognition tech make the pedestrian vs car point moot.
- dangus 5mo ago
  Sure, but being identified is only part of the issue. It’s also about the quantity of rights you have in a vehicle versus outside of one.
  - cucumber3732842 5mo ago
    >It’s also about the quantity of rights you have in a vehicle versus outside of one. And who's fault is that? The government could decide tomorrow that driving confers implied consent for them to quarter soldiers in your home and a huge chunk of people would defend it because those people just don't like cars and want to see the users screwed at every turn in order to make other things comparatively less worse. Of course they won't tell you that because they know they're in the wrong so they'll use the pretext that driving is a privilege not a right, public safety etc. etc. Look at the discussion about ebikes. At first iw as all "look how cool and great and free of downsides these are". Now the discussion is all "those darned kids and poors are dangerous" and "nobody needs to go more than 20mph". Give it 10yr and you'll be forced to by insurance for them too. Vehicles are regulated how they are and you have less rights to the extent you do specifically because people 50-70yr ago wrung their hands about them until laws were passed, just like we're doing to ebikes now.
engineer_22 5mo ago
Pedestrians are limited to a ~20 mile radius. Travelling further, without a car, then requires use of public transportation and by using public transportation depending where you are you have implied consent to being searched "for safety". Acknowledging civil asset forfeiture is a problem in some jurisdictions, private automobiles still provide a greater expectation of privacy than public modes of transport.

engineer_22 5mo ago

This might seem cynical, but it appears to me the uniparty has already decided it wants a total surveillance state. Having achieved total coverage of the observable domestic cyber realm, the next objective is a physical layer. Anyone arguing against it is a terrorist sympathizer or has criminal intent. This is for the safety of the homeland, after all.

xnx 5mo ago

> I’d love to see people running on banning red light/license plate cameras Not me. We've become way too soft on vehicle crime which is often tied to other crimes. I'd love to see a lot more automated enforcement: speeding, red light running, shoulder riding, missing or fake tags, noise violations, car emissions, etc.

sitzkrieg 5mo ago
that’s great but these plate readers have nothing to do with that.
c22 5mo ago
How do you perform automated enforcement of missing or fake tags?
- xnx 5mo ago
  2 options come to mind, neither perfect: 1) My city already has ALPR vans for finding parking ticket scofflaws. Expand use of those finds to find cars with expired, fake, or missing plates. Boot or tow the cars. 2) Use toolbooths to identify cars with expired, fake, or missing plates. Patrol cars at the ready to pull them over.