NEW: Trump Administration Killed Criminal Investigation of GOP Senator’s Coal Companies

EPA and Justice Department officials were looking into potential criminal violations by the vast coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice. Then the Office of the Deputy Attorney General told them “pencils down.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-jim-justice-doj-southern-coal-investigation-west-virginia

#news #government #doj #trump #westvirginia #EPA

#Signal, #DuckDuckGo, and #NordVPN threaten to exit #Canada if metadata #surveillance law passes

Canada's metadata retention bill is the latest #government attempt to build surveillance into the internet's infrastructure

https://www.techspot.com/news/112672-signal-duckduckgo-nordvpn-threaten-exit-canada-if-metadata.html

#privacy #technology #VPN #messaging #dystopia

[LEAKED]
What the US Government Surveillance Programs Mean...

Our data centers are based in the United States, and we do a sizable chunk of our business here as w

Source: https://www.zoho.com/blog/general/what-the-us-government-surveillance-programs-mean-for-zoho-customers.html

#Leaked #Surveillance #Government #Exclusive

Is Peter Thiel’s Palantir the most evil company in the world …. along with all the other “tech-bro” $billionaire outfits?

Quite possibly!

*** Recommended read & please boost! ***

“The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials”

by Charlie Young, Ian Tucker & Carole Cadwalladr in The Nerve

@uk_politics
@UKLabour
@NHSrCommunity
@nhsactivistrn
@NoPalantirInSouthYorkshire
@ZackPolanski
@kein_palantir_bw
@palantirwatch

“The AI company holds £670m in UK government contracts. It has also hired dozens of senior officials from the departments awarding them – raising what transparency experts call an 'acute' corruption risk”

https://www.thenerve.news/p/palantir-revolving-doors-peter-thiel-transparency-corruption-risk

#Press #SocialMedia #UK #Government #Labour #Starmer #MOD #NHS #Thiel #Karp #Israel #IDF #PalestinianGenocide #Gaza #Genocide #AI #Lavender #Corruption #Sovereignty #DataSovereignty #RevolvingDoor #ICE #Trump #Mandelson #Epstein #Watson

#EFF Testifies to #Congress on Protecting Americans’ Rights from #Government #AI

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/eff-testifies-congress-protecting-americans-rights-government-ai

#politics #privacy

[DEATH]
U.S. Courts Must Stop Shielding Government Surveillance Programs...

Toomey September 27, 2022 Wikimedia Foundation v.

Source: https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/us-courts-must-stop-shielding-government-surveillance-programs-from-accountability

#Surveillance #Truth #Justice #Government

[LEAKED]
NSA, Justice under fire again over surveillance programs

They're understanding that if you collect that amount of data, people can get access to it in ways t

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-justice-under-fire-again-over-surveillance-programs/

#Exclusive #Surveillance #Leaked #Government

[LEAKED]
Americans Disapprove of Government Surveillance Programs

A June 9-10 CBS News poll also found a majority (58%) of Americans disapproving of the government "c

Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/163043/americans-disapprove-government-surveillance-programs.aspx

#Exclusive #Leaked #Government #Surveillance

The Government Tests Mass Surveillance on the Border

Source: https://gen.medium.com/the-government-is-testing-mass-surveillance-on-the-border-before-turning-it-on-americans-4348e3da784b

#Surveillance #FreeSpeech #Government

Alaska’s Deteriorating Schools Could Receive More Than $148 Million for Repairs. It’s a Fraction of What They Need.
---

Following reporting by KYUK, ProPublica and NPR, lawmakers tripled the funding the state would allocate toward school construction and maintenance. The budget increase would still only cover about 13% of what school districts requested.
https://www.propublica.org/article/alaska-public-schools-repairs-funding-bill?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Alaska #School #Education #Students #Teachers #Government

Leaks reveal US authorities concerned about the rise of "anti-tech extremists" as AI data center issues become increasingly contentious — critics say this could lead to surveillance, criminalization of peaceful opposition

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/leaks-reveal-us-authorities-concerned-about-the-rise-of-anti-tech-extremists-as-ai-data-center-issues-become-increasingly-contentious-critics-say-this-could-lead-to-surveillance-criminalization-of-peaceful-opposition

#AI #datacenters #technology #USA #dystopia #government

Apple and Google urge Canada’s Parliament to amend Bill C-22 to require court approval before ministers can compel changes to encryption or systems 🔐
Bill C-22 also mandates up to one-year metadata retention and enables secret ministerial technical-capability orders without prior court review ⚖️

🔗 https://thenextweb.com/news/apple-google-canada-c22-lawful-access-judicial-oversight

#TechNews #Apple #Google #Canada #BillC22 #Encryption #Privacy #Surveillance #LawfulAccess #Law #DataRetention #DigitalRights #CyberSecurity #Internet #Parliament #Government

How horrifying, not extracting maximum revenue from the cattle!

