Category Archives: Fail!

Lauren Kirchner: What’s the Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

{The billions spent on collecting and combing the data is, for the most, part of the CYA program supported by nearly all elected politicians in nearly all countries. They support the spying programs so they can tell the people voting for them – “We are spending billions protecting you with the latest technology and brightest minds available.” If any useful information in collected – woohoo! but neither the politicians or we who vote for them care – we just want to know that the money is being spent and we hope it does some good. In short, shame on them and shame on us!}

Current and former government officials have been pointing to the terror attacks in Paris as justification for mass surveillance programs. CIA Director John Brennan accused privacy advocates of “hand-wringing” that has made “our ability collectively internationally to find these terrorists much more challenging.” Former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden said, “In the wake of Paris, a big stack of metadata doesn’t seem to be the scariest thing in the room.”Ultimately, it’s impossible to know just how successful sweeping surveillance has been, since much of the work is secret. But what has been disclosed so far suggests the programs have been of limited value.

Source: Lauren Kirchner: What’s the Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Israeli Education Minister: Even if the soldier made a mistake of judgment, he is not a murderer – PNN

Liberman, in addition to Education Minister and Jewish Home leader, Naftali Bennett, both attack B’Tselem Human Rights group for publishing the video. Immediately following the release of th e video on Thursday, politicians rushed to “dance to B’Tselem’s fiddle,” Bennett told Israel Radio on Sunday morning, referring to the human rights group that released the video of the killing, Jpost reported. Bennett said that “even if the soldier made a mistake of judgment he was not a murderer.” He said that the possibility of the soldier being tried for murder “demonstrated the total loss of proportions in the matter and he would act to ensure that the soldier would receive a just trial.” When asked about the execution,  El-Or Azarya, the medic soldier who murdered Abdul-Fattah Al-Sharif said that he “did the right thing at the right time.”

Source: Israeli Education Minister: Even if the soldier made a mistake of judgment, he is not a murderer – PNN

Racism And The Invisibility Of White Privilege. | Rebelle Society

I thought I might share a few things as a white mama of black boys. I actually have three sons — two black and one white. My white son is 29, and my black boys are 14 and 15. Here are some of the privileges I never realized I experienced raising my white son: Not once… … did I ever have to explain to my white son that people might be mean to him, and even hurt or kill him, simply because of his skin color. … did I ever have to tell him to keep his hands out of his pockets while in a store. … did I ever have to go into a store or a school with him to assert myself as his mother so that people would treat him fairly… so they’d think, “Oh, his mom’s white, so he’s okay.” … did I ever have to tell him not to wear the hood up on his hoodie.

Source: Racism And The Invisibility Of White Privilege. | Rebelle Society

Terror Attacks Cast Light on Belgian Identity Crisis – SPIEGEL ONLINE – “Spiegel joins ISIS in attacking Belgium and promoting German takeover?”

Fears seem to be greater in Germany about Belgium’s nuclear power plants than in the country itself. Belgians tend to get used to things, that’s the habit. They tend to respond in ways similar to Françoise Georis, who opened up her Bio, dis-moi organic supermarket directly across the street from Tihange, because this type of store didn’t exist within a 15 kilometer radius of the nuclear power plant. She says she’s pleased to have plant workers among her customers, since “not everyone has their heart in the job that they do.” In general, she says, her customers are more afraid of genetically modified food than they are of radioactivity. Speaking a week before the terrorist attacks, she said she hardly even notices the nuclear power plant — and that’s the case for most here.

Source: Terror Attacks Cast Light on Belgian Identity Crisis – SPIEGEL ONLINE

French workers forced to ask bosses if they need pee break – The Local PeeMail?

The rule has been brought in to try to limit the time the workers are away from their post in order to maximise their output. Out of their seven hour day, workers are allowed a maximum of 30 minutes away from their desks that includes for toilet trips. “It’s the same for everyone, whether they have a disability or not,” Dengean said. An anonymous employee told local newspaper La Dépêche that 7 percent of the workforce were older or had disabilities and should not be forced to get green light from management if they want to satisfy a natural need. Unions have made a joint call for workers to stage a walkout on Friday. Thierry Godec, a representative from the CFDT union described the problems that workers will face. “There’s a huge risk that managers won’t respond [to the requests for a pee break],” he told La Dépêche newspaper. “According to stats managers are only at their desks 55 percent of the time. So if it’s the 45 percent of time and an employee gets stuck on a long call they will burst a pipe.”

