American Conservative and Russia Today

Over $500 billion for 2017, ostensibly to deter “Russian aggression”.

Institute for Justice.  Unsurprisingly, when cops see large amounts of cash, they’ll take it.  It’s just too easy for them to keep it once they’ve got it, even if no criminal charges are ever filed.

How terrorism is deforming the face of Europe, The Week

Relevant chunks: “But most frightening is the way Europe is changing after each attack. When security is threatened, liberty goes soon afterward. After the November attack in Paris, France’s own military deployed in French streets, acting as a semi-permanent guard to synagogues and other Jewish institutions. The former certainties of continental politics are also changing. The Schengen Agreement that allows Europeans free travel across EU borders, perhaps the most tangible way Europeans enjoy modern Europe’s peace, is now threatened by the upheaval from terrorism…

…Some attempts to deal with the problems caused by unassimilated migrants become a sick farce. After what seemed like a night of coordinated mass sexual assault on New Year’s Eve, Cologne Mayor Henrietta Recker, an advocate for the cause of refugee resettlement in Europe, advised women to “stick together in groups, don’t get split up, even if you’re in a party mood.” She also said that perhaps European women needed a “code of conduct” that indicates they are unavailable to be groped by strangers in the street. At the very moment when the defining feature of Western life — freedom to show one’s face in public — was temporarily occluded, a political leader was making a backhanded tribute to Sharia law, suggesting that unaccompanied or “frisky” women would meet danger.”

The Intercept.  

Yikes.  Daily Mail

The U.S. military bombed a humanitarian hospital last year in Afghanistan, killing 42 innocent people in the hospital.  Yet how much have you actually heard about it?  Now, how much have you heard about the Brussels attack?  The answer of why lies in what the political implications are of each attack.  Brussels elevates the Warfare State, no telling how many bombs will drop due to that attack.  The hospital attack, however, mars the image of endless war, it’s a strike against the Empire.  Activist Post

Trump and Cruz immediately call for one after Brussels attack.  The problem with a Police State, as with all government programs, is that it’s easy to build one, but almost impossible to get rid of one.

Electronic Intifada.  Calling migrants a cancer is racist when coming from Trump, but not from Israeli leaders, according to AIPAC conference attendees.

In this case, encryption, although none of the Brussels bombers used encrypted devices.  They used burner phones, which were activated just hours before carrying out the attack.

Tech Dirt.  Greedy utility companies don’t like energy innovation that they can’t monopolize.  So, they lobby for restrictive regulations by pretending to be for solar power.