activistpost--2020-09-03--For Years, Journalists Cheered Assange’s Abuse — Now They’ve Paved His Path to a US Gulag

Court hearings in Britain over the US administration ’ s extradition case against Julian Assange begin in earnest next week .
The decade-long saga that brought us to this point should appall anyone who cares about our increasingly fragile freedoms .
A journalist and publisher has been deprived of his liberty for 10 years .
According to UN experts , he has been arbitrarily detained and tortured for much of that time through intense physical confinement and endless psychological pressure .
He has been bugged and spied on by the CIA during his time in political asylum , in Ecuador @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that violated his most fundamental legal rights .
The judge overseeing his hearings has a serious conflict of interest – with her family embedded in the UK security services – that she did not declare and which should have required her to recuse herself from the case .
All indicators are that Assange will be extradited to the US to face a rigged grand jury trial meant to ensure he sees out his days in a maximum-security prison , serving a sentence of up to 175 years .
None of this happened in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened right under our noses , in a major Western capital , and in a state that claims to protect the rights of a free press .
It happened not in the blink of an eye but in slow motion – day after day , week after week , month after month , year after year .
And once we strip out a sophisticated campaign of character assassination against Assange by Western governments and a compliant media , the sole justification for this relentless attack on press freedom is that a 49-year-old man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That is the reason – and the only reason – that the US is seeking his extradition and why he has been languishing in what amounts to solitary confinement in Belmarsh high-security prison during the Covid-19 pandemic .
His lawyers ’ appeals for bail have been refused .
Become an Activist Post Patron for $ 1 per month at Patreon .
While the press corps abandoned Assange a decade ago , echoing official talking points that pilloried him over toilet hygiene and his treatment of his cat , Assange is today exactly where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Western governments got their way .
What awaits him is rendition to the US so he can be locked out of sight for the rest of his life .
There were two goals the US and UK set out to achieve through the visible persecution , confinement and torture of Assange .
First , he and WikiLeaks , the transparency organization he co-founded , needed to be disabled .
Engaging with WikiLeaks had to be made too risky to contemplate for potential whistleblowers .
That is why Chelsea Manning – the US soldier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan for which Assange now faces extradition – was similarly subjected to harsh imprisonment .
She later faced punitive daily fines while in jail to pressure her into testifying against Assange .
The aim has been to discredit WikiLeaks and similar organizations and stop them from being able to publish more revelatory documents – of the kind that show Western governments are not the “ good guys ” managing world affairs for the benefit of mankind , but are in fact highly militarized , global bullies advancing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destruction and pillage they always pursued .
And second , Assange had to be made to suffer horribly and in public – to be made an example of – to deter other journalists from ever considering following in his footsteps .
He is the modern equivalent of a severed head on a pike displayed at the city gates .
The very obvious fact – confirmed by the media coverage of his case – is that this strategy , advanced chiefly by the US and UK ( with Sweden playing a lesser role ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporate media journalists are still enthusiastically colluding in the vilification of Assange – mainly at this stage by ignoring his awful plight .
When he hurried into Ecuador ’ s embassy back in 2012 , seeking political asylum , journalists from every corporate media outlet ridiculed his claim – now , of course , fully vindicated – that he was evading US efforts to extradite him and lock him away for good .
The media continued with their mockery even as evidence mounted that a grand jury had been secretly convened to draw @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was located in the eastern district of Virginia , where the major US security and intelligence services are headquartered .
Any jury there is dominated by US security personnel and their families .
His hope of a fair trial was nonexistent .
Instead we have endured eight years of misdirection by the corporate media and its willing complicity in his character assassination , which has laid the ground for the current public indifference to Assange ’ s extradition and widespread ignorance of its horrendous implications .
Corporate journalists have accepted , entirely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rationalizations for why the interests of justice have been served by locking Assange away indefinitely – even before his extradition – and trampling his most basic legal rights .
The other side of the story – Assange ’ s , the story hiding in plain sight – has invariably been missing from the coverage , whether it has been CNN , the New York Times , the BBC or the Guardian .
First , it was claimed that Assange had fled questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden , even though it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leave ; even though the original Swedish prosecutor , Eva Finne , dismissed the investigation against him , saying “ There is no suspicion of any crime whatsoever ” , before it was picked up by a different prosecutor for barely concealed , politicized reasons ; and even though Assange later invited Swedish prosecutors to question him where he was ( in the embassy ) , an option they regularly agreed to in other cases but resolutely refused in his .
It was not just that none of these points was ever provided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the corporate media .
Or that much else in Assange ’ s favor was simply ignored , such as tampered evidence in the case of one of the two women who alleged sexual assault and the refusal of the other to sign the rape statement drawn up for her by police .
The story was also grossly and continuously misreported as relating to “ rape charges ” when Assange was wanted simply for questioning .
No charges were ever laid against him because the second Swedish prosecutor , Marianne Ny – and her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then head of the prosecution service and now leader of the Labour party – seemingly wished to avoid testing the credibility of their allegations by actually questioning Assange .
Leaving him to rot in a small room in the embassy served their purposes much better .
When the Sweden case fizzled out – when it became clear that the original prosecutor had been right to conclude that there was no evidence to justify further questioning , let alone charges – the political and media class shifted tack .
Suddenly Assange ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , political reasons – because he had supposedly aided Donald Trump ’ s presidential election campaign in 2016 by publishing emails , allegedly “ hacked ” by Russia , from the Democratic party ’ s servers .
The content of those emails , obscured in the coverage at the time and largely forgotten now , revealed corruption by Hillary Clinton ’ s camp and efforts to sabotage the party ’ s primaries to undermine her rival for the presidential nomination , Bernie Sanders .
Those on the authoritarian right have shown little concern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the embassy , and later jailing in Belmarsh , for his exposure of US war crimes , which is why little effort has been expended on winning them over .
The demonization campaign against Assange has focused instead on issues that are likely to trigger liberals and the left , who might otherwise have qualms about jettisoning the First Amendment and locking people up for doing journalism .
Just as the Swedish allegations , despite their non-investigation , tapped into the worst kind of kneejerk identity politics on the left , the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alienate the Democratic party base .
Extraordinarily , the claim of Russian hacking persists even though years later – and after a major “ Russiagate ” inquiry by Robert Mueller – it still can not be stood up with any actual evidence .
In fact , some of those closest to the matter , such as former UK ambassador Craig Murray , have insisted all along that the emails were not hacked by Russia but were leaked by a disenchanted Democratic party insider .
An even more important point , however , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no choice , after it was handed those documents , but to expose abuses by the Democratic party – whoever was the source .
The reason that Assange and WikiLeaks became entwined in the Russiagate fiasco – which wasted the energies of Democratic party supporters on a campaign against Trump that actually strengthened rather than weakened him – was because of the credulous coverage , once again , of the issue by almost the entire corporate media .
Liberal outlets like the Guardian newspaper even went so far as to openly fabricate a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that a Trump aide , Paul Manafort , and unnamed “ Russians ” secretly visited Assange in the embassy – without repercussion or retraction .
All of this made possible what has happened since .
After the Swedish case evaporated and there were no reasonable grounds left for not letting Assange walk free from the embassy , the media suddenly decided in chorus that a technical bail violation was grounds enough for his continuing confinement in the embassy – or , better still , his arrest and jailing .
That breach of bail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s decision to seek asylum in the embassy , based on a correct assessment that the US planned to demand his extradition and imprisonment .
None of these well-paid journalists seemed to remember that , in British law , failure to meet bail conditions is permitted if there is “ reasonable cause ” – and fleeing political persecution is very obviously just such a reasonable cause .
Similarly , the media willfully ignored the conclusions of a report by Nils Melzer , a Swiss scholar of international law and the United Nations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UK , US and Sweden had not only denied Assange his basic legal rights but had colluded in subjecting him to years of psychological torture – a form of torture , Melzer has pointed out , that was refined by the Nazis because it was found to be crueler and more effective at breaking victims than physical torture .
Assange has been blighted by deteriorating health and cognitive decline as a result , and has lost significant weight .
None of that has been deemed worthy by the corporate media of more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s poor health made him incapable of attending a court hearing .
Instead Melzer ’ s repeated warnings about the abusive treatment of Assange and its effects on him have fallen on deaf ears .
The media has simply ignored Melzer ’ s findings , as though they were never published , that Assange has been , and is being , tortured .
We need only pause and imagine how much coverage Melzer ’ s report would have received had it concerned the treatment of a dissident in an official enemy state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ British police , in coordination with an Ecuador now led by a president , Lenin Moreno , who craved closer ties with Washington , stormed the embassy to drag Assange out and lock him up in Belmarsh prison .
In their coverage of these events , journalists again played dumb .
They had spent years first professing the need to “ believe women ” in the Assange case , even if it meant ignoring evidence , and then proclaiming the sanctity of bail conditions , even if they were used simply as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was all swept aside in an instant .
Suddenly Assange ’ s nine years of confinement over a nonexistent sexual assault investigation and a minor bail infraction were narratively replaced by an espionage case .
And the media lined up against him once again .
