"Though the numbers are missing from the FBI’s public 2016 report, Angell was able to obtain data from the agency by contacting them directly. Angell summarized: 'Marijuana possession busts comprised 37.36% of all reported drug arrests in the U.S. in 2016, and cannabis sales and manufacturing arrests accounted for another 4.18% of the total.'"
"If you are black and angry about police violence, you are a potential terror threat. Or so says a newly released FBI Intelligence Assessment that concocts a non-existent movement they dub 'Black Identity Extremists.' According to the assessment, 'premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement' has been spurred on by 'Black Identity Extremist (BIE) perceptions of police brutality against African Americans.' The problems with this report are manifold. First, and foremost, it places the blame for violence on actual concerns with police brutality and racial justice, thus delegitimizing dissent."
"We can pretend that the Constitution is still our governing document. However, the reality we must come to terms with is that in the America we live in today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned. Here is what it means to live under the Constitution today."
"Between 2012 and 2015, the DOD shelled out $53 million to professional sports—including $10 million to the NFL—on 'marketing and advertising' for military recruitment. To be sure, some of that was bona fide advertising. But many of those heart-tugging ceremonies honoring heroes and recreating drills and marches and flyovers are what the report denounced as propaganda. Of course, this being government, no one is really sure how much has been spent or where the money went."
"The ISO has decided not to approve two NSA-designed block encryption algorithms: Speck and Simon. It's because the NSA is not trusted to put security ahead of surveillance."
"Google received 48,941 requests for data from 83,345 accounts and produced user information for 65 percent of requests. About half the requests come from the US government. Other major sources of requests include Germany, France, and the UK."
"The intelligence division at the Treasury Department has repeatedly and systematically violated domestic surveillance laws by snooping on the private financial records of US citizens and companies, according to government sources. Over the past year, at least a dozen employees in another branch of the Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, have warned officials and Congress that US citizens’ and residents’ banking and financial data has been illegally searched and stored. And the breach, some sources said, extended to other intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency, whose officers used the Treasury’s intelligence division as an illegal back door to gain access to American citizens’ financial records."
"Government bodies are increasingly turning the tables on citizens who seek public records that might be embarrassing or legally sensitive. Instead of granting or denying their requests, a growing number of school districts, municipalities and state agencies have filed lawsuits against people making the requests – taxpayers, government watchdogs and journalists who must then pursue the records in court at their own expense."
"Japanese employees work significantly longer hours than their counterparts in the US, Britain and other developed countries. Japan’s employees used, on average, only 8.8 days of their annual leave in 2015, less than half their allowance, according to the health ministry. That compares with 100% in Hong Kong and 78% in Singapore."
"Said Rudd, 'There is currently a gap in the law around material [that] is viewed or streamed from the internet without being permanently downloaded.'"