‘Eavesdropping on America’: The NSA’s Orwellian Surveillance State

‘As a matter of faith, some people believe that God can see and hear everything. But as a matter of fact, the U.S. government now has the kind of surveillance powers formerly attributed only to a supreme being.

Top “national security” officials in Washington now have the determination and tech prowess to keep tabs on billions of people. No one elected Uncle Sam to play God. But a dire shortage of democratic constraints has enabled the U.S. surveillance state to keep expanding with steely resolve.

By the time Edward Snowden used NSA documents to expose — beyond any doubt — a global surveillance dragnet, the situation had deteriorated so badly because the Bush and Obama administrations were able to dismiss earlier warnings to the public as little more than heresy.’

Read more: 'Eavesdropping on America': The NSA’s Orwellian Surveillance State

Leaked U.S. Terrorist Watchlist Rulebook Reveals ‘Global Stop and Frisk Program’

‘“What we have here is tantamount to a system that’s sort of like a global stop-and-frisk program,” Scahill explains, “because the standard for putting people on a list where they are going to be designated as known or suspected terrorists—the acronym is KST; you’re a KST, a known or suspected terrorist—and there’s no way of determining, if you’re a law enforcement official and you get this information, whether there’s actual evidence against someone to suggest that they’re involved with a terror plot or their phone number popped up in the phone of someone who is suspected of potentially being a terror suspect.”’

Read more: Leaked U.S. Terrorist Watchlist Rulebook Reveals 'Global Stop and Frisk Program'

Orwell Would Be Proud: US Media Admits Divine Right To Decide What Public Needs To Know

‘Yesterday afternoon, I happened to read a seemingly innocuous enough article in Time by Justin Lynch titled: Bloggers, Surveillance and Obama’s Orwellian State. The article covered the usual bases. Such as the fact the Obama Administration is the least transparent ever, how it has attacked whistleblowers and journalists more than all other Presidents combined, and how citizen journalists pose a threat to the corrupt and dying status quo. All things that we already know.

One of the people quoted in the article is Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times, Thom Shanker, who proudly noted “his employer has implemented rigorous standards to balance the security risks of reporting classified information with the public’s right to know.”’

Read more: Orwell Would Be Proud: US Media Admits Divine Right To Decide What Public Needs To Know

Could your iPhone replace your wallet? Apple developing iWallet app that could act as a credit card

‘Apple is preparing to launch an ‘iWallet’ app allowing customers to easily for with theit mobile phone, it has been claimed.

The project is believed the already have Visa on board, and is expected to use the firm’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor to verify a customer’s identity.

The app could launch in the Autumn alongside Apple’s new iPhone 6.’

Read more: Could your iPhone replace your wallet? Apple developing iWallet app that could act as a credit card

Verizon Offers Free Gifts to Customers Who Consent to Surveillance

‘Verizon Wireless is launching a rewards program this week for subscribers who consent to having their everyday movements tracked.

The program, called Smart Rewards, offers gift cards and travel deals to subscribers who surrender their web surfing, app usage and location data in exchange for targeted advertisements based on that personal information through the Verizon Selects tracking program.

“To make marketing messages more relevant, Verizon will analyze the information described above to identify you as part of a group of people a marketer is trying to reach,” the terms and conditions for Verizon Selects state.’

Read more: Verizon Offers Free Gifts to Customers Who Consent to Surveillance

Russian Institute for Strategic Studies: NATO Is Attempting to ‘Revolutionize The Current World Order’

‘The July 9th paper warns that the United States and NATO are attempting to create a “new world order” out of the Ukrainian situation that will impose totalitarian global laws and regulations. The basis of this system, warns RISS, will be a “single system to issue money”. The authors state that because this system will meet resistance, the threat of war needs to be maintained.

Ukraine, the authors write, is a testing ground for the establishment and its drive for world government. As the IMF and the global elite take over Ukraine,

“It seems that in addition to specific operational objectives, setting a formal and informal foreign control of key functions of the Ukrainian authorities may have the task of testing technologies… and disappearance of the sovereignty of independent States.”’

Read more: Russian Institute for Strategic Studies: NATO Is Attempting to 'Revolutionize The Current World Order'

What Corporate Media and Corporate Latino Politicians Won’t Tell You About Central American Child Refugees

‘Why can’t Latino politicians and corporate media call the current wave of Central American children refugees, when that’s what they plainly are? What’s the role of the US drug war, US trained cops and military, and US funded death squads in the violence and poverty that sent them here, and why won’t Latino politicians mention that either?

