TGIF > at least for a full week
White House Offers To Allow Renaming Confederate Bases... In Exchange For Getting Rid Of Section 230
from the who-did-the-what-now? dept
Let's state upfront that there is no way in hell this is happening, and it's all just performative nonsense. No one is actually going to do this. However, the NY Times is reporting that White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has floated the idea of "compromise" to get the annual NDAA passed, after President Trump has whined about it requiring the renaming of military bases named after Confederacy leaders. . .
It truly is striking how focused so much of Washington DC has become on Section 230 without even understanding what it currently does, how it works, and what will happen if it gets removed.
Anyway, again, this is not happening. No one is going to go ahead with this. But it's just yet another example of the ridiculous policy proposals now floating around the White House.
Filed Under: appropriations, confederate bases, congress, donald trump, free speech, funding, mark meadows, military, ndaa, section 230
All it takes is Metadata to get someone killed
Government Argues In Court That It Can Kill US Citizens At Will With Zero Judicial Oversight
from the your-tax-dollars-incoming dept
The federal government is back in court, arguing for its unilateral right to kill US citizens. Two journalists who had appeared to have been mistakenly targeted by drone strikes sued the government in 2017, seeking an injunction forbidding their own government from extrajudicially killing them . . .
s Megan Mineiro reports for Courthouse News Service, the DC judges handling the case seemed rather shocked by the government's assertions.
Drawing alarm at the D.C. Circuit, a lawyer for the United States argued Monday that the government has the power to kill its citizens without judicial oversight when state secrets are involved.
“Do you appreciate how extraordinary that proposition is?” U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett asked Justice Department attorney Bradley Hinshelwood, paraphrasing his claim as giving the government the ability to “unilaterally decide to kill U.S. citizens.”
. . . The government's priorities are incredibly screwed up. And we have a long and pointless "war on terror" to thank for its refusal to answer questions about its drone strike programs -- programs that may well be targeting innocent people (including US citizens).
Filed Under: ahmad zaidan, al qaeda, bilal kareem, doj, drone strikes, extrajudicial assassination, judicial oversight, kill list, metadata, national security, nsa, state secrets, terrorism, us citizens
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Dystopian Warlords
US Military Is Buying Location Data From Data Brokers, Including Data Pulled From US App Users
from the welcoming-our-new-dystopian-warlords dept
As long as government agencies are buying location data from data brokers -- possibly eluding warrant requirements while doing so -- it makes sense the US military would be doing the same thing. Joseph Cox reports for Motherboard that the American war machine loves location data pulled from phone apps just as much as CBP, ICE, and the Secret Service do.
Through public records, interviews with developers, and technical analysis, Motherboard uncovered two separate, parallel data streams that the U.S. military uses, or has used, to obtain location data. One relies on a company called Babel Street, which creates a product called Locate X. U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a branch of the military tasked with counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and special reconnaissance, bought access to Locate X to assist on overseas special forces operations. The other stream is through a company called X-Mode, which obtains location data directly from apps, then sells that data to contractors, and by extension, the military ...
But it's not simple to suss out who's selling who what data. Everything is intertwined and hidden behind layers and layers of data broker middlemen. Even if apps are letting users know the app will collect their location data, they aren't telling users this data may end up in the hands of government agencies and military contractors. In most cases, it appears developers are unaware of this fact. In some cases, the middlemen brokers aren't completely in the loop. It's impossible for users to make an informed decision about data-sharing, but most likely assume the data collection will only target them with ads, not drone strikes.
Filed Under: apps, data brokers, location data, military, privacy
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MOVE ALONG / NOTHING TO BE SEEN
Louisville PD Hid Thousands Of Records Detailing Officers' Abuse Of Minors, Deleted Backups When Local Paper Asked For Them
from the move-along-nothing-to-see-here dept
The people who are supposed to be the bulwark standing between regular society and criminal society are, far too often, criminals themselves. They promise they're doing everything they can to end the sexual exploitation of children but often aren't willing to address the exploitation committed by officers.
The Louisville Metro Police is still dealing with the fallout of a botched no-knock raid, which ended with officers killing Breonna Taylor in her own apartment. Six of the 32 bullets fired by LMPD officers -- some blindly through covered windows -- hit Taylor. No officers were charged in Taylor's death.
The PD is now dealing with another scandal involving its officers. Criminal charges have been brought against three officers who sexually abused minors participating in the PD's "Explorer Program."
. . . What happened in Louisville isn't an aberration. Putting cops in close contact with minors appears to be a bad idea.
In recent decades, more than 100 police officers have had sex with Explorers they were entrusted with mentoring, the vast majority of them underage. In just the past year, two sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino, California, were arrested for having sex with underage girls; a New York City cop was charged with child sex abuse after sending racy text messages to a 15-year-old; an officer in Bremerton, Washington, was reprimanded for sleeping with an 18-year-old; and a former cop in Burlington, North Carolina, pled guilty to taking indecent liberties with a minor after being accused of having sex with a 14-year-old he'd taken on ride-alongs.
That's from a 2011 report. There have been numerous other incidents since then. The Louisville Courier Journal's coverage of this current scandal -- which dates back to 2017 -- shows the problem infects law enforcement agencies around the nation. . .
The paper is now accusing the LMPD and city of destroying records. The county attorney office's legal representative, Kenyon Meyer, insists no destruction has occurred. The paper still has the option of demanding these records from the FBI.
Just little intra-government coverup, apparently. The city and PD seem more than willing to deal with accusations of records destruction and open records law violations if it means they won't immediately have to deal with whatever's in the thousands of files related to multiple officers' sexual abuse of minors. Sending these away to the FBI -- and deleting their own copies -- places the paper back at square one. It will take another set of FOIA requests -- and more litigation -- to acquire the records these two entities seemingly want buried.
Filed Under: louisville, louisville metro police, minors, police, records, transparency
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