Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

Denver, CO — A bar fight at a local Denver establishment took a turn for the worse—after it had ended and one of the fighters was in handcuffs. After the fight was over and the suspect subdued, graphic video captured the moment a Denver cop lost his temper and proceeded to attack a handcuffed man, knocking him unconscious and then gloating about it.

According police, the incident happened last year, but the video was only just released. Police say that a bar fight broke out at a sports bar in downtown Denver and after it was over, Cpl. Michael Oestmann had Kevin Watson handcuffed in the basement.  Continue reading ““Who’s Unconscious Now?”: Cop Snaps, Attacks Handcuffed Man and Gloats About It”

Mish Talk – by Mish Shedlock

Under a proposed Illinois law, it will be a crime to report certain crimes. There are ways around this insanity.State Sen. Christina Castro introduced a bill last session to prevent illegal alien reporting. It passed both houses but was vetoed by Rauner.

Rauner rightly concluded that such a bill would violate federal laws. I believe it would be unconstitutional to boot.  Continue reading “Illinois Law Would Ban Landlords from Reporting Illegal Alien Tenants”

Freedom of the Press Foundation – by Camille Fassett

The California Attorney General’s office is threatening reporters with legal action merely for possessing a list of the state’s law enforcement officers that have been convicted of crimes — obtained through a public records request.

In a Jan. 29 letter to journalists Jason Paladino and Robert Lewis, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office called possession of the list a crime.  Continue reading “In a brewing First Amendment fight, California’s Attorney General threatens journalists for possessing a public records document”

NBC News – by Kerry Sanders, Ezra Kaplan, Daniella Silva

DERBY LINE, Vermont — More than 960 people crossed into the U.S. illegally from the northern border with Canada last year, according to data released from Customs and Border Protection.

While that number is a tiny fraction compared to the migration across the border with Mexico, it represented a 91 percent increase from the prior fiscal year, the data showed.  Continue reading “Illegal border crossings from Canada quietly rising, data shows”

The Organic Prepper – by Dagny Taggart

Are you financially prepared for a major emergency?

Most Americans aren’t, according to a new report.

Personal finance site GOBankingRates estimated the costs to recover from eight of the most common disasters, as well as how much you should have saved in an emergency fund to deal with each one.   Continue reading “Are You Financially Prepared? 8 Common Emergencies and What They Cost”

The Great Recession

Socialism is the price Capitalism pays for unrestrained and unpunished greed, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the new face of Socialism in America. AOC refers to her Socialist revolution— for now wrapped up in the Green New Deal before congress — as the “politics of optimism,” and so it is. That’s because Socialism is the direction to which hope among the young and idealistic most often flows when Capitalism run by the old has grown corrupt and exhausted and is destroying itself with unrestrained greed and unpunished financial crimes.   Continue reading “Socialist Revolution: The Price Capitalism Pays When Greed Goes Unrestrained”

Reason – by Eugene Volokh

Introduced a few weeks by Florida state senator Jason Pizzo:

(1) A minor who posts or publishes a picture of a firearm, a BB gun, an air or a gas-operated gun, or a device displayed to resemble a firearm to a social media page, post, profile, or account that is openly viewable to the public commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable [by up to a year in jail or a fine of up to $1000]. Continue reading “Florida Bill Would Make It a Crime for Minors to Post Pictures of Guns on Social Media”

The Intercept – by Lee Fang, April 14, 2014

SOFT ROBOTS THAT can grasp delicate objects, computer algorithms designed to spot an “insider threat,” and artificial intelligence that will sift through large data sets — these are just a few of the technologies being pursued by companies with investment from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm, according to a document obtained by The Intercept.

Yet among the 38 previously undisclosed companies receiving In-Q-Tel funding, the research focus that stands out is social media mining and surveillance; the portfolio document lists several tech companies pursuing work in this area, including Dataminr, Geofeedia, PATHAR, and TransVoyant.   Continue reading “Flashback: The CIA Is Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos”

Forbes – by Neil Howe

Is technological progress bad for human autonomy? That’s the question posed by Shoshana Zuboff in “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” a book that recounts the ways in which corporations and governments are using technology to influence our behavior. Zuboff is just the latest to chime in on “totalitarian technology” (or “total tech”), a term that describes devices and algorithms by which individuals forfeit their privacy and autonomy for the benefit of either themselves or some third party.   Continue reading “The Rise Of Totalitarian Technology”

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

On Monday, President Trump will officially propose his new budget plan, which calls for major cuts in domestic spending across the board, but which also seeks a large further increase in military spending, above and beyond the increases already planned.

Exact figures aren’t clear at this point, but what is clear is that the general direction of this budget is going to face major opposition within the House of Representatives, not just from the Democratic leadership, but from some Republicans as well.   Continue reading “Trump Budget Would Slash Domestic Spending, Boost Military Spending”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed legislation Friday to criminalize private gun sales in the state.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that there has been a great divide over the bill, with state-level Democrats pushing it while gun rights groups, the vast majority of New Mexico Sheriffs, and New Mexico county governments oppose it.   Continue reading “New Mexico’s Democrat Governor Signs Bill to Criminalize Private Gun Sales”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In a surprising and provocative ultimatum, Syria has notified Israel through United Nations diplomatic channels that it is prepared to go to war if Israel does not leave the Golan Heights.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad reportedly sent the message through the head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), Christine Lund, this past week, according to a World Israel News report and later picked up other major Israeli sources, including The Jerusalem Post. “Syria will attack Israel if it does not leave the Golan Heights,” Mikdad told the UN representative.   Continue reading “Syria Notifies Israel It Will Attack If IDF Doesn’t Leave Golan Heights”

RT

A Russian frigate sailed through the English Channel after a stop off the Scottish coast, where it was shadowed by a UK warship and closely watched by local media that fanned fears about a “hallucination-inducing device” on board.

‘Admiral Gorshkov’ and three auxiliary vessels has successfully passed through the Channel and made it to the Atlantic Ocean, according to Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet. This is the first long-term deployment of the newest warship, which was commissioned by the Russian Navy back in July last year.   Continue reading “Russia’s newest warship sails near UK coast with ‘HALLUCINATING’ device on board”

New Yorker – by Patrick Radden Keefe

The north wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a vast, airy enclosure featuring a banked wall of glass and the Temple of Dendur, a sandstone monument that was constructed beside the Nile two millennia ago and transported to the Met, brick by brick, as a gift from the Egyptian government. The space, which opened in 1978 and is known as the Sackler Wing, is also itself a monument, to one of America’s great philanthropic dynasties. The Brooklyn-born brothers Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler, all physicians, donated lavishly during their lifetimes to an astounding range of institutions, many of which today bear the family name: the Sackler Gallery, in Washington; the Sackler Museum, at Harvard; the Sackler Center for Arts Education, at the Guggenheim; the Sackler Wing at the Louvre; and Sackler institutes and facilities at Columbia, Oxford, and a dozen other universities. Continue reading “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain”

Oil Price – by Robert Rapier

Last week I wrote an article — Water Is Not A Fuel — discussing a press release I had received from Australian-Israeli startup Electriq~Global. As I noted in that article, it wasn’t my intent to criticize the company’s technology, but rather to explain how a person should approach these sorts of press releases.

In general, one should apply a healthy dose of skepticism, and then ask a number of critical questions. This press release didn’t go into enough details to ascertain the credibility of the technology, but I was subsequently contacted by the company to clear up my questions.   Continue reading “Onboard Hydrogen: Is This The Future Of Zero Emission Vehicles?”