The Washington Post:

The White House has been briefed on a proposal to develop a way to identify early signs of changes in people with mental illness that could lead to violent behavior.

[ … ]

The proposal is part of a larger initiative to establish a new agency called the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency or HARPA, which would sit inside the Health and Human Services Department. Its director would be appointed by the president, and the agency would have a separate budget, according to three people with knowledge of conversations around the plan.

HARPA would be modeled on DARPA, the highly successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that serves as the research arm of the Pentagon and collaborates with other federal agencies, the private sector and academia.

The attempt to use volunteer data to identify “neurobehavioral signs” of “someone headed toward a violent explosive act” would be a four-year project costing an estimated $40 million to $60 million, according to Geoffrey Ling, the lead scientific adviser on HARPA and a founding director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office.

“Everybody would be a volunteer,” Ling said in an interview. “We’re not inventing new science here. We’re analyzing it so we can develop new approaches.

“This is going to have to be done using scientific rigor,” he said.

But there are plenty of researchers and mental health experts who believe that mental health and gun violence aren’t necessarily linked.

Mental illness can sometimes be a factor in such violent acts, experts say, but it is rarely a predictor — most studies show that no more than a quarter of mass shooters have a diagnosed mental illness. More commonly shared attributes of mass shooters include a strong sense of resentment, desire for notoriety, obsession with other shooters, a history of domestic violence, narcissism and access to firearms.

[ … ]

Wright sees Ivanka Trump as the most effective champion of the proposal and has previously briefed her on HARPA himself, Wright said.

“It would be perfect for her to do it — we need someone with some horsepower — someone like her driving it. … It could get done,” said one official familiar with the conversations. “We’d be able to put every resource of federal government, from the highest levels of the scientific community to say: ‘This is how people with these problems should be treated and have limited access to firearms.’ ”

The document goes on to list a number of widely used technologies it suggests could be employed to help collect data, including Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Google Home. The document also mentions “powerful tools” collected by health-care provides like fMRIs, tractography and image analysis.

“Advanced analytical tools based on artificial intelligence and machine learning are rapidly improving and must be applied to the data,” states the document.

Big brother is watching you.  And listening.  And profiling.  And trying to predict your behavior.

I must remind readers that trying to predict the future is called divination in the Holy Writ, and it is considered wicked because only God ordains and knows the future.  Such actions attempt to place man in the position of God, usurping His authority and knowledge.  It is high-handed sin, shaking your fist at the Almighty.  God will not bless it, and it won’t be used for anything good.

Furthermore, we’ve discussed how “mental illness” bears no correlation to propensity to violence, and it’s bigoted and prejudiced to think that way of people who have been diagnosed as mentally ill.

Finally, turning to something like this might be called Orwellian by some, but I tend to lean more towards witchcraft and sorcery.  Trump has stated unequivocally that people who do this are mentally ill.  He doesn’t know this, and he’s in no position to decide.

But he’s turning to witchcraft for help, really no different than turning to palm readers.  The legacy Trump will leave behind will be bump stock bans, universal background checks, appointment of a controller to head the ATF, and now HARPA.  The communists are watching with jealousy, wishing they could have done this.