Showing posts with label spying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spying. Show all posts

CTV News: Watch What You Say In Front Of A Smart TV!

You might want a dumb tv.     A "smart" TV that listens and responds to your voice commands? Sounds like a nifty idea -- until the manufacturer reminds you that your TV is listening to your private conversations too. Samsung recently unveiled a new line of Internet-connected Smart TVs that can stream customized content and show recommendations. ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: Television, Football & Politics: Gaming Spectacles Designed To Keep The Police State In Power

Freedom is an action word.    When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk;    ... MORE

U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers Of Luxury Real Estate

by Louise Story.  Mission creep at Homeland Security. Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties. The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade     ... MORE

Elizabeth Nolan Brown: Homeland Security Asking Hotel Staff To Report Lodgers That Use Too Many Condoms

Frequent minibar-restock is a no-no.      The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to pour time and taxpayer money into convincing the American people that there's an epidemic of sex trafficking here. So bad is this alleged epidemic that ordinary crime-control measures won't work, hence the department is recruiting truck drivers   ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: What’s In Store For Freedom In 2016?

You might want to sit down for this.       As I illustrate in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we in the emerging American police state find ourselves reliving the same set of circumstances over and over again: egregious surveillance, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying,        ... MORE

What If Jesus Had Been Born In The American Police State?

by John W. Whitehead.    The Christmas narrative of a baby born in a manger is a familiar one. The Roman Empire, a police state in its own right, had ordered that a census be conducted. Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary traveled to the little town of Bethlehem so that they could be counted. There being no room for the couple at any of the inns, ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: Does Fear Lead To Fascism?

How free people enslave themselves.   America is in the midst of an epidemic of historic proportions. The contagion being spread like wildfire is turning communities into battlegrounds and setting Americans one against the other. Normally mild-mannered individuals caught up in the throes of this disease have been transformed into belligerent ... MORE

Robert Hackett: No, NSA Phone Spying Has Not Ended

Only the framework changed.     Plenty of surveillance going on. At 11:59 P.M. on Saturday night, the U.S. National Security Agency supposedly yanked the cord on its bulk telephone records collection, thereby ending an expansive surveillance program that the nation’s intelligence community put in place in the wake of the September 11,     ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: The Spies Who Ruin Us

The Fourth Amendment has numerous virtues.   In an effort to draw attention away from the intelligence failures that permitted the attacks of 9/11 and create the impression that it was doing something — anything — to avoid a repeat, the federal government tampered seriously with freedoms expressly guaranteed in the Constitution.   ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: The Surveillance State Is Alive & Well

Life in the electronic concentration camp.      Bottle up the champagne, pack away the noisemakers, and toss out the party hats. There is no cause for celebration. We have secured no major victories against tyranny. We have achieved no great feat in pushing back against government overreach. For all intents and purposes, the National ... MORE

Calls For Boots On The Ground, Curbing Immigration And More Surveillance Powers Coming In Wake Of Paris Attacks

by Peter Suderman.   The politics of panic. CNN’s Jim Acosta captured the prevailing mood in the corridors of political power today when he asked President Obama about America’s willingness to step up attacks on ISIS following the terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday.  “I think a lot of Americans have this frustration that they see that the United    ... MORE

Two Years After Edward Snowden's Exposure, The NSA To End Bulk Collection Of Data From American's Phone Calls

At least, that is the official line.   The NSA is ready to end later this month collecting Americans' domestic call records in bulk. It will move to a more targeted system, meeting a legislative deadline imposed earlier this year, according to a government memo seen by Reuters. The memo, sent on Monday from the NSA to relevant committees in the U.S.   ... MORE

Global Cops, Precrime & The War On Domestic ‘Extremists’

by John W. Whitehead. Are you afraid that the government is plotting to confiscate your firearms? Do you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law? Do you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may  ... MORE

‘Neutralizing’ John Lennon: One Man Against the ‘Monster’

by John W. Whitehead.  John Lennon, born 75 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon. He was also a vocal peace protester and anti-war activist and a high-profile example of the lengths to which the U.S. government will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority. Long before Chelsea Manning and    ... MORE