"He said: “Prosecutions that are driven by targets, statistics and finance have no place in this courtroom and bring the administration of justice into disrepute."

Exactomundo. He is right. The high court is wrong. He is outing the government grifter class for its grifting. How horrifying!

"“I have come to the conclusion that [speed camera contractors] GoSafe deliberately targeted an unjust speed zone in the townland of Clogheen, where there were rich pickings and, as the saying goes, they were shooting fish in a barrel.”"

Yeah, what a renegade judge! How scary to say such things!

O authoritarian high court, protect us from judges like this, who see us as more than tax cattle!

"Mr Justice Ferriter said that the judge’s approach was “wrong” in law and inappropriate comment for a judge to make as his role was not to express a view on correctness of speed limits adjudicated by another body."

This thinking is how authoritarians construct a Rube Goldberg money machine that cannot be questioned.

The lower court judge has a duty to prohibit corruption in the law from determining his decisions. The judiciary does not serve the legislature. The judiciary is separate from the legislature and is to serve as a check against corrupt legislation and enforcement.

How horrifying that one judge actually gets it!

If the world had more judges who acted sua sponte to point out corruption in the laws, and reject them based upon that, it would be a better world to live in.

We all know that traffic laws have ZERO, NADA, NAUGHT, NIL, ZILCH, and ZIP to to with safety and are about funneling revenue to 3rd party contractors, and maintaining the fear of constant police presence in the minds of the citizenry. This judge was just pointing out the obvious.

#courts #fiddlesticks #revenue #government #bollocks

#CISA Admin Leaked #AWS #GovCloud Keys on #Github

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/05/cisa-admin-leaked-aws-govcloud-keys-on-github/

#cybersecurity #government

Europe is moving to block Microsoft, Amazon, and Google from handling government health, financial, and legal data

https://www.techspot.com/news/112362-europe-may-restrict-microsoft-amazon-google-handling-sensitive.html

#EU #privacy #surveillance #Microsoft #Google #Amazon #technology #personaldata #health #government

EU calls VPNs “a loophole that needs closing” in age verification push

https://cyberinsider.com/eu-calls-vpns-a-loophole-that-needs-closing-in-age-verification-push/

#EU #AgeVerification #idverification #VPN #privacy #surveillance #dystopia #technology #government

Hours after ProPublica reported on how a federal probe of a drugs-for-votes scheme in Puerto Rico's prisons got quashed after the 2024 elections, some of the territory’s political leaders made public calls for investigations into the allegations.
https://www.propublica.org/article/puerto-rico-trump-drugs-votes-prisons-elections-jenniffer-gonzalez-colon?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #PuertoRico #Election #Government #USPolitics #Law #Legal

But even Christians have their idols (dogmas, creedos, liturgies, customs, rituals) that blind them to the one and only one truth.

"My people perish for lack of knowledge ..."

Instead many Christians believe they have chosen the right narrow path, which is just one lane in the broad road superhighway to hell.

Real democracy for electing rulers is done by lottery, not by party ballot. Every citizen puts a name in the ballot box and then a random name is selected, and the candidate is examined. If the candidate passes muster, then he is the one put in the office. No campaigns, no campaign finance, no speeches, none of that garbage has any place in actual democracy.

The Bible has multiple instances in the law of God for casting lots (lottery) to choose a leader or successor for an office. That is real democracy. The Greeks called ballots for party or public candidate by a Greek word: Oligarchy.

Everyone who calls elections by the name of democracy doesn't know what democracy is. Democracy is not the 'choice of the people' but rather the 'random choice of God' from among the people. This is how the Greeks and Israelites originally practiced democratic elections. The idea of 'running for office' was anciently seen as a form of insurrection or oligarchy, not democracy.

#Democracy #Elections #Oligarchy #Vote #Government

I Reached Out to the White House Counterterrorism Czar for Comment. He Lashed Out on X.
---

Sebastian Gorka accused a ProPublica reporter of writing a “putrid piece of hackery” about him. Here’s how basic beat reporting led to a broader story about the state of the U.S. counterterrorism mission at a critical moment.
https://www.propublica.org/article/sebastian-gorka-counterterrorism-reporting?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #WhiteHouse #Government #USPolitics #Security #Journalism

🆕 blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”

The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.

Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
⸻
#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics

Weird as it sounds, I think we need an actual law, like some kind of bill of rights, that says you can't notify me on my phone without offering me highly fine-tuned control of each kind of message.

Notifications intrude into my life. Sometimes my phone is on waiting for emergencies or other high-priority issues while I sleep. If a friend wakes me, I can have them dialed up or down in priority.

But Android is designed so Audible won't let me have control of my audiobooks in the lock screen without notifications turned on, yet once I've done that, Audible has no compunction against advertising new book releases in the middle of the night via notifications. I should be able to get cash compensation in court for that.

And my USB-C cable, once I plug it into my Android phone insists on randomly popping up an utterly inscrutible notification saying "you need to log in if you want to see notifications", or some such, and then when I do there is no notification to see. It was just random.

And Android Auto likes to give me two completely pointless notifications, one when I plug my phone into the car and one saying Android Auto is available. The first one I don't need a notification about because I just plugged in my phone. But more importantly, the second one is a lie. Android Auto MIGHT be available and it confirms nothing. The handshake may have been done wrong, so all it tells me is the thing I know already, which is that Android Auto is on the phone. But I might have to pull the plug and replug it to be properly connected. So the notification is worse than pointless and just floods my screen with stuff I don't care about that appears to need immediate attention. And then Android asks, as soon as I disconnect it, how my experience was. I always say "Bad" because part of my experience is getting asked that pesky message that I do not want and would happily say "never do this".

These all seem like technical problems, but they are not. They are reminders that we no longer control our lives, that companies can, at a whim, intrude into our lives with pointless rituals that whittle away our existence. I'm not being metaphorical when I say we need laws on this. I absolutely mean that if we don't write strong law on this, it will only get worse. Or we need to enforce the 4th Amendment on a theory, like Larry Lessig has effectively said in the past, that programmatic code is effectively a kind of government that binds us and our choices in life as surely as legal code does.

But what DO we get laws about? Having to login to use an operating system so they can track us better, know who we are and where we are at every moment. We need laws against such laws.

#marketing #notifications #android #ui #ux #settings #design #QualityOfLife #computers #LockScreen #permissions #law #legal #lawsuits #ClassAction #rights #HumanRights #BillOfRights #identity #intrusion #interruption #4thAmendment #government #code

EU age verification app faces criticism after researchers reported bypassing its protections in under 2 minutes. ⚠️
Flaws include local PIN storage, editable configs, and weak controls, raising concerns over centralized identity and surveillance risk. 🔐

🔗 https://cybernews.com/security/eu-age-verification-app-hack/

#TechNews #EU #Europe #AgeVerification #Privacy #Cybersecurity #DigitalID #ID #Surveillance #Government #Politics #Security #DataProtection #FOSS #OpenSource #Identity #Regulation #OnlineSafety #PlatformPolicy

A Protester Threw a Snowball. Federal Agents Responded With Tear Gas and Pepper Balls.

A new investigation from ProPublica and FRONTLINE examines federal agents’ response to protesters and bystanders at the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps.

“We see, just, use of excessive force after use of excess force,” one expert said.

https://www.propublica.org/article/caught-in-crackdown-trump-immigration-ice-cbp-excessive-force

#news #trump #ice #minneapolis #immigration #government

Liberals Admit That Bill C-22 is Just the First Surveillance Step

Mass government surveillance is something the Liberals are pushing in Bill C-22, but it apparently isn't where it's going to be left.

https://www.freezenet.ca/liberals-admit-that-bill-c-22-is-just-the-first-surveillance-step/

#News #Privacy #BillC22 #Canada #government #legislation #surveillance #WarrantlessWiretapping

After Numerous Screw Ups, EU Develops Own Age Verification App

The roll out of age verification has been a complete disaster. So, Europe has decided to roll out their own broken app.

https://www.freezenet.ca/after-numerous-screw-ups-eu-develops-own-age-verification-app/

#Censorship #News #Privacy #Security #AgeVerification #app #EU #Europe #government #PersonalInformation

so I just realized something today.
I am literally sitting on 2 originally published, now deleted product documents from DISA. one being on the DMCC-S (DOD mobility classified capability-secret) and DMCC-TS (DOD mobility classified capability-top secret) that has been pulled from the DISA site. not sure if it's temporarily, and i'm not sure if I should archive them myself via my website, but damn, i'm sitting on 2 important products in the CSFC world. #csfc #nsa #government #classified

NEW: As Arrests at Anti-ICE Protests Piled Up, Prosecutions Crumbled

ProPublica and FRONTLINE found more than 300 protesters and bystanders who were arrested on charges like assaulting an immigration agent or interfering with law enforcement.

