Memorial Day, Military, Family Matters, Housing, Citizenship, Religion, VA Scandal, Collateral Damage, Suicide Squad, Fake

Memorial Day

• "Band of Brothers" WWII Vet Bill Guarnere Dies at 90
• Japanese-American soldier kept quiet about World War II heroics
• Walter R. Walsh Dies at 106; Terrorized Gangsters and Targets—"Mr. Walsh, an F.B.I. legend in the 1930s who joined the Marines during World War II, was still winning handgun awards and coaching Olympic marksmen at 90." NYT
• Man Known As Kissing Sailor From One Of History's Most Iconic Pictures Has Died
• One of last Native American code talkers dies
• Jeremiah Denton, Vietnam War POW and U.S. senator, dies

Military

• Blast from the Past: Americans and Their Military, Drifting Apart NYT
• Two Chief Petty Officers Walk Into a Bar...—"America used to love laughing at the military. When did it become so taboo?" FP
• Amazing Military Infographics: An appreciation

Family Matters

• A US soldier searches for his Vietnamese son
• The Philippines' forgotten generation—"The United States military is set to return to the Philippines 22 years after being evicted. The imminent arrival of US forces has renewed focus on the thousands of 'Amerasians' fathered by US military personnel. Aya Lowe went in search of this forgotten generation."
• Soldier's family torn apart by White Australia policy

Housing

• Whitehouse Introduces Bill to Protect Servicemembers from Foreclosure—Will it prevent history from repeating itself?
• Meth contamination turns Indiana veteran's dream home to nightmare
• Soldier in battle to rid home of squatters, Florida sheriff's office says it can't do anything—The squatters who packed up and left have been arrested.

Citizenship

• I Served My Country. Then It Kicked Me Out.—"I was a veteran, a father and husband and a small-business owner. Then I was deported." Politico
• After Forming Deep Roots in U.S., Man Discovers He Isn't a Citizen—"Mario Hernandez's discovery, after nearly 50 years in the United States, shows how federal bureaucracies can stumble when it comes to immigration status." NYT
• House Republicans prevent vote on Enlist immigration bill—Is Boehner looking to politicize this [Politico]?

Religion

• The War Being Waged On Religious Freedom In The Military—"We are witnessing a sickening trend. There are religious groups actively seeking to 'convert' people in the US military, and they are making a full-court press, especially in the US Air Force."
• Two U.S. soldiers lose bid to dress according to religious custom
• God won't save us: Memorial Day, honest history and our new military-industrial complex—"Americans believe we are guided by divine providence. Obama's strange presidency shows the work of something else." Salon

VA Scandal

• VA falsified records, inquiry finds—"A VA investigation of one of its outpatient clinics in Colorado reveals how ingrained the delays in medical care may be for an agency struggling to rapidly treat nearly 9 million veterans a year amid allegations that dozens have died because of delays."
• 'Gaming the System': Email reveals how Wyo. VA workers were taught to manipulate records
• Growing evidence points to systemic troubles in VA healthcare system
• Top U.S. veterans' healthcare official resigns amid scandal
• VA Whistleblower Says He's Been Demoted, Bullied
• VA Scandal Hits New Hospital—"Veterans with serious heart conditions, gangrene, and even brain tumors waited months for care at the Albuquerque VA hospital, a whistleblowing doctor tells The Daily Beast."
• VA investigating Florida hospital wait lists
• This Is Why Bernie Sanders Is Pissed
• Newsmakers with Senator Bernie Sanders—"Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) talked about delays in health care for veterans at VA hospitals and allegations that some VA hospitals kept secret, separate sets of books to cover up wait times."
• The Bubble Finally Cares About the Veterans Affairs Story
• Obama Administration Will Let Veterans Seek Care At Private Hospitals—Just don't privatize veterans' care.
• Stewart Gets Heated Over VA Scandal: 'Fix This F*cking Thing

Collateral Damage

• Republicans War-Monger, Then Complain When We're Overwhelmed By Sick Vets
• States that refuse Medicaid are leaving over 250,000 poor veterans uninsured
• "I'm PTSD — Paid Till Suicide or Death"
• Grief camps to combat suicides among US military veterans—Numbers aren't good.

Suicide Squad

• Soldier Had Black Eye, Broken Nose, and Burned Genιtalia: Army Ruled it a Suicide
• 26 Stab Wounds a Suicide?: The Unbelievable Case of Captain Gordon Hess
• Death of LaVena Johnson—"LaVena Johnson...was a Private First Class in the United States Army whose death, officially ruled a suicide, has attracted international attention amid allegations that her death was actually the result of rape and murder."
• Blast from the Past: Army investigators: No foul play suspected in captain's death

Fake

• Marine Poser Meets a Real Marine
• Phony Navy SEAL of the Week
• Exposing a Navy SEAL Imposter: How A.J. Dicken Was Found to be a Fake
• When Two Vets Confront a Man in 'Fake' Military Gear, It's On: 'I Am a U.S. F***in' Ranger & This Guy Is Not!'

Workers and Wage Slaves, Class Warfare; Mortgage Fraud, Banks and Wall Street; GOP, Koch Suckers, Corporatocracy, Obamacare; Vote Machinations; Politics and Economy; Making Money; World Water Day

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Reich: The 'Paid-What-You're-Worth' Myth
• GOP Lawmaker Says Sick Leave, Equal Pay Bills Make Women 'Look Like Whiners'
• Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape—"For those at the low end of the hourly wage scale, even meeting basic household needs can be a stretch, and roads out of poverty are scarce." NYT
• Bill Gates: Yes, robots really are about to take your jobs—"As for what governments should do to prevent social unrest in the wake of mass unemployment, the Microsoft cofounder said that they should basically get on their knees and beg businesses to keep employing humans over algorithms."
• This J.C. Penney Worker Was Fired For Telling The Truth About Its 'Fake' Prices
• Revealed: Apple and Google’s wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one million employees

Class Warfare

• Krugman: That Old-Time Whistle—"American conservatism is still, after all these years, largely driven by claims that liberals are giving money away to 'those people.'" NYT
• Krugman: High Fallutin' Nazis—"Here comes another billionaire who thinks that anyone who talks about income inequality is a Nazi; this time it's Ken Langone, co-founder of Home Depot." NYT
• Dems hit back after House Speaker Boehner accuses N.Y. and other states of 'cheating' food stamp rules—"House Speaker John Boehner accused New York and four other states of 'cheating' and 'fraud' for sidestepping federal cuts to food stamps through what critics call a 'loophole' in the laws. But Democrats say the states had to step in to keep people from going hungry."
• Paul Ryan's Irish Amnesia—"Talking the familiar, heartless language of hunger economics." NYT
• Tax-Hating States Totally Fine With Taxing The Poor
• The Missing White Poor—"Guess who makes up a plurality of America's poor?"

