Name: Anonymous 2020-02-18 17:33
I'm so sad right now.
it doesn't matter if there's no revenue, because money is just a means of exchange, and everything being given free there's no need for it >>480https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Taler -- GNU Taler is a free software-based microtransaction and electronic payment system.[1][2] The project is led by Florian Dold and Christian Grothoff[3] of Taler Systems SA. Taler is short for the "Taxable Anonymous Libre Economic Reserves"[4][5] and alludes to the Taler coins in Germany during the Early Modern period. It has vocal support from GNU Project founder Richard Stallman.[6] Stallman has described the program as "designed to be anonymous for the payer, but payees are always identified."[7] In a paper published in Security, Privacy, and Applied Cryptography Engineering, GNU Taler is described as meeting ethical considerations - the paying customer is anonymous while the merchant is identified and taxable.[8][9] -- https://gnunet.org/en/applications.html -- https://taler.net/en/ -- >>287
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#4_November_2020_(Kentucky_state_thug_training) -- *Kentucky state [thug] training quoted Hitler to create ‘ruthless’ warriors.* If we want police officers rather than thugs, we should not teach them to think of themselves as "warriors". That was the basic mistake in this training; no matter who they quoted, it would be wrong. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/02/kentucky-state-police-training-materials-hitler-quotes -- Kentucky state police training quoted Hitler to create ‘ruthless’ warriors -- Mon 2 Nov 2020 -- Instructional presentation quotes the Nazi leader on three separate slides, as well as Confederate general Robert E Lee -- >>478
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-jul-oct.html#4_October_2020_(A_Texas_sheriff_charged_with_destroying_video_evidence_of_Javier_Ambler's_death) -- A Texas sheriff has been charged with destroying video evidence showing how thugs tased Javier Ambler to death. -- https://boingboing.net/2020/09/29/texas-sheriff-charged-with-destroying-footage-of-officers-killing-black-suspect.html -- Texas sheriff charged with destroying footage of officers killing black postal worker -- Tue Sep 29, 2020
Robert Chody, the Sheriff in Williamson County, Texas, was arrested and charged Monday with destroying footage of his deputies killing [ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/texas-sheriff-charged-evidence-tampering-black-man-s-death-n1241266 ] Javier Ambler. Ambler, 40, was a postal worker tased repeatedly after a car chase. He died begging for his life. The footage was shot for a reality TV show called "Live PD" and resulted in its cancellation after the scandal emerged. Former Williamson County general counsel Jason Nassour also received the same charge.
The charges were brought following a months-long joint investigation involving the Austin Police Department and the district attorney offices in Williamson and Travis counties. A total of 19 witnesses were brought before the grand jury, said Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick.
"We spent several months putting all this together and presenting a large number of witnesses to the grand jury," Dick said.
A defiant Chody, speaking to the media after he was released on bond, claimed the charges were politically-motivated.
"We're here because it's a month before the election – my election," he said.
It took a year to organize the prosecution: "An internal Williamson County investigation cleared the deputies involved in the encounter of wrongdoing." As you may recall, TV chiefs finally canceled COPS [ https://boingboing.net/2020/06/10/cops-cancelled-after-33-season.html ] after the murder of George Floyd by officers in Minneapolis. Think of what got Live PD canceled after a couple of seasons, then imagine the footage COPS has memory-holed from the last 30 years.
robots will scavenge the land and plow so there's no need for work either we can all.be enlightened savants working leisurely for the betterment of the humanity's spirit through art and craft, and a new golden age of peace and prosper >>480https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html -- In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the postscarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming. -- 1983
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#2_November_2020_(A_Philadelphia_woman_down_the_wrong_street) -- A Philadelphia woman drove into the wrong street, wrong because thugs were kettling protesters at the end of the block. One thug told her to turn around, but as she did so, other thugs broke her car windows, grabbed her very young son, beat her up, then posted a photo of her son to claim they were protecting him. I suppose it is not a coincidence that she is black. We must demand prosecution of the thugs that did these mad things. It's not enough to prosecute them solely for murder. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/truly-sociopathic-behavior-after-mother-beaten-philly-cops-fraternal-order-police -- 'Truly Sociopathic Behavior': After Mother Beaten by Philly Cops, Fraternal Order of Police Use Photo of Terrified Toddler as Propaganda -- Friday, October 30, 2020 -- "The underlying story of Philadelphia police conduct is shocking enough, but the added layer of intentional lies and deception... is unbelievable." -- >>479
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#5_November_2020_(Infiltrated_thugs) -- UK thugs infiltrated protests against the Vietnam War, and many other political causes. * Barr said that mainly leftwing groups were infiltrated "as well as groups campaigning for social, environmental or other change" such as anti-nuclear causes. He also said trade unionists and groups opposing racism were spied on. Far-right groups were also infiltrated.* *"The information reported by these undercover police officers was extensive. It covered the activities of the groups in question, and their members. It also extended to the groups and individuals with whom they came into contact, including elected representatives. Reporting covered not only the political or campaigning activities of those concerned but other aspects of their personal lives."* -- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/02/police-deployed-scruffy-officers-to-infiltrate-vietnam-protesters -- MI5 worked with undercover police to infiltrate Vietnam protests -- Mon 2 Nov 2020 -- Papers show secret cooperation as ‘scruffy’ officers spied on anti-war protesters
The security service MI5 worked closely with undercover police officers to infiltrate the campaign against the Vietnam war, documents released to a public inquiry have disclosed. Senior Scotland Yard officers told MI5 that they had deployed what they called “bearded and unwashed” male officers and “scruffy” female officers to spy on the campaign in the late 1960s. The Home Office–approved surveillance was initiated at a time when the political establishment feared leftwing protest groups were challenging the status quo. The collaboration marked the start of a secret police operation that escalated over more than 40 years, involving at least 139 undercover officers spying on more than 1,000 political groups.
The top-secret collaboration between M15 and Scotland Yard was disclosed on the opening day of public evidence sessions that are being held by a judge-led public inquiry into the undercover policing scandal. In an opening statement delivered via a live video stream on Monday, David Barr, the inquiry’s QC, described how the inquiry had been commissioned in 2014 [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/06/stephen-lawrence-theresa-may-inquiry-police ] by the then home secretary, Theresa May, as a result of “profound and wide-ranging concerns” about the activities of undercover officers. Barr detailed how the Met initially set up a unit of undercover officers following disorder at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration in March 1968. He said that MI5 and the Met’s special branch held top-secret meetings to arrange a two-way flow of information. A member of the undercover unit was sent to work at MI5’s offices to ease the supply of information.
At a meeting in August 1968, Special Branch and MI5 promised to help each other gather information on student protesters. According to an MI5 note of the meeting, Scotland Yard had “set up a special squad – bearded and unwashed males and scruffy females – who are participating in demonstrations where they make contact with students and then hope to turn them and use them as short-term informers. They are meeting with some success.” Police deployed at least six undercover officers – including two pretending to be a couple – to spy on the anti-Vietnam war protesters. Barr said Scotland Yard had set up the unit originally to gather advanced information about a specific demonstration, a protest against the Vietnam war in October 1968. But he said the unit, the Special Demonstration Squad, was “transformed to one which continually gathered intelligence on the activities and intentions of numerous groups” until 2008.
Barr said that mainly leftwing groups were infiltrated “as well as groups campaigning for social, environmental or other change” such as anti-nuclear causes. He also said trade unionists and groups opposing racism were spied on. Far-right groups were also infiltrated. M15 has been criticised for running large-scale espionage operations against peaceful campaigners and leftwing groups that were exercising their democratic rights to seek to change British society. The SDS was part of the Met’s Special Branch which gathered information for MI5. Barr said: “It has emerged that for decades undercover police officers infiltrated a significant number of political and other activist groups, in deployments which typically lasted for years.” “The information reported by these undercover police officers was extensive. It covered the activities of the groups in question, and their members. It also extended to the groups and individuals with whom they came into contact, including elected representatives.
“Reporting covered not only the political or campaigning activities of those concerned but other aspects of their personal lives.” Barr sketched out how the inquiry – led by retired judge Sir John Mitting – has been tasked with examining a series of controversies. At least 20 undercover officers had sexual relationships using their fake identities between the mid-1970s and 2010. “Several formed long-term sexual relationships; in some cases the officer did eventually reveal their cover identity, in other cases they did not do so,” Barr said. “At least one fathered a child with a woman who did not know that her partner was an undercover police officer. In many cases, deception has had devastating consequences.”
The undercover officers also spied on black justice groups, including those run by grieving families whose relatives were killed by police or died in custody. The inquiry was set up after the Guardian revealed that the undercover police had spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence. Barr told the inquiry the undercover officers gathered “personal details” about Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville, while they campaigned to compel the police to properly investigate the racist murder of their son.
stallman is going to make free software for everyone and it will be all okay >>480https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html -- I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and want to help. Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making money. By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace. -- 1983
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#4_November_2020_(Kentucky_state_thug_training) -- *Kentucky state [thug] training quoted Hitler to create ‘ruthless’ warriors.* If we want police officers rather than thugs, we should not teach them to think of themselves as "warriors". That was the basic mistake in this training; no matter who they quoted, it would be wrong. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/02/kentucky-state-police-training-materials-hitler-quotes -- Kentucky state police training quoted Hitler to create ‘ruthless’ warriors -- Mon 2 Nov 2020 -- Instructional presentation quotes the Nazi leader on three separate slides, as well as Confederate general Robert E Lee -- >>478
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#28_October_2020_(GM_and_Ford_knew_of_global_heating) -- Scientists at GM and Ford knew in the 1970s that their cars and trucks were contributing to dangerous global heating. Despite this knowledge, they campaigned against efforts to shift the Earth off that path. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/26/gm-and-ford-knew-too-reporting-reveals-auto-giants-recognized-looming-climate-crisis -- GM and Ford Knew, Too: Reporting Reveals Auto Giants Recognized Looming Climate Crisis in 1960s—and Helped Bury Reality -- Monday, October 26, 2020 -- "Like the major oil and gas companies, leading car companies took a calculated risk that they—and the world—could delay action to address the drivers of climate change. We are all paying for that gamble."
"Another cog in the climate denial machine rattles loose." "GM and Ford not only knew their cars were fueling the climate crisis, but anytime a political effort came together to address the emergency, they helped steer it into a ditch." —Jamie Henn, Fossil Free Media So said Harvard University climate denial researcher Geoffrey Supran in response to a groundbreaking investigative report [ https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063717035 ] published Monday by E&E News revealing that scientists at auto giants General Motors and Ford Motor Co. "knew as early as the 1960s that car emissions caused climate change." Those discoveries, notes E&E News reporter Maxine Joselow, "preceded decades of political lobbying by the two car giants that undermined global attempts to reduce emissions while stalling U.S. efforts to make vehicles cleaner." Supran is co-director of the Climate Social Science Network and a research associate in Harvard's Department of the History of Science. He investigates the history of climate politics—particularly the communications, denial, and delay tactics of fossil fuel interests—alongside professor Naomi Oreskes, who also highlighted the revelations.
"There was never any doubt for a minute", former GM scientist Ruth Reck says of her pioneering climate science research in the 1960s. Yet that didn't stop the company attacking that very science decades later. "The PR people use...weasel words to misrepresent things." https://t.co/9E45Q7g0Tp — Geoffrey Supran (@GeoffreySupran) October 26, 2020
More details about what corporate America knew about #climatechange in the 1960s and 70s... and also how they funded right-wing think tanks to say otherwise. https://t.co/PxncnVtdQh — NaomiOreskes (@NaomiOreskes) October 26, 2020
"From fossil fuel companies, to car manufacturers and utilities, we know it's not only Exxon that knew about the climate crisis decades ago," Lindsay Meiman of 350.org told Common Dreams on Monday, referencing previous reporting [ https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken ] on climate research conducted and concealed for decades by oil giant ExxonMobil. "Now, with climate disasters at our doorsteps, it's Black, Indigenous, and communities of color who bear the costs of these lies," Meiman added. "The silver lining: we know exactly who is responsible for the climate crisis. It's up to all of us to hold polluters and billionaires accountable for their deception and destruction." Joselow's exposé is based on nearly five months of reporting as well as documents on GM from the General Motors Heritage Center and Wayne State University in Detroit, documents on Ford's climate research unearthed by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and additional materials on both manufacturers provided by the Climate Investigations Centers. According to E&E News:
Researchers at both automakers found strong evidence in the 1960s and '70s that human activity was warming the Earth. A primary culprit was the burning of fossil fuels, which released large quantities of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide that could trigger melting of polar ice sheets and other dire consequences.
