RT:
"US military strategy could culminate in nuclear conflict. German Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier's recent criticism of NATO behavior is that of a man watching a tidal wave of destruction gathering force, similar to ones that have engulfed his country twice before in the 20th century.
'What we shouldn’t do now is inflame the situation further through saber-rattling and warmongering... Whoever believes that a symbolic tank parade on the alliance’s eastern border will bring security is mistaken… We are well-advised to not create pretexts to renew an old confrontation… [It would be] fatal to search only for military solutions and a policy of deterrence.'
[This was] German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, commenting on NATO’s recent military exercises in Poland and the Baltics. His dread is not to be dismissed since it comes from a man who is in a position to know what the US is up to. His words reflect the fears of ever more people across all of Eurasia, from France in the West to Japan in the East.
-->US media consistently avoids this point. The empire's push to encircle Russia and China is insane in a nuclear age. And that is the last thing our media would admit to, the fact that our current neoliberal leaders may well bring the age of Homo sapiens to an end.
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The Intercept:
"Secret rules make it pretty easy for the FBI to spy on journalists. Secret FBI rules allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures.
The classified rules, obtained by The Intercept and dating from 2013, govern the FBI’s use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form.
Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists’ information."
-->If the media can be spied on without a warrant, think of you and me. We have entered the age of total government spying, and the Orwellian irony is that our own US media feels no need to even report the fact.
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Common Dreams:
"iCensor: Apple Patents Remote 'Kill Switch' for iPhone Cameras. Technology could allow police and government forces to stop citizens from recording abuses of force.
Owning an iPhone could someday mean being blocked from recording anything that someone in power doesn't want you to record. That's the potential ramification of a patent granted to Apple earlier this week for technology that remotely disables iPhone cameras by infrared sensors.
While Apple's patent application uses the example of a rock band preventing audience members from recording a concert, since the application was first submitted back in 2009 observers have noted that the technology could also be used by police, repressive governments, and anyone in power to stop citizens from recording abuses of power and other injustices. The patent was approved despite thousands of signatures on a petition seeking to block the technology from being developed.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/30/icensor-apple-patents-remote-kill-switch-iphone-cameras
-->Readers of the NYT as well as the rest of the US media were not informed of this new technology. I wonder why?
-->Readers of the NYT as well as the rest of the US media were not informed of this new technology. I wonder why?