Mortgage Fraud

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others question lack of prosecutions for mortgage fraud
• Despite Promises To Fight Mortgage Fraud, DOJ Basically Ignored It, Then Claimed Success With Faulty Stats
• Wells Fargo foreclosure manual under fire—"A lawsuit claims it is an elaborate guide telling lawyers how to produce key documents that are missing."

Banks and Wall Street

• The Tea Party and Wall Street Are Friends After All
• The 1% have gained back their recession losses and then some
• 'Then They Fight You' -- Why The 1 Percent Is In Full Panic Mode
• Former bank employee pleads guilty to stealing over $2 million from customers
• Appeals court upholds Fed's debit card 'swipe fee' limits
• Oakland to pay Iraq War vet $4.5 million for Occupy shooting
• The FBI Is Hiding Details About An Alleged Occupy Houston Assassination Plot

GOP

• Why the GOP Won't Change—"A year after their "autopsy," the recommendations haven't been—and won't be—followed."
• Groucho Marx's Republican Party—"Why the GOP is in more trouble than you think." Politico
• Tea Party Candidate Gets Turned Away By The GOP For Spreading Racist Views
• Republican House Candidate Who Said Autism Was the Result of God's Anger Over Gay Marriage Just Won Her Primary
• GOP Lawmaker Thinks Businesses Ought To Be Able To Deny Service To Black People
• AL Republican outraged at teaching of 'The Crucible' because 'McCarthy was right'
• Republicans Versus an Informed Public—"Answering the American Community Survey is the civic duty of everyone, yet some House Republicans seem to think it should be voluntary. That would make the survey's data useless." NYT
• John Oliver Teases New HBO Show By Mocking GOP's 'Millennial' Ads

Corporatocracy

• Bill Maher: Most GOP Voters 'Just Corporate America's Useful Idiots'
• Corporate America Is Hiding $2 Trillion In Profit From The IRS
• The great corporate cash-hoarding crisis—"Companies are sitting on mountains of liquidity, thanks to government policies; the losers are the economy and all of us."

Koch Suckers

• Koch Group, Spending Freely, Hones Attack on Government—"Americans for Prosperity, backed by the Koch brothers, is using a data-driven approach as it pursues its overarching goal of changing the way voters think about government." NYT
• David Vitter defends Koch brothers—"Sen. David Vitter stepped up this week to defend the billionaire Koch brothers from Democrats' repeated attacks [NYT], concluding that they are 'two of the most patriotic Americans.'" Politico
• The biggest lease holder in Canada's oil sands isn't Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It's the Koch brothers. WaPo

Obamacare

• The House has voted 54 times in four years on Obamacare. Here’s the full list. WaPo
• This guy knew when Obamacare enrollment would hit 5M before anyone else. Now he's predicting 6.2M. WaPo
• The House GOP's Obamacare Alternative Won't Curb Health Care Costs—But It Will Enrich the Insurance Industry
• Koch Group Yet Again Fails Fact Check On Obamacare Horror Story
• Politifact: Americans for Prosperity claims people are getting less at a higher cost under Obamacare—False.
• The real goal of all those anti-Obamacare ads—"A new report suggests they're all about protecting the Koch brothers' bottom line." WaPo
• South Carolina lawmakers fail in attempt to undo Obamacare
• Paul Ryan Gets An Earful From Constituent Who Will Save Hundreds Under Obamacare
• Fox News's Bret Baier corrects Obamacare mistake WaPo

Vote Machinations

• Kane shut down sting that snared Phila. officials—"The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office ran an undercover sting operation over three years that captured leading Philadelphia Democrats, including four members of the city's state House delegation, on tape accepting money.... Yet no one was charged with a crime." The money was for a "vote against a bill that would require voters to show identification at the polls, the sources said."
• Wisconsin Voters Under Attack—"Wisconsin's legislature approved a bill to limit absentee ballots." And early voting.
• Ohio Mistrusts Democracy—"Republicans again pass restrictive new laws making it harder for their opponents to vote." NYT
• Federal Judge Hands Republicans In Kansas, Arizona A Big Win In Voting Rights Fight—All about suppressing the vote [NYT].
• Right-Wing Extremists in Montana File for Legislative Races as Democrats
• Ga. Congressman slams door on Ch. 2 reporter when asked about campaign coach
• Former offender acquitted in Iowa voter fraud case—"A former drug offender who believed her voting rights had been restored when she cast a ballot last year was acquitted of perjury Thursday, a public rebuke of Iowa's two-year investigation into voter fraud."
• Who's Buying our Midterm Elections?—'In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is expected to issue another big decision on campaign finance, one that could further open the floodgates to unfettered and anonymous contributions, just as the Citizens United case did four years ago."
• Scalia's looming fiasco: Obscure new SCOTUS case may be worse than Citizens United. Salon
• Nate Silver: What the Fox Knows

Politics and Economy

• Paul Gosar Wants To Ban Members Of Congress From Flying First Class On 'Taxpayer Dime'
• Personal FBI flights for Holder and other Justice officials went unreported—"Personal FBI flights for Holder and other Justice officials went unreported." WaPo\
• After Casino Mogul Throws Him Big Money Fundraiser, Graham Seeks Internet Gambling Ban
• Government's Empty Buildings Are Costing Taxpayers Billions
• Are Malls Over?

