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Around 25,000 protesters clashed with police in Nantes on Saturday in defiance of a project to build a new airport in the city of Notre Dame des Landes. The protest started peacefully, but clashes broke out as protesters with fireworks, cobblestones, flares, and bottles edged in on a police blockade established near the administrative center. Police responded with water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades.
Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops on Friday as protesters rallied in Hebron to mark twenty years since the massacre of 29 Palestinians at a religious shrine. The 1994 massacre, carried out by Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, led to the closure of a main road in Hebron. The protesters were demonstrating against the closure saying it is disruptive and helps cement Israeli control over the area. Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and threw stun grenades at protesters. A Palestinian medical official said at least two protesters were injured in the clashes.
While the Canadian government is taking a major step backwards for our freedoms by restricting the rights of medicinal marijuana users, Colorado and Washington State have legalized marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use and so Dan Dicks of Press For Truth went to Seattle to investigate!
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BOWLING GREEN – Thanks to the work of the Arizona Tenth Amendment Center, an Arizona state senate committee passed the Restoring Constitutional Governance Act, SB 1291, 4-3 today. This legislation, drafted by the Patriot Coalition, is the strongest in the nation as it explicitly prohibits the laws of war from being used on non-soldiers in Arizona, and Arizona citizens anywhere, and will punish any person, including Federal or international agents, who attempts to utilize those powers.
From Arizona TAC:
“PHOENIX, February 17, 2014 – Today, an Arizona state senate committee gave initial approval to a bill nullifying indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 or any other federal law which might claim to authorize the same. The vote was 4-3.
Introduced by State Sen. Judy Burges, SB1291 would ban the state of Arizona from enforcing sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. These sections purport to give authority to the federal government to indefinitely detain anyone, anywhere – without charge or trial. This bill also covers indefinite detention without due process authorized under “any similar law or authority enacted or claimed by Congress or the President.”
The bill garnered a large number of cosponsors, including Senators Crandell, Farnsworth, Murphy, Melvin, Shooter, Ward and Representatives Borrelli, Mitchell, Seel, Thorpe, Townsend, Barton, Gowan, Livingston, Lovas and Petersen.
“This will be Arizona’s third attempt to essentially nullify the NDAA’s kidnapping and indefinite detainment provisions – which blatantly violate several portions of the constitution,” Henriksen said. ”I look forward to working with Dan to stop that.”
The bill states that anyone in violation of this new legislation would be ”subject to prosecution pursuant to title 13 or any other applicable law.”
If this bill passes into law, Arizona would become the fifth state to take steps to nullify indefinite detention, joining Alaska, California, Michigan and Virginia. Those states have passed similar legislation in the last two years, but far more limited in scope. An additional eight states have legislation based on the Tenth Amendment Center’s model legislation, the Liberty Preservation Act.
“Justice Antonin Scalia said we would be kidding ourselves if we didn’t think the Supreme Court would approve another WWII, Japanese-American style, internment,” Johnson said. “With SB1291, Arizona has a chance to join several states to head this off and avoid repeating a dark part of American history.”
All of these states are following James Madison’s blueprint for stopping federal overreach. In Federalist 46, heargued that a “refusal to comply with officers of the Union” along with other actions at the state and local level would create a situation where the federal government would have an almost impossible time enforcing their acts. When several states join together and do the same, Madison said it would “present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.”
SB1291 moves on to the senate rules committee where it will require approval by majority vote before the full senate can consider it.”
Dan Johnson is the Founder and National Director of People Against the NDAA.
BOWLING GREEN – Thanks to the work of the Arizona Tenth Amendment Center, an Arizona state senate committee passed the Restoring Constitutional Governance Act, SB 1291, 4-3 today. This legislation, drafted by the Patriot Coalition, is the strongest in the nation as it explicitly prohibits the laws of war from being used on non-soldiers in Arizona, and Arizona citizens anywhere, and will punish any person, including Federal or international agents, who attempts to utilize those powers.
