Mike Vanderboegh of the “Three Percenters” movement, speaking at the Bundy Ranch, has a harsh warning for Harry Reid.
At first, he warns that Civil War is closer than anyone thinks and is “staring us in the bloody face”.
But the end of the speech is where things really get interesting. Watch, and let us know what you think below.
[H/T WesternJournalism: Tom Hinchey]
(New York Times) – The White House, hoping to move the national conversation on privacy beyond data harvesting by intelligence agencies to the practices of companies like Google and Facebook, released a long-anticipated report on Thursday that recommends requiring private companies to disclose the kind of information they gather from their customers online.
The report, whose chief author is John D. Podesta, a senior White House adviser, is part of the administration’s reaction to the disclosures of global surveillance by Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency. The effort is viewed with suspicion in Silicon Valley, where companies see it as the start of a government effort to regulate how they can profit from the data they collect from email and Web surfing habits.
Mr. Podesta, in briefing reporters on Thursday, pointed specifically to the terms of service that consumers click on, almost always without reading them, when they sign up for free email accounts or download apps for their smartphones. He asked whether that process “still allows us to control and protect our privacy as the data is used and reused,” often to identify users’ travel, buying and web browsing habits. The report focuses on mosaic techniques that allow companies, in the guise of collecting anonymous data from large groups of users, to identify an individual’s activities online.
The report suggests steps Congress could take, including a mandatory system that would force firms to report data breaches — like the one that led to the theft of credit card data from 100 million Target customers last year. A similar measure failed two years ago as part of a broader cyberprotection bill.
The report also recommends extending American privacy rights to foreigners, on the theory that there are no boundaries when it comes to the data collected online. Mr. Obama declared in January that the government would do the same in the treatment of data it collected through the N.S.A. and other intelligence groups.
Mr. Podesta, in an interview, said the president was surprised during his review of the N.S.A.’s activities that “the same technologies are not only used by the intelligence community, but far more broadly in the public and private spheres because there is so much collection” from the Internet, smartphones and other sensors.
“You are shedding data everywhere,” Mr. Podesta said.
The report notes the risk of data being used to discriminate against some Americans in new ways that are otherwise prohibited by civil and consumer rights legislation. “Just as neighborhoods can serve as a proxy for racial or ethnic identity,” it says, “there are new worries that big data technologies could be used to ‘digitally redefine’ unwanted groups, either as customers, employees, tenants or recipients of credit. A significant finding of this report is that big data could enable new forms of discrimination and predatory practices.”
Big data typically refers to the surge in old and new sources of data — web pages, browsing habits, sensor signals, social media, GPS location data from smartphones, genomic information and surveillance videos. But its other crucial technology is the clever software to mine and make sense of the data explosion.
Mr. Podesta said the report was not part of an effort to use the N.S.A. disclosures for political advantage, though he acknowledged that many executives in Silicon Valley see it that way. But he implicitly poses the question about whether private companies may ultimately be a greater threat than the government to privacy rights.
Shortly after the White House review was announced in January, privacy and consumer groups urged that the administration devise a policy and legal framework for corporations’ data collection practices.
In a letter to the White House in February, more than a dozen groups noted concerns, past and present, about the danger of unrestrained data harvesting by government agencies. But, the groups wrote, “similar concerns arise about the use of personal data by large commercial entities. Bulk collection of this data puts consumers at an ever-increasing risk.”
The Podesta report is partly an effort to revive administration recommendations made in early 2012. At the time, well before Mr. Snowden’s leaks showed the reach of government surveillance, Mr. Obama proposed a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights for the big data era. It called for giving consumers more control over how much and what kind of data companies could collect about them, and what businesses could do with that information.
“American consumers can’t wait any longer for clear rules of the road that ensure their personal information is safe online,” Mr. Obama said at the time.
The 2012 guidelines, while general, were seen as a sensible approach to protecting Americans from the potential danger of wholesale data collection by Internet companies, advertisers, data brokers and other businesses. But the task of translating concepts like transparency and accountability into legislation seemed complex and time-consuming, and business groups opposed the effort. Few members of Congress showed interest.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that the Podesta report identified the important issues and that its policy recommendations addressed the major concerns of privacy groups. “The implementation of those proposals,” Mr. Rotenberg said, “is the big challenge now, what happens next.”
[H/T NewYorkTimes: ]
(News Busters) – On Thursday’s MSNBC Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough annihilated liberal pundit Donny Deutsch’s attempt to defend the Obama White House over emails showing a cover-up of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack: “I got everybody here apologizing for the White House. What about a cover-up here, Donny?!…what’s the politics of the White House lying about something that we all know they’re lying about?”
Deutsch actually tried to spin the Democratic scandal as bad for Republicans: “I want to put up a warning for the Republicans because obviously the Republicans are seizing on this and jumping in. I think this is fools gold for 2016.” Scarborough tore into him: “Why are you jumping to political strategy instead of talking….about what [White Press Secretary] Jay Carney did, the double speak?!”
http://www.mrctv.org/embed/126840
Citing Carney’s claim that the recently released emails were not about Benghazi, Scarborough slammed the administration:
Jay Carney is saying it’s not about Benghazi when you know it’s about Benghazi! And we know it’s about Benghazi. And Chuck Todd knows it’s about Benghazi. And he [pointing to Mike Barnicle] knows it’s about – everybody watching knows it’s about Benghazi. And you’re talking about how the Republicans – you see the White House spokesperson lying on national television. You see an ABC News person [Jonathan Karl] shocked that he’s lying and treating the press corps and Americans like their stupid, he’s says it’s not about Benghazi.
Republicans and conservatives have been called fools for a year now for saying this happened. They don’t release it with the original documents that are released. They finally reluctantly are forced to release it. Then you have the White House lying about it yesterday saying it’s not about Benghazi. And your only reaction is, “Hey, Republicans better not overreact to the cover-up.”
Deutsch argued: “My reaction is this, that we as voters understand both Republicans and Democrats are political animals and are going to manage a crisis in their situation to their favor.”
Scarborough shot back:
So when Democrats cover something up, it’s politics. When Republicans cover something up, it’s a scandal. It would be on the front page of The New York Times. It would be on the front page of every newspaper in America. But when Democrats cover up, you think it’s shrewd political gamesmanship. That’s a disgrace, Donny. It’s a disgrace. This is disgraceful.
Deutsch again predicted trouble for the GOP on the issue: “I am saying that if the Republicans bite, it’s a stupid move. And what I just said I will stand by.”
An exasperated Scarborough declared: “What about the media biting? What about the media doing their job? What about the media calling a cover-up a cover-up?!” Deutsch laughably replied: “The media has covered this.”
After the contentious exchange, even liberal co-host Mika Brzezinski went after Deutsch:
Now, come on. It’s either they were covering up something or they forgot to release the email. The question we have now is whether they released other prep emails for Susan Rice and where Hillary Clinton stands on all of this. And that may serve the Republicans very well if they don’t have good answers.
[H/T NewsBusters: Kyle Drennen]
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