A GM scientist presented her findings to at least three high-level executives at the company, including a former chairman and CEO. It's unclear whether similar warnings reached the top brass at Ford.
But in the following decades, both manufacturers largely failed to act on the knowledge that their products were heating the planet. Instead of shifting their business models away from fossil fuels, the companies invested heavily in gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. At the same time, the two carmakers privately donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups that cast doubt on the scientific consensus on global warming.
While spokespeople for each company responded to the revelations by recognizing the reality of human-caused climate change and detailing to E&E News their respective efforts to reduce emissions by increasing production of electric vehicles, climate action advocates were outraged. "It's jaw-dropping," Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media and co-founder of 350.org, told Common Dreams. "GM and Ford not only knew their cars were fueling the climate crisis, but anytime a political effort came together to address the emergency, they helped steer it into a ditch. Think of the millions of premature deaths from air pollution that could have been prevented if the world's largest automakers had committed to go all-electric back in the 1970s." "This reporting drags the automakers back into the center of the climate fight," added Henn. "It puts immense pressure on them to support any new climate legislation or regulations, especially around electric vehicles and auto emissions. I think it also raises the question of whether GM and Ford should be included in future climate liability lawsuits." Henn explained that unlike the major fossil fuel companies, who he called "irredeemable polluters," big auto companies like Ford and GM now have a choice to make. "They can get swept away with the likes of Exxon and Chevron or embrace a clean energy future by going all-electric and supporting mass transit," he said. "Activists will be working hard to make sure it's the latter."
Just like #ExxonKnew, General Motors + Ford have known for decades how they contribute to the climate crisis. Instead of warning us, they decided to pour their profit$ into casting doubt & deception.https://t.co/SsygaB2Og5 — 350 dot org (@350) October 26, 2020
A critical, and damning, look at how #FordandGMKnew that vehicle emissions were driving climate change and they lobbied to stop climate action from @maxinejoselow . talk about Monday motivation... https://t.co/35c50pN4VF — Allison Considine (@AD_Considine) October 26, 2020
In a statement, CIEL president Carroll Muffett said the investigation "demonstrates auto companies were aware of emerging climate science and on notice of potential climate risks decades earlier than was previously recognized." The group also detailed key takeaways from the reporting:
🚗 In a 1956 letter, Ford scientist Gilbert Plass rejected the idea that excess warming from burning fossil fuels poses "little danger to the Earth," observing that burning known reserves of fossil fuels would raise global temperatures by 7⁰C.
🚗 In multiple articles written while at Ford, Plass detailed the science linking fossil fuel combustion to the planetary "greenhouse effect.”"
🚗 Ford continued an active program of climate-relevant research into the 1970s and beyond.
🚗 General Motors employed its own climate scientists from the early 1970s, with a research focus on establishing competing theories of global warming.
🚗 In testimony to Congress in 1967, a Ford executive argued against federal investments in electric vehicle research, arguing that industry was actively developing EV technology and would be ready to bring electric cars to market within a decade.
"Like the oil industry, leading car companies had early notice that the carbon dioxide emitted by their automotive products posed potential risks for the climate at a planetary scale," said Muffett. "Ford and GM had both the opportunity and the responsibility to design products that would reduce emissions, and warn the public of risks that couldn't be eliminated. Instead, they spent decades denying climate science and obstructing climate action." In other words, Muffett added, "like the major oil and gas companies, leading car companies took a calculated risk that they—and the world—could delay action to address the drivers of climate change. We are all paying for that gamble."
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#12_November_2020_(Infiltration) -- Undercover thugs infiltrating various political movements operated by pretending to love women participants, and won their love by pretending to be devoted and caring — until the day they suddenly disappeared. -- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/09/undercover-officer-rekindled-relationship-seven-years-later-inquiry-told -- Undercover >>253 officer >>489 rekindled relationship seven years later, inquiry told -- Mon 9 Nov 2020 -- ‘Rob Harrison’ reappeared in woman’s life in 2014, before disappearing again
An undercover officer who deceived a woman into a sexual relationship reappeared in her life seven years after his deployment ended to rekindle their relationship, only to suddenly disappear again without explanation, a public inquiry has heard. The police officer, who used the fake name Rob Harrison to infiltrate pro–Palestine campaigners, had a relationship lasting almost a year with the woman while he was undercover. The relationship ended in 2007, when Harrison disappeared, claiming he had to look after his dying mother. In 2014, after intermittent contact, he persuaded the woman to resume their relationship, telling her that he wanted to have children together. At that point, the woman, who is known only as Maya as she has been granted anonymity by the inquiry, broke up with her partner of five years. However, Harrison disappeared the day after they slept together again. He has not contacted her again since then, excluding one email he sent four years ago.
Maya only found out last year that Harrison had been an undercover officer sent to spy on her and other leftwing campaigners as part of the Metropolitan police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Harrison’s conduct was described on Monday in an opening statement to the inquiry by Phillippa Kaufmann QC, who represents 20 women deceived into sexual relationships by undercover officers between 1985 and 2015. These included long-term relationships that lasted years. She told the inquiry the state-sponsored deception had been “devastating and life-altering” for each of the women. The inquiry, headed by retired judge Sir John Mitting, is examining how undercover officers spied on more than 1,000 political groups over more than 40 years.
Kaufmann said that the undercover officers were “permitted or encouraged” to form sexual relationships with campaigners they were spying on as a deliberate tactic. She said the men routinely formed relationships with the women without disclosing their real identities, before disappearing from their lives without any explanation. “Before they even discovered the truth, many of the women were already deeply traumatised and scarred by the deceptions and extreme emotional manipulation practised on them.” “To groom the women, the undercover officers mirrored their interests and values and were unstintingly supportive and attentive. Unsurprisingly, many of the women fell deeply in love, believing they had met their soulmate.
“Having drawn the women in so comprehensively, they then deployed a markedly similar and deeply cruel exit strategy – a sudden withdrawal often accompanied by an apparent mental breakdown, or emotional trauma. “This left the women not only dealing with their own sudden, inexplicable and enormous loss, but also carrying a huge burden of worry and fear about the welfare of their lost partner.” The most recent relationship that has been revealed is the one Harrison established with Maya. Remarkably, Harrison reappeared in Maya’s life seeking to restart their relationship after the then home secretary, Theresa May, had ordered the public inquiry into undercover policing of protest groups in March 2014. Harrison infiltrated the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement and other groups between 2004 and 2007. He played at fundraising benefit concerts as a DJ, using the name “Boogie Knight”.
Harrison has a long-term relationship with Maya that ended in 2007 when, according to Kaufmann, he “claimed his mother was dying of cancer and he needed to spend her final months with her”. She said: “After he left he communicated intermittently and then in August 2014 he contacted her again and on his invitation they met up. Over the next few months Rob expressed a desire to resume the relationship and to have children together. As a result of this fresh contact Maya broke up with her partner of five years, with whom she was living at the time.” “In February 2015, Maya and Rob slept together for the first time since they had separated in 2007. They had unprotected sex and Maya had to take emergency contraception the following day. The same day Rob disappeared and with the exception of one email he sent to her in 2016, he has never contacted Maya since.” Kaufmann also told the inquiry that another undercover officer, who used the fake name of James Straven, lied to the inquiry to try and cover up his relationships. Straven had deceived two women into sexual relationships while he infiltrated animal rights groups between 1997 and 2002.
He had a two-year relationship with a woman, known only as Sara, and he then had a year-long relationship with a 21-year-old woman, known as Ellie, which ended around 2002 when he claimed that he was moving abroad. Kaufmann said that Ellie stayed in touch with him by email and they met up every couple of years. In 2018, four years after May announced the creation of the public inquiry, Straven revealed to Ellie that he had been an undercover officer. “He told her to delete their WhatsApp messages and emails. It is clear that he was trying to destroy the evidence that would reveal his lies to the inquiry,” Kaufmann said. “For James had twice lied to the inquiry: first denying that he had had any intimate relationships including with Sara and Ellie, and second [saying] that all he could provide by way of contact details was ‘a guess at an old email address’,” she added.
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#16_November_2020_(Spying_on_Mac) -- The new version of MacOS — and therefore the new generation of Macs — informs Apple of every time the machine launches a program. The Guardian press seems blissfully unaware of this spying. It even repeats Apple's claims to help users protect their privacy — but only some aspects of their privacy. Just as software developers have redefined "security" to mean "security against everyone but us", Apple is redefining "privacy" to mean "privacy from everyone but us." People might want to post comments there (be civil about it!) or send letters to the editor. I am sure there are dozens of publications which could use the same sort of response. -- https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/ -- Your Computer Isn't Yours -- 12 November 2020
It’s here. It happened. Did you notice? I’m speaking, of course, of the world that Richard Stallman predicted [ https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html ] in 1997. The one Cory Doctorow also warned us [ https://craphound.com/pc/download/ ] about. On modern versions of macOS, you simply can’t power on your computer, launch a text editor or eBook reader, and write or read, without a log of your activity being transmitted and stored.
It turns out that in the current version of the macOS, the OS sends to Apple a hash (unique identifier) of each and every program you run, when you run it. Lots of people didn’t realize this, because it’s silent and invisible and it fails instantly and gracefully when you’re offline, but today the server got really slow and it didn’t hit the fail-fast code path, and everyone’s apps failed to open if they were connected to the internet. Because it does this using the internet, the server sees your IP, of course, and knows what time the request came in. An IP address allows for coarse, city-level and ISP-level geolocation, and allows for a table that has the following headings: Date, Time, Computer, ISP, City, State, Application Hash. Apple (or anyone else) can, of course, calculate these hashes for common programs: everything in the App Store, the Creative Cloud, Tor Browser, cracking or reverse engineering tools, whatever.
This means that Apple knows when you’re at home. When you’re at work. What apps you open there, and how often. They know when you open Premiere over at a friend’s house on their Wi-Fi, and they know when you open Tor Browser in a hotel on a trip to another city. “Who cares?” I hear you asking. Well, it’s not just Apple. This information doesn’t stay with them:
These OCSP requests are transmitted unencrypted. Everyone who can see the network can see these, including your ISP and anyone who has tapped their cables.
These requests go to a third-party CDN run by another company, Akamai.
Since October of 2012, Apple is a partner in the US military intelligence community’s PRISM spying program, which grants the US federal police and military unfettered access to this data without a warrant, any time they ask for it. In the first half of 2019 they did this over 18,000 times, and another 17,500+ times in the second half of 2019.
This data amounts to a tremendous trove of data about your life and habits, and allows someone possessing all of it to identify your movement and activity patterns. For some people, this can even pose a physical danger to them. Now, it’s been possible up until today to block this sort of stuff on your Mac using a program called Little Snitch (really, the only thing keeping me using macOS at this point). In the default configuration, it blanket allows all of this computer-to-Apple communication, but you can disable those default rules and go on to approve or deny each of these connections, and your computer will continue to work fine without snitching on you to Apple. The version of macOS that was released today, 11.0, also known as Big Sur, has new APIs that prevent Little Snitch from working the same way. The new APIs don’t permit Little Snitch to inspect or block any OS level processes. Additionally, the new rules in macOS 11 even hobble VPNs so that Apple apps will simply bypass [ https://appleterm.com/2020/10/20/macos-big-sur-firewalls-and-vpns/ ] them.
@patrickwardle lets us know that trustd, the daemon responsible for these requests, is in the new ContentFilterExclusionList in macOS 11, which means it can’t be blocked by any user-controlled firewall or VPN. In his screenshot, it also shows that CommCenter (used for making phone calls from your Mac) and Maps will also leak past your firewall/VPN, potentially compromising your voice traffic and future/planned location information. Those shiny new Apple Silicon macs that Apple just announced, three times faster and 50% more battery life? They won’t run any OS before Big Sur. These machines are the first general purpose computers ever where you have to make an exclusive choice: you can have a fast and efficient machine, or you can have a private one. (Apple mobile devices have already been this way for several years.) Short of using an external network filtering device like a travel/vpn router that you can totally control, there will be no way to boot any OS on the new Apple Silicon macs that won’t phone home, and you can’t modify the OS to prevent this (or they won’t boot at all, due to hardware-based cryptographic protections).
Your computer now serves a remote master, who has decided that they are entitled to spy on you. If you’ve the most efficient high-res laptop in the world, you can’t turn this off. Let’s not think very much right now about the additional fact that Apple can, via these online certificate checks, prevent you from launching any app they (or their government) demands be censored. The day that Stallman and Doctorow have been warning us about has arrived this week. It’s been a slow and gradual process, but we are finally here. You will receive no further alerts.
