Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
State of Emergency Declared in Baghdad as Protesters Take Iraqi Parliament
April 30th, 2016Update: Protesters Leave Baghdad’s Green Via: CNN: Protesters who stormed Baghdad’s Green Zone retreated Sunday but organizers say the challenge to Iraq’s leadership isn’t over yet. — Via: Washington Post: Protesters stormed Iraq’s parliament Saturday in a dramatic culmination of months of demonstrations, casting uncertainty over the tenure of the country’s prime minister and the […]
The Suicide of Venezuela
April 28th, 2016While this is about Venezuela, I couldn’t help hearing “America” in my mind as I read. Via: Joel D. Hirst’s Blog: No, national suicide is a much longer process – not product of any one moment. But instead one bad idea, upon another, upon another and another and another and another and the wheels that […]
SpaceX Undercut ULA Rocket Launch Pricing by 40 Percent
April 28th, 2016In other words, the Air Force can show they’re saving money *wink*, while funneling billions of dollars for black world R&D to the usual suspects via some other mechanism. Via: Reuters: The U.S. Air Force will save 40 percent by buying a GPS satellite launch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX compared with what United Launch Alliance […]
Not a Typo: Chinese Company Pays NZ$526 for 146 Million Litres of Water a Year… In a Drought Zone
April 27th, 2016I like to think of NZ as a sort of remote, limited bandwidth version of a Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong franchise: Via: Radio NZ: A veritable drop in the ocean. No, we’re talking about fresh water. Forget it, Nick. This is Chinatown. Pardon? Nothing.
Britain: Bulk Personal Datasets
April 22nd, 2016Via: Ars Technica: The UK’s intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, and GCHQ) are spying on everything you do, and with only the flimsiest of safeguards in place to prevent abuse, according to more than a thousand pages of documents published today as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International. The documents reveal the details […]
Firms that Paid for Clinton Speeches Have U.S. Government Interests
April 22nd, 2016Well holy shit. Thanks, Captain! Via: AP: It’s not just Wall Street banks. Most companies and groups that paid Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to speak between 2013 and 2015 have lobbied federal agencies in recent years, and more than one-third are government contractors, an Associated Press review has found. Their interests are sprawling and […]
Cisco’s Latest Attempt to Dodge Responsibility for Facilitating Human Rights Abuses: Export Rules
April 19th, 2016Via: EFF: Cisco custom-built the so-called “Great Firewall of China,” also known as the “Golden Shield.” This system enables the Chinese government to conduct Internet surveillance and censorship against its citizens. As if that weren’t bad enough, company documents also revealed that, as part of its marketing pitch to China and in an effort to […]
Saudis Threaten to Sell $750 Billion in U.S. Treasuries Over 9/11 Bill
April 17th, 2016The word, “Bush” doesn’t appear in this piece even once. And what is Marvin up to these days? Via: New York Times: Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a […]
When Lobbying Was Illegal
April 16th, 2016Via: Priceonomics: Wouldn’t it be nice if lobbying were illegal? It’s a tempting thought. But it seems impossible. Lobbying is a multi-billion dollar industry and an accepted—if hated—part of American politics. American courts have ruled that lobbying is constitutionally protected free speech, and lawyers and laymen alike generally accept this. The same is true of […]
Bernie Earned Less in Year than Hillary Made in Single Speech
April 15th, 2016Via: Weekly Standard: Bernie Sanders reportedly earned just over $200,000 in 2014. That same year, Hillary Clinton, Sanders’s top Democratic rival, gave about 45 paid speeches, many of which paid her more in a single hour than Sanders made the entire year. The Washington Post reports on Sanders’s income. “The senator from Vermont reported income […]
