REPUBLIC REBORN

GovTech. The Stingray mimics an actual cell tower, so all phones in the vicinity link to it.  Besides the obvious problem of warrantless, mass surveillance, if someone needs to place an emergency phone call, that call might not go through the Stingray, placing innocent lives in danger.  While some of the devices do allow 911 calls to pass through, most non-emergency calls do not.

“It’s hard to know with certainty how many innocent cellphone users have experienced jamming due to police use of cell-site simulators. Federal restrictions on information about their use prevents collecting such details.”

The article notes that 68 gov’t agencies are running around with these $40,000 spy tools.  The FBI alone uses 194 of these cell-site simulators.

It seems that the eagerness to acquire more powerful spy goodies outstrips law enforcements’ ability or desire to control their use.

The kind that the Establishment peddles, anyway.  Pat Buchanan explains.

New York Post.  A big thorn in the side of the political class, one that they would refuse to admit exists, is the easy access to alternative opinion pieces, rather than news per se.  A good skewering by a skilled writer over corroborated facts, cranked out on a daily basis, can inflict quite a bit of damage. How do they propose to regulate that?

Buzzfeed. The DEA paid over $200 million to around 10,000 people from 2011 to 2015 in exchange for searching through your mail or luggage to find anything incriminating.

Deadlocked, despite clear video evidence of officer Slager shooting a fleeing Walter Scott to death, and then planting a Taser near the body.  A lone juror is the hold-out, and his letter to the judge makes one wonder if someone’s pulling his strings. Also see the story from Ars Technica

Cato.  I guess we can’t be number 1 in corporate tax rates, police shootings, incarceration rates, and drone strikes and still expect to be the freest country in the world.

CounterPunch.  It is laughable that anyone would take WaPo’s alarmist article over Russian-controlled “fake news” seriously.  I mean, come on people, the writing at Antiwar.com, Counter Punch, or the other list of sites supposedly on Putin’s payroll is so far above anything the Washington Post puts out, that it would be insane to believe that they are part of some Russian-controlled conspiracy.  The Establishment media hates alternative, independent news, dissenting voices, etc.  That’s why they remove their comments sections, the sheer volume of ridicule was too much to bear.

The Intercept.  Trump is going to disappoint everyone.  He’ll turn out to be a run-of-the-mill warmongering neocon, just like Bush, just like Obama.  Hillary would’ve turned out the same way.

92 million U.S. adults used prescription painkillers in 2015, compared to 75.4 million who used tobacco.  So around 40% of Americans use opioids, which generates $10 billion for the pharma companies pumping out these expensive pills. High Times

Beware Police Drones, Huffington Post

These drones are being equipped with real-time facial recognition tech, designed to track civilians as they go about their day-to-day lives.