Source: French workers forced to ask bosses if they need pee break – The Local

Brussels ‘a disaster city,’ Donald Trump says after attacks – Times of India – Germans who birthed him did not assimilate? Hyenas would disavow Trumpists!

Brussels is “a disaster city” where assimilation has failed, US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said Tuesday after a series of apparently coordinated explosions rocked the Belgian capital’s airport and a metro station. At least 26 people were killed in the latest attacks to target Europe, and Trump wasted little time in saying it was more evidence that governments needed to crack down on extremists with any means possible — even using waterboarding — and that immigration policies had failed. He reiterated his belief that the US should close its borders “until we figure out what’s going on.” Anyone who tries to attack the United States will “suffer greatly,” Trump said, in typically blunt tones that have shaped his populist run for the White House, propelling him from outsider to firm favorite for the Republican ticket. “Belgium is no longer Belgium. Belgium is not the Belgium you and I knew from 20 years ago, which was one of the most beautiful and safest cities in the world,” Trump told NBC. “Belgium is a horror show right now. Terrible things are happening. People are leaving. People are afraid. This all happened because, frankly, there’s no assimilation.”

Source: Brussels ‘a disaster city,’ Donald Trump says after attacks – Times of India

Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Britain’s welfare minister over cuts to disability benefits – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Resignation ‘threatened to throw the Government into disarray’ The Financial Times said the resignation was “a huge blow” for Mr Cameron that would inflict “serious damage” on Mr Osborne. The Daily Telegraph said the move “threatened to throw the Government into disarray”. Mr Cameron replaced Mr Duncan Smith with Stephen Crabb who supports Britain’s membership of the European Union. Will Britain leave the EU? Radio National looks at the background to the referendum and Britain’s unravelling from the EU. Several Conservative MPs, along with the main opposition Labour Party, had criticised the disability benefits cuts announced by Mr Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the plan was “appalling”, claiming that 200,000 of the 640,000 people affected by the proposed changes would lose out altogether as a result. Mr Osborne said the plan would cut around $2.5 billion a year off the bill for so-called Personal Independence Payments (PIP), a weekly allowance covering extra costs for people with long-term ill health or disabilities. A government source earlier on Friday said they would be “kicked into the long grass”.

Source: Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Britain’s welfare minister over cuts to disability benefits – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Disappearances in Sri Lanka & Role of Civil Society | Groundviews

I remember that on this day, exactly two years ago, I was in detention at the Terrorism Investigation Division with another friend, Fr. Praveen. The nearest trigger for our arrest appeared to have been our efforts to look into the arrest of a mother of a disappeared child, Balendran Jeyakumary (who was also a vocal campaigner seeking truth and justice for disappearances) and other Tamils in the North. More than a year after “good governance”, Jeyakumary. Fr. Praveen and me are still being investigated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Ironically, at the same time, I have been invited for various meetings of the government and to be part of an Expert Advisory Committee related to Transitional Justice (which I didn’t accept due to various other reasons), despite still being a “terrorist suspect” and having a court order restricting my freedom of expression. Although Jeyakumary was conditionally released two months after President Sirisena took office, she was re-arrested last year under “good governance”. She also faces serious social isolation due to this and struggles to find livelihood and has been compelled to keep her young daughter in a hostel. There has been no news about her disappeared son, who she claims has appeared in a photo taken at a government rehabilitation facility. We are also no closer to the truth or justice in relation to the disappearance of Lalith and Kugan, two campaigners against disappearances, who disappeared in Jaffna in December 2011. Families of disappeared and activists don’t face the kind of attacks, threats, intimidations, discrediting etc. that we experienced under the Rajapakse regime. But monitoring of families of disappeared persons and activists in the North and East continues. And there is total impunity for the reprisals we faced in the past.

Source: Disappearances in Sri Lanka & Role of Civil Society | Groundviews