Making Money

• Obama Proposes the End of Pennies—Nickel for your thoughts?
• Federal Reserve to Unveil a Redesigned $100 Bill—"The new $100 bill will have modern and colorful anti-counterfeiting features, overcoming problems that postponed its debut for more than two and a half years." NYT
• Laundering money — literally — could save billions of dollars
• How the U.S. Mint Made Its First-Ever Domed Coin
• UK's new 12-sided £1 said to be the world's most secure coin

World Water Day

• Facing drought, California farmers rally against regulations limiting water supplies
• Brazil drought raises concerns about World Cup water supply
• Fracking and water pollution: what we can learn from the US experience
• North Carolina to withdraw Duke Energy settlement over coal ash spill—"North Carolina regulators say they have asked a judge to withdraw a proposed settlement that would have allowed Duke Energy to resolve environmental violations by paying a $99,000 fine with no requirement that the $50bn company clean up its pollution."
• Hog Wild: Factory Farms Are Poisoning Iowa's Drinking Water—"Millions of pigs are crammed into overcrowded barns all across the state, being fattened for slaughter while breeding superbugs—all to feed China's growing appetite for Spam."

Workers and Wage Slaves, Labor Pains, Occupational Hazards, Minimum Wage, Amazon.com, Whistleblowers; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability, Housing; Class Warfare

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Capitalism with a human face
• College Grads Taking Low-Wage Jobs Displace Less Educated
• For Job-Hunting Teenagers, the Market Is Brutal
• Canada: Unpaid internships focus of growing backlash
• Walmart's Anti-Union Training Documents Demand "Loyalty"
• My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor—"After veteran reporter Joseph Williams lost his job, he found employment in a sporting-goods store. In a personal essay, he recalls his struggles with challenges millions of Americans return to day after day."
• Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay—"President Obama this week will direct the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for millions of workers." And as expected, Republicans oppose it. NYT
• Opinion: Reduce the Workweek to 30 Hours—"Workers on shorter hours are under less stress, get sick less often and are more loyal. Plus a shorter workweek is better for the environment." NYT

Labor Pains

• The world watches the US on labor abuse
• GOP Bill to 'Save American Workers' Would Actually Strip Health Care From a Million Workers, CBO Reports
• After 12 years of war, labor abuses rampant on US bases in Afghanistan—"More than a year after Obama’s executive order outlawing forced labor on US military bases, exploitation remains."
• Nowhere Close: The Long March from Here to Full Employment
• Can Germany Reform American Labor Relations?—"German corporations are far more respectful of worker rights—and may have more influence on future US developments than our politicians realize."

Occupational Hazards

• UK: Vulnerable man starved to death after benefits were cut—"44-year-old died months after sickness and housing benefits were stopped following Atos fitness-for-work assessment."
• Fired for urinating in a box, a Minnesota factory worker takes a company to court
• McDonald's workers sue for wage theft
• USIS fires manager for pressuring employees to work overtime without pay WaPo
• Intellectually disabled woman paid $1.25 an hour wins landmark case
• Enron Billionaire Brags About Being Expert on Cutting Pensions

Minimum Wage

• Reich: The Real Job Killers
• Highest Minimum-Wage State Washington Beats U.S. Job Growth—"When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state's minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn't been borne out."
• Real World Evidence That Increasing The Minimum Wage Doesn't Cost Jobs
• Minimum Wage Boost Would Cut Food Stamp Tab by $4.6 Billion WSJ
• All of the Arguments Against Raising the Minimum Wage Have Fallen Apart
• Why GOP should support raising minimum wage
• Dem Guv. Candidate Wants To Raise Minimum Wage Above Obama Proposal
• Buffett: I'd love to see minimum wage at $15 an hour
• Warren: Minimum wage hike needed to 'stop income inequality in America' WaPo
• F.D.R. Makes the Case for the Minimum Wage—"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country." NYT

Amazon.com

• U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Amazon workers' security check case—"The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a case that could determine whether companies such as Amazon.com Inc must pay workers for the time they spend waiting to clear security checks at the end of their work shifts."
• How Crowdworkers Became the Ghosts in the Digital Machine—"Since 2005, Amazon has helped create one of the most exploited workforces no one has ever seen."
• Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers—"You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment." Salon
• Family: Stricken Amazon worker unnoticed for 8 hours
• The Amazon Effect: Staples To Close 225 Stores, Says It's Now Making Half Of All Sales Online

Whistleblowers

• U.S. justices extend employee whistleblower protections—"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said whistleblower protections apply not just to publicly traded companies but also to subcontractors that do business with them."
• JPMorgan whistleblower gets $63.9 million in mortgage fraud deal
• Playboy Must Pay $6 Million to Fired Executive in Largest Federal Whistleblower Verdict Ever

Banks and Wall Street

• Wall Street average bonus rose 15% in 2013—Pretty much double the current Federal minimum wage.
• Does the SEC force its employees to insider trade?—"Here's a twist in the government's recent crackdown on insider selling: One of the main regulators tasked with policing the illegal practice may be instructing its employees to do just that."
• UBS traders tried to rig key Hong Kong interest rate
• George Soros blasts 'parasite' banks—"George Soros, the billionaire investor, has warned that little has changed since the 2008 crisis in the 'parasite' banking sector."
• Obama Still Wants To Kill Wall Street's Favorite Tax Loophole—Time to tax Wall Street.
• Republicans joining populists in ending corporate welfare for banks WaPo
• 15 Vermont Towns Vote to Start a Public Bank that Works for Them, Not Wall Street

Accountability

• SEC investigating Citigroup over Mexico fraud: Source—Citigroup has confirmed it [NYT].
• Bank of America back in court over $2.1 billion fraud penalties
• London gold-fix banks accused of manipulation in U.S. lawsuit: report
• U.S. regulator sues 16 banks for rigging Libor rate
• Bankers Behaving Badly Face 6-Year Bonus Clawback by BoE—"Misbehaving bankers and their bosses will have to hand back bonuses up to six years after they pocket them under a rule the Bank of England is proposing to prevent excessive risk-taking." NYT
• Senate confirms Wall Street critic for Treasury Department post—"The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the No. 2 official at the Treasury Department, backing a critic of Wall Street to help coordinate an overhaul of financial regulations."

Housing

• Bank told to pay $3.2M for 'shocking' foreclosure—"A New Mexico judge has issued a $3.2 million judgment against Wells Fargo & Co. for foreclosing on a man's home after his death, even though he had a purchased an insurance policy through the bank that would have paid the remaining balance on his mortgage."
• Wells Fargo made up on-demand foreclosure papers plan: court filing charges
• Wall Street buyers snap up thousands of local homes for rentals
• Key senators agree on plan to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—"The bipartisan proposal would slowly shrink the housing finance companies and replace them with a scaled-back government guarantee for mortgages."
• Watchdog faults FBI for making mortgage fraud a low priority—"The FBI ranked mortgage fraud as its lowest criminal threat after the height of the financial crisis, even though the U.S. Justice Department had said that investigating mortgage fraud was to be a priority, a report by a department watchdog said on Thursday."