In other news, Apple has quietly backdoored [ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1CT ] the end-to-end cryptography of iMessage. Presently, modern iOS will prompt you for your Apple ID during setup, and will automatically enable iCloud and iCloud Backup. iCloud Backup is not end to end encrypted: it encrypts your device backup to Apple keys. Every device with iCloud Backup enabled (it’s on by default) backs up the complete iMessage history to Apple, along with the device’s iMessage secret keys, each night when plugged in. Apple can decrypt and read this information without ever touching the device. Even if you have iCloud and/or iCloud Backup disabled: it’s likely that whoever you’re iMessaging with does not, and that your conversation is being uploaded to Apple (and, via PRISM, freely available to the US military intelligence community, FBI, et al—with no warrant or probable cause).
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#15_November_2020_(Undercover_infiltrators) -- The UK has been sending undercover infiltrators to get under the covers with protesters since the 1960s. -- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/13/first-met-police-spy-operation-involved-sex-with-vietnam-activist-inquiry-told -- First Met police spy operation involved sex with Vietnam activist, inquiry told -- Fri 13 Nov 2020 -- Undercover officers >>253 >>489 >>494 allegedly had sex with their surveillance targets as long ago as 1968
Scotland Yard’s very first operation to spy on leftwing campaigners began in the 1960s with an undercover police officer who is now accused of having an intimate relationship with an activist, a public inquiry has heard. The undercover officer, whose real name was Helen Crampton, is now dead. It is alleged that she had a relationship in 1968 with George Cochrane, a prominent campaigner against the Vietnam war. If the allegation proves to be true, it would mean that undercover officers had sexual relationships with activists they were tasked with monitoring for nearly half a century – with the most recent known case occurring in 2015.
Crampton, who was a member of the Metropolitan police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), is only the second female undercover police officer alleged to have had a sexual relationship with an activist during a covert deployment. The other, who used the alias Lynn Watson, spied on anti-war protesters in Leeds and environmentalists between 2002 and 2008, and had a brief fling [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jan/17/spies-sexual-relations-activists-routine ] in a tent with an activist at a climate protest. Watson, who worked for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, which replaced the SDS, is perhaps best-known for dressing as a clown to take part in anti-war street theatre. A video [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/25/police-spy-lynn-watson-clown ] captured Watson with a colander on her head declaring: “What this country needs is more clowns.”
More than 20 undercover officers are known to have deceived activists into sexual relationships using their fake identities. Some of the relationships lasted for years. Nearly all of those officers were men – and many campaigners believe institutional sexism accounts for the widespread use of the tactic. At least three of the police spies even fathered children [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/07/met-police-pay-compensation-to-man-fathered-by-undercover-officer ] with women they met while undercover. The allegation concerning Crampton was aired in a surprising intervention on Friday at the inquiry by Rajiv Menon, a QC representing campaigners. Menon said that if true, it would be the “very first example of an officer of the SDS engaging in some form of intimate relationship with a member of a target organisation”.
He said that he was privy to information about a possible relationship from another source which had only emerged “as a result of developments in the last few days”. The much-delayed inquiry started taking evidence from witnesses on Wednesday. Menon said he did not know whether Cochrane was still alive. Sir John Mitting, the retired judge leading the inquiry, permitted Menon to ask questions about the possible relationship only as “an exceptional course” as Cochrane was unlikely to be able to give evidence. He did not allow Menon to ask his other proposed questions. The exchange highlighted a growing frustration victims of the surveillance have with Mitting, who is barring their barristers from asking witnesses questions. On Thursday, Mitting did not allow Menon to put all his questions to another undercover officer [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/12/nine-met-officers-spied-on-public-anti-war-meeting-in-1968-inquiry-hears ] who was giving evidence, threatening to “silence him” [ https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201112-ucpi_evidence_hearings_transcript.pdf ] if he persisted.
In 1968, Crampton and another SDS officer, whose real name is Joan Hillier (pdf), had spied on the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC), which opposed the US-led war. They had attended meetings of the VSC in Notting Hill in west London to gather information about the protesters. Menon asked Hillier, who was giving evidence, about Cochrane, who was described as the chairman of the VSC’s Notting Hill branch. Cochrane’s name featured in reports of the meetings written by Crampton and others. Menon asked Hillier: “To the best of your knowledge or belief, did your former colleague Helen Crampton have some kind of intimate relationship or go out with a member of the Notting Hill Vietnam Solidarity Campaign?” Hillier, now in her 80s, replied: “I don’t know the – of course I don’t know for certain, but I would say I doubt it very much.”
Menon then asked: “Did she never at any stage whilst you were both colleagues in the SDS indicate to you that [she had] any kind of social or intimate relationship with anybody in the Notting Hill VSC.” Hillier replied: “No, never.” The inquiry has published a photograph of Crampton standing next to Hillier in 1968, her face concealed by her codename. Hillier’s face has been concealed by the inquiry even though she did not ask for her real name to be kept secret. The inquiry is looking at how at least 139 undercover officers spied on more than 1,000 political groups since 1968. On Monday it heard that in 2015, Rob Harrison, an SDS officer who infiltrated >>494 pro-Palestinian campaigners, rekindled a relationship with a woman seven years after his deployment ended, only to suddenly disappear again without explanation.
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#19_November_2020_(Location_data_harvested_from_apps) -- *US Military Buys Location Data Harvested From Apps, Including One for Muslim Prayers.* If the data is collected, it will be misused. We need laws to prevent systems from collecting such data. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/16/absolutely-sickening-us-military-buys-location-data-harvested-apps-including-one -- 'Absolutely Sickening': US Military Buys Location Data Harvested From Apps, Including One for Muslim Prayers -- Monday, November 16, 2020 -- "The military industrial complex and the surveillance state have always had a cozy relationship with tech. Buying bulk data in order to profile Muslims is par for the course for them," says Rep. Ilhan Omar.
"Holy hell... This is absolutely unacceptable." "Quite wild." "Grotesque." "Absolutely sickening." "This should be illegal." Those were just some of the alarmed reactions to reporting [ https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqm5x/us-military-location-data-xmode-locate-x ] by Joseph Cox for Motherboard on Monday that "the U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps." "The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide," the report continues. "Others include a Muslim dating app, a popular Craigslist app, an app for following storms, and a 'level' app that can be used to help, for example, install shelves in a bedroom."
Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) were the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, and Omar was the first to wear a hijab. Omar tweeted Monday that "the military industrial complex and the surveillance state have always had a cozy relationship with tech. Buying bulk data in order to profile Muslims is par for the course for them—and is absolutely sickening. It should be illegal!" Omar was far from alone in expressing outrage over the revelation that the U.S. military is attaining data from mobile phone applications. According to Motherboard, its exposé is the first to reveal that the controversial practice [ https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vwex/cbp-dhs-venntel-location-data-no-warrant ] of purchasing such information isn't limited to U.S. law enforcement but also extends to the military. As the report explains:
Through public records, interviews with developers, and technical analysis, Motherboard uncovered two separate, parallel data streams that the U.S. military uses, or has used, to obtain location data. One relies on a company called Babel Street, which creates a product called Locate X. U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a branch of the military tasked with counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and special reconnaissance, bought access to Locate X to assist on overseas special forces operations. The other stream is through a company called X-Mode, which obtains location data directly from apps, then sells that data to contractors, and by extension, the military.
The news highlights the opaque location data industry and the fact that the U.S. military, which has infamously used other location data [ https://www.vice.com/en/article/3da8n9/the-problem-with-using-metadata-to-justify-drone-strikes ] to target drone [ https://theintercept.com/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/ ] strikes, is purchasing access to sensitive data. Many of the users of apps involved in the data supply chain are Muslim, which is notable considering that the United States has waged a decades-long war on predominantly Muslim terror groups in the Middle East, and has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians during its military operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Motherboard does not know of any specific operations in which this type of app-based location data has been used by the U.S. military.
Some critics directed their ire in part at the companies behind the apps named in the report, including Muslim Pro—which reminds users when to pray and the direction Mecca from their current location and includes passages and audio readings from Quran—as well as the dating app Muslim Mingle. Both apps send data to X-Mode. Both Muslim Pro and Mingle didn't respond to Motherboard's requests for comment. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told the outlet that "in a September call with my office, lawyers for the data broker X-Mode Social confirmed that the company is selling data collected from phones in the United States to U.S. military customers, via defense contractors. Citing non-disclosure agreements, the company refused to identify the specific defense contractors or the specific government agencies buying the data." The "Trusted Partners" section of X-Mode's website previously listed as customers the contractors Sierra Nevada Corporation and Systems & Technology Research, but multiple company names have been removed from the page as Wyden's office and Motherboard have conducted investigations, according to the news outlet—which noted that multiple app developers who work with X-Mode said they didn't know their users' location data was shared with military contractors.
X-Mode told Motherboard by email that it "does not work with Sierra Nevada or STR" but didn't deny they had been customers; neither of the companies responded to requests for comment. X-Mode also said it "licenses its data panel to a small number of technology companies that may work with government military services, but our work with such contractors is international and primarily focused on three use cases: counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and predicting future Covid-19 hotspots." While Babel Street also didn't reply to Motherboard's requests for comment, Navy Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a USSOCOM spokesperson, confirmed the Locate X purchase and told the outlet: "Our access to the software is used to support Special Operations Forces mission requirements overseas. We strictly adhere to established procedures and policies for protecting the privacy, civil liberties, constitutional and legal rights of American citizens." Wolfie Christl, a researcher, writer, and digital rights activist at Cracked Labs in Austria, called Motherboard's investigation "so far the most comprehensive report on how all kinds of mobile apps share or sell location data with data brokers, who in turn sell it to U.S. military and defense contractors, all without the users' knowledge."
"The mobile app ecosystem is totally broken," Christl added. Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation working on surveillance and privacy, joined those weighing in on the report via Twitter by writing that "law enforcement and government have always had an 'if the data is out there, we want it' approach." "If there are apps or companies that think they can make a quick buck by selling data you shared with them," Guariglia added, "they will ALWAYS find a buyer in the government."
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[1/3] https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#17_November_2020_(Undercover_Infiltrators) -- Undercover infiltrators in the opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/11/15/standing-rock-tigerswan-infiltrator-documents/ -- In the Mercenaries’ Own Words: Documents Detail TigerSwan Infiltration >>253 >>489 >>494 >>496 of Standing Rock -- November 15 2020 -- North Dakota’s private security regulator said a trove of company documents showed TigerSwan’s denials were “willfully false and misleading.”
The weekend before Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, a secret private security initiative called “Operation Baratheon” was scheduled to begin. A PowerPoint presentation [ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7328406-TigerSwan-at-Standing-Rock-Operation-Baratheon.html ] laid out the plan for Joel McCollough, a burly ex-Marine bearing a resemblance to “Game of Thrones” character King Robert Baratheon. He had been posing as an opponent of the Dakota Access pipeline at protests in Iowa but was now assigned to travel to North Dakota to collect intelligence on the growing anti-pipeline movement. There, near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, thousands were camped out as part of the Indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline. Energy Transfer, the venture’s parent company, had plans to run the Dakota Access pipeline under the Missouri River. Calling themselves water protectors, the people in camp objected to the threat the pipeline would present to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s primary drinking water source. The effort to stop the pipeline had quickly become one of the most important Indigenous uprisings of the past century in the U.S. And McCollough, working for the mercenary security firm TigerSwan, was a key player in Energy Transfer’s multistate effort to defeat the resistance, newly released documents reveal. TigerSwan took a militaristic approach: To McCollough and his colleagues, the anti-pipeline movement was akin to the insurgencies the veterans had confronted in Afghanistan and Iraq. In line with that view, they deployed the same kinds of subversive tactics used in theaters of war. One of these tactics was the use of spies to infiltrate [ https://theintercept.com/2018/12/30/tigerswan-infiltrator-dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock/ ] so-called insurgents. That was McCollough’s goal when, in November 2016, he drove to North Dakota with an unwitting pipeline opponent. A PowerPoint slide titled “Mission” described exactly what he would do once he arrived: “infiltrate one of the Standing Rock camps.” Another slide, titled “Situation,” listed his adversaries, under the heading of “Belligerents”: “Native American activists, anti-establishment radicals, independent press, protester intelligence cells, camp security.”