From Arizona TAC:
“PHOENIX, February 17, 2014 – Today, an Arizona state senate committee gave initial approval to a bill nullifying indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 or any other federal law which might claim to authorize the same. The vote was 4-3.
Introduced by State Sen. Judy Burges, SB1291 would ban the state of Arizona from enforcing sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. These sections purport to give authority to the federal government to indefinitely detain anyone, anywhere – without charge or trial. This bill also covers indefinite detention without due process authorized under “any similar law or authority enacted or claimed by Congress or the President.”
The bill garnered a large number of cosponsors, including Senators Crandell, Farnsworth, Murphy, Melvin, Shooter, Ward and Representatives Borrelli, Mitchell, Seel, Thorpe, Townsend, Barton, Gowan, Livingston, Lovas and Petersen.
“This will be Arizona’s third attempt to essentially nullify the NDAA’s kidnapping and indefinite detainment provisions – which blatantly violate several portions of the constitution,” Henriksen said. ”I look forward to working with Dan to stop that.”
The bill states that anyone in violation of this new legislation would be ”subject to prosecution pursuant to title 13 or any other applicable law.”
If this bill passes into law, Arizona would become the fifth state to take steps to nullify indefinite detention, joining Alaska, California, Michigan and Virginia. Those states have passed similar legislation in the last two years, but far more limited in scope. An additional eight states have legislation based on the Tenth Amendment Center’s model legislation, the Liberty Preservation Act.
“Justice Antonin Scalia said we would be kidding ourselves if we didn’t think the Supreme Court would approve another WWII, Japanese-American style, internment,” Johnson said. “With SB1291, Arizona has a chance to join several states to head this off and avoid repeating a dark part of American history.”
All of these states are following James Madison’s blueprint for stopping federal overreach. In Federalist 46, heargued that a “refusal to comply with officers of the Union” along with other actions at the state and local level would create a situation where the federal government would have an almost impossible time enforcing their acts. When several states join together and do the same, Madison said it would “present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.”
SB1291 moves on to the senate rules committee where it will require approval by majority vote before the full senate can consider it.”
As we look around at the Police State being built across the world, combined with enhanced mind control techniques, it is easy to draw direct parallels with books like 1984 and Brave New World. It’s almost as if these books formed a clear blueprint for anyone seeking control over large populations.
With the quickening pace of technological advancement it is no surprise to see “ideas” become reality quicker than ever before. Philip K. Dick explored the concept of pre-crime in his short story “The Minority Report” in 1956, but it wasn’t until Steven Spielberg offered it on the big screen as Minority Reportin 2002 that the audience got a true look at a potential day-to-day existence under corporate and government data management and control.
We are now at the point where “Minority Report” is being used as a sound description of current technological applications, even in mainstream news, which means that the future is actually the present. Below you will find 10 signs that we have now entered the world depicted in fiction.
The latest news from Chicago only adds to this list, as police are moving beyond simply possessing the technology and are now putting it into effect.
Chicago’s “Heat List” is an index of approximately 400 people who have been identified by a computer algorithm as being future threats to commit violent crime. Without having actually committed a crime, some of those on the list are beginning to get visits from Chicago police warning them that they are already being watched:
When the Chicago Police Department sent one of its commanders to Robert McDaniel’s home last summer, the 22-year-old high school dropout was surprised. Though he lived in a neighborhood well-known for bloodshed on its streets, he hadn’t committed a crime or interacted with a police officer recently. And he didn’t have a violent criminal record, nor any gun violations. In August, he incredulously told the Chicago Tribune, “I haven’t done nothing that the next kid growing up hadn’t done.” Yet, there stood the female police commander at his front door with a stern message: if you commit any crimes, there will be major consequences. We’re watching you.
