Homeland Stupidity

Congress poised to jam through reauthorization of mass surveillance

"The current authorization for Section 702 expires on December 31, and it’s the first time Congress has faced this reauthorization since Edward Snowden’s earth-shattering disclosures about the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance apparatus. Committees in the Senate and House have competing proposals to reauthorize the program. But with the clock running out, Congress once again appears to be poised to jam through reauthorization."

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In Baltimore, Residents Support Martial Law

"Neighborhoods are rotting away as the local economy crumbles giving way to a surge in homicides. Baltimore is on track for the worse year ever with a homicide rate the highest in the United States. Baltimore is home to about 615,000 people, but the city has more homicides than New York or Los Angeles, both of which have far larger populations. Earlier this year, Mayor Catherine Pugh called in the Federal Government in hopes to restore order. She was even quoted, 'violence in the city is out of control'…"

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Abject cruelty: Trump administration deporting 60,000 Haitians

"There is no particular need –aside from red meat for the anti-immigrant base — to expel these law-abiding people who have made their home here for as long as seven years. Florida’s unemployment rate of 4.1 percent does not suggest that they have displaced U.S.-born workers. And the notion that these people can return to Haiti to enjoy a decent life is belied by the facts on the ground there. The lack of humanity is evident in the administration’s anti-family action. The hardship on those Haitians is immense, while the 'benefit' to the United States is nonexistent."

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Trump’s holiday gift is more invasive airport security

"On the campaign trail last year, Donald Trump derided the Transportation Security Administration as a 'total disaster.' But his administration is making TSA more intrusive and abusive while its 42,000 screeners remain as incompetent as ever. New TSA screening guidelines will likely make Thanksgiving travel a disaster for legions of Americans — and the worst is yet to come."

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Lawsuit Seeks To Eliminate Warrantless Border Electronics Searches

"The EFF and ACLU are among the civil liberties groups that believe CBP and ICE are overstepping their powers through their electronic device searches. The groups recently filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of several U.S. citizens whose devices were searched and/or detained. The EFF/ACLU lawsuit regularly references the disconnect between these border searches and any evidence of a violation of immigration or customs laws."

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Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core

"The Shadow Brokers disclosures, which began in August 2016, have been catastrophic for the N.S.A., calling into question its ability to protect potent cyberweapons and its very value to national security. The agency regarded as the world’s leader in breaking into adversaries’ computer networks failed to protect its own."

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NSA Whistleblower Bill Binney, and His Ordeal

"Bill Binney, a cryptanalyst-mathematician and (formerly) highly placed intelligence official within the National Security Agency (NSA) blew the whistle on NSA activities in 2002. Since then, he’s been through everything from a raid on his home to having a sympathetic documentary made about him. He joins me to discuss his ordeal, plus his views on alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 election."

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U.S. Spent $5.6 Trillion On Wars In The Middle East And Asia: Study

"The U.S. has been fighting in and bombing several countries in the Middle East and Asia for 16 years. According to a new study, all that war has cost the U.S. taxpayers $5.6 trillion, which is over three times what the Pentagon estimates."

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Is Silicon Valley Building the Infrastructure for a Police State?

"Silicon Valley firms are building surveillance and profiling tools to help government agents make sense of the massive amount of information available on social media and in publicly accessible data sets. Are they using cutting-edge technologies to keep Americans safe, or laying the groundwork for a police state?"

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Homeland Security Wants Facial Recognition To Identify Travelers

"US Customs and Border Protection considers its jurisdiction to be anything within 100 miles of the border, so naturally one of the privacy questions for Americans is whether this tech would be deployed inside the United States. CBP did not respond to a request for comment on this story that was sent yesterday evening. We’ll update this post if we hear back."

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