The newly revealed documents obtained by The Intercept show how security operations like McCollough’s infiltration were carefully orchestrated and managed by TigerSwan — describing in the security firm’s own words activities that it has repeatedly denied ever took place. The documents make clear just how far security companies hired by energy industry firms — in this case, TigerSwan and Energy Transfer — will go to protect their clients’ business interests against a growing climate movement, and how much the energy companies are willing to spend for these aggressive defenses: An invoice [ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7328405-TigerSwan-at-Standing-Rock-Energy-Transfer.html ] from December 2017 said TigerSwan had billed Dakota Access LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer, some $17 million up to that point. For movements like the one at Standing Rock — Indigenous land and water defenders, fighting for territory central to their identity and health, and climate activists, staving off a potential future of chaos and suffering — their actions are a matter of survival. But the same can be said for the energy companies, evidenced by their willingness to deploy war-on-terror-style tactics. Advocates for the activists, though, say the war-like tactics have created harmful conditions for those exercising their right to dissent. “This level of saturated, coordinated attack between private corporate interests, law enforcement, private security to shut down the climate justice movement particularly in the United States is extremely dangerous,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which is working with the Water Protector Legal Collective to represent water protectors in a class-action lawsuit against North Dakota law enforcement officials for using high-pressure water hoses and other aggressive tactics at Standing Rock. The suit notes TigerSwan’s close collaboration with the sheriffs’ officials.
The new documents, which are being reported here for the first time, were turned over as discovery material to the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. The board filed an administrative complaint against TigerSwan and its former CEO, James Reese, a retired commander of the elite special operations military unit Delta Force, for operating without a license in the state — alleging violations carrying more than $2 million in fines. TigerSwan responded to the claim in court by saying the firm only provided consultation for the operations. The security board made the new material public as exhibits attached to a legal filing alleging that TigerSwan’s denials were “willfully false and misleading” and that the documents proved it. In his responses to the board’s allegations, Reese claimed misinformation was to blame for parts of the security board’s lawsuit against TigerSwan, suggesting the culprit was a series of investigative stories from The Intercept: “The board considers one sided news reports from an anti-energy on-line publication a sufficient basis for calling me a liar,” Reese declared. In the same affidavit, Reese claimed the operation involving McCollough had merely been proposed to the firm and, owing to its lack of a security license, not approved by TigerSwan. (At the end of last summer, TigerSwan and Reese signed a settlement with the board for less than $200,000, admitting no wrongdoing.) TigerSwan’s own reports, however, offer rich detail about the company’s operations — better than any other source to date. (Neither Reese nor TigerSwan responded to a detailed request for comment for this article. Energy Transfer directed questions to TigerSwan and said, “We have no knowledge of any of the alleged activities.” McCollough suggested that some of the TigerSwan documents included as exhibits in the North Dakota board’s filing — which he incorrectly described as “leaked” — may contain inaccurate information, but declined to point to any specific fact he disputed or item he believed to be false.)
WhatsApp chats, invoices, operational plans, and organizational charts, all made public by the North Dakota security board, show how Reese and TigerSwan were making, according to the board, “willfully false and misleading” claims when they said that the company had not carried out private investigation, security work, or infiltration operations in North Dakota. The company documents show instead that TigerSwan at times promoted its “human intelligence” operation as a driving element of its effort to fight pipeline resistance. “TS personnel have established eight months of relationships with activists,” a presentation titled “TigerSwan [ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7328409-TigerSwan-Intelligence-Slide-Deck.html ] Intelligence” stated. The same slide noted that TigerSwan operatives had gotten to know “Anti-pipeline groups in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, and North Dakota” and “Maintain personal relationships with key leaders.” “No other company has infiltrated these activist groups on a long-term basis,” another slide said. “Our personnel even now develop deeper ties into activist communities and groups that are international in their reach.” TigerSwan organized its surveillance work like a full-fledged state intelligence agency but on a smaller scale. The company divided the intelligence operation into teams focused on human intelligence, imagery intelligence, signals intelligence (intercepting communications), and open-source intelligence based on news reports or other publicly available material like social media posts. The TigerSwan teams worked out of “fusion centers” — the same term state law enforcement agencies use to describe a network of post-9/11 information sharing offices — located in Bismarck, North Dakota; Des Moines, Iowa; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, according to an organizational chart.
The imagery intelligence team included an operative who took photographs of the camps from a helicopter, while the signals intelligence team monitored water protectors’ radio communications. At times, on the radios, TigerSwan operatives would add their own disruptive messages, according to a former member of the intelligence team, who declined to be named out of fear of retribution. Key to the security operation was the use of infiltrators. “Having TS CI/HUMINT infiltrators on the ground is critical in minimizing lost construction time,” the TigerSwan Intelligence PowerPoint noted, using acronyms for counterintelligence and human intelligence. The plan for Operation Baratheon describes how the company organized such activities. In advance of McCollough’s election-week trip, TigerSwan meticulously plotted out the mission, compiling a slideshow with the weather forecast, the driving route from Iowa to North Dakota, and a detailed escape plan, including an option for a helicopter evacuation. This calculated approach was new for the company, said the intelligence team member. Recently, a company infiltrator had been hastily removed from the North Dakota camps after his cover was blown, and TigerSwan did not want to be caught unprepared again. Once a day, McCollough was to use code phrases to check in with his handlers on a WhatsApp channel that included six other TigerSwan operatives, according to the documents. The operation plan warned of certain types of people — referred to as “belligerents” — thought to be dangerous. McCollough, for example, was to be wary of members of the independent press. The former contractor explained the thinking: Independent reporters are “not unbiased,” he said, “and they’re basically an intelligence collection node for whatever movement they’re a part of.”
Framing journalists, camp security, and Native American activists as hostile aggressors was in line with TigerSwan’s view of the protests as an insurgency that must be quelled: “TigerSwan’s counterinsurgency approach to the problem set is to identify and break down the activist network,” the intelligence PowerPoint stated. “TS Intel understands anti-pipeline activists have developed cultural, religious, and ethnic environments which we are uniquely capable of exploiting.” Pipeline opponents have alleged that the counterinsurgency campaign led to civil rights violations. Although the North Dakota security board signed the settlement agreement, at least one other lawsuit against the security firm is outstanding. The suit, which alleges that the closure of the highway passing by the resistance camps infringed on pipeline opponents’ First Amendment rights, says TigerSwan’s close collaboration with police and public officials makes the security firm liable for the abuses. Water protectors believe that the paltry fines imposed by the security board provide only a semblance/parody of justice. “TigerSwan has not yet been held meaningfully accountable for their actions at Standing Rock,” said Noah Smith-Drelich, an attorney representing water protectors in the highway case. “We’re hoping to change that.” Two bearded men wielding swords and wearing wolf skins illustrate the cover of a TigerSwan “Daily HUMINT” report for December 8, 2016. The men represented in the TigerSwan document are úlfhéðnar, a type of elite Viking soldier that goes into a trance-like state as they lead attacks on enemies.
[2/3] >>501 https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#17_November_2020_(Undercover_Infiltrators) -- Undercover infiltrators in the opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/11/15/standing-rock-tigerswan-infiltrator-documents/ -- In the Mercenaries’ Own Words: Documents Detail TigerSwan Infiltration >>253 >>489 >>494 >>496 of Standing Rock -- November 15 2020 -- North Dakota’s private security regulator said a trove of company documents showed TigerSwan’s denials were “willfully false and misleading.”
The presentation slides in the HUMINT report [ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7328404-TigerSwan-at-Standing-Rock-Daily-HUMINT.html ] offer intelligence on a variety of people, organizations, and other aspects of camp life. The group Veterans for Peace is “a very communist organization,” said one slide. Another, titled “Red Warrior Camp Cell Leader,” tracked the activities of a water protector named Tempeh, who was thought to be involved with a direct action-focused camp. “Tempeh has asked RO” — coded initials for the infiltrator — “to assist him in evaluating weaknesses in the systems for the purposes of exploiting/sabotaging. RO remained non-committal,” one slide said. “Tempeh is also looking for someone to dig up dirt on sex trafficking involving DAPL workers.” The infiltrators, according to the documents, volunteered to collect such information, in an effort to gain the trust of camp leaders. The slide contained numerous inaccuracies, Tempeh told The Intercept. Tempeh, for example, was close with members of Red Warrior, but he belonged to a separate camp called Heyoka. He said much of the material seemed to be based on rumor or on the kind of directionless brainstorming that occurred around campfires. The PowerPoint was only the starting point for more than a month of documented spying. The records provided by TigerSwan in discovery show that, the same day the report about Tempeh came in, a human intelligence team member named Logan Davis created a WhatsApp chat group with McCollough and a third member of the TigerSwan team, Zachary Perez, who were both getting ready to enter the North Dakota camps. (Neither Davis nor Perez responded to requests for comment.) “Joel, first RFI for you,” Davis wrote, using an acronym for request for information, “who belongs to Red Warrior Group.” He wanted the leadership structure, number of members, where they were staying, and a description of their vehicles. He asked the same for Veterans for Peace. Perez, meanwhile, would attempt to gain access to Sacred Stone camp.
“RW is highly guarded,” McCollough replied, referencing Red Warrior camp. “I got extremely lucky meeting Tempeh the way i did.” He asked Davis to get the name of a pimp from law enforcement, so he could “build bona fides” with Tempeh. (Asked about the report, Tempeh did not recall any conversation with McCollough.) Davis delivered a name and then sent the operatives into action: “Start reengaging your sources. We don’t have the luxury of time.” The infiltrators did just that, according to the TigerSwan documents attached to the Board’s filing. They attended courthouse support protests, offered to be drivers for direct actions, invited water protectors to crash in their hotel rooms, and provided them with gear. They filed intelligence reports and details of their movements back to Davis, who at times mingled among water protectors himself, and later to other handlers, Nik McKinnon and Will Janisch. (McKinnon and Janisch did not respond to requests for comment.) The chat logs describe the role Reese, then TigerSwan’s CEO, played in managing the HUMINT operation. “When Jim Reese visited a while ago he said the collectors” — a term for intelligence collectors, including infiltrators — “could have 1k in petty cash,” McCollough told the group, explaining that he didn’t want to use his credit card in front of the pipeline opponents. “I told him 500 would be plenty.”
Throughout December 2016, McCollough developed relationships with various water protectors. According to the TigerSwan chat logs in the North Dakota security board’s filing, he repeatedly referred to them in the chats as “muj,” shorthand for mujahedeen, a reference to Muslim religious fighters. TigerSwan operatives exchanged crude banter about women and racist jokes, including about “drunk Indians.” The chat itself was titled “Operation Maca Root 3,” a supplement known for increasing libido and fertility in men. As the former member of the TigerSwan intelligence team put it, “At some level you naturally dehumanize the enemy. They do the same thing.” He added, “This isn’t a Brooklyn tech startup, it’s a bunch of mercs in a private chat supposedly.” Advocates for water protectors noted that such dehumanizing language speaks to the mercenaries’ militaristic approach. “It’s the same type of racism that’s employed by the military in other countries to dehumanize and demonize a population under attack or under occupation,” said Verheyden-Hilliard. At one point in the chats, Davis indicated ambitions to do more than just observe water protectors’ activities. He flagged the presence of an organization of veteran volunteers called The Mission Continues, telling the chat group, “I can see this being something we can develop and infiltrate rather easily, if not completely take over.”
On a different day, after noting that few supporters turned out at a trial for a water protector, Davis joked, “It’s pretty bad, I’m gonna eat breakfast and think about how much we have destroyed a grass roots movement.” The assessment of TigerSwan’s efficacy was shared by the former member of the intelligence team: “Demoralization, destabilization, fake crisis, ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare — these had all taken their toll,” he said. The most active infiltrator in the chat group was McCollough, according to the logs made public in the security board filing. Throughout December and January, he attempted to identify weapons in the camps. He described interpersonal disputes between members of the camp security groups and drug and alcohol use among the pipeline opponents. And he showed a special interest in violence against women. Previous reporting by The Intercept shows that he asked two water protectors for names of women who had been assaulted, claiming he was a journalist writing an article about it; they declined. The chat provides evidence of that approach. “Working on the pirs” — priority intelligence requirements — “with a muj who thinks I’m gonna write an article about the rapes in camp,” he told the chat group at one point. McCollough floated another idea for obtaining information that water protectors didn’t offer voluntarily. “Can we get micro recorders for a hotel room? If its legal, of course,” he suggested. (In fact, water protectors had found what appeared to be such a device at the hotel and casino back in October.) “Tempeh used the bathroom to have private discussions even when the room was full. If i had had a recorder I could turn on remotely it would have been great.”
“You can do it but can’t be used in court,” the other infiltrator, Perez, responded. “Only with consent or in a ‘public Setting.’” McKinnon, the handler, jumped in. “It would depend on ‘who’s dwelling’ it is. And what Zach said.” “If i paid for the room, its mine, right?”McCollough asked. “Correct,” McKinnon replied.
