Tag: federal agencies

Defense Department Latest To Be Caught Hoovering Up Internet Data Via Private Contractors

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Everyone’s got a hunger for data. Constitutional rights sometimes prevent those with a hunger from serving themselves. But when they’ve got third parties on top of third parties, all Fourth Amendment bets are off. Data brokers are getting rich selling government agencies the data they want at low, low prices, repackaging information gathered from other third parties into tasty packages that give US government agencies the data they want with the plausible deniability they need.

Defense Department Latest To Be Caught Hoovering Up Internet Data Via Private Contractors

Biden Administration Announces All Publicly Funded Research Should Be Available For Free To The Public

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Here’s some amazingly good news amidst all of the nonsense of late. On Thursday, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House announced that they were updating policy guidance to mandate that all taxpayer-supported research should be immediately available to the public at no cost. According to the actual policy guidelines, US departments and agencies have until the end of 2025 to make this change (though, it’s not clear that there’s any remedy if they don’t). This is really huge — and it seems to have come out of nowhere.

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Of course, it also wouldn’t surprise me if Congress comes back with bills to lock up such research again — or a future administration flip flops on this. But… for now… good news!

Huge News: Biden Administration Announces All Publicly Funded Research Should Be Available For Free To The Public

‘There Needs to Be a Reckoning’: Republicans Introduce a Bill to Make Feds At-Will Employees

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

‘There Needs to Be a Reckoning’: Republicans Introduce a Bill to Make Feds At-Will Employees

Roy said in a statement that his bill preserves protections against discrimination and whistleblower retaliation. But in the case of discrimination, EEOC would be required to toss all of its policies regarding complaints that originate from federal agencies and apply the same standards it uses in private sector cases.*

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However, the bill’s purported whistleblower protections suggest just the opposite, Kettl said. OSC only has a 14-day window in which to make nonbinding recommendations on whether an adverse personnel action constitutes retaliation. Another provision requires the deduction of 25% of a federal employee’s retirement annuity if a court finds their appeal to be “in bad faith or frivolous.”

What’s wrong with that?! Why should bureaucrats have special protections that everyday working people don’t?! If they don’t like it, then change it for all workers!

Related:

Following Trump’s Lead, GOP Pushes Bill to Make Federal Workers Fireable ‘At Will’

Another Terrible Choice for Biden’s “Disinformation Board”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By Lev Golinkin | May 27, 2022

Michael Chertoff’s experience detaining Muslim Americans, justifying CIA torture, and helping to draft the Patriot Act make him an all-too-appropriate choice to advise this Orwellian agency.

Another Terrible Choice for Biden’s “Disinformation Board”

H/T: It’s NOT a joke, Biden’s Ministry of Truth just got WORSE | Redacted with Clayton Morris on YouTube.

Related:

Who’s propaganda?! 👇

“I have a greater respect for the American people than you do. I think the American people can figure out the truth,” the senator said. “And if you think the American people need to be told there’s not fentanyl in the vaccination, feel free to say it. But the thing is, is if you are going to go around saying that you’re the arbiter of information and of disinformation, I think you have no clue. And you don’t have the perspective of history knowing that disinformation, the largest progenitor of disinformation in our history, has probably been the U.S. government.”

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“Do you know, the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The U.S. government,” Paul said. “Are you familiar with McNamara? The Pentagon Papers? Are you familiar with George W. Bush and the weapons of mass destruction? Are you familiar with Iran-contra?”

“I mean, think of all the debates and disputes we’ve had over the last 50 years in our country,” Paul continued. “We worked them out by debating them. We don’t work them out by the government being the arbiter. I don’t want guardrails. I want you to have nothing to do with speech. You think we can’t determine, you know, speech by traffickers is disinformation. Do you think the American people are so stupid they need you to tell them what the truth is? You can’t even admit what the truth is with the Steele dossier. I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is. Government is largely disseminating disinformation.”

Rand Paul grills Mayorkas on disinformation: ‘I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is’

Bipartisan House OKs $13.6B for Ukraine in huge spending bill

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Bipartisan House OKs $13.6B for Ukraine in huge spending bill

The Ukraine aid included $6.5 billion for the U.S. costs of sending troops and weapons to Eastern Europe and equipping allied forces there in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion and repeated, bellicose threats. There was another $6.8 billion to care for refugees and provide economic aid to allies, and more to help federal agencies enforce economic sanctions against Russia and protect against cyber threats at home.