Chicago is apparently considering this to be part of “policing in the 21st century.” A report from The Verge explains how Chicago has taken the lead in predictive behavior police tech:
In 2009, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) made millions of dollars in grants available for any police department with a burgeoning predictive program. Police all over the country applied to tap into those NIJ dollars. The big winner was Chicago; its combination of headline-making homicide rates and already established data- and tech-focused policing made it a perfect fit. The CPD received more than $2 million to test two phases of its experimental program.
Though it took awhile to get started in earnest (staff turnover and internal politics in 2011 and 2012 stalled the project), last year the CPD’s predictive program picked up steam. One man behind that progress was Miles Wernick.
Wernick is the Motorola professor and director of the Medical Imaging Research Center at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. He says he’s been doing predictive analysis work since the 1980s, when he worked with the US military to recognize potential targets in the battlefield. From there he proceeded to medical imaging. A lot of his current work focuses on analysing data and brain scans to make automated diagnoses of dementias in elderly patients — not exactly police work.
These paragraphs encapsulate two of the major warnings that the alternative media has been shouting for years: namely that military tech always trickles down into local law enforcement; and, secondly, that Big Data initiatives which are heralded by the establishment as solutions in the computing and medical fields have a range of privacy-killing additional applications that affect people far beyond the initially stated reach.
Also highlighted are the same concerns that are cropping up in the area of NSA spying – association is an assumption of tendency toward eventual guilt. Miles Wernick goes on to say:
“It’s not just shooting somebody, or being shot,” he says. “It has to do with the person’s relationships to other violent people.”
This is in line with what Andrew Papachristos, a Yale sociologist and Chicago native, calls a social networking theory. When it comes to violence, Papachristos recently told Chicago Magazine, “It’s not just about your friends and who you’re hanging out with, it’s actually the structure of these networks that matter.”
So while Wernick acknowledges that sometimes people such as Robert McDaniel — who haven’t been convicted of a violent crime — may find themselves in the wrong social networks, their presence on the list is not random.
A commander of the program stated it even more simply:
If you end up on that list, there’s a reason you’re there.
This indicates a fundamental shift in the way policing will be done in the future of America. Until now, we have been reporting on this type of technology and have been forced to speculate about its coming implementation. Well, now there is no doubt. And lest anyone believe that this is just an outcropping of Chicago’s notoriously Police State-happy mentality, Police Commander Jonathan Lewin matter-of-factly states the following:
This [program] will become a national best practice. This will inform police departments around the country and around the world on how best to utilize predictive policing to solve problems. This is about saving lives. [emphasis added]
Whether it will actually save lives is debatable. Has the No-Fly List saved lives? Have any of the other of the many lists one can be added to these days actually saved any lives? These lists are secretive and have become nearly impossible to independently verify as to how someone got on the list, if they deserve to be there; and, if not, how to get off the list … or if the lists are effective.
The Verge article linked below highlights the potential racial profiling of such policies – and indeed this has happened in the case of New York’s own low-tech Stop-and-Frisk policy.
So the verdict is out on saving lives. But one thing is for certain: the arrival of the high-tech Police State is certainly not about saving freedom, nor is it about preserving a Constitution designed to protect us from a Minority Report society.
Individual pieces of news often get lost or forgotten rather easily in today’s fast-paced news cycle, so let’s look at an aggregate of 10 mainstream news items that offer a comprehensive picture of where we are and where we are likely to be headed both from a government surveillance standpoint, as well as targeted advertising.
1.They’re watching … Japanese electronics company NEC develops ‘Minority Report’ style billboard, The Telegraph, 3/10/2010: “Engineers have developed the billboard, similar to one used in the Tom Cruise blockbuster, that uses built in cameras to instantly identify a shopper’s age and gender as they walk past. The facial-recognition system, called the Next Generation Digital Signage Solution, then offers consumers a product it thinks is suited to their demographic.”
