Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
‘Australia Presses for More Facial Recognition in Terror Fight’
October 4th, 2017Via: New York Times: The Australian government wants to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts by making use of a fundamental part of all Australian citizens: their faces. On Thursday, at a national security meeting in Canberra, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to pressure states and territories to hand over the driver’s license photos of every […]
Zucktown, USA
October 4th, 2017Via: The Baffler: Facebook, Amazon, and Google are reviving the ill-fated “company towns” of the Gilded Age.
CIA: The Organized Crime Branch of the U.S. Government
September 27th, 2017Via: Counterpunch: Lars Schall: 70 years ago, on September 18, 1947, the National Security Act created the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA. Douglas, you refer to the CIA as “the organized crime branch of the U.S. government.” Why so? Douglas Valentine: Everything the CIA does is illegal, which is why the government provides it with an […]
U.S. Provides Military Aid to 3/4 of World’s Dictatorships
September 27th, 2017Via: Mint Press: Rich Whitney, an attorney and writer, sought to compare Freedom House’s rating system of political rights for 2015 to the U.S. government’s provision of military assistance – military training, military aid and weapons sales – to foreign nations that same year. Whitney’s stated goal was to determine whether the U.S. government actually […]
Japanese Banks Are Planning to Launch J-Coin, a Digital Currency Meant to Kill Off Cash
September 27th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: Japan’s central bank is backing a scheme that could see the the cash-dependent country move toward a digital currency built on blockchain technology. The J Coin, as it’s to be called, is under development by a group of Japanese banks with the blessing of financial regulators. According to the Financial Times […]
BYD Predicts Ambitious China Shift to Electric Cars by 2030
September 24th, 2017Via: Reuters: Chinese automaker BYD Co Ltd (002594.SZ) expects the country’s shift to cleaner new-energy vehicles (NEV) to be complete in just over a decade, an aggressive timeframe that would challenge traditional carmakers in the world’ top auto market. All vehicles in the country will be “electrified” by 2030, which could range from full electric […]
Trump Renews Post-9/11 State of Emergency
September 18th, 2017Via: USA Today: President Trump has become the third president to renew a post-9/11 emergency proclamation, stretching what was supposed to be a temporary state of national emergency after the 2001 terror attacks into its 17th year. But the ongoing effects of that perpetual emergency aren’t immediately clear, because the executive branch has ignored a […]
New Zealand: National MP Trained by Chinese Spies
September 14th, 2017Via: Newsroom: A National Party MP who studied at an elite Chinese spy school before moving to New Zealand has attracted the interest of our Security Intelligence Service. The list MP Jian Yang did not mention in his work or political CVs a decade he spent in the People’s Liberation Army-Air Force Engineering College or […]
Afghanistan: America’s Trillion Dollar War
August 29th, 2017Via: ZeroHedge: 16 years since the Bush administration launched its military intervention in Afghanistan, President Trump has announced his intention to increase the U.S. military presence in the country. As Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, there are approximately 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and reinforcements could start arriving within days. Trump’s new strategy […]
Trump Expected to Lift Ban on Military Gear to Local Police Forces
August 27th, 2017Via: USA Today: The Trump administration is preparing to lift a controversial ban on the transfer of some surplus military equipment to police departments whose battlefield-style response to rioting in a St. Louis suburb three years ago prompted a halt to the program. The new plan, outlined in documents obtained by USA TODAY, would roll […]
