AVIVA SHEN and ADAM PECK, - Think Progress
Stephan: The war between the reasonable gun control people, and the gun industry, and those who support its being unregulated continues to simmer. It is one of the most amazing things about American culture that this deadly conflict, far more dangerous to American citizens than war itself, continues on unabated. Here is the butcher's bill for just the mass killings in the months since Newtown.
Click through to see the map where these massacres took place.
The U.S. has averaged over one mass shooting per month for the past four years. In the six months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT, this trend has not relented. ThinkProgress analyzed all gun violence since December 14, 2012 and determined that there have been about 14 mass shootings.
These shootings tell a story that is now all-too-familiar to Americans. The gunman usually started by killing his family or significant other. Often, he had a history of anger or depression. And many of these killers should have been disqualified from buying a gun, whether because of their age, a criminal record, restraining order, or hospitalization.
Mass shootings, which ThinkProgress defined for this purpose as random gun-related incidents, usually in a public area and resulting in either multiple injuries or death, are still only a fraction of the gun violence that plagues Americans all over the country every day. On May 31, the number of people killed by guns since Newtown surpassed the number of American troops killed during the entire Iraq War. As of today, an average of 28 people have been shot to death every day since Newtown.
The 14 shootings since Newtown killed a total of 45 […]
No Comments
DECLAN MCCULLAGH, Chief Political Correspondent - CNET
Stephan: There are so many distortions, and lies from government officials, and so much deliberate misinformation that it is hard to keep the massive security apparat in focus. But, in SR, I am trying to just stick to facts, in hopes that this will help you understand just what is going on.
The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed ‘simply based on an analyst deciding that.’
If the NSA wants ‘to listen to the phone,’ an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. ‘I was rather startled,’ said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee.
Not only does this disclosure shed more light on how the NSA’s formidable eavesdropping apparatus works domestically it also suggests the Justice Department has secretly interpreted federal surveillance law to permit thousands of low-ranking analysts to eavesdrop on phone calls.
Because the same legal standards that apply to phone calls also apply to e-mail messages, text messages, and instant messages, Nadler’s disclosure indicates the NSA analysts could also access the contents of Internet communications without going before a court and seeking approval.
The disclosure appears to confirm some of the allegations made by Edward Snowden, a former NSA infrastructure analyst […]
No Comments
KATE SHEPPARD and JAMES WEST, - Mother Jones
Stephan: If you live along a coast line, or in an area lower that 200 feet above sea level when a coast line is within 50 miles of where you live, you need to begin thinking about this.
This is, by the way, a confirmation of a prediction I made six years, and wrote about at length in 2009. What is really going to drive change is the increased cost or discontinuance of insurance in coastal areas. (See: Migration: http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2808%2900398-4/fulltext)
Click through to see the very important map that accompanies this story.
Rising seas and increasingly severe weather are expected to increase the areas of the United States at risk of floods by up to 45 percent by 2100, according to a first-of-its-kind report released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday. These changes could double the number of flood-prone properties covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and drastically increase the costs of floods, the report finds.
The report concludes that climate change is likely to expand vastly the size and costs of the 45-year-old government flood insurance program. Like previous government reports, it anticipates that sea levels will rise an average of four feet by the end of the century. But this is what’s new: The portion of the US at risk for flooding, including coastal regions and areas along rivers, will grow between 40 and 45 percent by the end of the century. That shift will hammer the flood insurance program. Premiums paid into the program totaled $3.2 billion in 2009, but that figure could grow to $5.4 billion by 2040 and up to $11.2 billion by the year 2100, the report found. The 257-page study has been in the works for nearly five years and was finally released […]
No Comments
Saturday, June 15th, 2013
MICHAEL RILEY, - Bloomberg
Stephan: Here we see the bridge whereby the emerging non-geographical states directly link into their vassal governments. This is why you should assume everything you say or write that is digital is being collected in some manner.
Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.
These programs, whose participants are known as trusted partners, extend far beyond what was revealed by Edward Snowden, a computer technician who did work for the National Security Agency. The role of private companies has come under intense scrutiny since his disclosure this month that the NSA is collecting millions of U.S. residents’ telephone records and the computer communications of foreigners from Google Inc (GOOG). and other Internet companies under court order.
Many of these same Internet and telecommunications companies voluntarily provide U.S. intelligence organizations with additional data, such as equipment specifications, that don’t involve private communications of their customers, the four people said.
Makers of hardware and software, banks, Internet security providers, satellite telecommunications companies and many other companies also participate in the government programs. In some cases, the information gathered may be used not just to defend the nation but to help infiltrate computers of its adversaries.
Along with the NSA, the Central Intelligence Agency (0112917D), the Federal Bureau of Investigation and branches of the U.S. […]
No Comments
Saturday, June 15th, 2013
RORY CARROLL, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I don't think people get the scope of what is going on in this Surveillance Trend. This report gives a sense of scale. There has never been anything like this in history. We are in completely uncharted waters. With information comes control; it is inevitable. And the psychological effects we haven't even thought about.
Drive south down Camp Williams Road, a highway outside Salt Lake City, and your eye is drawn to the left. A gun-mounted helicopter and other military hardware marks the entrance of the Utah army national guard base. The ice-capped Rockies soar in the distance.
To the right there is little to see: featureless scrubland, a metal fence, some warehouses. A small exit – not marked on ordinary maps – takes you up a curving road. A yellow sign says this is military property closed to unauthorised personnel.
Further up the hill, invisible from the highway, you encounter concrete walls, a security boom and checkpoint with guards, sniffer dogs and cameras. Two plaques with official seals announce the presence of the office of the director of national intelligence and the National Security Agency.
A spokesperson at NSA headquarters in Maryland did not welcome a Guardian request to visit its western outpost. ‘That is a secure facility. If you trespass on federal property security guards will be obliged to do their jobs.’ An interview was out of the question.
Welcome to the Utah Data Center, a new home for the NSA’s exponentially expanding information trove. The $1.7bn facility, two years in the making, will soon host […]
No Comments