A decade ago the idea that Assange could be extradited to the US and locked up for the rest of his life , his journalism recast as “ espionage ” , was mocked as so improbable , so outrageously unlawful that no “ mainstream ” journalist was prepared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for his seeking asylum in the embassy .
It was derided as a figment of the fevered , paranoid imaginations of Assange and his supporters , and as a self-serving cover for him to avoid facing the investigation in Sweden .
But when British police invaded the embassy in April last year and arrested him for extradition to the US on precisely the espionage charges Assange had always warned were going to be used against him , journalists reported these developments as though they were oblivious to this backstory .
The media erased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have made them look like willing dupes of US propaganda , like apologists for US exceptionalism , and because it would have proved Assange right once more .
It would have demonstrated that he is the real journalist , in contrast to their pacified , complacent , power-worshiping corporate journalism .
Right now every journalist in the world ought to be up in arms , protesting at the abuses Assange is suffering , and has suffered , and the fate he will endure if extradition is approved .
They should be protesting on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the endless and blatant abuses of legal process at Assange ’ s hearings in the British courts , including the gross conflict of interest of Lady Emma Arbuthnot , the judge presiding over his case .
They should be in uproar at the surveillance the CIA illegally arranged inside the Ecuadorian embassy while Assange was confined there , nullifying the already dishonest US case against him by violating his client-lawyer privilege .
They should be expressing outrage at Washington ’ s maneuvers , accorded a thin veneer of due process by the British @ @ @ @ @ @ @ espionage charges for doing work that lies at the very heart of what journalism claims to be – holding the powerful to account .
Journalists do not need to care about Assange or like him .
They have to speak out in protest because approval of his extradition will mark the official death of journalism .
It will mean that any journalist in the world who unearths embarrassing truths about the US , who discovers its darkest secrets , will need to keep quiet or risk being jailed for the rest of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalist .
But it has had no such effect .
The vast majority of Western journalists , of course , never uncover one significant secret from the centers of power in their entire professional careers – even those ostensibly monitoring those power centers .
These journalists repackage press releases and lobby briefings , they tap sources inside government who use them as a conduit to the large audiences they command , and they relay gossip and sniping from inside the corridors of power .
That is the reality of access journalism that constitutes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political news .
Nonetheless , Assange ’ s abandonment by journalists – the complete lack of solidarity as one of their number is persecuted as flagrantly as dissidents once sent to the gulags – should depress us .
It means not only that journalists have abandoned any pretense that they do real journalism , but that they have also renounced the aspiration that it be done by anyone at all .
It means that corporate journalists are ready to be viewed with even greater disdain by their audiences than is already the case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they have sided with governments to ensure that anyone who truly holds power to account , like Assange , will end up behind bars .
Their own freedom brands them as a captured elite – irrefutable evidence that they serve power , they do not confront it .
The only conclusion to be drawn is that corporate journalists care less about the truth than they do about their careers , their salaries , their status , and their access to the rich and powerful .
As Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky explained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , journalists join a media class after lengthy education and training processes designed to weed out those not reliably in sympathy with the ideological interests of their corporate employers .
Briefly , Assange raised the stakes for all journalists by renouncing their god – “ access ” – and their modus operandi of revealing occasional glimpses of very partial truths offered up by “ friendly ” , and invariably anonymous , sources who use the media to settle scores with rivals in the centers of power .
Instead , through whistleblowers , Assange @ @ @ @ @ @ @ full-spectrum truth whose exposure helped no one in power – only us , the public , as we tried to understand what was being done , and had been done , in our names .
For the first time , we could see just how ugly , and often criminal , the behavior of our leaders was .
Assange did not just expose the political class , he exposed the media class too – for their feebleness , for their hypocrisy , for their dependence on the centers of power , for their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which they were embedded .
Few of them can forgive Assange that crime .
Which is why they will be there cheering on his extradition , if only through their silence .
A few liberal writers will wait till it is too late for Assange , till he has been packaged up for rendition , to voice halfhearted , mealy-mouthed or agonized columns arguing that , unpleasant as Assange supposedly is , he did not deserve the treatment the US has in store for him .
But that will be far too little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solidarity from journalists and their media organizations long ago , as well as full-throated denunciations of his oppressors .
He and WikiLeaks were on the front line of a war to remake journalism , to rebuild it as a true check on the runaway power of our governments .
Journalists had a chance to join him in that struggle .
Instead they fled the battlefield , leaving him as a sacrificial offering to their corporate masters .
Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism .
His latest books are Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East ( Pluto Press ) and Disappearing Palestine : Israel ’ s Experiments in Human Despair ( Zed Books ) .
His website is www.jonathan-cook.net .
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By Jonathan Cook
Court hearings in Britain over the US administration’s extradition case against Julian Assange begin in earnest next week. The decade-long saga that brought us to this point should appall anyone who cares about our increasingly fragile freedoms.
A journalist and publisher has been deprived of his liberty for 10 years. According to UN experts, he has been arbitrarily detained and tortured for much of that time through intense physical confinement and endless psychological pressure. He has been bugged and spied on by the CIA during his time in political asylum, in Ecuador’s London embassy, in ways that violated his most fundamental legal rights. The judge overseeing his hearings has a serious conflict of interest – with her family embedded in the UK security services – that she did not declare and which should have required her to recuse herself from the case.
Today one year ago we visited #Assange in prison. He showed clear signs of prolonged psychological #Torture. First I was shocked that mature democracies could produce such an accident. Then I found out it was no accident. Now, I am scared to find out about our democracies… pic.twitter.com/enElUmA1fK — Nils Melzer (@NilsMelzer) May 9, 2020
All indicators are that Assange will be extradited to the US to face a rigged grand jury trial meant to ensure he sees out his days in a maximum-security prison, serving a sentence of up to 175 years.
None of this happened in some Third-World, tinpot dictatorship. It happened right under our noses, in a major Western capital, and in a state that claims to protect the rights of a free press. It happened not in the blink of an eye but in slow motion – day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
And once we strip out a sophisticated campaign of character assassination against Assange by Western governments and a compliant media, the sole justification for this relentless attack on press freedom is that a 49-year-old man published documents exposing US war crimes. That is the reason – and the only reason – that the US is seeking his extradition and why he has been languishing in what amounts to solitary confinement in Belmarsh high-security prison during the Covid-19 pandemic. His lawyers’ appeals for bail have been refused.
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Severed head on a pike
While the press corps abandoned Assange a decade ago, echoing official talking points that pilloried him over toilet hygiene and his treatment of his cat, Assange is today exactly where he originally predicted he would be if Western governments got their way. What awaits him is rendition to the US so he can be locked out of sight for the rest of his life.
There were two goals the US and UK set out to achieve through the visible persecution, confinement and torture of Assange.
First, he and WikiLeaks, the transparency organization he co-founded, needed to be disabled. Engaging with WikiLeaks had to be made too risky to contemplate for potential whistleblowers. That is why Chelsea Manning – the US soldier who passed on documents relating to US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan for which Assange now faces extradition – was similarly subjected to harsh imprisonment. She later faced punitive daily fines while in jail to pressure her into testifying against Assange.
The aim has been to discredit WikiLeaks and similar organizations and stop them from being able to publish more revelatory documents – of the kind that show Western governments are not the “good guys” managing world affairs for the benefit of mankind, but are in fact highly militarized, global bullies advancing the same ruthless colonial policies of war, destruction and pillage they always pursued.
And second, Assange had to be made to suffer horribly and in public – to be made an example of – to deter other journalists from ever considering following in his footsteps. He is the modern equivalent of a severed head on a pike displayed at the city gates.
The very obvious fact – confirmed by the media coverage of his case – is that this strategy, advanced chiefly by the US and UK (with Sweden playing a lesser role), has been wildly successful. Most corporate media journalists are still enthusiastically colluding in the vilification of Assange – mainly at this stage by ignoring his awful plight.
Story hiding in plain sight
When he hurried into Ecuador’s embassy back in 2012, seeking political asylum, journalists from every corporate media outlet ridiculed his claim – now, of course, fully vindicated – that he was evading US efforts to extradite him and lock him away for good. The media continued with their mockery even as evidence mounted that a grand jury had been secretly convened to draw up espionage charges against him and that it was located in the eastern district of Virginia, where the major US security and intelligence services are headquartered. Any jury there is dominated by US security personnel and their families. His hope of a fair trial was nonexistent.
Instead we have endured eight years of misdirection by the corporate media and its willing complicity in his character assassination, which has laid the ground for the current public indifference to Assange’s extradition and widespread ignorance of its horrendous implications.
Corporate journalists have accepted, entirely at face value, a series of rationalizations for why the interests of justice have been served by locking Assange away indefinitely – even before his extradition – and trampling his most basic legal rights. The other side of the story – Assange’s, the story hiding in plain sight – has invariably been missing from the coverage, whether it has been CNN, the New York Times, the BBC or the Guardian.
From Sweden to Clinton
First, it was claimed that Assange had fled questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden, even though it was the Swedish authorities who allowed him to leave; even though the original Swedish prosecutor, Eva Finne, dismissed the investigation against him, saying “There is no suspicion of any crime whatsoever”, before it was picked up by a different prosecutor for barely concealed, politicized reasons; and even though Assange later invited Swedish prosecutors to question him where he was (in the embassy), an option they regularly agreed to in other cases but resolutely refused in his.