Over and over, the accusations fell apart under scrutiny.

https://www.propublica.org/article/caught-in-crackdown-ice-cbp-doj-trump-arrests-convictions

#news #trump #ice #cbp #LosAngeles #Minneapolis #doj #government

#Idaho Cut Services for People With Schizophrenia. Then the #Deaths Began.

Eliminating outreach to people with severe mental illness set off such a cascade of bad outcomes that Idaho has scrambled to reverse.

#law #policy #PublicHealth #health #government #SocialServices #MentalHealth
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/health/idaho-mental-health-act-cuts.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

NEW: Trump’s DOJ Plans to Settle Predatory Lending Case Without Compensating Victims

The Biden administration sued a Texas land developer accused of duping tens of thousands of Hispanic residents.

Trump’s DOJ is now offering an unprecedented settlement that experts say could target the very people who were harmed by the developer.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doj-colony-ridge-texas-settlement-victims

#news #government #texas #trump #doj

https://youtu.be/Nhz6vao13bs

[copypasta]

California AB 2047: The End of Open Source 3D Printing

California just introduced a bill that doesn't just regulate "ghost guns", it mandates a digital kill switch for every 3D printer sold. California AB 2047 requires "blocking technology" that connects your printer to a government-approved database before every single print. If the system goes down, or your file is flagged, your hardware becomes a paperweight.

This isn't just about firearms. This is the death of Open Source. If this bill passes, it effectively bans Marlin, Klipper, and Orca Slicer, forcing every manufacturer to lock down their firmware. It turns general-purpose computing into a walled garden where you only rent permission to use the hardware you own.

[/copypasta]

#OpenSource #RightToRepair #Privacy #Clippy #California #Monopolies #3dPrinters #3dPrinting #Technology #Government #Firearms #Guns #SoftwareFreedom #Surveillance #Panopticon #Lobbyists

All the donor-funded foundations ought to be fighting against and speaking out against this Orwellian garbage.

@eff@mastodon.social
@fsf@hostux.social
@linuxfoundation@social.lfx.dev
@privacyint@mastodon.xyz
@openssf@social.lfx.dev
@rms@mastodon.xyz
@CCIAnet@techpolicy.social
@WriterOfMinds@sigmoid.social
@SeaGL@mastodon.social
@hopeconf@mastodon.online
@w3c@w3c.social
@ACM@mastodon.acm.org
@irtf@discuss.systems
@osi@opensource.org

Apple's age verification requirement is no longer a UK-only experiment. As of last week it is live in Singapore and South Korea as well, and the list of countries mandating it is growing.

https://blackoutvpn.au/blog/apple-global-identity-checkpoint

#technology #government #privacy

California requires AI vendors working with the state to implement safety and privacy guardrails. Companies must adopt standards preventing misuse and protecting user rights. 🤖

🔗 https://www.cnet.com/tech/newsom-signs-executive-order-requiring-ai-companies-to-provide-safety-privacy-guardrails/

#TechNews #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Privacy #Safety #Government #Public #Politics #GovTech #FOSS #Transparency #UserControl #Regulation #DataProtection #EthicalAI #Policy #OpenStandards #DigitalRights #California #US #USA

"He and other peace activists came to view the contents of draft boards’ filing cabinets as no different from bombs or bullets: They were just tools that helped the government kill."

Read an excerpt of the new Atavist story, by Stephen Wood: https://longreads.com/2026/04/02/catholic-buffalo-vietnam-war-draft/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Nonfiction #Journalism #Catholic #War #Antiwar #Draft #Vietnam #Government

The EU Parliament voted to end Chat Control, stopping mass scanning of private messages by Meta, Google, and Microsoft, effective 4 April 2026. ✋📩
This decision restores digital privacy for European citizens and ends indiscriminate surveillance of private chats. 🔒

🔗 https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/end-of-chat-control-eu-parliament-stops-mass-surveillance-in-voting-thriller-paving-the-way-for-genuine-child-protection/

#TechNews #EU #Europe #Parliament #Government #ChatControl #Privacy #DigitalRights #FOSS #Meta #Google #Microsoft #Surveillance #Encryption #OpenInternet #UserControl #FreedomOfSpeech #Freedom #Security