Class War

• Jon Stewart Hits Back At Fox Host For Trying To 'School' Him On Food Stamps
• Gina Rinehart takes aim at Australia's 'entitlement mentality', points to Thatcher
• Park 'lounging' law rankles local family—"A local family says their afternoon at a local park was ruined after a homeless person complained to police that they were lying down. Under the city code, visitors to parks cannot 'sleep or protractedly lounge' on seats, benches or other areas." All because of anti-homeless ordinance.
• All fish in public lakes are public—Rich lodge owner lays claim over lake.
• Court ruling in land dispute could threaten bike trails

Class War, Accountability, Financial Shenanigans, Out of House and Home; Politics, Vote Machinations, Media, Benghazi; Surveillance and Privacy, Civil Liberties

Class War

• Krugman: A War on the Poor—"What happened to the Republican Party? It's almost as if the party is solely focused on its hostility to the less fortunate." NYT
• Our family will lose $44 in food stamps—"Several families told CNNMoney their food stamps usually don't last a full month. They eat a lot of rice, beans and pasta."
• Oh SNAP, veterans get dissed by the GOP—"Remember how the likes of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin railed against President Obama for the cuts to veterans' benefits that resulted from the Cruz-caused shutdown?" WaPo
• Sen. Sanders: The right way to make a federal budget
• Congratulations, America! Your deficit fell 37 percent in 2013 WaPo

Accountability

• Time to Jail the Banksters—"Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine, joins Thom Hartmann. It didn't take Wall Street's allies in the financial media long to start whining about JPMorgan's $13 billion settlement with the federal government. But is that record fine really as bad as the people on CNBC say it is?"
• U.S. senators Menendez, Warren press SEC over political spending—"Our collective job is to urge them. Push them. Harass them until they do the right thing."
• JPMorgan settlement is justice, not a shakedown—Will it stop them from doing more financial manipulations? WaPo
• Barclays suspends currency traders—"UK bank Barclays has suspended six traders as part of a probe into suggestions that currency markets could have been rigged, the BBC has learnt."
• Fannie Mae sues nine banks for rigging Libor

Financial Shenanigans

• House Passes Deregulation Bill Written by Citigroup
• Billionaire Steven Cohen's hedge fund could pay $1B fine in fraud case: sources
• Lloyds head Antonio Horta-Osório to see £2.5m bonus at bailed-out bank

Out of House and Home

• Alan Greenspan owes America an apology—"The former Fed chair is promoting his new book. He should admit his role in the housing crisis, not insult our intelligence."
• Ariz. man arrested for selling someone else's home
• Special Report: U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes

Politics

• Voters' Anger Over Shutdown Is Inspiring Democrats to Run—"Previously reluctant Democrats in places like Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and New Jersey are suddenly deciding to challenge Republicans for House seats." NYT
• Florida's Former G.O.P. Governor to Run for Job as Democrat—"Charlie Crist has filed paperwork to run for his old job with his new party." Center-right is the new left. NYT
• GOP 'extremist movement' prompts NC candidate to switch to Democrat
• Romney Donors Back Democrat Over Tea Party in Georgia
• Wendy Davis Hits Cruz On Role In Shutdown
• McDaniel Now Says He Only Attended One Neo-Confederate Event
• Ted Cruz's Dad: I'd Like To See Obama Go 'Back To Kenya'—Él es un racista loco.
• Poll: Growing Number of Republicans Dislike GOP WSJ

Vote Machinations

• Opponents Score A Victory Against Arizona Voting Restrictions
• The Right to Vote—"Shelby County v. Holder; which eviscerated the Voting Rights Act, is leading to a new era of voter suppression that parallels the pre-1960s era."
• Everything That's Happened Since Supreme Court Ruled on Voting Rights Act
• George Will: Who Cares About Corruption? Citizens United Is "Excellent"
• The U.S. Needs a Constitutional Right to Vote—At the least, election day should be a federal holiday.

Media

• The Lies That Will Kill America—"The fawning coverage of crony capitalists by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. does America a disservice."
• The Daily Show: Wit Happens—"The media uses Jon's lampooning of the Affordable Care Act as evidence of its impotence."
• Media mayhem divides and misleads us—"CNN, MSNBC, Fox, they're all responsible."

Benghazi

• Star Benghazi "Witness" May Not Have Been an Actual Witness—"For weeks, it seems, Jones tried to profit off his brush with disaster. In a Fox News report on Monday, reporter Adam Housley said his source relationship with Jones ended after he insisted upon receiving money." Foreign Policy
• David Brock Calls On CBS To Retract Faulty Benghazi Story
• First on CNN: US commandos were poised for raid to capture Benghazi suspect

Surveillance and Privacy

• NSA Files: Decoded—"What the revelations mean for you."
• Snowden Asks U.S. to Stop Treating Him Like a Traitor—"In a letter handed to a German politician, the former intelligence contractor says that 'my government continues to treat dissent as defection.'" NYT
• GCHQ and European spy agencies worked together on mass surveillance—"Edward Snowden papers unmask close technical cooperation and loose alliance between British, German, French, Spanish and Swedish spy agencies."
• Senate Intelligence Committee passes NSA bill critics say doesn't go far enough
• EFF: being forced to decrypt your files violates the Fifth

Civil Liberties

• World's anger at Obama policies goes beyond Europe and the NSA
• Japan Likely To Pass New Secrecy Law That Would Put Whistleblowers And Journalists In Jail
• Poland asks European court to hide CIA secret torture prison case from public

Workers and Wage Slaves, Banks and Wall Street, Mortgages and Foreclosures; Debt Default, Obamacare, GOP, Corruption; NSA Spying and Surveillance, Police State