It was not just that none of these points was ever provided as context for the Sweden story by the corporate media. Or that much else in Assange’s favor was simply ignored, such as tampered evidence in the case of one of the two women who alleged sexual assault and the refusal of the other to sign the rape statement drawn up for her by police.
The story was also grossly and continuously misreported as relating to “rape charges” when Assange was wanted simply for questioning. No charges were ever laid against him because the second Swedish prosecutor, Marianne Ny – and her British counterparts, including Sir Keir Starmer, then head of the prosecution service and now leader of the Labour party – seemingly wished to avoid testing the credibility of their allegations by actually questioning Assange. Leaving him to rot in a small room in the embassy served their purposes much better.
When the Sweden case fizzled out – when it became clear that the original prosecutor had been right to conclude that there was no evidence to justify further questioning, let alone charges – the political and media class shifted tack.
Suddenly Assange’s confinement was implicitly justified for entirely different, political reasons – because he had supposedly aided Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2016 by publishing emails, allegedly “hacked” by Russia, from the Democratic party’s servers. The content of those emails, obscured in the coverage at the time and largely forgotten now, revealed corruption by Hillary Clinton’s camp and efforts to sabotage the party’s primaries to undermine her rival for the presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders.
Guardian fabricates a smear
Those on the authoritarian right have shown little concern over Assange’s lengthy confinement in the embassy, and later jailing in Belmarsh, for his exposure of US war crimes, which is why little effort has been expended on winning them over. The demonization campaign against Assange has focused instead on issues that are likely to trigger liberals and the left, who might otherwise have qualms about jettisoning the First Amendment and locking people up for doing journalism.
The Guardian: Fake news and hostility toward Assange in 44 headlines. #DumpTheGuardian https://t.co/jwl5ZbEOL7 — FiveFilters.org ⏳ (@fivefilters) April 19, 2019
Just as the Swedish allegations, despite their non-investigation, tapped into the worst kind of kneejerk identity politics on the left, the “hacked” emails story was designed to alienate the Democratic party base. Extraordinarily, the claim of Russian hacking persists even though years later – and after a major “Russiagate” inquiry by Robert Mueller – it still cannot be stood up with any actual evidence. In fact, some of those closest to the matter, such as former UK ambassador Craig Murray, have insisted all along that the emails were not hacked by Russia but were leaked by a disenchanted Democratic party insider.
An even more important point, however, is that a transparency organization like WikiLeaks had no choice, after it was handed those documents, but to expose abuses by the Democratic party – whoever was the source.
The reason that Assange and WikiLeaks became entwined in the Russiagate fiasco – which wasted the energies of Democratic party supporters on a campaign against Trump that actually strengthened rather than weakened him – was because of the credulous coverage, once again, of the issue by almost the entire corporate media. Liberal outlets like the Guardian newspaper even went so far as to openly fabricate a story – in which it falsely reported that a Trump aide, Paul Manafort, and unnamed “Russians” secretly visited Assange in the embassy – without repercussion or retraction.
Assange’s torture ignored
All of this made possible what has happened since. After the Swedish case evaporated and there were no reasonable grounds left for not letting Assange walk free from the embassy, the media suddenly decided in chorus that a technical bail violation was grounds enough for his continuing confinement in the embassy – or, better still, his arrest and jailing. That breach of bail, of course, related to Assange’s decision to seek asylum in the embassy, based on a correct assessment that the US planned to demand his extradition and imprisonment.
None of these well-paid journalists seemed to remember that, in British law, failure to meet bail conditions is permitted if there is “reasonable cause” – and fleeing political persecution is very obviously just such a reasonable cause.
The 'Breach of Bail' Allegation Against Assangehttps://t.co/XYkRmHn1cB — Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) April 7, 2019
Similarly, the media willfully ignored the conclusions of a report by Nils Melzer, a Swiss scholar of international law and the United Nations’ expert on torture, that the UK, US and Sweden had not only denied Assange his basic legal rights but had colluded in subjecting him to years of psychological torture – a form of torture, Melzer has pointed out, that was refined by the Nazis because it was found to be crueler and more effective at breaking victims than physical torture.
Assange has been blighted by deteriorating health and cognitive decline as a result, and has lost significant weight. None of that has been deemed worthy by the corporate media of more than a passing mention – specifically when Assange’s poor health made him incapable of attending a court hearing. Instead Melzer’s repeated warnings about the abusive treatment of Assange and its effects on him have fallen on deaf ears. The media has simply ignored Melzer’s findings, as though they were never published, that Assange has been, and is being, tortured. We need only pause and imagine how much coverage Melzer’s report would have received had it concerned the treatment of a dissident in an official enemy state like Russia or China.
In the past two years, in the entire mainstream UK press: – Number of Editorials, Op-Eds mentioning "Nils Melzer": 0. – Number of Editorials, Op-Eds mentioning "Assange" and "torture": 0. (Factiva database search, 29 August 2020) — JamieSW (@jsternweiner) August 29, 2020
A power-worshiping media
Last year British police, in coordination with an Ecuador now led by a president, Lenin Moreno, who craved closer ties with Washington, stormed the embassy to drag Assange out and lock him up in Belmarsh prison. In their coverage of these events, journalists again played dumb.
They had spent years first professing the need to “believe women” in the Assange case, even if it meant ignoring evidence, and then proclaiming the sanctity of bail conditions, even if they were used simply as a pretext for political persecution. Now that was all swept aside in an instant. Suddenly Assange’s nine years of confinement over a nonexistent sexual assault investigation and a minor bail infraction were narratively replaced by an espionage case. And the media lined up against him once again.
A decade ago the idea that Assange could be extradited to the US and locked up for the rest of his life, his journalism recast as “espionage”, was mocked as so improbable, so outrageously unlawful that no “mainstream” journalist was prepared to countenance it as the genuine reason for his seeking asylum in the embassy. It was derided as a figment of the fevered, paranoid imaginations of Assange and his supporters, and as a self-serving cover for him to avoid facing the investigation in Sweden.
But when British police invaded the embassy in April last year and arrested him for extradition to the US on precisely the espionage charges Assange had always warned were going to be used against him, journalists reported these developments as though they were oblivious to this backstory. The media erased this context not least because it would have made them look like willing dupes of US propaganda, like apologists for US exceptionalism, and because it would have proved Assange right once more. It would have demonstrated that he is the real journalist, in contrast to their pacified, complacent, power-worshiping corporate journalism.
The death of journalism
Right now every journalist in the world ought to be up in arms, protesting at the abuses Assange is suffering, and has suffered, and the fate he will endure if extradition is approved. They should be protesting on front pages and in TV news shows the endless and blatant abuses of legal process at Assange’s hearings in the British courts, including the gross conflict of interest of Lady Emma Arbuthnot, the judge presiding over his case.
They should be in uproar at the surveillance the CIA illegally arranged inside the Ecuadorian embassy while Assange was confined there, nullifying the already dishonest US case against him by violating his client-lawyer privilege. They should be expressing outrage at Washington’s maneuvers, accorded a thin veneer of due process by the British courts, designed to extradite him on espionage charges for doing work that lies at the very heart of what journalism claims to be – holding the powerful to account.
Journalists do not need to care about Assange or like him. They have to speak out in protest because approval of his extradition will mark the official death of journalism. It will mean that any journalist in the world who unearths embarrassing truths about the US, who discovers its darkest secrets, will need to keep quiet or risk being jailed for the rest of their lives.
That ought to terrify every journalist. But it has had no such effect.
Careers and status, not truth
The vast majority of Western journalists, of course, never uncover one significant secret from the centers of power in their entire professional careers – even those ostensibly monitoring those power centers. These journalists repackage press releases and lobby briefings, they tap sources inside government who use them as a conduit to the large audiences they command, and they relay gossip and sniping from inside the corridors of power.
That is the reality of access journalism that constitutes 99 per cent of what we call political news.
Nonetheless, Assange’s abandonment by journalists – the complete lack of solidarity as one of their number is persecuted as flagrantly as dissidents once sent to the gulags – should depress us. It means not only that journalists have abandoned any pretense that they do real journalism, but that they have also renounced the aspiration that it be done by anyone at all.
It means that corporate journalists are ready to be viewed with even greater disdain by their audiences than is already the case. Because through their complicity and silence, they have sided with governments to ensure that anyone who truly holds power to account, like Assange, will end up behind bars. Their own freedom brands them as a captured elite – irrefutable evidence that they serve power, they do not confront it.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that corporate journalists care less about the truth than they do about their careers, their salaries, their status, and their access to the rich and powerful. As Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky explained long ago in their book Manufacturing Consent, journalists join a media class after lengthy education and training processes designed to weed out those not reliably in sympathy with the ideological interests of their corporate employers.
A sacrificial offering
Briefly, Assange raised the stakes for all journalists by renouncing their god – “access” – and their modus operandi of revealing occasional glimpses of very partial truths offered up by “friendly”, and invariably anonymous, sources who use the media to settle scores with rivals in the centers of power.
