The Man Behind Trump’s VP Pick: It’s Worse Than You Think

While J.D. Vance has his own controversies, his close connection to billionaire Peter Thiel, who is poised to have unprecedented influence in a new Trump administration, should deeply unsettle every American who cares about freedom, privacy and reining in the surveillance state.

The Man Behind Trump’s VP Pick: It’s Worse Than You Think

H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act

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Neoreactionaries

The FBI’s Material Support for Israeli Apartheid Against Palestinians

Tweet from Abed A. Ayoub, the national executive director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)

By Chip Gibbons / The Dissenter

Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip has entered its sixth day. The Israeli military has launched a massive bombardment with airstrikes killing over 1,000 Palestinians.

The FBI’s Material Support for Israeli Apartheid Against Palestinians

Oversight Report Finds Several Federal Agencies Are Still Using Clearview’s Facial Recognition Tech

from the look,-we-honestly-thought-no-one-would-keep-asking-questions dept
Thu, Sep 28th 2023 10:41am – Tim Cushing

Two years ago, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its initial review of federal use of facial recognition tech. That report found that at least half of the 20 agencies examined were using Clearview’s controversial facial recognition tech.

Oversight Report Finds Several Federal Agencies Are Still Using Clearview’s Facial Recognition Tech

Revealed: how US immigration uses fake social media profiles across investigations

Records from the Department of Homeland Security show it sought to expand undercover operations online despite pushback from Facebook

Revealed: how US immigration uses fake social media profiles across investigations

Related:

DHS Continues To Violate Facebook Policies By Allowing CBP, ICE Officers To Create Fake Social Media Profiles

Meanwhile, social media surveillance continues uninterrupted. The documents show CBP is still allowed to create fake profiles to passively monitor public Facebook posts. ICE can go a bit further. It has been given explicit permission to create fake accounts to engage in undercover investigations as long as the tactics used online are somewhat analogous to undercover activities carried out in the real world.

The Coming Fight Over American Surveillance

The Coming Fight Over American Surveillance

But no threat of any kind is required to conduct surveillance under Section 702. The law permits surveillance of any foreigner abroad, as long as a significant purpose of the surveillance is to acquire “foreign intelligence information.” FISA defines this term extremely broadly to include any “information related to . . . the conduct of U.S. foreign affairs.” A conversation between friends about whether the United States should do more to support Ukraine would justify surveillance under this definition.

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More Mass Surveillance: FOIA Docs Reveal Illegal Snooping On US Residents’ Financial Transactions

If it can conceivably be considered a “third party record,” the government is going to seek warrantless access to it. The Third Party Doctrine — ushered into existence by the Supreme Court in 1979 — says there’s no expectation of privacy in information shared with third parties. That case dealt with phone records. People may prefer the government stay out of their personal conversations, but the Smith v. Maryland ruling said that if people shared this info with phone companies (an involuntary “sharing” since this information was needed to connect calls and bill phone users), the government could obtain this information without a warrant.

More Mass Surveillance: FOIA Docs Reveal Illegal Snooping On US Residents’ Financial Transactions

I Don’t Want to #StopAsianHate. I Want to End US Imperialism

By Elizabeth Tang – July 8, 2021

Editorial note: As a rule Orinoco Tribune does not re-publish opinion pieces more than 10 days after their original publication, but in this case we are making an exception, because this is a on a very sensitive issue that demands attention.

I don’t like the #StopAsianHate hashtag. First of all, Asians are not the ones doing the “hating.” And second, why are we calling it “hate” at all? Anti-Asian violence is systemic—it cannot be reduced to individual feelings.

I Don’t Want to #StopAsianHate. I Want to End US Imperialism