Workers and Wage Slaves

• California Legislature approves raising minimum wage to $10—"The bill would boost the state's minimum wage of $8 an hour to $10 by 2016. Gov. Jerry Brown said he would sign it."
• Report Suggests Nearly Half of U.S. Jobs Are Vulnerable to Computerization—"Oxford researchers say that 45 percent of America's occupations will be automated within the next 20 years."
• Workplace morale heads down: 70% of Americans negative about their jobs, Gallup study shows—"'Bosses from hell' are giving U.S. workers the Monday blues. Gallup's 2013 State of the American Workplace report had grim findings, including that 70% of those surveyed either hate work or are completely disengaged, and perks don't help."
• SEC moves toward mandate on CEO-worker pay gap—"Public companies would have to show the difference in pay between their CEOs and ordinary employees under a proposal advanced by federal regulators."
• The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989

Banks and Wall Street

• Poll: Americans say Washington, Wall Street haven't done enough to thwart financial crises
• Elizabeth Warren: Scaling back 'too big'—"The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act would reduce the risk of another crash."
• Druckenmiller: Fed robbing poor to pay rich
• Larry Summers pulls out of US Federal Reserve race
• JPMorgan Chase Is Said to Admit Fault in Settlement of Trade Loss—"Global authorities are preparing to levy more than $700 million in fines against JPMorgan Chase over the bank's huge trading loss in London last year." NYT
• Awkward: CNBC host speechless after Barney Frank asks about high salaries for 'poor' bankers
• Trading bots create extreme events faster than humans can react—"Our algorithms now show collective behavior that we do not control."

Mortgages and Foreclosures

• Homeowners vs. Big Bad Banks—"Those defrauded by Bank of America aren't allowed to file a collective complaint, thanks to a 2011 Supreme Court ruling."
• NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on lenders: 'Never take your eyes off of them'
• Orange Co. man sentenced for $100M mortgage fraud

Debt Default

• Obama targets GOP divisions on budget—"I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos when it doesn't get everything it wants."
• Gridlock Might Destroy the US Economy, But It's Still Good for Business
• If we get a debt ceiling crisis, it's because Republican voters want one

Obamacare

• Fox News' Krauthammer: Cruz leading Republican 'suicide caucus' by opposing Obamacare
• The Tea Party Really, Really, Really Wants to Sabotage Obamacare
• Senate Republicans, Chamber of Commerce Call On House GOP To Abandon Shutdown Threat
• O'Reilly Blasts GOP Effort To Defund Obamacare As 'Fanaticism'—One rep had the audacity to claim by passing the bill they were "following the tradition of two American civil rights icons."
• Lone House GOPer Explains 'No' Vote On Defunding Obamacare
• Cruz-ing On Empty: Ted Exposed By Shutdown Debacle—Start making the popcorn.
• Did Chuck Todd Really Say Media Not Responsible to Correct Obamacare 'Falsehoods?'

GOP

• GOP madness on display—"They want deeper cuts, all from domestic programs like education and clean water. They want more, not less money for the military. They oppose any increase in taxes, even objecting to closing down the tax dodges that reward companies for stashing money and reporting profits abroad. They want to repeal Obamacare without replacing it. They even are moving a bill to cut billions out of food stamps, a program that protects families in trouble from going hungry. And they are so divided among themselves that they have rejected their own leadership's proposals to keep government open."
• White House vows to veto Republican bill to cut food stamps—GOP Rep's bible-quote: 'If Anyone Is Not Willing To Work, Let Him Not Eat'. Republican Jesus would be proud.
• Safety Net for Crops Means $14 Billion Tab for Taxpayers
• Rep. Gingrey: 'I'm stuck here making $172,000'—"During the meeting, Republicans discussed a proposal to exempt lawmakers and their staff from a new law requiring them to participate in federal health-care exchanges."
• Kansas GOP group says party 'hijacked' by extremists—Ain't just in Kansas anymore.
• Colorado House Republicans Unanimously Support Flood Relief, Unanimously Opposed Sandy Aid
• John Boehner's Congress is a train wreck—"He's the guy in charge of the worst-performing part of one of the worst-performing Congresses in history."

Corruption

• What is the cause of Detroit's Power Outage?—"City of Detroit Chief Compliance Officer, Gary Brown smiled as he talked to Wiley about the 'intentional outages' on camera: We did start calling our customers prior to taking them down and asking them to turn off air conditioners, but they weren't responding as fast as we would like them to so we had to send them a strong message by turning the power off."
• Political donations from vets scammer downplayed—"The Ohio attorney general's multi-state case against a man accused of fraud after collecting as much as $100 million in the name of Navy veterans doesn't address the man's donations to a who's who of mostly Republican politicians, including the attorney general himself."
• DeLay thanks God after aquittal for money laundering

NSA Spying and Surveillance

• Justice Dept. watchdog never probed judges' NSA concerns—"In response to a FOIA request from USA TODAY, the Justice Department said its ethics office never looked into complaints from two federal judges that they had been misled about NSA surveillance." The watchdogs need watching, apparently.
• NSA chiefs defend agency's conduct in letter to families of employees—"General Keith Alexander and deputy director John Inglis sign letter 'in light of unauthorised disclosure of classified information."
• Belgacom Attack: Britain's GCHQ Hacked Belgian Telecoms Firm—"A cyber attack on Belgacom raised considerable attention last week. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden and seen by SPIEGEL indicate that Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency was responsible for the attack."
• ACLU: The Government is Spying on You: ACLU Releases New Evidence of Overly Broad Surveillance of Everyday Activities
• Cracked.com: 4 Reasons to Stop Freaking Out About the NSA

Police State

• Licensed to Kill: The Growing Phenomenon of Police Shooting Unarmed Citizens
• FBI calls half of populace with 9/11 doubts potential terrorists—"The FBI is instructing local police departments and "communities against terrorism" to consider anyone who harbors 'conspiracy theories' about 9/11 to be a potential terrorist, in a circular released to local police departments."
• California college bars student from handing out copies of Constitution

Workers and Wage Slaves, Occupational Hazards; Economy, Inequality, Class War, Monsanto; Financial Troublemakers; Homes for the Taking: Liens, Loss and Profiteers; Syria, NSA Spying

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Companies lay off thousands, then demand immigration reform for new labor—Why pay fair wages when you can get overseas workers on the cheap?
• Most U.S. Workers Likely to Lose Out from Proposed Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, Report Finds
• Indiana judge finds right-to-work unconstitutional—"A Lake County judge has determined Indiana's right-to-work law violates a provision in the state constitution barring the delivery of services 'without just compensation.'"
• Majority of U.S. Workers Say Job Doesn't Require a Degree—"Even four in 10 working college grads say their work doesn't require a degree."
• Teen employment hits record lows, suggesting lost generation
• One more reason it's crap to be a waiter in America—"The IRS is cracking down on tips – again. Why go after billionaires when you can squeeze more out of servers?"
• Jobs, Debt And Home Prices Since The Crisis, In Five Charts