Instead, through whistleblowers, Assange rooted out the unguarded, unvarnished, full-spectrum truth whose exposure helped no one in power – only us, the public, as we tried to understand what was being done, and had been done, in our names. For the first time, we could see just how ugly, and often criminal, the behavior of our leaders was.
Assange did not just expose the political class, he exposed the media class too – for their feebleness, for their hypocrisy, for their dependence on the centers of power, for their inability to criticize a corporate system in which they were embedded.
Few of them can forgive Assange that crime. Which is why they will be there cheering on his extradition, if only through their silence. A few liberal writers will wait till it is too late for Assange, till he has been packaged up for rendition, to voice halfhearted, mealy-mouthed or agonized columns arguing that, unpleasant as Assange supposedly is, he did not deserve the treatment the US has in store for him.
But that will be far too little, far too late. Assange needed solidarity from journalists and their media organizations long ago, as well as full-throated denunciations of his oppressors. He and WikiLeaks were on the front line of a war to remake journalism, to rebuild it as a true check on the runaway power of our governments. Journalists had a chance to join him in that struggle. Instead they fled the battlefield, leaving him as a sacrificial offering to their corporate masters.
Source: Antiwar.com
Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net.
Image: CaitlinJohnstone.com
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activistpost--2020-09-03--COVID Robocops Arrive in Michigan — New World Next Week

Welcome back to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news .
This week : Story # 1 : Robocop Is Here – New Police Helmet Scans For COVID-19 , Biometrics • Police Use Facial Recognition Smart Helmets To Conduct Indiscriminate Surveillance At Airports • WNEM TV5 Video : Flint Bishop Becomes First US Airport To Deploy New Technology to Fight Spread of COVID-19 • Remember the Plot of ‘ Robocop ’ : Tech Corp Takes Over Detroit ’ s Police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ List of the CNP – The Christian Right ’ s Secretive , Powerful Council for National Policy – Published For the First Time • ‘ Urgent ’ Request Sent to States In Push for Coronavirus Vaccine Delivery By Nov. 1 Watch on Archive / BitChute / LBRY / Minds / YouTube or Download the mp4 You can help support our independent and non-commercial work by visiting http : //CorbettReport.com/Support & http : //MediaMonarchy.com/Join .
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By The Corbett Report
Welcome back to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:
Story #1: Robocop Is Here – New Police Helmet Scans For COVID-19, Biometrics
Story #2: Full Membership List of the CNP – The Christian Right’s Secretive, Powerful Council for National Policy – Published For the First Time
Story #3: Lawsuit Targets BofA, Credit Suisse, Bayer Over Disastrous Monsanto Acquisition
?
Watch on Archive / BitChute / LBRY / Minds / YouTube or Download the mp4
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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Media Monarchy
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Thank You.
Visit James Corbett at CorbettReport.com. Subscribe to his channel on YouTube and Bitchute, and support him on Patreon.
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activistpost--2020-09-03--Amazon Drone Deliveries: The Greatest Threat To Privacy Americans Have Ever Seen

Americans have not seen a greater threat to our privacy than the move towards drone deliveries .
This includes Amazon Ring doorbells surveilling families and neighborhoods under the guise of public safety a few years ago .
According to an article in the LA Times , the FAA can not wait for Amazon to use drones to deliver packages to households across the country .
Amazon joins a growing list of companies using drones to deliver packages to Americans .
It has become commonplace for the mass media to pander to Big Tech .
In fact the LA Times went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deliveries .
One thing became clear after reading approximately 10 news articles about the FAA approving Amazon ’ s drone delivery fleet .
Not a single news article would address the giant elephant in the room : Privacy .
Drone deliveries threaten the privacy of EVERYONE .
What will happen to Americans privacy once private companies begin flying down our streets ?
Drones will fly over people ’ s yards while voyeuristic pilots invade everyone ’ s privacy .
Was someone taking a shower or getting undressed in their window ?
Don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ video of it .
Was someone sunbathing in their backyard ?
Amazon will know .
If someone is smoking marijuana in their home or yard , Amazon will know .
When someone is looking at porn on the computer and it ’ s facing a window , Amazon will know .
The list of how delivery drones will destroy everyone ’ s privacy is nearly endless .
Why would a federal agency be excited to let corporations create drone delivery fleets , besides the obvious privacy concerns ?
There are two obvious reasons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one : once the public accepts delivery drones flying over their homes , law enforcement drones will surely follow .
How long will it take for law enforcement to insist that the FAA allow them to fly drones over people ’ s homes and backyards , for public safety ?
How long will it take law enforcement to equip those drones with facial recognition/thermal imaging and license plate readers ?
The second reason why the FAA is so excited about drone deliveries is an easy one .
It allows law enforcement to subpoena @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would not be surprised to find out that law enforcement has backdoor access to drone delivery footage .
We have already seen how Amazon ’ s Ring doorbell service has created a network of neighborhood spies while working hand-in-hand with local law enforcement .
Delivery companies will be morally bound to report suspicious or illegal activity to law enforcement , essentially turning drone delivery pilots into agents of the state .
Is that drone delivery pilot spying on you ?
Most definitely .
Is that drone delivery pilot recording everything they see ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pilot reporting what they see to law enforcement ?
Most certainly .
Is the FAA using drone delivery companies as a tool to advance public surveillance ?
Unquestionably .
Is this the future of America ?
Undoubtedly , unless we stop drone deliveries now !
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Provide , Protect and Profit from what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue of Counter Markets today .

Op-Ed by MassPrivateI
Americans have not seen a greater threat to our privacy than the move towards drone deliveries. This includes Amazon Ring doorbells surveilling families and neighborhoods under the guise of public safety a few years ago.
According to an article in the LA Times, the FAA cannot wait for Amazon to use drones to deliver packages to households across the country.
This certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and indicates the FAA’s confidence in Amazon’s operating and safety procedures for an autonomous drone delivery service that will one day deliver packages to our customers around the world,” David Carbon, an Amazon vice president who oversees Prime Air, said in a statement.
Amazon joins a growing list of companies using drones to deliver packages to Americans.
Wing, with partners Walgreens and FedEx Corp., has been conducting limited drone deliveries under a similar FAA approval in Virginia since last year. UPS flies medical supplies within a hospital campus in Raleigh, N.C. Other smaller companies and start-ups are also seeking expanded FAA approvals.
It has become commonplace for the mass media to pander to Big Tech. In fact the LA Times went out of its way to praise drone deliveries.
Amazon and other companies hoping to revolutionize the retail world with drones have made significant strides in recent years. They’ve invented new devices and shown, at least on a limited scale, that they’re capable of flying relatively long distances and carrying the payloads necessary for packages.
One thing became clear after reading approximately 10 news articles about the FAA approving Amazon’s drone delivery fleet. Not a single news article would address the giant elephant in the room: Privacy.
Amazon Air wants to hire drone pilots
Drone deliveries threaten the privacy of EVERYONE.
What will happen to Americans privacy once private companies begin flying down our streets? Drones will fly over people’s yards while voyeuristic pilots invade everyone’s privacy. Was someone taking a shower or getting undressed in their window? Don’t worry, Amazon will have real-time video of it. Was someone sunbathing in their backyard? Amazon will know.
If someone is smoking marijuana in their home or yard, Amazon will know. When someone is looking at porn on the computer and it’s facing a window, Amazon will know. The list of how delivery drones will destroy everyone’s privacy is nearly endless.
Activist Post Recommended Book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Why would a federal agency be excited to let corporations create drone delivery fleets, besides the obvious privacy concerns?
There are two obvious reasons that come to mind.
Reason number one: once the public accepts delivery drones flying over their homes, law enforcement drones will surely follow.
How long will it take for law enforcement to insist that the FAA allow them to fly drones over people’s homes and backyards, for public safety? How long will it take law enforcement to equip those drones with facial recognition/thermal imaging and license plate readers?
The second reason why the FAA is so excited about drone deliveries is an easy one. It allows law enforcement to subpoena drone footage from delivery companies. I would not be surprised to find out that law enforcement has backdoor access to drone delivery footage.
We have already seen how Amazon’s Ring doorbell service has created a network of neighborhood spies while working hand-in-hand with local law enforcement.
Delivery companies will be morally bound to report suspicious or illegal activity to law enforcement, essentially turning drone delivery pilots into agents of the state.
Is that drone delivery pilot spying on you? Most definitely. Is that drone delivery pilot recording everything they see? Most assuredly. Is that drone delivery pilot reporting what they see to law enforcement? Most certainly.
Is the FAA using drone delivery companies as a tool to advance public surveillance? Unquestionably. Is this the future of America? Undoubtedly, unless we stop drone deliveries now!
Source: MassPrivateI Blog
Top image: Amazon.com
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activistpost--2020-09-03--The Seven Reasons We Obey Authority

The Seven Reasons We Obey Authority

Rebels are a very important part of society , but they rarely get the recognition they deserve .
They help us break through old norms and keep us from falling into groupthink .
However , human nature urges most of us to remain in our comfort zone even when it means less freedom or more difficult problems down the road .
Why is it the case that so many people ignore the outside world or pass it off as somebody else ’ s problem until it reaches their own doorstep ?