They were mostly wrong. In North Dakota, using recording devices, even in your own home, would amount to felony eavesdropping in a space like a bathroom, where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy — unless at least one person present agreed to the recording, according to North Dakota’s wiretapping laws. Tempeh, who remembered seeing McCollough that day in the hotel room, said that operational security was essential to planning nonviolent direct actions and likely prevented McCollough from getting much meaningful information. “If you weren’t in our family, we didn’t talk to you,” he said. “We didn’t even talk around you.” Vanessa Dundon, a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit related to the water hoses, was also mentioned in the documents. Dundon, who is Diné, lost vision in one eye after being hit by a tear gas canister at Standing Rock. In the chat logs filed by the security board, McCollough claimed to have spent a night in Dundon’s room, to which Davis replied that he hoped McCollough would “make little martyrs” with her. “Cyclops babies,” Perez replied in the chats, a crass reference to Dundon’s lost eye. Dundon said she didn’t remember McCollough. “It disappoints me how childish all of the security firms are and that they are in any position of power,” she said. Even as she continues, four years later, to undergo surgeries on her eye, however, Dundon finds humor in the infiltrators’ boorish exchange. “It’s funny in a way,” she said. “Being Native, the way we take in hate or shaming — we turn those things to make them laughable.”
[3/3] >>503 https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#17_November_2020_(Undercover_Infiltrators) -- Undercover infiltrators in the opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/11/15/standing-rock-tigerswan-infiltrator-documents/ -- In the Mercenaries’ Own Words: Documents Detail TigerSwan Infiltration >>253 >>489 >>494 >>496 of Standing Rock -- November 15 2020 -- North Dakota’s private security regulator said a trove of company documents showed TigerSwan’s denials were “willfully false and misleading.”
Ultimately, for Dundon and others, it’s their communities’ health at stake. Kandi Mossett, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation from the Fort Berthold reservation in the heart of North Dakota’s fracking region, developed cancer when she was 20 years old, which she believes was linked to pollution in her community. Mossett, who was also mentioned in the WhatsApp chats filed by the security board, said the surveillance she and others experienced at Standing Rock has indelibly changed the Indigenous environmental justice movement. “It’s still affecting people four years later with PTSD,” she said. She and others have become more cautious about who they trust and how they use technology. The surveillance, she added, “is a form of trying to shut us up and shut us down. And for most of us, it didn’t work.” The WhatsApp chats continued into mid-January, though McCollough worked as an infiltrator through the spring, long after the camps closed down in February. The documents obtained by The Intercept leave a paper trail of his work. An invoice dated March 23, 2017, listed him as “HUMINT ND” — human intelligence North Dakota — and an April 2017 image of McCollough at a Chicago meeting of the nonprofit Food & Water Watch appeared in the PowerPoint titled “TigerSwan Intelligence.” By then, the movement at Standing Rock had quieted down, and it was becoming increasingly clear that the counterinsurgency force envisioned by TigerSwan at Standing Rock was no longer needed, even on its own terms. TigerSwan, however, saw opportunity on the horizon: anti-pipeline insurgency everywhere. The internal company documents hint at plans to build out the firm’s own cottage industry of squelching pipeline protests. One presentation, which appears to be a pitch to fossil-fuel companies, lays out the services TigerSwan hoped to provide.
Law enforcement was no match for pipeline opponents, the pitch began. “The activist mindset places them in at the same level as an insurgency, which is outside current law enforcement capabilities,” a slide said. It was TigerSwan’s human intelligence capabilities that truly set it apart from law enforcement, because police had to “rely on warrants to obtain information rather than improvising and having the information freely provided by the activists themselves.” Instead of “turning” activists, a slide said, “We rely on elicitation primarily.” Unlike law enforcement officers, private security operatives work outside of many constitutional restraints, such as those laid out in First Amendment law, said Verheyden-Hilliard. “When you start to bring in these private entities, they’re also often operating as an illegal proxy force to be a hidden hand to do what official law enforcement may be restricted from doing, which is a lot of what we’re seeing here,” she said. “The fact that you have law enforcement that is commissioned by the state with the authority to use lethal force and to deprive people of their liberty — that law enforcement is being informed in its actions by an entity whose pecuniary interest is in suppressing protest activity.” Cooperation along those lines was evident in the TigerSwan presentation. “Advanced warning of protester movement allowed TigerSwan security to liaise with local Law Enforcement (LE) in a timely manner,” the documents said. At fusion cells “set up to imitate military regional operations centers,” analysts combined data from their 24-hour media monitoring with the human intelligence collected on the ground to create maps of networks and detailed profiles of activists.
The product TigerSwan could offer, the presentation said, was more than just former military members who know how to break into a movement. “Utilization of CI/HUMINT” — counterintelligence/human intelligence — “techniques and military fusion cells have allowed TigerSwan to develop proprietary databases on activists,” the presentation stated. And the data could be reused: “TigerSwan analysts now have a well-developed intelligence picture of key bad actors, the groups they belong to, how they are funded, and where they come from,” the PowerPoint read. “This enormous amount of historical data is proprietary to TS.” The former intelligence operative scoffed at the idea that TigerSwan’s database contained meaningful threat information. “So there’s a databases of people and things and events that’s so big it really doesn’t mean anything,” he said, but explained the claims: “More threats made them more money. It was just promo to get contracts.” TigerSwan’s path to expansion, however, was obstructed after The Intercept’s investigations revealed the company’s invasive, militaristic tactics. As its business suffered, TigerSwan fought to evade legal accountability.
Despite the internal company documents included in the security board filing, TigerSwan and Reese have continued to deny they provided private investigative and security services in North Dakota. In June, in response to a list of questions posed by the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board with their discovery request, Reese submitted a lengthy affidavit challenging accounts of TigerSwan’s activities. “Did any of OUR employees provide investigative or security services in North Dakota. They did not. Anyone inside the camp providing investigative services were hired by someone else,” Reese wrote on June 24. “HUMINT does not mean they were in the camp. Those assigned as HUMINT were research/reports writers who focused on information from sources along the pipeline,” Reese claimed, even though all three “HUMINT” operatives discussed infiltrating North Dakota camps in real time over WhatsApp. As for McCollough, Reese declared, “The intercept article alleges he was in ND and spent a few days in the Casino. We understand that he came on his own accord as he was writing an article. Mr. McCullough has had several articles published over the years on a variety of veteran views and activities. TigerSwan hired him for work in Iowa and North Carolina.” Operation Baratheon was “a PROPOSED idea that was NOT APPROVED BY TigerSwan. It was disapproved because TigerSwan was not licensed to do this type of private investigator work and our former military intel analyst were looking at this from their experiences abroad and not domestically.” As The Intercept has previously reported, McCollough did indeed follow the plan outlined in the document, and the new documents show that TigerSwan managers ran at least one similar operation. (According to an invoice, McCollough billed $450 a day for his work as a human intelligence operative.) The board’s lawyer characterized Reese’s claims as part of an attempt by TigerSwan “to perpetuate a fraud on this court through their intentional misrepresentation and omissions related to Joel McCollough, Logan Davis, and Zach Perez.” The judge agreed that sanctions would be necessary. For failing to provide full responses to discovery requests, she declared TigerSwan and Reese in default and said the board should apply an administrative fee. TigerSwan asked the board to reconsider, claiming that they had provided substantive answers to the requests and that they stood ready to provide additional information.
With TigerSwan continuing a years-long legal battle in response to the judge’s ruling — the board suggested in a legal filing that “TigerSwan seeks to win this action by attrition” — the two sides reached a settlement in September of this year. TigerSwan agreed to stay out of North Dakota and to pay a fine of $175,000 — a fraction of the standard fines for violations laid out in the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board’s complaint — in exchange for admitting no wrongdoing. The settlement did not, however, prevent TigerSwan from turning over 16,000 documents to the board about its activities at Standing Rock, putting them into the public record. Energy Transfer is now suing TigerSwan and the security board, claiming that the security company breached its contract by providing the material and that the board should return the material. A judge has granted a temporary restraining order preventing North Dakota from providing citizens access to the material. By the time the administrative case was settled, Reese had already moved on to new ventures. After Trump’s election, a friend of Reese’s at the Washington Examiner published an op-ed suggesting the TigerSwan chief ought to be appointed FBI director. At the same time, Reese fashioned himself into a right-wing pundit, commenting on relations with Russia, mass shootings, and the war in Syria — all through a contributor gig at Fox News, where Trump might see him speak. Though the FBI job never materialized, this summer Reese obtained a U.S. government-approved contract [ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/03/delta-crescent-energy-syrian-oil-391033 ] to export oil from the Kurdish-controlled region of Northeast Syria, a deal the Syrian foreign ministry said amounts to the U.S. “stealing” Syrian oil. Meanwhile, the idea that counterinsurgency tactics should be used to quell domestic uprisings has proliferated. David Kilcullen, a top war-on-terror adviser to the U.S. government, recently wrote that the nationwide uprisings in the wake of George Floyd’s killing might be viewed as an “incipient insurgency.” What happened at Standing Rock reveals the results such logic can produce.
Last month, private security firm Atlas Aegis put out calls for special operations veterans to apply to defend Minneapolis businesses and polling places during the November election from “antifas.” In response, Minnesota voting rights advocates sued the company, and the state attorney general’s office launched its own investigation. “There has to be a crackdown,” said Verheyden-Hilliard. She said the big question would be whether legislatures would be willing to rein in security companies. “Or do they just want to endorse and support a sprawling paramilitary, law enforcement, surveillance industry that has tentacles throughout the country and can act at the whim of any private corporation?”
those crazy feminists >>505https://www.stallman.org/archives/2015-sep-dec.html#12_December_2015_(Feminism) -- Now that feminism has revived, it can do a lot of good, but also threatens censorship. I support feminism except when it starts to attack freedom of speech. Calling someone a "slut" is nasty, and foolish as well: it presumes a prudish sexist idea of good and bad sexual conduct. Let's rebuke anyone who calls anyone a "slut" — we could call then "Taliban" — but people have a right to say nasty, prudish, sexist things. No matter how nasty a statement is, censorship is nastier.
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#4_November_2020_(Kentucky_state_thug_training) -- *Kentucky state [thug] training quoted Hitler to create ‘ruthless’ warriors.* If we want police officers rather than thugs, we should not teach them to think of themselves as "warriors". That was the basic mistake in this training; no matter who they quoted, it would be wrong. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/02/kentucky-state-police-training-materials-hitler-quotes -- Kentucky state police training quoted Hitler to create ‘ruthless’ warriors -- Mon 2 Nov 2020 -- Instructional presentation quotes the Nazi leader on three separate slides, as well as Confederate general Robert E Lee -- >>478
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#25_November_2020_(Cars_and_votes) -- Georgia's Republican officials propose to block new voters from registering before the Jan 5 runoff elections unless they have registered a car in Georgia. -- https://www.gregpalast.com/georgia-tries-to-block-new-voters-ahead-of-runoff/ -- Proposed new registration rule would require car registered in state. -- November 23, 2020
Georgia’s Board of Elections is trying to sneak through a new rule [ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.wjcl.com/article/georgia-state-election-board-to-consider-emergency-election-rules-for-jan-runoff/34752828%23 ] that could block new registrations before the Senate runoff to people who don’t have a car [ https://www.gregpalast.com/wp-content/uploads/New-Rule.jpg ] registered in the state. This knocks out students and lower income urban voters (i.e. Black Atlantans) without cars. Of course, you can’t force people to buy a car in order to vote. The voters will be allowed on the rolls after a hearing, which will of course be after the January 5 election.
The GOP Secretary of State’s excuse? To prevent voter fraud. Brad Raffensperger claims people from out of state will be driving into Georgia to register to vote in the runoff. Our team in Georgia contacted Raffensperger’s office and asked if they’ve encountered a single fraudulent out-of-state voter. So far, we’ve had no answer. We will expose it. We will fight it.
UPDATE: During the Election Board meeting, which took place on Monday, the group declined to discuss [ https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/11/23/georgia-election-board-extends-emergency-rules-for-absentee-voting ] this new rule after Ryan Germany, General Counsel for the Secretary of State’s office, advised the board that local officials already [ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.ajc.com/politics/election/georgia-to-consider-emergency-election-rules/LWE665SFMZGDBO2UVS7DGSNS44/%3Fd ] had the authority laid out in the proposed new rule. It was therefore decided that rather than going to the inconvenience of voting on the new rule, the Secretary of State’s office would simply remind election officials of their existing powers by issuing the information in an official election bulletin. This bulletin has exactly the same effect. We are not fooled.