Occupational Hazards

• Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray Vetoes Living Wage Bill—"In explaining his veto Gray said the bill was not a 'true' living-wage bill because it would only raise minimum wage for a small fraction of DC's workforce, only affecting a handful of retailers whose stores are supermarket-sized or larger and whose workforces are not unionized."
• Agency: Firms can't only use debit cards to pay—"Federal regulators say companies cannot require employees to receive their pay on debit cards, citing complaints from workers of high and unexpected fees on the cards."
• Pay is delayed for 40,000 federal workers
• Lake County to terminate dozens of older-than-65 employees
• Canada: Intern's Death After Overnight Shift Sparks Outcry—"The sudden death of a 22-year-old Alberta practicum student, who crashed while driving home after being made to work long hours, has his loved ones pushing for laws to protect unpaid interns from exploitation."

Economy

• Revealed: The Secret Koch Group That Gave Conservatives $236 Million In 2012
• Elizabeth Warren Calls Supreme Court Right-Wing, 'Pro-Corporate'—A "subsdiary of big business."
• Boehner Seeking Democrats' Help on Fiscal Talks—"As Speaker John A. Boehner sought a deal to avert a government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, a bloc of Republicans demanded a delay in the federal health care law, which the White House called 'a nonstarter.'" NYT
• Columnist calls out PolitiFact for covering up Scott Walker's debt problem
• 10 Ways America Has Come to Resemble a Banana Republic

Inequality

• Income gap between rich and poor is biggest in a century
• Tired Of Inequality? One Economist Says It'll Only Get Worse
• Years after recession, many in U.S. still struggling, polls show
• Krugman: Rich Man's Recovery—"While the great majority of Americans are still living in a depressed economy, the rich at the very top are doing just fine." NYT
• Recovery for the Rich, Recession for the Rest

Class War

• Mindlessly Gutting Food Stamps—"House Republicans blame the needy for the lingering costs of recession." NYT
• The wealthy 'make mistakes', the poor go to jail—"I left my Wall Street trader job and began photographing drug addicts in NYC. These two worlds have entirely different rules."
• Exposing How Donald Trump Really Made His Fortune: Inheritance from Dad and the Government's Protection Mostly Did the Trick
• How Wal-Mart’s Waltons Maintain Their Billionaire Fortune
• Billionaire's Hit-and-Run Crash Leaves Single Mom With $4K Bill

Monsanto

• 'Monsanto Protection Act' quietly extended by Congress
• Monsanto, DuPont pour millions into GMO fight
• Daily Show: Monsanto & Seed Patent Laws—"Aasif Mandvi learns that greedy farmers have threatened the livelihood of Monsanto's heroic patent attorneys."

Financial Troublemakers

• In fiery speech, Warren calls for limiting size of banks
• The Case Against Larry Summers
• This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis
• The jerks got away with it! 5 years after economic collapse, they’re still smiling—"Five years ago this week, titans of finance wrecked the American economy. Here's why they're still happy as ever." Salon
• Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman Says Chance of Another Financial Crisis Near Zero
• Banks Warned Not to Flout $25 Billion Foreclosure Deal—"[R]egulators say lenders may be flouting the spirit of the deal by repeatedly asking for additional paperwork from borrowers seeking loan modifications and then foreclosing while treating the applications as incomplete."
• Despite Big Bank Threats, City Approves 'Eminent Domain for the People'—"Richmond, Calif. approves measure to seize 'underwater homes' in order to write-down mortgages and save homeowners."

Homes for the Taking: Liens, Loss and Profiteers

• Left with nothing—"Too old, too tired and not enough money to fight. The District sold their small debts to investors, now their homes are gone for good.
• Suspicious bidding—"Unusual bidding at D.C. tax auctions went undetected: With thousands of homes on the line, the city's tax sales have been undermined by unusual bidding."
• Mistakes put homes in peril—"D.C. tax office mix-ups put homes in peril. Agency sells hundreds of liens by mistake, even after bills are paid."
• D.C. officials want changes to tax lien practices but ignored earlier calls for reform—"Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and a key D.C. Council member said they would pursue emergency legislation next week to reform the practice after learning about it Sunday in an investigative report published in The Washington Post. But both Gray and council members were warned 16 months ago..."
• Tax lien sales canceled after Post investigation; Gray calls for reforms—Another feather in the cap for the WP.

Syria

• US-Russia Reach Agreement on Syria Weapons
• The US: world's policeman or schoolyard bully?—"Ever since 9/11, it seems America's just been itching for a fight – and any Muslim country will do. Really, who acts like this?."
• Malala Raising $500 Million For Syrian Refugees

NSA Spying

• Judge Urges U.S. to Consider Releasing NSA Data on Calls NYT
• Jesse Kline: The NSA's undemocratic push toward a digital surveillance state
• NSA gets data from Germany’s domestic security agency - reports

Workers and Wage Slaves, Minimum Wage, Wal-Mart; Economy; Wall Street, Accountability, Housing; Class War; NSA Spying, Your Rights Online

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Fast-food workers call for nationwide walkout Aug. 29
• Elderly More Likely to Be Employed Than Teens WSJ
• Abracadabra, You're a Part-Timer: How Corporate America Used the Great Recession to Turn Good Jobs Into Bad Ones
• BofA intern dies after reportedly working 3 straight days—"A 21-year-old intern who worked grueling hours at Bank of America's London office died just a week before his internship was to conclude."
• Plutocrats' New Pitch: Let Us Rob You Now So You Can Plan Ahead for Poverty—"Pete Peterson & Co. kindly want to take your Social Security away to prevent you from imagining a dignified future."
• How Much You Should Save for Retirement, Based on 139 Years of Data
• Flipside: Ad agency gives workers 500 paid hours to pursue passions

Minimum Wage

• Study: Welfare pays more than minimum wage in most states
• How low can you get: the minimum wage scam—"Wonder why benefit spending is rising? Simple: corporations get away with crappy wages, so government has to make up the rest."
• Campaign seeks to push Seattle minimum wage to $15
• Ex-McDonald's CEO: Raising The Minimum Wage To $15 Would 'Absolutely' Kill Jobs
• Cyprus: President pledges a 'Guaranteed Minimum Income—Phasing out welfare.