In a recent video , Brittany Sellner ( Brittany @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven reasons men obey authority , even when it is against their best interest .
As everybody knows , habits are extremely difficult to break and even if we have gripes about the state of things , accepting our imperfect reality seems better to us than taking on the daunting prospect of change .
Conversely… habit ceases to be a reason for obedience in times of political crisis ; kind of similar to what we are experiencing now as a consequence of Covid .
Despite many of us not wanting to alter our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for us .
The second reason for obedience is moral obligation which is obviously a motive that is very often found in religion , but politically speaking… some see it as a moral obligation to ‘ 1 ) obey for the good of society , ’ 2 ) ‘ due to the ruler having superhuman factors such as being a supernatural being or a deity , ’ which isn ’ t something that I think applies to too many Americans… 3 ) People see it as a moral obligation to obey because they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , owing to its source an issuer ’ .
For example , a mayor or a police officer [ would be considered under this reason ] , and 4 ) People see it as a moral obligation to obey due to ‘ conformity of commands to accepted norms.
’ For example , most people believe that a command such as not committing murder is a moral command and therefore , they obey it .
The third reason for obedience is self-interest and this is perhaps one of the more common motives nowadays .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ immoral and seek to piggy-back off of current social and political trends in order to gain money , status , and approval .
Just look at all the corporations that suddenly became ‘ champions of social justice ’ after the death of George Floyd ; none of them gave a crap about police brutality and Black Lives Matter until it became in their interest to care .
This self-interest can of course also extend to individuals .
Famous and non-famous people have a lot to gain by falling in line , or… there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person doesn ’ t obey simply because they ’ re going to gain something but so they won ’ t lose everything : their reputations , jobs , social standing and future career prospects .
Lastly , the seventh and final reason for obedience is the absence of self confidence among subjects , meaning that many people simply don ’ t have sufficient confidence in themselves , their judgement , and their capacities to make themselves capable of disobedience and resistance .
Thanks to the internet , I observe this motive quite often @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daily that they ’ re miserable with the state of things and yet they do nothing because they have no confidence in their personal ability to lead , to organize a peaceful protest , to start a movement and so on .
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Although authority can be legitimate and meaningful , resistance to unnecessary acts of violence or draconian government injustice is often better for the individual and society and shows greater character than inaction .
Although this is certainly not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help you to better understand your own role in life and greater society .
Phillip Schneider is a staff writer and assistant editor for Waking Times .
For more of his work , you can visit his Website , Facebook Page , or follow him on the free speech social network Minds .
This article ( Brittany Sellner Explains the Seven Reasons We Obey Authority ) originally appeared at PhillipSchneider.com and may be re-posted freely with proper attribution , author credit , and this copyright statement .
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By Phillip Schneider
Rebels are a very important part of society, but they rarely get the recognition they deserve. They help us break through old norms and keep us from falling into groupthink. However, human nature urges most of us to remain in our comfort zone even when it means less freedom or more difficult problems down the road.
Why is it the case that so many people ignore the outside world or pass it off as somebody else’s problem until it reaches their own doorstep? In a recent video, Brittany Sellner (Brittany Pettibone before she married) describes the seven reasons men obey authority, even when it is against their best interest.
#1 Habit
As everybody knows, habits are extremely difficult to break and even if we have gripes about the state of things, accepting our imperfect reality seems better to us than taking on the daunting prospect of change. Conversely… habit ceases to be a reason for obedience in times of political crisis; kind of similar to what we are experiencing now as a consequence of Covid. Despite many of us not wanting to alter our habits, our habits were forcibly altered for us.
#2 Moral Obligation
The second reason for obedience is moral obligation which is obviously a motive that is very often found in religion, but politically speaking… some see it as a moral obligation to ‘1) obey for the good of society,’ 2) ‘due to the ruler having superhuman factors such as being a supernatural being or a deity,’ which isn’t something that I think applies to too many Americans… 3) People see it as a moral obligation to obey because they ‘perceive the command as being legitimate, owing to its source an issuer’. For example, a mayor or a police officer [would be considered under this reason], and 4) People see it as a moral obligation to obey due to ‘conformity of commands to accepted norms.’ For example, most people believe that a command such as not committing murder is a moral command and therefore, they obey it.
#3 Self-Interest
The third reason for obedience is self-interest and this is perhaps one of the more common motives nowadays. For example, most big corporations are immoral and seek to piggy-back off of current social and political trends in order to gain money, status, and approval. Just look at all the corporations that suddenly became ‘champions of social justice’ after the death of George Floyd; none of them gave a crap about police brutality and Black Lives Matter until it became in their interest to care. This self-interest can of course also extend to individuals. Famous and non-famous people have a lot to gain by falling in line, or… there is also a negative self-interest wherein the person doesn’t obey simply because they’re going to gain something but so they won’t lose everything: their reputations, jobs, social standing and future career prospects.
#4 Psychological Identification with the Ruler
The fourth reason for obedience is psychological identification with the ruler, meaning that people have a close emotional connection with the ruler, regime, or the system. I imagine you would have encountered a lot of this in, for example, Communist Russia or Nazi Germany.
#5 Zones of Indifference
The fifth reason for obedience is an extremely common one today and that is ‘zones of indifference,’ meaning that even if people are not fully satisfied with the state of things, they have a margin of indifference or a margin of tolerance for the negative aspects of their society and government.
#6 Fear of Sanctions
The sixth reason for obedience is the most obvious reason… and that is ‘fear of sanctions,’ which generally involve the threat or the use of some form of physical violence against the disobedient subject and induce obedience by power merely coercive, a power really operating on people simply through their fears.
#7 Absence of Self Confidence
Lastly, the seventh and final reason for obedience is the absence of self confidence among subjects, meaning that many people simply don’t have sufficient confidence in themselves, their judgement, and their capacities to make themselves capable of disobedience and resistance. Thanks to the internet, I observe this motive quite often. Thousands of people decry on the daily that they’re miserable with the state of things and yet they do nothing because they have no confidence in their personal ability to lead, to organize a peaceful protest, to start a movement and so on.
Become an Activist Post Patron for $1 per month at Patreon.
Although authority can be legitimate and meaningful, resistance to unnecessary acts of violence or draconian government injustice is often better for the individual and society and shows greater character than inaction. Although this is certainly not a comprehensive list, perhaps it will help you to better understand your own role in life and greater society.
Watch Brittany Sellner’s analysis on BitChute:
?
Read more articles by Phillip Schneider.
Phillip Schneider is a staff writer and assistant editor for Waking Times. For more of his work, you can visit his Website, Facebook Page, or follow him on the free speech social network Minds.
This article (Brittany Sellner Explains the Seven Reasons We Obey Authority) originally appeared at PhillipSchneider.com and may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author credit, and this copyright statement.
Like Waking Times on Facebook. Follow Waking Times on Twitter
Become a Patron!
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE! Follow us on SoMee, HIVE, Parler, Flote, Minds, and Twitter.
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activistpost--2020-09-03--2017 PC Mag Article “We Need to Prepare for the 5G Job Apocalypse” Couldn’t Predict Additional Job L

2017 PC Mag Article “We Need to Prepare for the 5G Job Apocalypse” Couldn’t Predict Additional Job Loss from COVID Lockdowns

Cities worldwide AND entire countries have taken action to ban , delay , halt , and limit 5G installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums due to biological ( see 1 , 2 ) , environmental ( see 1 , 2 ) , and safety risks .
Security experts have warned for many years about how easy it is to hack which could lead to catastrophic events ( see 1 , 2 ) .
Opposition has also stemmed from 5G being used for constant surveillance which is how it ’ s been used in China .
Another issue that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ millions of jobs in a multitude of industries ( see 1 , 2 , 3 ) .
Of course , now that global lockdowns have been imposed , we should expect to hear even more from technocrats about a “ robot tax ” and universal basic income , as foreshadowed in this article from PC Mag : We Need to Prepare for the 5G Jobs Apocalypse 5G will create millions of jobs but destroy millions more .
We need a plan .
My taxi driver in San Diego had a plan .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into long-distance trucking .
He ’ d work hard for 10 years , save a couple of hundred grand , and retire to Mexico .
I did the math : that put him around 2028 .
He might just make it before all the trucking jobs go away .
At Qualcomm last week , Cristiano Amon , president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies , extolled the virtues of the upcoming “ 5G economy , ” painting a picture of autonomous vehicles , smart cities , and ubiquitous augmented and virtual reality .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the change caused by electricity and automobiles .
There ’ s a number of industries that can change : manufacturing first , information and communications second , and wholesale and retail is number three , ” he said .
Retail , for example , will be transformed by augmented and virtual reality , removing the need to try things on—or try them out—in person .
“ There ’ s always going to be a transformation of business models , ” Amon said .
“ It ’ s difficult for us to predict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on top of 5G.
” But according to an IHS study , high-speed , low-latency ubiquitous networks will create $ 12 trillion of related goods and services by 2035 , he said .
All of those new business models , to me , signal old ones that are going away .
Autonomous vehicles will eliminate truck and taxi drivers .
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 1.8 million trucking jobs , at $ 40,000 per year .