Furthermore, we know Georgia has already been implementing this vote-denying tactic since it’s exactly how they tried to stop my daughter from registering to vote in Savannah before the 2018 election. Officials challenged her voter registration application on the grounds that she did not have in-state Georgia plates on her car. She was forced to jump through several hoops before her name was added to the voter rolls. Most young people in her position would have just given up, which is exactly what they want. And by the way, the rule not only states “The registrar may also consider…whether the applicant has a motor vehicle registered in this state,” but also that the registrar can take into account “whether the applicant has paid the required title ad valorem tax on such vehicle”. What does this have to do with voting except to knock out students and low income people — the blue people?
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#1_November_2020_(Reversing_ballot_against_gerrymandering) -- Missouri voters passed a ballot initiative against gerrymandering. Now Republicans are pushing another ballot initiative which would reverse that one, and reduce the voting power of some minorities. They hoped they could mislead the voters into passing it. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/10/29/missouri-amendment-3-redistricting/ -- On the Ballot in Missouri: A GOP Effort to Undo Redistricting Reform -- October 29 2020 -- Missourians will vote on the GOP-backed Amendment 3, which could exclude children and noncitizens from being counted during districting.
In 2018, voters in Missouri overwhelmingly approved a plan to implement new campaign finance reforms and retool the state’s districting process ahead of map redrawing in 2021. That package, known as the “Clean Missouri” plan, was cast as a shield against partisan gerrymandering [ https://apnews.com/article/c49a2cf375894f539ca4aad5aafc6a74 ] and would likely put a damper on the GOP’s growing control over the state legislature. Just two years later, state Republicans are seeking to reverse it. On Election Day, voters will decide on a Republican-backed initiative that would undo the reforms made by “Clean Missouri,” some aspects of which are already in effect and others set to take place during next year’s redistricting process. Amendment 3 was drafted in part by Graves Garrett LLC, a firm that has represented Republicans in gerrymandering cases, including both the National Republican Redistricting Trust, and Thomas Hofeller, the architect [ https://theintercept.com/2019/09/23/gerrymandering-gop-west-virginia-florida-alabama/ ] of racial gerrymanders in states across the country, including some in Missouri. It would also introduce drastic changes to districting practices, like allowing Missouri to exclude children and noncitizens from the count. If passed, Missouri would be the first state in the nation to do so, though it’s a proposal that has been pushed [ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/opinion/missouri-republicans-gerrymander.html ] by Republicans in recent years. Hofeller conducted an unpublished analysis [ https://www.commoncause.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2015-Hofeller-Study.pdf ] of the impacts of districting in such a way and found [ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html ] that in Texas, counting only the eligible voting population would weaken Hispanic voting power and advantage [ https://www.commoncause.org/resource/the-hofeller-files/ ] “Republicans and non-Hispanic whites,” according to a trove of documents released by Hofeller’s daughter following his death. The American Legislative Exchange Council pushed the idea at its annual conference last year.
Including only the voting population during redistricting could negatively impact residents in communities of color and with large numbers of children and undocumented people, according to advocates working to defeat the new ballot measure. Clean Missouri made it to the ballot in 2018 following a petition process with 347,000 signatures and was subsequently approved by more than 60 percent of voters. Amendment 3, meanwhile, was created and passed by the state legislature. The push for Amendment 3 has been spearheaded by Fair Missouri, a campaign committee with ties [ https://archive.is/E7X45 ] to the former chair of Missouri’s Republican Party, one of the founders of the firm involved in drafting parts of the amendment. Its supporters include the Missouri Farm Bureau and the Northwest Missouri Conservatives PAC, a group formed in August and run by a College Republicans chapter president. They argue that Amendment 3 would stop gerrymandering, preserve voting power in rural communities [ https://archive.vn/owkLq ], protect minority populations, and maintain and strengthen ethics reforms approved in 2018. Amendment 3’s supporters, led by Fair Missouri, have spent just under $250,000 in support of their efforts — far less than the $7 million spent by Clean Missouri this cycle, which spent about $5.5 million in 2018. Fair Missouri argues that Clean Missouri does not reflect the will of Missouri voters because it has received a lot of money from out of state, but according to an analysis [ https://readsludge.com/2020/10/22/the-dark-money-behind-a-pro-gerrymandering-measure-in-missouri/ ] from Sludge, Fair Missouri has not received contributions from any Missouri residents and is funded by a web of GOP dark-money groups with ties to state Republicans.
Clean Missouri is backed by some 350 political leaders and organizations around the state, said Sean Soendker Nicholson, Clean Missouri’s campaign director, who filed the initiative’s original petition in late 2016. “Voters don’t like the idea of politicians trying to undo what they just did,” said Nicholson. Backers of Clean Missouri say they’re fighting a longstanding gerrymander that has decreased the level of competition in Missouri elections. Republicans have held a trifecta in Missouri since 2017, when former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens took office. Greitens resigned in 2018 amid investigations into allegations of sexual assault, blackmail, and improper campaign finance, and was replaced by former Lt. Gov. Mike Parsons. Parsons will face Democrat Nicole Galloway, Missouri’s state auditor, in next week’s election. A coalition of 16 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center, Common Cause, the Center for Popular Democracy, and Color of Change, wrote an open letter earlier this month calling on voters to reject the ballot measure. “Amendment 3 is an attempt by self-interested politicians to gut popular voter-approved nonpartisan redistricting reforms,” they wrote, “and then replace them with an unprecedented, discriminatory redistricting system unlike anything Missouri — or America — has ever seen.”
The 2018 “Clean Missouri” initiative introduced new campaign finance regulations, eliminated lobbyists gifts worth more than $5, required that lawmakers wait two years before becoming lobbyists, enhanced transparency in the state legislature by opening the body to the state’s public records laws, and established a new process for drawing district maps headed by a nonpartisan demographer. That year, 62 percent of Missouri voters approved the ballot measure, even in a majority of heavily Republican counties. It passed in every state Senate district, more than 90 percent of state House districts, and in 70 percent of the state’s counties, as well as the city of St. Louis, according to the coalition of national civil rights groups fighting the new amendment. Amendment 3 would eliminate the nonpartisan demographer position outlined in the Clean Missouri plan and make negligible changes to campaign finance contribution limits. The amendment would lower the limit on contributions for state Senate candidates by $100, from $2,500 to $2,400, and lower the limit on gifts from lobbyists to legislators from $5 to $0. It would change the order of priority for redistricting criteria, making partisan fairness and competitiveness last. It could also cause local government entities to lose revenue, according to the summary that appears on the ballot. The language of the amendment that will appear on ballots has been hotly contested, with a circuit judge saying that the summary submitted by the GOP-controlled legislature was “misleading, unfair, and insufficient,” and failed to notify Missourians that adopting Amendment 3 would undo the 2018 vote. After a series of appeals, it was decided that the ballot text would, among other things, explicitly say that the state constitution would be amended to “Change the redistricting process voters approved in 2018 by: (i) transferring responsibility for drawing state legislative districts from the Nonpartisan State Demographer to Governor-appointed bipartisan commissions; (ii) modifying and reordering the redistricting criteria.”
“The politicians, the lobbyists who put this together know that it won’t stand on its own, their policy. And so they’ve got some tricks. Like they’re trying to fool voters into passing this thing,” Nicholson said. “When voters go to vote, the first two bullets they’ll see are intended to make it look like this is a reform package. But what we’ve been able to find as we talk to voters is that that attempt at deception is actually one of the primary reasons people are so angry about this.” The amendment text specifies that districts would be drawn on the basis of “one person, one vote.” Republican backers of Amendment 3 have said they understood that phrase to mean that districts should be drawn based on voting population, as opposed to total population. During floor debate on the amendment in January, sponsor Republican state Sen. Dan Hegeman said that the measure’s intended purpose was to count only eligible voters in drawing legislative maps. “We’re looking at the people that vote. The people that are able to vote are the people that are counted. Not registered voters, but the opportunity to do that,” Hegeman said. Civil rights groups say the amendment, if passed, would leave the state vulnerable to a barrage of lawsuits for excluding nonvoting-eligible people from the count. “Amendment 3 appears to be the vanguard of a broader conservative strategy to exclude children and noncitizens from being counted,” the Brennan Center wrote in a September analysis of the GOP proposal. “But should those behind Amendment 3 succeed in transforming who counts when districts are drawn, the effects on the state, and on Black, Latino, and Asian communities in particular, would be profound.”
Lobbyists and political operatives started working to upend Clean Missouri before vote tallies were finalized, said Yurij Rudensky, Brennan Center counsel and co-author of the analysis. “Voters sidestepped the law-making process to reclaim redistricting and make it voter-centric and people-centric,” he said. “And lawmakers who want to maintain their ability to draw political districts and have political forces guide that process just wanted to undermine the reforms.” The state Senate districts that would be most impacted by a shift to adult apportionment “also contain neighborhoods that have been the target of state-sponsored segregation and racist disinvestment,” the report continues. And districts that would shrink should the amendment pass would receive less government funding based on the exclusion of children and noncitizens. Such a shift “would, at least in effect, perpetuate an ugly history of discrimination against communities of color in Missouri,” according to the analysis. Other groups opposing Amendment 3 include AARP, the NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri PAC, Planned Parenthood Votes – St. Louis and Southwest Missouri PAC, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and numerous local papers, including the Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Joplin Globe, Jefferson County Leader, and St. Louis American. A number of elected officials representing majority-Black districts argued that the 2018 amendment would dilute Black voting power, but many are still not supporting Amendment 3. Groups supporting the measure include the Missouri Farm Bureau, a group called Don’t Tread on MO PAC, the Northwest Missouri Conservatives PAC, Missouri Right to Life PAC, and Republicans of Pike County.
The original package would artificially break up and gerrymander rural communities in pursuit of partisan aims, said Eric Bohl, MOFB director of public affairs and advocacy. Members had concerns beyond the redistricting plans, he explained, including having only one appointed bureaucrat in charge of drawing legislative maps. He blamed Clean Missouri’s passage on “radical advocacy groups” that pushed it using “ethics candy,” he said, to distract from what they were actually doing, which was pushing for partisan control of the state. The state’s old process, in place since 1940, wasn’t inherently biased, he added, noting that the system produced supermajorities for both Democrats and Republicans over time. “It’s just that right now, the way that the electorate leans is pretty conservative in the state of Missouri,” Bohl said. “So this looks to us more like one side of the political aisle just is not liking the fact that they’re not winning elections.” “If it really was as huge of a mandate for that type of redistricting as the opponents of Amendment 3 claim, then I guess maybe they’ll see that show up at the polls,” Bohl said. Missourians have already started casting absentee and mail-in ballots, and some people said they were confused by the amendment language and regretted voting for it, the Northwest Missourian [ https://archive.is/zuR4S ] reported. Still, Nicholson believes that there is sufficient energy around the issue to defeat Amendment 3 next Tuesday. “When I first started working on this, I had no idea that anyone cared about redistricting reform other than us in Missouri,” he said. It took two years to get the original measure on the 2018 ballot and collect more than twice the amount of signatures necessary. “We won because it was really good policy.”
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#23_November_2020_(The_conspirators_that_planned_to_murder_Governor_Whitmer) -- The conspirators that planned to murder Governor Whitmer are accused of planning another scheme: to seize the state capitol building and murder officials there. -- https://abc7chicago.com/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-militia/8079861/ -- Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor >>379 >>382 Gretchen Whitmer -- <meta itemprop="uploadDate" content="2020-11-19T01:28:00Z">
There is new and disturbing information in the alleged militia plot against the governor of Michigan. The 14 men charged had far more violent plans than just a kidnapping, according to federal and state authorities. New filings claim there was a Plan B the militiamen had drawn up, that involved a takeover of the Michigan capitol building by 200 combatants who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials.
And, according to government documents now on file in lower Michigan court, there was also a Plan C -- burning down the state house, leaving no survivors. In southern Wisconsin Wednesday afternoon the 14th man charged in the plot, Brian Higgins, was closer to extradition to Michigan, even as prosecutors there piled on new, even more outrageous accusations against the men. Higgins appeared from his home for the video court hearing.
"My client is going to leave this house when this hearing concludes. And unless you tell him otherwise, he's going to go straight to the sheriff's department and turn himself in," said Higgins' attorney, Christopher Van Wagner. The latest accusations include the charged threat that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was to be kidnapped and possibly killed; now government court records cite subplots to stage an armed takeover of the state capitol in Lansing and televise the executions of politicians. In an interview with the ABC 7 Chicago I-Team last week, Michigan's attorney general, who's prosecuting some of the militiamen, discussed the domestic terror threat.