Wal-Mart

• Why I'm standing up to Wal-Mart—"For six years, I worked for the company. But when I decided to strike, they fired me. Now I'm firing back." Salon
• No, Walmart doesn't create jobs
• Walmart 'Suspends' 10 Workers For Taking 5 Minute Break In 90+ Degree Weather
• Walmart's Latest 'Buy America' Sham—"In a way, Walmart's Buy America program represents the home stretch of the economic transformation the company set in motion decades ago."
• Flipside: Meet the Low-Key, Low-Cost Grocery Chain Being Called 'Walmart's Worst Nightmare'

Economy

• Dems have an ace in the hole in coming battle—""Republicans will face a fundamental question. Do they care more about preventing deep cuts to defense, or protecting special interest tax breaks for big oil companies and hedge fund managers?"
• Reich: Here's Why America Stopped Caring About The Public Good
• Prisons, Post Offices and Public Schools: Some Things Should Not Be For Profit
• The CIA Is Closing the Office That Declassifies Historical Documents—Another victim of sequestration.
• Texas Converts 80 Miles Of Paved Road To Gravel Thanks To Lack Of Funds

Wall Street

• Lobbyist Secretly Wrote House Dems' Letter Urging Weaker Investor Protections—"Thirty-two liberal Democrats signed onto a letter drafted by a financial-industry lobbyist that aims to block protections for millions of Americans' retirement accounts."
• Congressman Doesn’t Believe White Collar Crime On Wall Street Exists—"Well first of all, for a criminal practice there has to be a gun. It’s pretty simple."
• Obama Presses Regulators to Finish Financial Rules—"Meeting at the White House Comes as Many Dodd-Frank Measures Still Not in Place." WSJ
• A mayor who puts Wall Street first—Bloomberg the billionaire. NYT
• Why Wall Street & Co. Will Do Anything to Stop Eliot Spitzer from Championing the Public Interest
• Secrets of a former high speed trader—"High speed trader turned whistleblower David Lauer explains why he left the industry and how certain practices at computerized trading firms negatively affect the markets."
• Goldman Sachs banker charged with rape in New York state

Accountability

• Greg Palast: The Confidential Memo at the Heart of the Global Financial Crisis
• The Great Bubble Era Was Caused by Financial Deregulation, Not Easy Money
• The SEC is now demanding that companies admit wrongdoing. That's a big deal.—"For certain violations, the agency would no longer allow financial institutions to simply pay a fine without admitting wrongdoing (also known as a 'nolo contendere' plea)."
• Ex-JPMorgan Traders First Charged in $6.2 Billion Loss—"Two former JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) employees were charged by federal prosecutors with attempting to conceal trading losses at the largest U.S. bank last year as part of a probe of its $6.2 billion loss on derivatives bets."
• JP Morgan in US probe over links to influential Chinese—"US authorities are investigating investment bank JP Morgan over claims it hired children of influential Chinese officials [NYT] to gain business."

Housing

• Eric Holder Owes the American People an Apology—"The Justice Department made a long-overdue disclosure late Friday: Last year when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder boasted about the successes that a high-profile task force racked up pursuing mortgage fraud, the numbers he trumpeted were grossly overstated."
• Elizabeth Warren says mortgage settlement too lax on banks
• Unsealed court-settlement documents reveal banks stole $trillions' worth of houses
• New Fraud Evidence Shows Trillions of Dollars in Mortgages have No Owner
• Bank of America Employees We Were Told To LIE To Struggling Home Owners
• Denver family evicted after mom murdered—"Federal housing officials are condemning a decision by the Denver Housing Authority to evict the relatives of a mother killed by a rampaging gunman three days after her slaying, saying there is room for compassion in federal law."
• Why the 30-Year Mortgage Could Be Coming to an End

Class War

• Does Wealth Breed Narcissism: The New 'Mirror, Mirror on the Wall' Study
• Girl parks Maserati in middle of the road, says those who complain are just jealous
• Upper West Side condo has separate entrances for rich and poor

NSA Spying

• The NSA is losing the benefit of the doubt
• New York Times Partnering With Guardian On Snowden Reporting
• Snowden suspected of bypassing electronic logs—Making it very difficult for the NSA to determine what and how much he has taken.
• NSA Officers Sometimes Spy on Love Interests—"The practice isn’t frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade — but it’s common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT." And a movie!
• Lawmakers Probe Willful Abuses of Power by NSA Analysts—And are any of these lawbreakers going to jail?
• Why Nobody Cares About the Surveillance State—"When you've been groped by the TSA, what's a little NSA spying?" All part of the program to stamp out dissent.
• Three Illusory "Investigations" of the NSA Spying Are Unable to Succeed
• The More Likely Reason for Spying: It's For Protecting the Profits of the Oligarchs—And the Corporatocracy.

Your Rights Online

• Schneier: U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google—"In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access."
• Julian Assange: Google and the NSA—"Google is not only getting paid by the U.S. Government to provide them with surveillance information, it is more or less an arm of the U.S. State Department. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange explains."
• Why NSA Snooping Is Bigger Deal in Germany
• New Zealand appears to have used NSA spy network to target Kim Dotcom—"'Everything goes into the US-based spy cloud,' Kim Dotcom tells Ars."
• NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies
• Obama pick for NSA review panel wanted paid, pro-government shills in chat rooms—There's definitely for astroturfing activity going on in forums and comment sections.
• justdelete.me—"A directory of direct links to delete your account from web services."