Gone .
Taxi drivers : 233,700 jobs at $ 23,510 per year , gone .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Amazon ’ s Go grocery-store concept promises cashier-less stores .
That ’ s 3.4 million jobs gone , probably offset by a smaller increase in security guards .
And if we ’ re shopping by augmented and virtual reality , we may not even need those guards , as storefronts go dark across the nation .
Bill Gates says warehouses are going to get a big hit from automation in the near future ; that ’ s up to 200,000 “ freight , stock and material movers ” out of work , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t have the education to become app developers .
Even before 5G takes hold , we ’ re going to see bots replace many of the 2.5 million customer service representatives in this country .
Those jobs don ’ t require much education , but more highly educated workforces will get hit , too .
Telemedicine and VR tele-education will allow insurance companies and educational firms to reap greater profits by cutting staff .
We ’ ll still need doctors and teachers , but we ’ ll have fewer as new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There are maybe 3 million teachers , 1.5 million college professors , and probably about a million doctors and physicians ’ assistants out there .
These jobs can be replaced by lower-skilled , lower-paid machine handlers .
Automation-driven increases in productivity have already devastated manufacturing jobs .
According to a report from Ball State University in Indiana , “ Almost 88 percent of job losses in manufacturing in recent years can be attributable to productivity growth …Had we kept 2000-levels of productivity and applied them to 2010-levels of production , we would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Instead , we employed only 12.1 million , ” the study says .
So what does a society thrown out of work by robots look like ?
If you look at our former steel towns , it ’ s depressed , drug-addicted , and begging for a return to the past .
But greater efficiency means those past jobs will never return .
According to the American Iron and Steel Institute , it takes about a fifth of the manpower to produce a ton of steel now as compared to the early 1980s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are now hitting the oil patch .
Amon specifically called out Uber , Lyft , Postmates , and other gig-economy startups as major new job centers enabled by 4G .
He ’ s right , but those are cautionary tales as much as anything .
Uber and Lyft opt out of the employer-funded healthcare system at a time when our society can ’ t agree on how to replace the employer-funded health care system .
Their drivers currently rely on ACA-based marketplaces , which the current Congress has pledged to eradicate .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ ve spoken to who have described long , hard days of work at $ 9-12 an hour after expenses .
( “ After expenses ” is key here . )
That matches independent analyses of Uber drivers profiting about $ 24,000 after expenses , which doesn ’ t pay the rent in high-property-value metro areas .
Drivers aren ’ t flocking to Uber because it ’ s great work .
They ’ re flocking to it because it ’ s any work , which is better than no work .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it raises everyone ’ s living standards by lowering the price of goods .
( The same argument goes for low-wage immigration , or for low wages in general ; you can pick your bogeyman . )
But low-priced Roku boxes and Chromebooks don ’ t help if the jobs available to many people pay so poorly that they can ’ t afford the basic needs of food , housing , healthcare , and education .
Or if jobs at their skill level aren ’ t available at all .
That is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Create Not Just Jobs , But Workers 5G will create jobs , of course .
There will be millions of jobs building and maintaining the networks and thousands of jobs building and maintaining the machines .
There will be occupations we ’ ve never thought of , creating content and applications we can ’ t imagine .
Most will require skills , some of which haven ’ t been invented yet .
To use an example from my own life , I ’ m working on a series of data-based stories about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reporting tools for this story didn ’ t exist 10 years ago .
Data scientists and journalists are a growing field , mixing storytelling , programming , and statistics .
Qualcomm ’ s Ryan Gorostiza said the company expects that 5G will create 22 million jobs worldwide just in building and maintaining the networks .
Many of those will be outside the US , so we should expect far fewer jobs than that , but there will be jobs .
What ’ s the tech industry doing to make sure that soon-to-be-former taxi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do those jobs when they don ’ t have the time or money to go back to school ?
“ We ’ ve seen these technological revolutions many times , and they require a shift in the skills across the workforce , ” Gorostiza said .
“ 5G could make the reskilling easier , because it provides access.
” Too much of tech ’ s education energy goes into the pipeline .
Girls Who Code can ’ t help 40-Year-Old Women Who Were Laid Off And Need New Skills While Also Supporting Their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re very , very bad at imparting new skills to existing workers .
How can tech make sure that workers have the new skills needed ?
Do companies need to start schools ?
Do they need to band together and offer blanket training for potential workers , not just for existing ones ?
How do they make sure those workers don ’ t starve while they learn ?
The success of German companies may show us some solutions for re-skilling , if our firms are willing to invest in apprenticeships that include @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learn .
There ’ s also the problem of the folks who just won ’ t change .
The CBC reported on how men in declining industries don ’ t want to take “ female-typed ” jobs in growing industries , like healthcare .
Step away from the gender politics here and you see that there ’ s a certain class of men who really won ’ t like it when there are no culturally dignified , mostly physical jobs on offer .
Before you cast them off , remember that they vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re seeing one outcome of those angry voters right now .
For about a decade , the tech industry has leaned on skilled immigration to make up for the US not producing the skills the industry needs .
That ’ s about to get cut off by those angry voters , who are saying , “ if we don ’ t get jobs , no one does.
” Unfortunately , their rage isn ’ t quite coherent enough to demand not just jobs , but skills .
But I ’ ll be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world up to the fact that it needs to take a more active role in giving US workers the skills they need to succeed in the future .
Bill Gates is worried about this .
In an interview with Quartz , he proposes a “ robot tax ” to fund re-skilling and improve the income of very low-income , human-centered industries like elderly home care , which are trapped in a cycle where there ’ s just very little money to go around .
Fellow billionaire Mark Cuban agrees .
Relying on government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industry is just passing the buck , though .
It ’ s asking someone else to clean up your mess .
That ’ s not cool .
Tech is creating these problems ; tech needs to make a good-faith effort to solve them .
If we reach a new jobs equilibrium in an autonomous , 5G world , will it be well below full employment ?
Or will the jobs available primarily be so low wage that they can ’ t pay for basic living expenses ?
In that case , the basic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job for a wage to survive—becomes broken .
Then the tech industry may need to push radical solutions like universal basic income , so Americans don ’ t starve when most of the jobs are done by robots .
What kind of culture will 5G create , under-employed and over-connected ?
Will it be like the dystopias of Ernest Cline ’ s Ready Player One and William Gibson ’ s The Peripheral , where we retreat into shiny virtual worlds because our physical realm crumbles with neglect and depression ?
Will it be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , divided into productive “ donkeys ” and a mass of thuggish “ livers ” fed bread and circuses for their votes ?
Or will it be the generally pleasant , post-scarcity world of the 2100s in Star Trek ?
( Remember , though , that pleasant world was preceded by 50 years of chaos and war . )
The technology industry is creating the problem .
It has the potential answers .
It has the power to change the world .
The clock is ticking .
We have ten years .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t have 10 years .
Jobs have already been replaced and continue to be replaced .
Are you ready ?
See : 177 Different Ways to Generate Extra Income Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other unsafe technology .
For more information , visit our archives and the following websites : Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE !
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@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

By B.N. Frank
Cities worldwide AND entire countries have taken action to ban, delay, halt, and limit 5G installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums due to biological (see 1, 2), environmental (see 1, 2), and safety risks.
Security experts have warned for many years about how easy it is to hack which could lead to catastrophic events (see 1, 2). Opposition has also stemmed from 5G being used for constant surveillance which is how it’s been used in China.
Another issue that’s been discussed – how it will eliminate millions of jobs in a multitude of industries (see 1, 2, 3). Of course, now that global lockdowns have been imposed, we should expect to hear even more from technocrats about a “robot tax” and universal basic income, as foreshadowed in this article from PC Mag:
We Need to Prepare for the 5G Jobs Apocalypse
5G will create millions of jobs but destroy millions more. We need a plan.
By Sascha Segan
February 21, 2017
My taxi driver in San Diego had a plan. He was moving to Laredo to get back into long-distance trucking. He’d work hard for 10 years, save a couple of hundred grand, and retire to Mexico. I did the math: that put him around 2028. He might just make it before all the trucking jobs go away.
At Qualcomm last week, Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, extolled the virtues of the upcoming “5G economy,” painting a picture of autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and ubiquitous augmented and virtual reality.
“It’s going to be as significant as the change caused by electricity and automobiles. There’s a number of industries that can change: manufacturing first, information and communications second, and wholesale and retail is number three,” he said.
Retail, for example, will be transformed by augmented and virtual reality, removing the need to try things on—or try them out—in person.
“There’s always going to be a transformation of business models,” Amon said. “It’s difficult for us to predict every single business model that will be on top of 5G.” But according to an IHS study, high-speed, low-latency ubiquitous networks will create $12 trillion of related goods and services by 2035, he said.
5G the Job Killer
All of those new business models, to me, signal old ones that are going away. Autonomous vehicles will eliminate truck and taxi drivers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 1.8 million trucking jobs, at $40,000 per year. Gone. Taxi drivers: 233,700 jobs at $23,510 per year, gone. That’s just from autonomous vehicles.