"We are one of the few states that does not ban guns in our state capitol building, and clearly there have been threats made on the lives of our legislators; you probably saw the pictures back from in April, where we had armed gunman, some of them, same defendants in this case, that were hovering over state senators with long guns, screaming and yelling at them as they were deliberating, as they were discussing legislation and as they were voting, so that remains a big concern to me in a very scary scenario," said Dana Nessel. That fear bleeds over to Illinois. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker mentioned the Michigan case during Tuesday's COVID-19 update. "We have threats that stream into my office daily, while we have watched the kidnapping plot against the Michigan governor unfold just a state away," said Pritzker.
Despite the violent nature of the charges, including an alleged plan to hold a mock treason trial for the governor of Michigan once she was kidnapped, several of the defendants have had bond reductions and are now free. Higgins' attorney suggested in court that he may challenge extradition altogether at Thursday's bond hearing in Wisconsin.
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#25_November_2020_(Cars_and_votes) -- Georgia's Republican officials propose to block new voters from registering before the Jan 5 runoff elections unless they have registered a car in Georgia. -- https://www.gregpalast.com/georgia-tries-to-block-new-voters-ahead-of-runoff/ -- Proposed new registration rule would require car registered in state. -- November 23, 2020 -- >>507
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#18_November_2020_(Republicans_have_been_rigging_elections_for_over_a_century) -- Republicans have been rigging elections for over a century with various schemes to stop blacks (and sometimes hispanics) from voting. When people investigate the reason Democrats did not take more Senate seats, they should consider the impact of voter suppression in those states. Georgia’s secretary of state says Lindsey Graham suggested he throw out legal ballots. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/16/georgia-brad-raffensperger-lindsey-graham-elections-ballots -- Georgia’s secretary of state says Lindsey Graham suggested he throw out legal ballots -- Tue 17 Nov 2020 -- Brad Raffensperger says the Republican senator asked if he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in certain counties
Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state. In an interview with the Washington [ http://archive.is/fHijK ] Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties. Raffensperger was reportedly “stunned” by the question, in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots.
“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said. Graham confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that he pressured Raffensperger to throw out legally cast absentee ballots. According to Graham, he only wanted to learn more about the process for verifying signatures, because what happens in Georgia “affects the whole nation”. “I thought it was a good conversation,” Graham said on Monday after the interview was published. “I’m surprised to hear he characterized it that way.”
Trump has refused to accept results showing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, falsely blaming rampant fraud and irregularities that election officials in both parties have dismissed as meritless. Georgia, usually a reliably Republican state with 16 electoral votes, is currently conducting a hand recount of roughly 5m presidential ballots, which is expected to be completed by 20 November. Biden led in the state by about 14,000 votes after the initial tally. This comes as Raffensperger faces mounting backlash from his own party after defending the state’s electoral process. The state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both locked in tight runoff elections to keep their seats, have called for Raffensperger’s resignation – calls that Raffensperger has dismissed.
Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia, who is spearheading the president’s effort to prove fraud in the state, has also been critical of Raffensperger, accusing him of siding with Democrats because he refused to endorse the false claim that the election was stolen from Trump. In the interview, Raffensperger called Collins, who has not contested the result of the special election race he lost to Loeffler, a “liar” and a “charlatan”. Raffensperger said every accusation of voter fraud would be thoroughly vetted but there was currently no credible evidence that wrongdoing had occurred on a large enough scale to affect the outcome of the election. He also told the Post that the recount would “affirm” the results of the initial count and prove the accuracy of the Dominion voting machines, which Trump has falsely claimed deleted votes cast for him. Voting rights and ethics groups condemned Graham’s comments, and some called for his resignation as chair of the Senate judiciary committee.“Not only is it wrong for Senator Graham to apparently contemplate illegal behavior, but his suggestion undermines the integrity of our elections and the faith of the American people in our democracy,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a statement. “Under the guise of rooting out election fraud, it looks like Graham is suggesting committing it.”
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#6_November_2020_(Robocalls_aimed_at_suppressing_democrats'_turnout) -- *FBI Investigates Robocalls Aimed at Suppressing [Democrats'] Turnout as State Officials Pledge Vigilance Against Attacks on Voting Rights.* -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/03/fbi-investigates-robocalls-aimed-suppressing-turnout-state-officials-pledge -- FBI Investigates Robocalls Aimed at Suppressing Turnout as State Officials Pledge Vigilance Against Attacks on Voting Rights -- Tuesday, November 03, 2020 -- "Don't believe the lies! Have your voice heard!" tweeted Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel after voters in Flint were hit with robocalls claiming they should wait until Wednesday to vote.
State officials in Michigan countered robocall misinformation campaigns on Tuesday as the FBI announced it was investigating robocalls that have gone to people in a number of battleground states and appear to be aimed at suppressing voter turnout. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel warned voters to ignore robocalls reported in the majority-Black city of Flint, in which voters have been told to vote on Wednesday to avoid long lines on Election Day. "This is FALSE and an effort to suppress the vote," Nessel tweeted, reminding voters that they must be in line at their polling place by 8:00 p.m. local time Tuesday in order to cast a ballot. "No long lines and today is the last day to vote. Don't believe the lies! Have your voice heard!"
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also told voters that they "can feel confident that leaders across the state and local government are vigilant against these kinds of attacks on voting rights and attempts at voter suppression." "We will be working quickly all day to stamp out any misinformation aimed at preventing people from exercising their right to vote," Benson said. According to [ https://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-investigating-voter-suppression-robocalls-on-election-day/ ] CNET, similar calls have also been received by voters in Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Nebraska.
The FBI said it was investigating the calls as of Tuesday morning, while the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advised voters to "be mindful of people that are trying to intimidate you [or] undermine your confidence." "Keep calm and vote on," a senior official said in a press briefing. YouMail, a tech company that offers robocall-blocking software, reported [ https://archive.is/rPMDg ] a separate campaign that has reached an estimated 10 million people across the country, in which a robotic voice has been heard telling voters to "stay safe and stay home."
The robocalls were first reported over the summer and became more frequent in October as millions of Americans began voting early. The calls don't explicitly mention the election and some recipients initially believed they were from local officials urging the public to follow public health guidance in light of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Washington Post, however, after Zach McMullen of Atlanta received four identical calls, he concluded, "I think they mean stay home and don't vote." The Post reported that the "stay home" calls have now reached nearly every area code in the U.S. over the past several months, with the unidentified person or group behind the campaign sometimes yielding half a million calls per day.
Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen called on voters not to be deterred from voting, assuring them that "voters and our poll workers will be kept safe" during in-person voting on Tuesday. The fact that the campaign has already reached millions of voters demonstrates how robocallers are difficult for officials to stop, YouMail told the Post. "If you wanted to cause havoc in America for the elections, one way to do it is clearly robocalling," Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, told the newspaper. "This whole thing is exposing [that] it can be very difficult to react quickly to a large calling volume campaign."
In Michigan on Tuesday, Nessel also warned voters about text messages reported in the city of Dearborn in which the sender claimed a "typographical error" was affecting ballots and that voters "intending on voting for Joe Biden" should vote for President Donald Trump, and vice versa. "Text messages are reportedly being sent to trick you into thinking there are ballot sensor issues," Nessel tweeted. "Do not fall for it, it's a trick!" Cybersecurity officials noted that robocalls are not unusual during elections, but this year state officials are debunking misinformation as the president has repeatedly claimed that the use of mail-in ballots will result in an election rigged by the Democrats and has said [ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/technology/after-twitter-labels-trumps-tweet-about-pennsylvania-its-spread-slows.html ] election officials should stop tallying ballots on Tuesday night, potentially leaving millions of absentee and early votes uncounted—even though it's commonplace for those ballots to be counted after Election Day.
CISA noted that efforts at intimidating people away from the polls do not appear to have been effective thus far, as at least 100 million Americans voted before Election Day. "The fact that we have that many votes shows that people are confident in the process," a senior CISA official told CNET.
news from a month ago
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#1_November_2020_(Reversing_ballot_against_gerrymandering) -- Missouri voters passed a ballot initiative against gerrymandering. Now Republicans are pushing another ballot initiative which would reverse that one, and reduce the voting power of some minorities. They hoped they could mislead the voters into passing it. -- https://theintercept.com/2020/10/29/missouri-amendment-3-redistricting/ -- On the Ballot in Missouri: A GOP Effort to Undo Redistricting Reform -- October 29 2020 -- Missourians will vote on the GOP-backed Amendment 3, which could exclude children and noncitizens from being counted during districting. -- >>508
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#20_November_2020_(Snooping_in_the_1970s) -- A retired undercover UK thug reports snooping in the 1970s on a campaign for equal pay for women, gratis contraception and better child care. It was not a total waste of time, as she supported the campaign to some extent. -- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/18/undercover-police-officer-spied-on-womens-rights-group-inquiry-told -- Officer wasted her time spying on group pushing for equal pay, inquiry told -- Wed 18 Nov 2020 -- Ex-police officer tells inquiry she infiltrated >>253 >>489 >>494 >>496 >>501 lawful meetings of as few as two activists
Police sent an undercover police officer to infiltrate a very small women’s rights group that lawfully campaigned for equal pay, free contraception and better nursery provision, a public inquiry has heard. The police spy, who used the fake name Sandra when she infiltrated a branch of the Women’s Liberation Front in north London between 1971 and 1973, conceded that her deployment failed to uncover any useful intelligence. One of the meetings she spied on was only attended by two activists. Appearing before the inquiry on Wednesday, the now-retired police officer said: “I could have been doing much more worthwhile things with my time.”
She added that she had a genuine interest in the social issues such as equal pay that the group promoted and had herself been paid less than her male colleagues despite doing the same work. Her testimony adds to the mounting evidence that the Metropolitan police’s decades-long operation to infiltrate political groups involved an alarming intrusion into the political activities of mostly leftwing activists from its inception. The inquiry is scrutinising how police used at least 139 undercover officers to spy on more than 1,000 political groups over more than 40 years. The opening phase of evidence related to the early years of the operation, which began in 1968.
The inquiry was told that Sandra appeared to be the first female undercover officer to be deployed specifically to fit into a political group. Years later, police sent a female undercover officer to spy on the Greenham Common women’s campaign against nuclear weapons in the 1980s. On Wednesday, Sandra, now in her 70s, gave evidence about her deployment nearly 50 years ago. Sir John Mitting, the judge leading the inquiry, permitted her real name to be kept secret after she argued that publishing it would “lead to unwelcome media attention and, perhaps, to damage to her reputation amongst her wider social circle”. Victims of the surveillance have criticised Mitting for his willingness to allow former undercover officers to give evidence anonymously and also for preventing live broadcasts of witness testimony, which is routine in public inquiries.
Instead a rolling transcript of their evidence is published on the inquiry’s website. On Wednesday, women who were deceived into intimate relationships by the undercover officers arranged for the actor Maxine Peake to read out the transcript of Sandra’s evidence, making it more accessible to the public. Sandra said she worked for the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and was recruited by Peter Imbert, the then head of the Met’s Special Branch, who went on to become the Met commissioner in the 1980s. In 1971, she was sent to infiltrate the north London branch of the Women’s Liberation Front after it had come to attention of the SDS “through its links with the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League”.
“Women’s liberation was viewed as a worrying trend at the time,” she said. “There was a very different view towards the women’s movement then as compared to today.” She attended weekly meetings held in campaigners’ private homes that were attended by about 10 people. As she was trusted, she became the treasurer of the group’s main committee, whose meetings were also held in private homes and attended by around five people. During this time, she regularly submitted reports to her supervisors about the group, documenting details of a possible affair between two activists, plans to bake cakes to raise money, film showings and a campaigner’s holiday to Albania. She also compiled a detailed report on a protest march organised by hundreds of children in 1972 to improve their schools.
One meeting that concerned the possibility of setting up a national movement of socialist women was attended by just two people. Under questioning by Kate Wilkinson, a barrister for the inquiry, Sandra said she saw no subversive, disruptive, unlawful or violent behaviour among her targets. She also infiltrated women’s rights conferences across the country, recording their debates. She reported that attendees of one such meeting in Guildford, Surrey, in June 1972 were “a group of fairly moderate women with no particular political motivation who have recently been campaigning for nurseries in the Guildford area”. In November 1972, Sandra attended the National Women’s Liberation Conference in London. She reported to her superiors: “Lesbian friends in particular made exaggerated and noisy displays of affection openly kissing and hugging each other. These displays were commonplace throughout the conference and it was not unusual to see two girls entwined in a corner. That little notice was taken by the majority of women present indicated the prevailing liberal attitude.” Sandra told the inquiry she did not think her work had “really yielded any good intelligence” although her deployment helped her superiors conclude that the Women’s Liberation Front did not pose any threat to public order.