3.The Long Eye of the Law: So Who’s Ready for a ‘Minority Report’-Style Future?Motherboard, 3/20/2013: On Monday, Japanese tech developers Fujitsu announced they had created . . . a bit of technology that can measure a person’s pulse using a camera or a computer webcam, just by analyzing that person’s face . . . It’s Minority Report-style technology, to be sure—another in a burgeoning list of tech-driven ways police could prevent crimes before they happen.”
4.Minority Report moves step closer as Lord Sugar launches face recognition adverts, The Telegraph, 7/9/2013: “The media company has launched OptimEyes, which will be used in more than 6,000 of its screens to target over 50m people in the UK, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, UAE, Oman, Kenya, Angola and South Africa. However, the majority of the screens, some 3,561, are in the UK in doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, convenience stores, petrol forecourts, Halifax banks, airports and train stations . . . The product comes less than a week after Sky Deutschland revealed it has developed technology to transfer adverts from train windows directly and silently into commuters’ heads.
6.Gesture Through News Minority Report-Style With New York Times’ Leap Motion App, Fast Company, 7/18/2013: Rather than having to flick through headlines on a touch-screen device or scroll through articles using a mouse — how antiquated! — the company’s new app allows readers to navigate through stories by motioning their hands in mid-air, with Leap Motion sensors interpreting the signals . . . The New York Times has also suggested it will give the company an opportunity to implement new advertising capabilities ‘that [will] allow brands to connect with readers using motion-controlled ad units.'”
7.Minority Report finally becomes a reality: new hi-tech video wall will let law enforcement agencies sift through data with a wave of their hand, The Daily Mail, 7/23/2013: “The hi-tech computer system behind the film Minority Report – where Tom Cruise speeds through video on a large screen using only hand gestures – is making its way into the real world. American computer experts have revealed the software has become a reality – and they hope to sell it to law enforcement agencies around the world. The interface developed by scientist John Underkoffler has been commercialized by the Los Angeles firm Oblong Industries as a way to sift through massive amounts of video and other data.”
*Also see this report on Big Data and pre-crime software.
9.Minority Report-style Advertising Coming to NYC, 247Sports, 8/8/2013: “Recycling bins data mine your smartphone when you are in proximity to tailor ads when you walk by the screen and stuff. Already in London, looking to expand to NYC and other World cities soon.”
10.Google Submits Patent For Minority Report Style Eye Tracking Device, Prison Planet, 8/15/2013: “The patent filing describes a “head mounted device”, for example hi-tech glasses, that would have the ability to track eye movement, effectively monitoring reactions to external stimuli, including changes in emotion.” From The Verge: “Google could be betting that advertisers will pay to know whether consumers are actually looking at their billboards, magazine spreads, and online ads.”
From the patent application, which was filed in May 2011:
Pay per gaze advertising need not be limited to on-line advertisements, but rather can be extended to conventional advertisement media including billboards, magazines, newspapers, and other forms of conventional print media. Thus, the gaze tracking system described herein offers a mechanism to track and bill offline advertisements in the manner similar to popular online advertisement schemes.
***********
The ways that we are tracked, traced, and databased are increasing every day. Some of it is arriving without our agreement and is being utilized by private corporations and governments without our explicit approval, as the recent revelations of data spying have exposed. If we have learned one thing it is that information is knowledge and knowledge is power. The power of data collection in the hands of those who wish to exert more control is not likely to halt. And all indications show that it is not enough to have logged and charted where we have been; the surveillance state wants to know where we are going.
Our Orwellian world is beginning to look nostalgic compared to what is in production. Neuroscientists in 2010 stated that they know you better than you know yourself. Meanwhile, it is being estimated that computers know to a 93% accuracy where you will be, before you make your first move. The recent major global funding of neuroscience and narrative control indicates that the final target is the human brain and every thought that resides there.
However, we ought to be aware that much of our data is willingly being given via social media and the gadgets we choose to buy. As technology continues to march forward at an exponential rate, we might do well to consider how much of this we are comfortable buying into. And if we must, should we be seeking ways to subvert the information stream?
