internet – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

DID IT SNOW IN APRIL TOO?

You may have heard the standard Wall Street storyline about bad weather from December through March depressing consumers and keeping them from spending money they don’t have on shit they don’t need. The corporate mainstream media obligingly regurgitates the storyline in order to maintain their advertising revenue from Wall Street and corporate America.

Did you notice all that snow in April? How else can we explain the disastrous retail sales numbers reported this morning? Maybe the temperatures were too moderate to shop. Maybe the pollen storms created an allergy to shopping. Maybe it was those nasty Spring showers bringing May flowers. Watching the nimrods, economist hacks, bimbos and boobs on bubblevision attempting to spin the decline of the American consumer is priceless. They reveal themselves to be nothing but captured teleprompter readers. Journalism is dead in the corporate media realm. The only truth is found in the blogosphere.

native advertising

Below is a chart that doesn’t even reveal how bad the numbers really are. The country is in the midst of a recession as markets reach all-time highs. This fact alone unveils the criminality of the Federal Reserve and their sole purpose of propping up and enriching their owners on Wall Street. The suffering and impoverishment of average Americans is revealed in the true jobs numbers, credit card usage, and retail sales. The entire house of debt is built upon Americans accounting for 68% of GDP by buying shit. If they don’t borrow and spend, the shark dies. This shark looks sick.

Continue reading “DID IT SNOW IN APRIL TOO?”

FOURTH TURNING – THE SHADOW OF CRISIS HAS NOT PASSED – PART THREE

In Part One of this article I attempted to illuminate the concept of generational theory as articulated by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning. In Part Two I provided proof this Crisis is far from over, with ever increasing debt, civic decay and global disorder propelling the world towards war.

Seeds of Crisis & War

“The seasons of time offer no guarantees. For modern societies, no less than for all forms of life, transformative change is discontinuous. For what seems an eternity, history goes nowhere – and then it suddenly flings us forward across some vast chaos that defies any mortal effort to plan our way there. The Fourth Turning will try our souls – and the saecular rhythm tells us that much will depend on how we face up to that trial. The saeculum does not reveal whether the story will have a happy ending, but it does tell us how and when our choices will make a difference.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

When you accept the fact history is cyclical and continuous linear progress is not what transpires in the real world, you free yourself from the mental debilitation of normalcy bias and cognitive dissonance. Things do get worse. There are dark periods of history and they recur on a regular cycle. And we are in the midst of one of those dark periods. This Crisis will not be resolved without much pain, sacrifice, bloodshed, and ultimately war. Catastrophe is a strong possibility. The core elements of this Crisis – debt, civic decay, global disorder – are coalescing into a perfect storm which will rage for the next ten to fifteen years. The rhythms of history only provide a guidepost of timing, while the specific events and outcomes are unknowable in advance. The regeneracy of society into a cohesive, unified community, supporting the government in a collective effort to solve society’s most fundamental problems seems to have been delayed. Or has it?

Maybe the answer can be found in the resolution of the last Fourth Turning. The seeds of the next crisis are always planted during the climax of the previous crisis, when the new social order is established. The American Revolution Crisis created a new nation, but left unresolved the issue of slavery. This seed grew to become the catalyst for the Civil War Crisis. The resolution of the Civil War Crisis greatly enhanced the power of the central government, while reducing the influence of the States. The rise of central authority led to the creation of the Federal Reserve, the implementation of income taxes to fund a vastly larger Federal government and the belief among the political class that America should intervene militarily in the affairs of other countries. The Great Depression was created by the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve; the New Deal programs were a further expansion of Federal government; FDR outlawed the ownership of gold; and America’s subsequent involvement in World War II created a military and economic superpower.

Continue reading “FOURTH TURNING – THE SHADOW OF CRISIS HAS NOT PASSED – PART THREE”

WTF IS THE FCC DOING?

I received an email from a reader informing me about an interesting email she had just received. According to this email from the CEO of an independent TV station, the FCC is using your tax dollars to buy up every independent TV station in the country with the purported purpose to “improve” cell phone service and video on demand. My bullshit meter immediately flashes red.

We already know five corporations control 80% of the broadcasting outlets in this country and collude with the government and Wall Street to keep the sheep ignorant with ruling class sanctioned propaganda. We also know the government wants to control the internet through the FCC, using SOPA. Now we find out the government is using your tax dollars to buy up and eliminate independent TV stations across the country. They couldn’t possibly be attempting to squelch dissenting viewpoints from reaching the public. Could they?

