12/18/17 Overnight links

USA Today: Surveillance cams, face scans help China make thousands vanish .Ed: this is the ultimate function of total surveillance, not as a crime-fighting tool but as one of population control.

NBC News: A teen sexting case revealed how judges let police invade children’s privacy

Brinkwire: Want to live in a futuristic smart city today? Take a cruise.

ABC News: Once-secret, now-closed $22 million UFO program confirmed by Pentagon

Daily Mail: Bitcoin mining is causing electricity blackouts

National Review: The lost art of privacy

Forbes: California’s $15 minimum wage will cost the state 400,000 jobs Ed: Why does anyone still support the idea of a minimum wage in the face of the evidence?

Techdirt: Cop shuts off dashcam during drug dog sniff.  Appeals Court: This is fine.

The Guardian: Wikileaks recognized as a “media organization” by UK tribunal

Activist Post: OKC musician arrested, strip-searched, and thrown in jail for singing without a license

Townhall: Freak-out, death threats, and…neutrality?

The Federalist: No, lifting ‘Net Neutrality’ doesn’t hurt gay people. “It is unnerving to realize that the leaders of the LGBT movement seem to believe average gay people are utterly dependent on them for seemingly everything.”

ArsTechnica: More haunting declassified scans of nuclear weapons test videos released

The Intercept: J20 defendants await verdict in first test of government attempt to criminalize protest group as a whole

High Times: Is this finally the big moment for hemp?

Reason: The FBI is not your friend

Nautilus: Why your brain hates other people

Author: S. Smith