And why are none fleeing Nicaragua, which is just as poor as Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador?’

Read more: What Corporate Media and Corporate Latino Politicians Won't Tell You About Central American Child Refugees

UK Adds Facial Recognition to Surveillance Arsenal

‘The UK is probably the only place that surpasses New York’s “Ring of Steel” for bringing a full-spectrum Big Brother surveillance state to reality. As far back as 2006, even the BBC reported that fears of a “surveillance society” already had taken effect as, at the time, there was 1 CCTV camera for every 14 people. It’s now 1 for every 11, which is 5.9 million total cameras.

As the pace of facial recognition technology increases, as well as advances in artificial intelligence algorithms, the two are merging to provide police with easier and quicker access to matching all of the images from those millions of cameras, which are now stored in databases.

British police are ready to roll-out the latest technology called NeoFace which claims the ability to positively identify criminals in a matter of seconds. And it’s not just Britain that is putting such systems into effect.’

Read more: UK Adds Facial Recognition to Surveillance Arsenal

Almost Half the Time, You’re Not Eating the Fish You Think You Are

‘Omakase sushi bars and other high-end seafood menus are growing in popularity across the United States, showcasing the finest seafood available in the world as diners are becoming more adventurous, sampling their way from unagi to sea urchin. In fact, the U.S. is the world’s third largest consumer of seafood after China and Japan — we eat nearly 5 billion pounds of seafood a year! But there’s a catch to the catch: Nearly half the time, we’re not eating what we think we are…’

Read more: Almost Half the Time, You're Not Eating the Fish You Think You Are

Wages Continue To Tumble In Con-Dem Britain

Picture displayed by Street Democracy UK

Average worker has lost £1,600 a year since 2010, writes CONRAD LANDIN

WORKERS’ wages are still tumbling down the Con-Dem cliff even though dole queues are getting shorter, with experts warning yesterday that the coalition’s economic carve-up has made it more difficult than ever to make work pay.

The average worker is £1,600 a year worse off compared with before the 2010 general election.

That’s despite Office for National Statistics figures showing yesterday that fewer people are unemployed than at any time since 2008.

But more than a million people still have to claim jobseeker’s allowance to get by and there were actually increases in unemployment in Scotland and north-east and south-west England.

Official statistics showed that average earnings rose by a measly 0.7 per cent when bonuses were excluded — the lowest since 2001 and well below inflation.

Click here for Morning Star: 

Wages Continue To Tumble In Con-Dem Britain

Streets Of Northern England Filled With Public Sector Strikers

Pictures displayed by Street Democracy UK.

PUBLIC sector workers across northern England went on strike in their hundreds of thousands yesterday.

In virtually every major northern town and city they took to the streets in demonstrations, marches and rallies to take to the public their message of opposition to the government’s vicious austerity and poverty wages.

The sun-blazed marches were a sea of colour with workers carrying the banners, flags and placards of their public-sector unions.

The day began with picketing at hundreds of offices of councils and government departments, work depots, fire stations, schools and other workplaces across northern England.

At one Leeds court building pickets reported that only 10 of 140 staff employed there had gone in.

The city saw one of the biggest of the region’s rallies.

Just days after Leeds hosted the “Grand Depart” of the Tour de France, 5,000 strikers and their supporters cheered as they set off to march around the city with their message of protest and defiance.

There were striking workers, pensioners, disabled people, mums and dads with toddlers. Children clasped a parent with one hand and a trades union flag with the other.

The built-up streets echoed to the sound of chanting, vuvuzelas, whistles and horns.

Shoppers and workers on their lunch breaks applauded as the march wound past.

For more click here for Morning Star: 

Streets Of Northern England Filled With Public Sector Strikers

Let’s Nationalize Amazon and Google: Publicly Funded Technology Built Big Tech

‘They’re huge, they’re ruthless, and they touch every aspect of our daily lives. Corporations like Amazon and Google keep expanding their reach and their power. Despite a history of abuses, so far the Justice Department has declined to take antitrust actions against them. But there’s another solution.

Is it time to manage and regulate these companies as public utilities?’

Read more: Let’s Nationalize Amazon and Google: Publicly Funded Technology Built Big Tech