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#3_December_2020_(Gay_orgy_after_anti-gay_laws) -- Right-wing Hungarian politicians had a "gay orgy" after enacting laws to deny rights to gays. They are now being attacked for hypocrisy because of this conflict between their personal actions and their politics. They are indeed hypocritical, but it is a mistake to focus on that contradiction, because it is a side issue and distracts from the substantive issue. Would those laws be any less bad if these politicians practiced what they preach? Not at all. Their laws are the wrong, so let's focus on that. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/02/hungary-rightwing-rulers-downplay-mep-jozsef-szajer-gay-orgy-scandal-amid-hypocrisy-accusations -- Hungary's rightwing rulers downplay MEP 'gay orgy' scandal amid hypocrisy accusations -- Wed 2 Dec 2020 -- József Szájer had boasted of rewriting constitution to define marriage as heterosexual institution
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has condemned the behaviour of MEP József Szájer, from his rightwing Fidesz party, after Szájer’s participation in a “gay orgy” in Brussels [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/belgian-police-arrest-25-men-including-mep-as-sex-party-breaks-curfew-coronavirus ] prompted accusations of hypocrisy. “What our representative, József Szájer, did has no place in the values of our political family. We will not forget nor repudiate his 30 years of work, but his deed is unacceptable and indefensible,” said Orbán on Wednesday evening. He said Szájer had left the party. He had already resigned as an MEP over the weekend. Orbán’s government has enacted a range of legislation over the past decade infringing on LGBT rights, and Szájer boasted of personally rewriting Hungary’s constitution to define marriage as a heterosexual institution in 2011.
That made it all the more embarrassing when he was caught by Brussels police shinning down a drainpipe to escape a gay orgy last Friday. Police raided the gathering as it violated Belgium’s coronavirus regulations. In a terse statement, the Fidesz grouping in the European parliament commended Szájer’s resignation. “He made the only right decision. We acknowledge his decision, just as we acknowledge that he has apologised to his family, his political community and to the voters,” it read. Prior to Orbán’s intervention, Hungarian ministers were tight-lipped when questioned by a reporter from the outlet Telex on Wednesday morning as they arrived for a cabinet meeting at a government building.
“Mr Szájer made the only possible right decision, and all the rest is his personal matter,” said the justice minister, Judit Varga. Other ministers ignored questions. A police cordon was set up to prevent the journalist from questioning any further officials. Szájer, who is married, resigned unexpectedly on Sunday, without giving any reason. He made a statement on Tuesday when media reports about the orgy began to circulate. According to the Brussels region’s deputy public prosecutor, he was arrested with bloodied hands after a passerby spotted him “fleeing along the gutter” to escape the raid. Szájer admitted he had been at a “house party” but said the drugs the police found on him were planted. He apologised to his family, but made no reference to the nature of the party. One person who knew Szájer said while the politician never discussed his sexuality, it was considered an “open secret” among Fidesz circles.
David Manzheley, the organiser of the party, told Belgian newspaper HLN that Szájer had come to the party as the plus-one of another guest. “I always invite a few friends to my parties, who in turn bring some friends along, and then we make it fun together. We talk a bit, we drink something – just like in a cafe. The only difference is that in the meantime we also have sex with each other,” he said. He added that guests had been “completely naked” at the time of the raid. Belgian police have opened a case against those present for violating lockdown rules, as well as against Szájer for possession of drugs. But the “gay orgy” element is the one receiving the most attention, mainly because Szájer has played a key role as part of a rightwing government that has enacted numerous pieces of anti-LGBT legislation. In 2011, Szájer boasted that he had drafted Hungary’s new constitution on his iPad, including a clause that explicitly defined marriage as between a man and a woman. He dismissed [ https://www.euractiv.com/section/future-eu/news/hungary-s-new-constitution-family-friendly-hostile-to-gays/ ] a question from a journalist who asked how he could refer to it as “a 21st-century constitution” when it did not guarantee LGBT rights.
Szájer said: “It depends how we interpret the 21st century. I don’t think that the traditional concept of marriage has changed just because we came into another millennium.” In the intervening decade, Orbán’s government has gone further in its “traditional values” drive. Last year, senior Fidesz figures called for a boycott of Coca-Cola [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/05/pro-lgbt-coca-cola-ads-spark-boycott-calls-in-hungary ] after it used gay couples in a Hungarian advertising campaign, while the country announced late last year it would not participate in the Eurovision [ https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/nov/27/hungary-pulls-out-of-eurovision-amid-rise-in-anti-lgbt-rhetoric ] song contest, with sources saying the contest was deemed “too gay” for conservative government and public media bosses. Last month, as Hungary struggled amid surging coronavirus cases, Orbán’s government introduced a new set of constitutional amendments [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/11/hungarian-government-mounts-new-assault-on-lgbt-rights ] to parliament, including one that stipulates that, in a parent-child relationship, “the mother is a woman and the father is a man”. It also said that only heterosexual married couples could adopt children, with even single people requiring special ministerial dispensation.
The government’s justification for the amendment explained that “new, modern ideologies in the western world raise doubt about the creation of the male and female sex, and endanger the right of children to have healthy development”. Opposition parties seized on the scandal as evidence of Fidesz hypocrisy, but leading government figures appear to have decided the best policy is to remove Szájer from the political spotlight and hope the scandal blows over. In a programme on the pro-government Pesti TV, host Zsolt Jeszenszky criticised liberals for making “a huge political deal out of a sex scandal” and praised Szájer’s statement of apology. He also insinuated, as did many other pro-government commentators, that the scandal or arrest could have been a setup by unnamed enemies of Hungary’s government.
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#9_December_2020_(Millionaire_tax) -- Argentina Passes "Millionaire's Tax" to Fund Covid-19 Recovery. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/06/argentina-passes-millionaires-tax-fund-covid-19-recovery -- Argentina Passes "Millionaire's Tax" to Fund Covid-19 Recovery -- Sunday, December 06, 2020 -- "We're coming out of this pandemic like countries come out of world wars, with thousands of dead and devastated economies," said one senator.
Lawmakers in Argentina on Friday approved a new one-time levy on the country's richest citizens to raise money to address the devastating health and economic consequences of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. "We must find points of connection between those who have the most to contribute and those who are in need." —Sen. Anabel Fernandez Senators passed the bill, which imposes a tax of at least 2% on individuals with assets worth more than $2.45 million, by a margin of 42 to 26, Reuters reported [ https://www.reuters.com/article/argentina-economy-tax/argentine-congress-approves-wealth-tax-as-covid-19-hits-state-coffers-idINL1N2IL06F ] Saturday.
Government revenue has declined amid the Covid-19 outbreak and resulting lockdown measures, and proponents of the legislation—dubbed the "millionaire's [ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55199058 ] tax"—hope it will generate $3.7 billion for the pandemic recovery process. "This is a unique, one-time contribution," said Senator Carlos Caserio, a member of the committee responsible for the bill, according to a statement on the Senate's website, Bloomberg reported [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-05/argentina-to-hit-the-rich-with-wealth-tax-as-covid-19-costs-rise ] Saturday. "We're coming out of this pandemic like countries come out of world wars, with thousands of dead and devastated economies," Cesario added.
According to the BBC, the funds will be used to pay for medical supplies, emergency aid for small and medium-sized businesses, financial support for students and social programs, and natural gas development. "We must find points of connection between those who have the most to contribute and those who are in need," said Senator Anabel Fernandez Sagasti. While Argentina is unique for having passed a coronavirus-specific wealth tax to confront the current crisis, people in other countries are clamoring for similar measures, although most politicians have so far opposed such efforts.
As Christo Aivalis explained [ https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/canada-new-democratic-party-tax-the-rich ] in Jacobin on Friday, there is "massive support" for a tax on Canada's super-rich, but 90% of the country's parliamentarians last month voted against a proposal to establish one. "A policy supported by nearly 80% of Canadians cannot muster 10% of the vote in the national parliament," Aivalis pointed out, arguing that this demonstrates how politicians in the North American country are "just as much in thrall to big money as their U.S. counterparts." "There is no reason U.S. billionaires should hold more than $1 trillion in wealth while food lines stretch for miles and millions are on the brink of eviction. Tax the rich."—Robert Reich A recent poll conducted last week by the New York Times and Survey Monkey found [ https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/03/poll-two-thirds-americans-favor-raising-taxes-incomes-over-400k ] that two-thirds of the U.S. electorate support a tax hike on individuals with annual incomes of more than $400,000.
In August, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced a Senate version [ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-colleagues-introduce-tax-on-billionaire-wealth-gains-to-provide-health-care-for-all- ] and a House version [ https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-ilhan-omar-introduces-billionaire-tax-provide-healthcare-all ] of the Make Billionaires Pay Act, legislation that would establish a 60% tax on the wealth increases enjoyed by billionaires between March 18, 2020 and January 1, 2021 in order to pay for all medical expenses for every person in the U.S. for a year. Unlike their counterparts in other wealthy countries, millions of Americans have lost healthcare coverage since the pandemic began. Months after Sanders and Omar introduced their bills to tax a portion of the wealth amassed by U.S. billionaires during the pandemic, the Institute for Policy Studies found in late November that the nation's 650 billionaires had collectively gained more than $1 trillion since March, as Common Dreams [ https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/25/stock-market-soars-and-billionaire-wealth-swells-1-trillion-food-lines-stretch-far ] reported. "There is no reason U.S. billionaires should hold more than $1 trillion in wealth while food lines stretch for miles and millions are on the brink of eviction," tweeted Robert Reich last week. "Tax the rich."
https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#12_December_2020_(Zhang_Zhan_being_force_fed) -- Zhang Zhan, imprisoned for reporting on the Covid-19 situation in Wuhan, started a hunger strike and has been force fed — not Guantanamo-style, through the nose, but with a tube surgically inserted into her stomach. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/10/citizen-journalist-detained-over-wuhan-reporting-restrained-and-fed-by-tube -- Citizen journalist detained over Wuhan reporting 'restrained and fed by tube' -- Thu 10 Dec 2020 -- Former lawyer Zhang Zhan was on hunger strike after her arrest for ‘picking quarrels’
A citizen journalist detained for more than six months after reporting on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has had a feeding tube forcibly inserted and her arms restrained to stop her pulling it out, her lawyer has claimed. Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer, has been on a hunger strike at a detention facility near Shanghai. Zhang was arrested in May and accused of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble”, an accusation frequently used against critics and activists inside China, after reporting on social media and streaming accounts. Last month she was formally indicted on charges [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/16/citizen-journalist-facing-jail-in-china-for-wuhan-covid-reporting-zhang-zhan ] of spreading false information. In a blog post on Wednesday, Zhang’s lawyer, Zhang Keke, said he visited his client on Tuesday afternoon, and found her unwell and exhausted.
“She was wearing thick pyjamas with a girdle around the waist, her left hand pinned in front and right hand pinned behind,” he wrote. “She said she had a stomach tube inserted recently and because she wanted to pull it out, she was restrained.” Zhang Keke said she was in “constant torment” from 24 hours a day of restraints, and needed assistance to go to the bathroom. “In addition to headache, dizziness and stomach pain, there was also pain in her mouth and throat. She said this may be inflammation due to the insertion of a gastric tube.”
Zhang Keke said he told Zhang her family, friends, and lawyers had urged her to stop her hunger strike, but she refused. He said Zhang told him she had expected a court hearing in December, and now it appeared there were no plans to hold one, she didn’t know if she would survive. Zhang was previously detained on similar accusations by Chinese authorities in 2018, and again in 2019 for voicing support for Hong Kong activists. She denies the charge of falsifying information, telling her lawyer that all the information was gathered firsthand through interviews with Wuhan residents. Zhang is among several Chinese journalists to have been arrested this year after travelling to Wuhan to report on the virus outbreak and response.
Chen Qiushi, a former lawyer turned journalist, was detained [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/wuhan-covid-journalist-missing-since-february-found-says-friend-chen-qiushi-china ] in January. Li Zehua, who travelled to Wuhan to report after Chen’s disappearance, went missing in early February but was released in April. Wuhan resident Fang Bin who reportedly posted footage of overwhelmed [ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-journalist-idUSKCN22515X ] hospitals, and filmed police knocking on his door went missing at the same time but has not been seen since. The Chinese government’s crackdown on activists, dissidents, and human rights works appears to have worsened this year. On Thursday Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said this week alone authorities had detained lawyer Tang Jitian, and placed under apparent house arrest lawyers Xie Yanyi, Li Heping [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/28/china-convicts-rights-lawyer-li-heping-of-subversion-of-state-power ] and his family, Wang Quanzhang and his family, and the wife of lawyer Yu Wenshang. Posting videos of some of the police action at the lawyers’ homes, CHRD accused authorities of turning “Human Rights Day into a field day for attacking human rights defenders”.
