Report: Devin Nunes’ Aide Going Around Leaking Ukraine Call Whistleblower’s Name
We’ve been highlighting lately how the situation with the whistleblower, who first tried to ring the alarm bells about President Trump’s now confirmed quid pro quo call with Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent, showed why the “official channels” are useless for whistleblowers.Some suggested that we were premature in making that claim.However, since then, we’ve seen the President himself repeatedly try to attack the whistleblower while repeatedly demanding that the whistleblower be revealed.Now come reports that a staffer for Rep.Devin Nunes is going around revealing the name of the whistleblower… 6 Ways Trump Has Sold Out America
At every turn, he has sold out America for his own personal interest.
Instead of putting America first, here are 6 ways Donald Trump has put himself first: 1) He has encouraged foreign powers to interfere in our democracy.
Trump is using the power of the presidency to encourage foreign leaders to interfere in our elections – asking the President of Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political opponents in exchange for military aid.He has also publicly called on Russia and China to investigate his political opponents.
2) He receives money from foreign governments through his hotels and real estate business.Since taking office, representatives of at least 22 foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Russia, have spent money at properties owned by the Trump Organization.These payments are clear violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which forbids the president from accepting anything of value from foreign governments.Trump had even planned to host next year’s G-7 meeting at his Doral golf resort, in Florida, but this brazen corruption was apparently too much even for his supporters in Congress.3) He is making foreign policy on the basis of where his business is located around the world.The simplest explanation for why he cozies up to Turkey’s dictator Recep Erdogan, even withdrawing US troops from the Syrian border, is the Trump Towers Istanbul is his first and only office and residential building in Europe, and businesses linked to the Turkish government are also major patrons of the Trump Organization.4) He has called on foreign powers to investigate Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who concluded that Trump’s campaign sought help from Russia during the 2016 election.The Trump administration has encouraged officials in Italy, Australia, and the United Kingdom to investigate details of Mueller’s investigation in an effort to discredit his report.5) He is favoring authoritarian regimes around the world, turning his back on America’s allies.
Beyond Turkey’s Erdogan, Trump has said he’s “in love” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and, of course, praised Vladimir Putin.6) He has ignored American intelligence agencies, relying instead on foreign governments.He has repeatedly disputed that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, favoring Vladimir Putin’s version of what happened over the findings of our own intelligence community.Donald Trump claims to be a patriot at the same time as he sells out America.He has brazenly sought private gain from foreign governments at the expense of the American people.
Instead of putting “America First,” he has repeatedly put “Donald First.” White House Official to Offer ‘Damning’ Impeachment Testimony
A White House National Security Council official who listened to President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader plans to tell House impeachment investigators in a sworn deposition Tuesday that he was so alarmed by the conversation that he reported it to his superiors and the NSC’s top lawyer.Mark Zuckerberg Faces Employee Backlash Over Political Ads
Last year, it seemed that Facebook might emerge relatively unscathed from accusations ranging from privacy violations to allowing Russian interference in the 2016 elections.The social media company did walk away with a $5 billion fine by the Federal Trade Commission for user privacy violations, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg sailed through a 2018 Senate hearing, partly because, as Casey Newton wrote in The Verge, “Senators don’t understand how Facebook works.” Latin America: Risks Worth Taking
It was just a matter of time before the Bolivian government would be the target of a reactionary opposition.Indeed it happened at its most vulnerable time during an election process that had not officially ended.Following popular protests against neoliberal structural changes imposed by the governments of Ecuador and Chile, it was the conservative opposition in Bolivia that attempted to prevent the presidential re-election of Evo Morales.Tuesday’s papers: Changing political discourse, roaming problems, and a liquorice frock
Helsingin Sanomat reports on criticism by the parliamentary group chairs of the language being used by politicians, and a warning that social media – particularly twitter – is responsible for a change in how MPs communicate.A number of politicians have been sharply criticised for the language they use both in parliament and on social media, with three prominent MPs the subject of a recent police investigation.
Kai Mykkänen of the National Coalition Party tells HS that MPs seem more concerned with creating attention-grabbing soundbites than serious political debate.
Hong Kong authorities barred high-profile pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong from an election, and the city’s leader ruled out political solutions before the end of the violent protests gripping the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.Censorship/Free Speech ‘Harmless bruising’ Russian federal agents dragged a man into the forest and beat him.
He’s been charged repeatedly with posting ‘illegal comments’ online.
On October 15, members of the Federal Security Service in Kaluga arrested a 36-year-old local man and accused him of justifying terrorism in comments published on the social network VKontakte.A court later placed the suspect under house arrest for at least the next two months.
This isn’t the first time Ivan Lyubshin has faced criminal prosecution for things he’s written online.In 2017, he was charged with distributing pornography and extremism, and “rehabilitating Nazism,” but he got off mostly with a few fines.Lyubshin’s father told Meduza that his son wasn’t so lucky this month, when FSB agents dragged him into the woods and beat him.