Do you think your tax dollars should be used to reduce your ability to hear dissenting opinions?

Last week, we conducted a series of conference calls regarding MiND’s role in the broadcasting community, offering a unique combination of international, music, documentary and short-form programming. As we are contemplating some changes, we have decided to schedule two more viewer-input telephone conference calls and two public forums to be held at the MiND office. I hope you will find an hour to join us (the schedule is below).

Recently, the FCC (the Federal government agency which controls TV and radio licenses) contacted every TV station in the U.S. The FCC wants to purchase many TV broadcast licenses in order to supply wireless telephone carriers (such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc.) with additional bandwidth. This bandwidth will enable better cell phone service and improved video-on-demand on mobile devices.

As you may know, our TV license is owned and operated by a nonprofit organization. The decision to continue as a broadcaster will be made by our organization’s Board of Directors. This is completely our organization’s decision. The government agency is simply making an offer to all television stations in the country; some stations will choose to accept the offer, and some will not.

The television industry is changing. Many of the programs seen on MiND’s channels are available from other sources. As a result, we are asking questions about the best way to serve the public interest: in the digital era, operating a television station is one of several available options.

If we decide to stop broadcasting, we plan to invest the funds to develop new and exciting forms of public media for television, the Internet and other venues. Regardless of whether we continue to operate a TV station, our mission remains the same: to help people learn and understand the world.

And if we decide to stop broadcasting, we plan to find a new home for most of the programs and MiND channels so that you will be able to continue to watch them with minimal interruption.

If you are interested in joining us for one of these conversations by phone or in person, please send an email with the subject line “Public Forum RSVP” to [email protected] and include the following information:

(1) Name

(2) Zip Code

(3) Email address

(4) Session you would like to attend:

If you have questions, or would like to schedule an individual conversation with me, please send an email to the above address and we’ll set up a time to talk.

Thank you for watching the MiND channels, and for your willingness to participate in this important decision.

Best,

Howard Blumenthal
CEO, MiND: Media Independence

FEC Chairman Warns Of Forthcoming Government Media Censorship

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

When I first read this story I wasn’t sure whether to highlight it or not. While the claims made by Federal Elections Committee (FEC) Chairman Lee E. Goodman are extraordinarily frightening, sometimes people with strong partisan leanings can exaggerate threats and so I like to be careful. I’m not certain if this is the case with Mr. Goodman, but since it is his word against other folks at the FEC and I don’t work there, it’s hard to know what the true state of affairs is.

Nevertheless, the fact that Ajit Pai, a commissioner at the FCC, recently warned in a Wall Street Journal editorial of government plans to “monitor” media organizations, makes me concerned enough to post on it. I highlighted the Ajit Pai editorial back in February in my post: The Obama Administration Plans to Embed “Government Researchers” to Monitor Media Organizations.

As far as the Goodman comments, The Washington Examiner reports that:

Government officials, reacting to the growing voice of conservative news outlets, especially on the internet, are angling to curtail the media’s exemption from federal election laws governing political organizations, a potentially chilling intervention that the chairman of the Federal Election Commission is vowing to fight.

“I think that there are impulses in the government every day to second guess and look into the editorial decisions of conservative publishers,” warned Federal Election Commission Chairman Lee E. Goodman in an interview.

“The right has begun to break the left’s media monopoly, particularly through new media outlets like the internet, and I sense that some on the left are starting to rethink the breadth of the media exemption and internet communications,” he added.

Noting the success of sites like the Drudge Report, Goodman said that protecting conservative media, especially those on the internet, “matters to me because I see the future going to the democratization of media largely through the internet. They can compete with the big boys now, and I have seen storm clouds that the second you start to regulate them, there is at least the possibility or indeed proclivity for selective enforcement, so we need to keep the media free and the internet free.”

“The picking and choosing has started to occur,” said Goodman. “There are some in this building that think we can actually regulate” media, added Goodman, a Republican whose chairmanship lasts through December. And if that occurs, he said, “then I am concerned about disparate treatment of conservative media.”