Amazon’s Go grocery-store concept promises cashier-less stores. That’s 3.4 million jobs gone, probably offset by a smaller increase in security guards. And if we’re shopping by augmented and virtual reality, we may not even need those guards, as storefronts go dark across the nation.
Bill Gates says warehouses are going to get a big hit from automation in the near future; that’s up to 200,000 “freight, stock and material movers” out of work, according to BLS, and those folks probably don’t have the education to become app developers.
Even before 5G takes hold, we’re going to see bots replace many of the 2.5 million customer service representatives in this country. Those jobs don’t require much education, but more highly educated workforces will get hit, too.
Telemedicine and VR tele-education will allow insurance companies and educational firms to reap greater profits by cutting staff. We’ll still need doctors and teachers, but we’ll have fewer as new technology lets each worker serve more people. There are maybe 3 million teachers, 1.5 million college professors, and probably about a million doctors and physicians’ assistants out there. These jobs can be replaced by lower-skilled, lower-paid machine handlers.
Automation-driven increases in productivity have already devastated manufacturing jobs. According to a report from Ball State University in Indiana, “Almost 88 percent of job losses in manufacturing in recent years can be attributable to productivity growth …Had we kept 2000-levels of productivity and applied them to 2010-levels of production, we would have required 20.9 million manufacturing workers. Instead, we employed only 12.1 million,” the study says.
So what does a society thrown out of work by robots look like? If you look at our former steel towns, it’s depressed, drug-addicted, and begging for a return to the past. But greater efficiency means those past jobs will never return. According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, it takes about a fifth of the manpower to produce a ton of steel now as compared to the early 1980s. Those kinds of automation-driven job cuts are now hitting the oil patch.
Amon specifically called out Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and other gig-economy startups as major new job centers enabled by 4G. He’s right, but those are cautionary tales as much as anything. Uber and Lyft opt out of the employer-funded healthcare system at a time when our society can’t agree on how to replace the employer-funded health care system. Their drivers currently rely on ACA-based marketplaces, which the current Congress has pledged to eradicate.
I’m reminded of several Uber drivers I’ve spoken to who have described long, hard days of work at $9-12 an hour after expenses. (“After expenses” is key here.) That matches independent analyses of Uber drivers profiting about $24,000 after expenses, which doesn’t pay the rent in high-property-value metro areas. Drivers aren’t flocking to Uber because it’s great work. They’re flocking to it because it’s any work, which is better than no work.
The consumer-capitalist argument for technology-driven productivity is that it raises everyone’s living standards by lowering the price of goods. (The same argument goes for low-wage immigration, or for low wages in general; you can pick your bogeyman.) But low-priced Roku boxes and Chromebooks don’t help if the jobs available to many people pay so poorly that they can’t afford the basic needs of food, housing, healthcare, and education. Or if jobs at their skill level aren’t available at all.
That is, unless tech steps up.
Tech Needs to Create Not Just Jobs, But Workers
5G will create jobs, of course. There will be millions of jobs building and maintaining the networks and thousands of jobs building and maintaining the machines. There will be occupations we’ve never thought of, creating content and applications we can’t imagine. Most will require skills, some of which haven’t been invented yet.
To use an example from my own life, I’m working on a series of data-based stories about broadband use. The data-collection engines and reporting tools for this story didn’t exist 10 years ago. Data scientists and journalists are a growing field, mixing storytelling, programming, and statistics.
Qualcomm’s Ryan Gorostiza said the company expects that 5G will create 22 million jobs worldwide just in building and maintaining the networks. Many of those will be outside the US, so we should expect far fewer jobs than that, but there will be jobs. What’s the tech industry doing to make sure that soon-to-be-former taxi drivers and retail cashiers know how to do those jobs when they don’t have the time or money to go back to school?
“We’ve seen these technological revolutions many times, and they require a shift in the skills across the workforce,” Gorostiza said. “5G could make the reskilling easier, because it provides access.”
Too much of tech’s education energy goes into the pipeline. Girls Who Code can’t help 40-Year-Old Women Who Were Laid Off And Need New Skills While Also Supporting Their Families. As a society, we’re very, very bad at imparting new skills to existing workers. How can tech make sure that workers have the new skills needed? Do companies need to start schools? Do they need to band together and offer blanket training for potential workers, not just for existing ones? How do they make sure those workers don’t starve while they learn? The success of German companies may show us some solutions for re-skilling, if our firms are willing to invest in apprenticeships that include living expenses for the workers while they learn.
There’s also the problem of the folks who just won’t change. The CBC reported on how men in declining industries don’t want to take “female-typed” jobs in growing industries, like healthcare. Step away from the gender politics here and you see that there’s a certain class of men who really won’t like it when there are no culturally dignified, mostly physical jobs on offer. Before you cast them off, remember that they vote, and they vote angry.
We’re seeing one outcome of those angry voters right now. For about a decade, the tech industry has leaned on skilled immigration to make up for the US not producing the skills the industry needs. That’s about to get cut off by those angry voters, who are saying, “if we don’t get jobs, no one does.” Unfortunately, their rage isn’t quite coherent enough to demand not just jobs, but skills. But I’ll be heartened if this shock wakes the tech world up to the fact that it needs to take a more active role in giving US workers the skills they need to succeed in the future.
Bill Gates is worried about this. In an interview with Quartz, he proposes a “robot tax” to fund re-skilling and improve the income of very low-income, human-centered industries like elderly home care, which are trapped in a cycle where there’s just very little money to go around. Fellow billionaire Mark Cuban agrees. Relying on government to solve problems created by the tech industry is just passing the buck, though. It’s asking someone else to clean up your mess. That’s not cool. Tech is creating these problems; tech needs to make a good-faith effort to solve them.
Gibson vs. Star Trek
If we reach a new jobs equilibrium in an autonomous, 5G world, will it be well below full employment? Or will the jobs available primarily be so low wage that they can’t pay for basic living expenses? In that case, the basic underpinning of our society—that you work a job for a wage to survive—becomes broken. Then the tech industry may need to push radical solutions like universal basic income, so Americans don’t starve when most of the jobs are done by robots.
What kind of culture will 5G create, under-employed and over-connected? Will it be like the dystopias of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and William Gibson’s The Peripheral, where we retreat into shiny virtual worlds because our physical realm crumbles with neglect and depression? Will it be Nancy Kress’s Beggars in Spain, divided into productive “donkeys” and a mass of thuggish “livers” fed bread and circuses for their votes? Or will it be the generally pleasant, post-scarcity world of the 2100s in Star Trek? (Remember, though, that pleasant world was preceded by 50 years of chaos and war.)
The technology industry is creating the problem. It has the potential answers. It has the power to change the world. The clock is ticking. We have ten years.
The article predicted incorrectly – we don’t have 10 years. Jobs have already been replaced and continue to be replaced. Are you ready?
Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other unsafe technology. For more information, visit our archives and the following websites:
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activistpost--2020-09-04--Historic: Judge Rules NSA Domestic Spying Exposed By Edward Snowden Was Illegal

A federal appeals court has ruled that the NSA ’ s historic controversial domestic spying program was illegal , one of the same programs NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden released details on to journalists in 2013 .
The landmark decision added that the spying program was even potentially unconstitutional .
The court ’ s ruling was written by Judge Marsha Berzon , who expressed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , or FISA , didn ’ t allow for the bulk collection of phone users ’ call records , as the U.S. government falsely claimed at the time .
The metadata @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s authorization , ” she wrote in her ruling .
The main problem , according to Berzon , was that FISA did not allow for bulk collection , only targeted collection of known suspects .
The law “ required the government to make a showing of relevance to a particular authorized investigation before collecting the records , ” Berzon wrote .
Judge Berzon went on to state that there is no evidence that the spying program actually did anything to prevent a single case of terrorism , and that U.S. officials misled the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ To the extent the public statements of government officials created a contrary impression , that impression is inconsistent with the contents of the classified record , ” she wrote .
Snowden posted about the ruling , saying that , “ I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA ’ s activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them .
And yet that day has arrived.
” Snowden quickly rose to prominence in 2013 , after leaking classified information on widespread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PRISM to The Guardian and The Washington Post .
In fact , the first Snowden leak was a FISC order issued to Verizon under Section 702 that required the company to turn over all of its calling records to the NSA .
FISA was enacted in 1978 as a response to illegal domestic surveillance operations revealed by two Senate committees in the 1970s , including President Richard Nixon ’ s use of federal intelligence agencies to monitor his political opponents .
It was brought into law “ to authorize electronic surveillance to obtain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before setting up an electronic or physical wiretap targeted at foreigners and foreign agents .
Congress amended FISA in 2007 to let the government wiretap communications that either begin or end outside the United States jurisdiction without Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ( FISC ) approval ; in a stronger 2008 overhaul , they further limited that power to non-U.S. persons .
The last reauthorization of the Act was in 2012 , which set the current expiration date of Dec. 31 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been criticized by privacy and civil liberties advocates like the EFF who say the order allows broad , intrusive spying without oversight .
The section first gained renewed attention following the 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the agency carried out widespread monitoring of emails and other electronic communications through PRISM , XKeyscore , Upstream and other NSA surveillance programs .
Activist Post covered XKeyscore and PRISM in extensive detail when the revelations happened .
