Big Government

The bill passed the U.S. Senate: it looks like your ISP will be allowed to just sell your browsing history. While the bill still needs to pass the House (the lower legislature in the U.S.) and the President’s signature, it seems increasingly likely to unfortunately do so. This doesn’t just mean that your privacy is commercialized – it also means that search-and-seizure is: the Police will be able to just buy your browsing history from your ISP, bypassing any privacy protections completely.

A first look at the Wikileaks #Vault7  leak on CIA hacking and mass surveillance.
Youtube »

The debate on »fake news« might be new to some. But for us who are activist when it comes to a free and open internet, privacy and civil rights – this is what we have been fighting for a very long time.
Governments strive towards »total information awareness« has always been excused with e.g. the war on terror, the war on drugs, child protection, fighting organized crime and national security.
The same arguments – and some other, like hate speech – have been used to restrict free speech and freedom of information.

What is hacktivism (also spelled “hactivism” by some)? Simply stated, it is the subversive use of computers and computer networks to promote a political or social agenda.

Techcrunch: The dramatic rise in hacktivism »

Power to the people.

Is Bernie Sanders a socialist?
“Self-described socialist” … How many times have we all read that term in regard to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders? But is he really a socialist? Or is he a “social democrat”, which is what he’d be called in Europe? Or is he a “democratic socialist”, which is the American party he has been a member of (DSA – Democratic Socialists of America)? And does it really matter which one he is? They’re all socialists, are they not?

Guillermo Jimenez Presents John Bush
Guillermo Jimenez Presents John Bush

Every time we see a systemic failure such as the 2008 collapse of Lehman Bros and subsequent market panic, the inevitable question is “what is the government going to do about it?” Just as inevitably, the answer is that the government will pass more legislation, or even give more power to the very regulators who failed so signally to stop the crisis from occurring in the first place. The assumption is that the regulators are the defenders of the public interest and that they only need more money and authority to properly fulfill their mandate.