Chicago Tribune: DHS detects possible cellphone surveillance in Washington DC and doesn’t know who’s doing it

Axios: Microsoft and DOJ say Supreme Court privacy case is pointless

Army Times: Some Wisconsin police are returning military vehicles

USA Today: After the FBI’s Pulse nightclub failure, why should we trust James Comey anymore?

Motherboard: Which tech giant will build a revenge porn database?

LA Times: Serving in the military doesn’t make you special

The Intercept: How John Bolton wants to destroy the Constitution to attack North Korea

National Review: Oklahoma’s education disaster

FEE: EPA’s lack of transparency is a breeding ground for junk science

Sciencemag: Viking seafarers may have navigated with legendary crystals

Wall Street Journal: Artificial intelligence could soon enhance real-time police surveillance

WSWS: Palantir Technologies: A “CIA-backed start-up”

Gotta get your story straight Techdirt: Attorney general says Texas cops can view all the camera footage they want before being questioned

Volokh: Has the “Libertarian Moment” passed?

The Federalist: Why giant high schools just can’t help messed-up kids

High Times: The 6 most ridiculous anti-weed PSAs

Motherboard: Watch this robot bat fly into your nightmares

TechRadar: Amazon Echo and Google Home patents show the power they have to compromise your privacy

Axios: What your smart devices are listening for

Motherboard: Mass surveillance memes show our collective anxiety over government spying

The Verge: Badly implemented AI could “jeopardize democracy”, says French President Macron

ACLU: 8 questions members of Congress should ask Mark Zuckerberg

Reason: The spending bill brings us closer to national bankruptcy

The Federalist: What I saw at a college administrators’ conference will make you laugh and cry

FEE: The ongoing implosion of Venezuelan socialism

Activist Post: Study links glyphosate herbicide to shorter pregnancies

NPR: Is humanity unusual in the cosmos?

RealClearScience: Why prime numbers fascinate mathematicians

CNET: Cloudfare’s 1.1.1.1.: The new privacy tool that would speed up your internet, too

Business Insider: US seeks end to Supreme Court privacy battle with Microsoft on overseas data

Ars Technica: Trump admin wants to track 14 million U.S. visitors’ social media history

The Times: Privacy fears as Scottish police use spy tools to break into mobile phones

Techdirt: French government looking to copy Germany’s disastrous anti-hate speech laws

TechCrunch: DARPA wants new ideas for autonomous drone swarms

Quartz: Musk and Zuckerberg are fighting over whether we rule technology…or it rules us

ProPublica: John Bolton skewed intelligence, say people who worked for him

Antiwar.com: If John Bolton is right, then Pearl Harbor was perfectly legal

Alternet: Weapons for anyone: Donald Trump and the art of the arms deal

BoingBoing: Watch countless American news anchors mindlessly “report” the same script

Washington Post: Trump may not intend  to start a war, but he sure could bumble into one

The Hill: CNN lost its way in struggle to find an audience

Gizmodo: The horrific April Fools’ pranks of the 19th century

Science News: The science behind cancer warnings on coffee is murky at best

From Garet Garret’s essential essay, The Rise of Empire:

“We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and night; the precise moment does not matter. There was no painted sign to say: “You now are entering Imperium.” 

Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history was saying: “Whether you know it or not, the act of crossing may be irreversible.” And now, not far ahead, is a sign that reads: “No U-turns.” 

If you say there were no frightening omens, that is true. The political foundations did not quake, the graves of the fathers did not fly open, the Constitution did not tear itself up. If you say people did not will it, that also is true. But if you say therefore it has not happened, then you have been so long bemused by words that your mind does not believe what the eye can see, even as in the jungle the terrified primitive, on meeting the lion, importunes magic by saying to himself, “He is not there.” 

That a republic may vanish is an elementary school book fact.”