
Mike Bloomberg Targets Coal Industry With $30 Million Donation To Sierra Club

A simple drive with a CryptoPhone reveals fifteen new rogue sites, by Steve Ragan
Towards the end of July, ESD America, the makers of the ultra-secure CryptoPhone, said that their engineers and customers had discovered more than a dozen rogue cell towers (also known as interceptors or IMSI catchers) around the U.S.
New information shows that the discovered towers might only represent a small fraction of the whole, and what’s been discovered doesn’t account for the mobile base stations that are only active on a limited basis.
Interceptors are a huge risk if used by a malicious actor. That’s because once a device connects to them, the interceptor’s operator can perform a number of tasks, including eavesdrop on calls or text messages, or in some cases push data (spyware for example) to the device. This is why they’re only supposed to be used by law enforcement or the government.
However, that doesn’t mean that the government or law enforcement haven’t found themselves in the hot seat for abusing an interceptor’s functionality. The potential for abuse and wide availability of the technology, including home-grown versions that work just as well as their commercial counterparts, means that the existence of unknown interceptors are a major concern. Continue reading
The FBI wants greater authority to hack overseas computers, according to a law professor.
A Department of Justice proposal to amend Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure would make it easier for domestic law enforcement to hack into the computers of people attempting to protect their anonymity on the internet.
Authority to Issue a Warrant. At the request of a federal law enforcement officer or an attorney for the government: (6) a magistrate judge with authority in any district where activities related to a crime may have occurred has authority to issue a warrant to use remote access to search electronic storage media and to seize or copy electronically stored information located within or outside that district if: (A) the district where the media or information is located has been concealed through technological means; or (B) in an investigation of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5), the media are protected computers that have been damaged without authorization and are located in five or more districts.
The DoJ has said that the amendment is not meant to give courts the power to issue warrants that authorise searches in foreign countries. Continue reading
If you have one or more kids that are approaching the time when they fly the nest, you’re either involved in this in some way or likely will be.
I’ve hammered on this nail many times, but I’m going to do it again today, because right about now is when decisions have to be made about next year and bad decisions here can cripple or even economically destroy a young adult.
This is not overstating the case folks.
In the 1970s and early 80s you could spin pizzas or wash cars and put yourself through school, and many people did. Today that is nearly impossible, and a big part of the reason is that schools have gotten predatory and treat young adults not as a mission but as a revenue source to be extracted from to the maximum possible extent.
I look at balance sheets literally all day long. Guess what: So do colleges, and the balance sheets they’re looking at are yours, having essentially forced your disclosure through the FAFSA. Continue reading
Grey Enigma Comments:
“… He asked me would I mind if he searched my vehicle, and I said, ‘Well, yes, I would mind if you searched my vehicle.’ ”
But thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, the deputy did not have to take no for an answer. In the 2005 case Illinois v. Caballes, the Court declared that “the use of a well-trained narcotics-detection dog…during a lawful traffic stop generally does not implicate legitimate privacy interests.” So the deputy was free to walk his dog around Burns’ truck. “He got out with this dog and went around the car, two or three times,” Burns says. “He came back and said the dog had ‘passively alerted’ on my vehicle.” via This Dog Can Send You to Jail – Reason.com.
President Obama has said that his push to effectively delete the Second Amendment will face “significant resistance.” It is time to show him and those in Congress how much resistance there is for any sort of additional gun bans and/or registration requirements in a peaceful and lawful manner. Print copies of this and dispatch them to your Congresspeople, The White House, and staple them to telephone poles and other locations across the country.
The word “privatization” is a loaded term these days. Unions and big government worshippers scoff at the idea of any public services being in the hands of ruthless, greedy capitalists. The left has the distorted view that people in the private sector are driven primarily by their desire to cut costs and throw workers out on the street. To them, government workers are angels sent from heaven to do God’s work like picking up the neighborhood trash or maintaining a public pool filled with the bodily discharges of kids whose derelict parents decided to drop off and go shopping for a few hours. On the right, conservatives who supposedly hold high regard for market forces and Ronald Reagan’s classic declaration “government is the problem,” typically have a favorable view of privatization schemes. Continue reading
Wall Street banks have secretly taken over US firearms and ammunition manufacturers and the world’s largest mercenary firms in a stealth build up private military force.
via Wall Street Banks Secretly Build The World’s Largest Private Army.
“…In a reasonably sane world, and in all other contexts outside of health care, insurance is obtained at relatively low prices to cover only catastrophic events that would be potentially bankrupting. Car insurance does not cover oil changes and home insurance does not cover oven repairs. So why is it that Drum is arguing that we should ban insurance policies that only cover catastrophic losses and not routine costs? … Continue reading
Everyone talks about reforming health insurance while ignoring a better alternative: healthcare risk pools. Powerful lobbyists for the healthcare insurance industry have convinced politicians to perpetuate the current system of health insurance, hoping that minor tweaks will solve the escalating crisis. Conservative think tanks have even bought into the system due to heavy funding by insurance companies.
Risk pools allow people to buy into health plans of their choosing instead of obtaining health insurance coverage through employers. Health insurance is not a free market creation. It came into existence as the result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s socialist policies. Roosevelt mandated income caps during World War II, which caused employers to offer health insurance in order to keep jobs attractive. Now the government requires businesses to provide health coverage to employees, giving insurance companies a monopoly on healthcare coverage and ensuring their existence. Continue reading