Tag Archives: Fascism

Congress approves surveillance legislation tucked into budget package

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“Congress on Friday adopted a $1.15 trillion spending package that included a controversial cybersecurity measure that only passed because it was slipped into the US government’s budget legislation.  House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican of Wisconsin, inserted the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) into the bill. The CISA part of the spending package gives corporate America legal immunity when sharing consumers’ private data about hacks and digital breaches with the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS can then funnel that information to other agencies, including the NSA and FBI, which can use that information for surveillance purposes.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/congress-approves-surveillance-legislation-tucked-into-budget-package/

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Mandatory Meningitis Vaccine Bill Author Caught Taking $420k From Big Pharma

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“State Senator Kemp Hannon, Chair of the New York Senate Health Committee, and author of the recently passed law that will require all seventh and twelfth graders in the state to get meningitis shots, has been caught with his hand in the pot, according to the New York Daily News: specifically, the pharma pot. And to no small sum, mind you. His investments in pharmaceutical and health companies is at $100,000 while it is also being alleged that he has received more than $400,000 from the same interest groups.”

http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/12/author-of-mandatory-meningitis-vaccine-bill-caught-taking-420k-from-big-pharma/

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A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone

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“The catalogue includes details on the Stingray, a well-known brand of surveillance gear, as well as Boeing ‘dirt boxes’ and dozens of more obscure devices that can be mounted on vehicles, drones, and piloted aircraft. Some are designed to be used at static locations, while others can be discreetly carried by an individual. They have names like Cyberhawk, Yellowstone, Blackfin, Maximus, Cyclone, and Spartacus. Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another was developed for a special forces requirement. Nearly a third of the entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in public before.”

https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-government-gear-for-spying-on-your-cellphone/

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Congress adds contested cybersecurity measures to ‘must-pass’ spending bill

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“Congress added some of the most controversial parts of the latest cybersecurity bill to its gigantic end-of-year ‘must-pass’ omnibus spending package, including mandatory sharing of any consumer data it collects with the Internal Revenue Service, FBI and the National Security Agency.  Civil liberties experts said they were dismayed that Congress had used the late-night bill to pass some of the most invasive parts of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (Cisa).  Language that would have prevented consumer financial data from being shared directly with the NSA, for example, is not in the final version of the bill.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/16/congress-cybersecurity-information-sharing-cisa-spending-bill

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America’s New Female Combatants Are Getting Custom Gear

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“The Army started issuing a female version of the Improved Outer Tactical Vest in Afghanistan in 2012. The vest is darted, to fit a woman’s torso more snugly. It’s also shorter, so women can sit without having the thing ride up into their chins. It even has a collar designed so it won’t snag on a hair bun. Similarly, the Marine Corps’ Plate Carrier (a vest that holds armor plates) is shorter, with narrower straps.  Still, this is about much more than making everything smaller. Another critical class of gear protects the pelvis. The Army developed seven sizes of its female-specific Protective Under Garmets to better fit a woman’s hips. Also, no fly.  Another critical class of gear protects the pelvis.”

http://www.wired.com/2015/12/women-combat-roles-gear/

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Hillary Clinton: Stop helping terrorists, Silicon Valley – weaken encryption

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“Part of the problem, according to Clinton, is a tech sector that has become resistant to government efforts to pressure it into introducing backdoors into its products. Said Clinton: ‘So we need Silicon Valley not to view government as its adversary. We need to challenge our best minds in the private sector to work with our best minds in the public sector to develop solutions that will both keep us safe and protect our privacy. Now is the time to solve this problem, not after the next attack.’  Clinton’s thoughts were echoed in an editorial Friday by the Washington Post in which the paper also argued that tech companies needed to work with government to find solutions to encrypted communication.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/20/clinton_silicon_valley/

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Private debt collection of federal taxes

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“Included in this bill (H.R. 22) is a provision that will require the IRS to outsource the collection of certain tax debts to private collection agencies.  Any funds collected by these private collection agencies will not be paid into the coffers of the federal government (at least not immediately). Instead, they go into a special fund. Out of this fund, the private debt collection agencies are able to be paid up to 25% of what they collect, based on their contracts with the IRS. Another 25% is to be used by the IRS to hire new Revenue Officers for local collection efforts and to hire new collections personnel for the automated collection system (ACS).”

https://www.irsmedic.com/2015/12/04/the-irs-and-your-passport/

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Jeffrey Tucker: The Eff Word Goes Mainstream

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“Trump is clearly not pushing himself as a traditional American president, heading an executive branch and working with Congress and the judicial branch. He imagines himself as running to head a personal state: his will would be the one will for the country. He has no real reform plans beyond putting himself in charge, not only of the government but, as he imagines, the entire country. It’s a difference of substance that is very serious. The rest of the campaign has been easy to predict. He refashioned himself as pro-family, anti-PC, and even pro-religion. The key to understanding fascism is this: it preserves the despotic ambitions of socialism while removing its most politically unpopular elements.”

https://tucker.liberty.me/the-eff-word-goes-mainstream/

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Department of Homeland Security Giving Firms Free Penetration Tests

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“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been quietly launching stealthy cyber attacks against a range of private U.S. companies — mostly banks and energy firms. These digital intrusion attempts, commissioned in advance by the private sector targets themselves, are part of a little-known program at DHS designed to help ‘critical infrastructure’ companies shore up their computer and network defenses against real-world adversaries. And it’s all free of charge (well, on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime).  According to data provided by DHS, the majority of the program’s private sector participation come from the energy and financial services industries.”

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/12/dhs-giving-firms-free-penetration-tests/

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Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions [2014]

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“After examining 14 million records, including data on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, federal budget allocations and spending, we found that, on average, for every dollar spent on influencing politics, the nation’s most politically active corporations received $760 from the government. The $4.4 trillion total represents two-thirds of the $6.5 trillion that individual taxpayers paid into the federal treasury.  Welcome to the world of ‘Fixed Fortunes,’ a seemingly closed universe where the most persistent and savvy political players not so mysteriously have the ability to attract federal dollars regardless of who is running Washington.”

https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/11/17/fixed-fortunes-biggest-corporate-political-interests-spend-billions-get-trillions/

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