XKeyscore , which in 2008 was on 750 servers on 150 sites around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of entry for most of the information that was collected by the NSA .
NSA agents would easily be able to gather information using XKeyscore ’ s system the operator could then trawl through billions of emails and online chat sessions , or check sites visited by specific computers by using IP addresses .
It ’ s worth noting that this author recently wrote an article on Palantir , the company that was accused of providing the technology that enables NSA ’ s mass surveillance PRISM .
In that article , we went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history as a company and the development of software used at Fusion Centers across the U.S. Palantir ’ s software in many ways is similar to the Prosecutor ’ s Management Information System ( PROMIS ) stolen software Main Core and may be the next evolution in that code , which allegedly predated PRISM .
In 2008 , Salon.com published details about a top-secret government database that might have been at the heart of the Bush administration ’ s domestic spying operations .
The database known as “ Main Core ” reportedly collected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial data about millions of Americans in event of an emergency like Martial Law .
The Patriot Act , which enabled the spying , was just renewed last year in December for three months of re-authorization ( with zero reform ) in the continuing resolution bundled and buried in a stopgap government funding bill .
A fact which wasn ’ t reported by any mainstream media outlet to this writer ’ s knowledge , including NPR , Politico , and CNBC , among websites , checked .
While most focus on the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ act gives the Trump administration , they miss the provision for indefinite detention .
But then again , there ’ s a second provision that can be used for indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ) , and the U.S. also has the Continuity Of Government ( COG ) program under REX 84 , along with PROMIS ’ Main Core lists of dissidents to be rounded up in case of emergency , as this writer has written about extensively for his Octopus PROMIS series .
Snowden ’ s documents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this writer ’ s knowledge , and according to sources only a small amount of people even know that the domestic database exists .
Some of the programs that Snowden did leak include the following – MUSCULAR , CO-TRAVELER , Dishfire , and Tailored Access Operations .
Trump has expanded warrantless surveillance , enabling his administration federal agencies and local police to use cell phone contact tracing to track individuals for their own reasons .
Further , the Trump administration directly asked Congress to re-authorize the defunct law Section 215 that let the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Americans ’ phone and text records .
Thankfully , Section 215 expired last March , after the House and Senate failed to agree on the passing of the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act .
If that wasn ’ t enough , beyond the CV pandemic , the Trump administration has created a new national security watchlist that includes Americans who have no connection to terrorism .
The new TOC ( Transnational Organized Crime ) watchlist , was authorized through a classified Attorney General order and launched in 2017 , as Activist Post previously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a huge win for liberty focused individuals everywhere , even if Michael Hayden and James Clapper will never be arrested for lying in front of Congress about NSA spying on Americans .
American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) senior staff attorney Patrick Toomey called the ruling a victory for privacy rights .
However , don ’ t think we have won the full-fledged war against surveillance , the government still has a range of tools , as EFF notes .
These include other provisions of FISA as well as surveillance authorities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also recognizes that when the government seeks to prosecute a person , it must give notice of the secret surveillance it used to gather its evidence .
This protection is a vital one given the proliferation of novel spying tools the government uses today , ” Toomey said , according to CNet .
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE !
Follow us on SoMee , HIVE , Parler , Flote , Minds , and Twitter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what ’ s coming !
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By Aaron Kesel
A federal appeals court has ruled that the NSA’s historic controversial domestic spying program was illegal, one of the same programs NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden released details on to journalists in 2013. The landmark decision added that the spying program was even potentially unconstitutional.
The court’s ruling was written by Judge Marsha Berzon, who expressed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, didn’t allow for the bulk collection of phone users’ call records, as the U.S. government falsely claimed at the time.
The metadata collection exceeded the scope of Congress’s authorization,” she wrote in her ruling.
The main problem, according to Berzon, was that FISA did not allow for bulk collection, only targeted collection of known suspects. The law “required the government to make a showing of relevance to a particular authorized investigation before collecting the records,” Berzon wrote.
Judge Berzon went on to state that there is no evidence that the spying program actually did anything to prevent a single case of terrorism, and that U.S. officials misled the public about the program’s effectiveness.
“To the extent the public statements of government officials created a contrary impression, that impression is inconsistent with the contents of the classified record,” she wrote.
Snowden posted about the ruling, saying that, “I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA’s activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them. And yet that day has arrived.”
Seven years ago, as the news declared I was being charged as a criminal for speaking the truth, I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA's activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them. And yet that day has arrived. https://t.co/FRdG2zUA4U — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 2, 2020
Snowden quickly rose to prominence in 2013, after leaking classified information on widespread warrantless NSA surveillance programs like XKeyscore and PRISM to The Guardian and The Washington Post. In fact, the first Snowden leak was a FISC order issued to Verizon under Section 702 that required the company to turn over all of its calling records to the NSA.
FISA was enacted in 1978 as a response to illegal domestic surveillance operations revealed by two Senate committees in the 1970s, including President Richard Nixon’s use of federal intelligence agencies to monitor his political opponents. It was brought into law “to authorize electronic surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information.”
The law requires the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before setting up an electronic or physical wiretap targeted at foreigners and foreign agents.
Congress amended FISA in 2007 to let the government wiretap communications that either begin or end outside the United States jurisdiction without Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) approval; in a stronger 2008 overhaul, they further limited that power to non-U.S. persons. The last reauthorization of the Act was in 2012, which set the current expiration date of Dec. 31, 2017.
The FISA law has long been criticized by privacy and civil liberties advocates like the EFF who say the order allows broad, intrusive spying without oversight. The section first gained renewed attention following the 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the agency carried out widespread monitoring of emails and other electronic communications through PRISM, XKeyscore, Upstream and other NSA surveillance programs.
Activist Post covered XKeyscore and PRISM in extensive detail when the revelations happened. XKeyscore, which in 2008 was on 750 servers on 150 sites around the globe, served as the point of entry for most of the information that was collected by the NSA.
NSA agents would easily be able to gather information using XKeyscore’s system the operator could then trawl through billions of emails and online chat sessions, or check sites visited by specific computers by using IP addresses.
It’s worth noting that this author recently wrote an article on Palantir, the company that was accused of providing the technology that enables NSA’s mass surveillance PRISM. In that article, we went into extensive detail about Palantir’s history as a company and the development of software used at Fusion Centers across the U.S.
Palantir’s software in many ways is similar to the Prosecutor’s Management Information System (PROMIS) stolen software Main Core and may be the next evolution in that code, which allegedly predated PRISM. In 2008, Salon.com published details about a top-secret government database that might have been at the heart of the Bush administration’s domestic spying operations. The database known as “Main Core” reportedly collected and stored vast amounts of personal and financial data about millions of Americans in event of an emergency like Martial Law.
The Patriot Act, which enabled the spying, was just renewed last year in December for three months of re-authorization (with zero reform) in the continuing resolution bundled and buried in a stopgap government funding bill. A fact which wasn’t reported by any mainstream media outlet to this writer’s knowledge, including NPR, Politico, and CNBC, among websites, checked.
While most focus on the “terrifying authoritarian surveillance powers” that the act gives the Trump administration, they miss the provision for indefinite detention. But then again, there’s a second provision that can be used for indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and the U.S. also has the Continuity Of Government (COG) program under REX 84, along with PROMIS’ Main Core lists of dissidents to be rounded up in case of emergency, as this writer has written about extensively for his Octopus PROMIS series.
Snowden’s documents made no mention of Main Core to this writer’s knowledge, and according to sources only a small amount of people even know that the domestic database exists. Some of the programs that Snowden did leak include the following – MUSCULAR, CO-TRAVELER, Dishfire, and Tailored Access Operations.
Trump has expanded warrantless surveillance, enabling his administration federal agencies and local police to use cell phone contact tracing to track individuals for their own reasons. Further, the Trump administration directly asked Congress to re-authorize the defunct law Section 215 that let the N.S.A. gain access to the logs of Americans’ phone and text records. Thankfully, Section 215 expired last March, after the House and Senate failed to agree on the passing of the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act.
If that wasn’t enough, beyond the CV pandemic, the Trump administration has created a new national security watchlist that includes Americans who have no connection to terrorism. The new TOC (Transnational Organized Crime) watchlist, was authorized through a classified Attorney General order and launched in 2017, as Activist Post previously reported.
This ruling against the NSA is a huge win for liberty focused individuals everywhere, even if Michael Hayden and James Clapper will never be arrested for lying in front of Congress about NSA spying on Americans. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) senior staff attorney Patrick Toomey called the ruling a victory for privacy rights. However, don’t think we have won the full-fledged war against surveillance, the government still has a range of tools, as EFF notes. These include other provisions of FISA as well as surveillance authorities used in criminal investigations
“The decision also recognizes that when the government seeks to prosecute a person, it must give notice of the secret surveillance it used to gather its evidence. This protection is a vital one given the proliferation of novel spying tools the government uses today,” Toomey said, according to CNet.
**By [@An0nkn0wledge](https://hive.blog/@an0nkn0wledge)**
Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post.
Become a Patron!
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE! Follow us on SoMee, HIVE, Parler, Flote, Minds, and Twitter.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.