Afterwards, forensic experts nevertheless concluded that the attack “caused no harm.” Russian state television censors joke about anti-extremism police
Comedian Danila Poperechny says the late night talk show “Vecherny Urgant” cut his joke about Russia’s anti-extremism police.In a tweet, the comic said he took the stage and explained to the crowd that he’d come on the show for two reasons: first, he likes the host, Ivan Urgant, and second “because when regional officers in the anti-extremism department see me on Channel One, for some reason they think I’m white-listed and they don’t fuck with me when I’m on tour.” This latter remark never aired for television audiences.Freedom of Thought is Under Attack: Here’s How to Save Your Mind
Freedom of thought stands at a critical crossroads.Technological and psychological advances could be used to promote free thought.They could shield our inner worlds, reduce our mental biases, and create new spaces for thought.
Yet states and corporations are forging these advances into weapons that restrict what we think.The Demonization of Dissent
Still more alarming, several months later, in December 2017, a little-noticed amicus curiae brief sent by former high-ranking US intelligence officials asserted that Russia uses “political organizers and activists, academics, journalists, web operators, shell companies, nationalists and militant groups, and prominent pro-Russian businessmen” to subvert the American political process.Blow the house down
Social media has many uses — some good, some mildly disturbing.But what we are seeing now in Bangladesh, most recently in Bhola and in many other places before that, is unmatched in its vileness, and reveals the existence of a mind-set in our country that most decent people would rather not think about.
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Seven years later, we are still waiting to see the perpetrators brought to book.After Catch and Kill Fallout, Former Fox News Staffers Demand to Be Released From Their NDAs
Now, in the wake of the NBC scandal, at least six former Fox News employees, including Gretchen Carlson, the first woman at Fox News to publicly file a lawsuit against Ailes, are calling to be released from their NDAs.
“All women at Fox News and beyond forced to sign NDAs should be released from them immediately, giving them back the voices they deserve,” Carlson told me over the weekend.“None of us asked to get into a workplace dispute.We simply had the courage to stand up and say something—but in the end it’s our voices no one can hear.Because of our NDAs, we can never say what is factually correct or incorrect about what happened to us at Fox.” Privacy/Surveillance Facebook Faces Another Congressional Grilling
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was called back to Capitol Hill to speak about the company’s impact on the financial and housing sectors—particularly in light of its proposal to launch a cryptocurrency wallet, Calibra, and its involvement in the creation of the Libra cryptocurrency.
We’ve criticized Facebook on many fronts for years, and we share the wide ranging concerns of lawmakers who want to ensure their constituents’ privacy and rights are protected from Facebook’s abuses as it looks to expand its reach.Throughout the hearing, we appreciate that the committee members focused on Facebook’s actions as the basis of their skepticism about Libra, rather than around blockchain technology.
Companies Can Still Do More to Protect Privacy in Brazil: Internet Lab Releases Fourth “Who Defends Your Data” Report
Internet Lab, the Brazilian independent research center, has published their fourth annual report of “Quem Defende Seus Dados?” (“Who defends your data?”), comparing policies of their local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and how they treat users’ data after receiving government requests.Vivo (Telefónica) still takes the lead, but Tim is not far behind.
Claro/NET (América Móvil), SKY (DirectTV/AT&T), and Oi also show progress compared to 2018’s report.
In this year’s report, all companies, except Nextel, received at least a partial star for providing information on data disclosure to the government.Most of the ISPs have published details on how their users’ data is collected and processed.While Net joined the list in the new report, Algar lost the partial star earned in 2018.Vivo is still the only company to provide a comprehensive transparency report, but SKY and Tim scored partially this time.
Brazilian ISPs could certainly do more with regard to transparency reports as well as law enforcement guidelines and user’s notification.DNS over HTTPS Will Give You Back Privacy that Big ISPs Fought to Take Away
An absurd thing is happening in the halls of Congress.Major ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon are banging on the doors of legislators to stop the deployment of DNS over HTTPS (DoH), a technology that will give users one of the biggest upgrades to their Internet privacy and security since the proliferation of HTTPS.This is because DoH ensures that when you look up a website, your query to the DNS system is secure through encryption and can’t be tracked, spoofed, or blocked.
But despite these benefits, ISPs have written dozens of congressional leaders about their concerns, and are handing out misleading materials invoking Google as the boogeyman.EFF, Consumer Reports, and National Consumers League wrote this letter in response.Georgia Supreme Court Says Cops Need Warrants To Search Vehicle Crash Data Recorders
A couple of years ago, the Georgia state appeals court interpreted the Supreme Court’s Riley decision to cover data pulled from vehicles after accidents.If warrants were required to search cellphones — thanks to their ability to store all sorts of personal information — it stood to reason warrants should be needed to access other data not visible to the naked eye.
Comcast Insists It’s An Innocent Little Daisy On Consumer Privacy
Both Mozilla and Google have begun pushing encrypted DNS via their respective browsers, making it more difficult for outsiders to monitor and/or monetize your daily browsing habits.Not too surprisingly the broadband industry, which has a long, proud history of covertly collecting and selling this data, isn’t particularly happy about this evolution.
With the help of unskeptical news outlets, telecom lobbyists have been trying to convince the government that what Mozilla and Google are up to is somehow nefarious, going so far as to (incorrectly) claim the move is even an antitrust violation..