The main issue I have with Mr. Goodman’s comments is that he frames them in a very partisan manner. Sure, I don’t doubt that the current state of affairs might have the FEC concerned about the threat posed by conservative media, but in ten years who knows, it could be the reverse. The key here is that media, in particular the internet, must be kept free and open. The internet is what allows an individual like me, armed with only a computer and an internet connection, to reach thousands of people per day on a shoestring budget. This is a revolution in humankind and must be preserved at all costs.

Full article here.

Lying on TBP may soon be a FELONY!!

You think I’m exaggerating? Just read some of the case examples below.

In America we prosecute people who post fake Facebook pictures, and not those who loot billions.

God, I fuckin’ hate this shit.

Oh … by the way … in case you didn’t know …. Muslims hate us because of our freedoms! bwahahahahahaha!!

Oh … by the way … Smokey is going to prison for bragging about his 11 1/2 inch schlong!!

===========================================

SHOULD FAKING A NAME ON FACEBOOK BE A FELONY?

Congress contemplates draconian punishment for Internet lies.

By ORIN S. KERR

Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet. So you could be jailed for lying about your age or weight on an Internet dating site. Or you could be sent to federal prison if your boss told you to work but you used the company’s computer to check sports scores online. Imagine that Eric Holder’s Justice Department urged Congress to raise penalties for violations, making them felonies allowing three years in jail for each broken promise. Fanciful, right?

Think again. Congress is now poised to grant the Obama administration’s wishes in the name of “cybersecurity.”

The little-known law at issue is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was enacted in 1986 to punish computer hacking. But Congress has broadened the law every few years, and today it extends far beyond hacking. The law now criminalizes computer use that “exceeds authorized access” to any computer. Today that violation is a misdemeanor, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet this morning to vote on making it a felony.

The problem is that a lot of routine computer use can exceed “authorized access.” Courts are still struggling to interpret this language. But the Justice Department believes that it applies incredibly broadly to include “terms of use” violations and breaches of workplace computer-use policies.

Breaching an agreement or ignoring your boss might be bad. But should it be a federal crime just because it involves a computer? If interpreted this way, the law gives computer owners the power to criminalize any computer use they don’t like. Imagine the Democratic Party setting up a public website and announcing that no Republicans can visit. Every Republican who checked out the site could be a criminal for exceeding authorized access.

IF THAT SOUNDS FAR-FETCHED, CONSIDER A FEW RECENT CASES.

In 2009, the Justice Department prosecuted a woman for violating the “terms of service” of the social networking site MySpace.com. The woman had been part of a group that set up a MySpace profile using a fake picture. The feds charged her with conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Prosecutors say the woman exceeded authorized access because MySpace required all profile information to be truthful. But people routinely misstate the truth in online profiles, about everything from their age to their name. What happens when each instance is a felony?

In 2010, the Justice Department charged a defendant with unauthorized access for using a computer to buy tickets from Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster’s website lets anyone visit. But its “terms of use” only permitted non-automated purchases, and the defendant used a computer script to make the purchases.

In another case, Justice has charged a defendant with violating workplace policies that limited use to legitimate company business. Prosecutors claimed that using the company’s computers for other reasons exceeded authorized access. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed.

The law even goes beyond criminal law. It allows civil suits filed by private parties. As a result, federal courts have been flooded with silly disputes. In one recent case, an employer sued a former employee for excessive Internet usage from work. The alleged offense: visiting Facebook and sending personal emails. In another case, a company posted “terms of use” on its website declaring that no competitors could visit—and then promptly sued a competitor that did.

Remarkably, the law doesn’t even require devices to be connected to the Internet. Since 2008, it applies to pretty much everything with a microchip. So if you’re visiting a friend and you use his coffeemaker without permission, watch out: You may have committed a federal crime.

Until now, the critical limit on the government’s power has been that federal prosecutors rarely charge misdemeanors. They prefer to bring more serious felony charges. That’s why the administration’s proposal is so dangerous. If exceeding authorized access becomes a felony, prosecutors will become eager to charge it. Abuses are inevitable.

Real threats to cybersecurity must be prosecuted. Penalties should be stiff. But Congress must narrow the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act before enhancing its penalties. There’s no reason to make breaching a promise a federal case, and certainly not a felony crime.

Mr. Kerr, a former federal prosecutor, is professor of law at George Washington University School of Law.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903285704576562294116160896.html