Zero-Hour Contracts, Workers and Wage Slaves, Vacation, Wal-Mart, Economy, Poverty; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability, Occupy Movement; NSA Spying, Thanks Obama, Your Rights Online

Zero-Hour Contracts

• They won't be lovin' it: McDonald's admits 90% of employees are on zero-hours contracts without guaranteed work or a stable income
• Zero-hours contracts: What is it like living on one?
• Zero-hours contracts remind me of the great depression – let's stop this—"Being 90, I've seen what poor working conditions do to people. What type of country do we want? It's our responsibility."
• Zero-hours contracts will not create a sustainable economy—"Zero-hours contracts may keep actual unemployment lower, but they also depress consumer confidence and activity – which are just as important for a healthy economy."
• Zero hours casual contracts are not the only option

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Low-wage America
• If Amazon is the future of work, then be afraid
• Sorry, It's Not A 'Law Of Capitalism' That You Pay Your Employees As Little As Possible
• US Companies Thrive as Workers Fall Behind NYT
• Debunking the Minimum Wage Myth: Higher Wages Will Not Reduce Jobs
• Bernie Sanders Exposes The Republican Goal of Abolishing The Minimum Wage
• Colbert: Hitler would have raised the minimum wage—"Stephen Colbert expressed his solidarity with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, who said striking fast food workers should be grateful for whatever jobs they can get."
• After I banned tipping at my restaurant, the service got better and we made more money

Vacation

• Report: U.S. Only 'Rich' Country That Doesn't Require Employers To Provide Paid Vacation Time
• Americans Don't Take Vacation Even Though It's One Of The Best Benefits Around
• Vamos a la playa: The politics of Europe's summer holidays

Wal-mart

• Walmart Gets Desperate—"The country's largest employer tried to compare the wages of their long-term employees to the stipends of Nation interns. The Daily Beast bought their spin."
• Walmart Agrees To Improve Safety Conditions At More Than 2,800 Stores
• 3 Signs Walmart’s Best Days Are Behind It

Economy

• Obama economy: Part-time jobs swamp full-time jobs—Like the one of the Arizona firefighters whose wife was deemed ineligible to receive death benefits since he wasn't a full-time employee.
• Obama Should Commit to a Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Plan
• Reich: Why Republicans Want Jobs to Stay Anemic

Poverty

• The Charitable Industrial Complex—"We need to shatter current structures and systems to create a society that creates greater prosperity for all. But as long as most folks are patting themselves on the back for charitable acts, we've got a perpetual poverty machine." NYT
• Congressman Scolds Catholic Nun For Asking Government To Help The Poor
• 'Crack baby' study finds poverty is worse for child development than exposure to drug in womb
• Time to take a bite out of food stamps?
• 4 in 5 in USA face near-poverty, no work

Banks and Wall Street

• US regulators 'find evidence' of banks fixing derivative rates—"US regulators have reportedly been handed evidence that traders at some of the world’s biggest banks manipulated a key rate for derivatives, pocketing millions at the expense of pension funds in the process."
• Not even death stops banks from deducting fees—"Bank of America has deducted $12 monthly fees from the account of a customer who died in March. And it can legally continue doing so for years."
• Michael Lewis on Goldman Sachs: The Company Would Flourish Under Totalitarian Rule
• $700k windfall: Russian man outwits bank with hand-written credit contract
• The bailout Wall Street is blocking from Main Street—"Banks representing the nation's largest bond investors are suing the city of Richmond, which last week took steps to take over underwater mortgages through eminent domain."

Accountability

• Under Scrutiny, Goldman Offers to Speed Metal Delivery—"The bank said it would offer immediate access after regulators began to investigate how delays at commodities warehouses had influenced prices." Too little, too late? NYT
• Industry wrote provision that undercuts credit-rating overhaul
• Justice Department Sues Bank of America Over Mortgages
• JPMorgan: We're Being Investigated By DOJ Over Mortgages
• New Bank Investigations: Real Action, or More of the Same?
• London Whale 'won't face charges over $6.2bn loss at JPMorgan'—"Bruno Iksil, the 'London Whale' trader at the centre of JPMorgan's largest ever trading loss, will not face charges over the incident, according to reports."
• Bavaria top court orders Mollath released from mental institution—"Bavarian judges ordered the immediate release of Gustl Mollath from an institution for the criminally insane, pending a retrial of his case. His incarceration for seven years has been dubbed a legal scandal." Mollath was a whistleblower.
• A Whistle-Blower Who Can Name Names of Swiss Bank Account Holders NYT

Occupy Movement

• NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests – study—"Report by NYU and Fordham law schools found 'shocking level of impunity' and department that acted beyond its powers."
• Occupy Nashville wins ruling that TN violated their First Amendment rights
• Pepper-spray cop seeks workers' comp—"The former UC Davis police officer who pepper-sprayed a group of seated protesters at a campus Occupy demonstration in 2011 is appealing for workers' compensation for psychiatric damage stemming from the incident."
• 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film' Trailer
• Occupy Wall Street May Resume As 'End Wall Street'

NSA Spying

• Edward Snowden, patriot
• There is no terrorist threat: The feds want you to think there is, compliant media goes along Salon
• Breaking Through Limits On Spying—"Apparently no espionage tool that Congress gives the National Security Agency is big enough or intrusive enough to satisfy the agency’s inexhaustible appetite for delving into the communications of Americans. Time and again, the N.S.A. has pushed past the limits that lawmakers thought they had imposed to prevent it from invading basic privacy, as guaranteed by the Constitution." NYT
• NSA cites case as success of phone data-collection program—"The importance of phone logs in disrupting plots has been less clear since the program was revealed."
• Is this $8,500 wire transfer really the NSA's best case for tracking Americans’ phone records? —"The Obama administration and the U.S. intelligence community, under growing public pressure to justify the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance capabilities, have finally offered up a piece of evidence for their case that the program to track Americans’ phone call metadata is necessary to protect national security: a series of wire transfers, worth $8,500 in all, from San Diego to Somalia. In 2008."

Thanks Obama

• Obama's deceptions on Snowden
• Barack Obama pledges greater surveillance transparency
• The president is wrong: The NSA debate wouldn’t have happened without Snowden
• Victim Of Obama's Crackdown On Whistleblowers Says Calling Leakers Spies Is Modern Day McCarthyism
• Press Corps Fails To Ask Any NSA Questions At Obama’s NSA Press Conference

Your Rights Online

• Lavabit's Ladar Levison: 'If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It'
• NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls—"Spy agency has secret backdoor permission to search databases for individual Americans' communications."
• The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership—"The primary business model of the Internet is built on mass surveillance, and our government’s intelligence-gathering agencies have become addicted to that data. Understanding how we got here is critical to understanding how we undo the damage."
• US Military Caught Manipulating Social Media, Mass Fake Accounts
• Apple patents tech to let cops switch off iPhone video, camera and wi-fi