Shia villages outside Bahrain’s capital have been left shrouded in tear gas after fierce clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators. The protest movement is marking three years of its uprising against the ruling Sunni monarchy, which has been met with a relentless crackdown and thousands of arrests. RT’s Alexey Yaroshevsky reports on the long-running standoff.
BOWLING GREEN – Several national and local artists, inspirational speakers, and activists are coming together for an NDAA Resistance concert tour this spring. Artists include Saving Abel, The Siren, Jordan Page, Tatiana Moroz, and more, with nationally renowned speakers from across the political spectrum like antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, Dan Johnson, We Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski, Jeff Lewis from the Patriot Coalition and more.
Signed on December 31st, 2011, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has been largely ignored by mainstream media sources. It received a whopping two mentions of primetime CNN coverage, 45 seconds of FOX News coverage, and 30 minutes from MSNBC. Comedy Central had a larger segment on the NDAA than most of these networks combined.
Since the 2012 NDAA is the first law in American history to authorize the indefinite military detention of any person, including American citizens, adding Congressional approval to the same actions of the now-infamous executive order authorizing the detention of 110,000 Japanese-Americans in WWII. The detention sections, 1021 and 1022, authorize the President to detain, torture, or extra-judicially execute any person, including someone on U.S. Soil, merely suspected of terrorism without a charge, trial, or a day in court.
Founded in January 2012, People Against the NDAA (PANDA), and the NDAA Resistance it created, is the nations leading movement against the detention provisions of the 2012 NDAA. Since 2012, PANDA has introduced 21 pieces of state-level legislation, helped citizens ban the laws of war in four cities, and raised national awareness of the issue reaching 30,000 – 1.2 million people per week through email, Facebook, twitter and partner sites, .
Since the mainstream media has refused to cover such an important issue, PANDA has gathered nearly 20 artists, a crack event team led by Robert Rodrigo and Rustic Justice Productions, and several powerful speakers to get the word out a different way: through music.
The goals of the Take Back Tour are threefold. Firstly, to bring awareness to the NDAA, and spark serious action against it as PANDA has done in the past. Secondly, to encourage local-level action on the issues. Our lawmakers in D.C. want to live in a bubble, so let them. Take local level action to solve national issues. Thirdly, to bring people, especially youth, from across the political spectrum together to discuss issues. There is a huge left/right divide in this nation, and we need to unite to defeat threats like the 2012 NDAA. If we cannot hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
The Take Back Tour will stop in Kalamazoo, MI on April 19th, the anniversary of the beginning of the American revolution, Atlanta, GA on May 25th, the anniversary of the Constitutional Convention, and Albany, NY on June 7th, anniversary of the introduction of the Resolution for Independence to the colonies.
How can I help?
PANDA has launched an IndieGogo campaign to raise the $10,000 necessary to cover the initial costs of the Tour. Donate and receive awesome perks like tickets to the event of your choice, meet and greet with the artists, shout-outs on the Facebook page, and PANDA gear. If you run an organization, business, or other group you want to advertise, get your logo and name in front of thousands of people for rock-bottom prices, while supporting activism in your community. HELP LAUNCH THE TOUR: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/panda-take-back-concert-tour/x/6276168
If you have more time than money, you can help by volunteering for the tour. We are currently looking for graphic designers, video editors, and writers, but anyone can help make this tour a success. Email us at events@pandaunite.org If you have a group, and want to sponsor the Tour, the more publicity this gets the better. Contact us HERE: http://pandaunite.org/aboutus/contactus/
We don’t need the mainstream media. We don’t need D.C. Help spread the word about this Take Back Tour across social media, publish it on a blog, or write about it for your hometown newspaper. Let’s rock the nation awake.
###
BOWLING GREEN – Several national and local artists, inspirational speakers, and activists are coming together for an NDAA Resistance concert tour this spring. Artists include Saving Abel, The Siren, Jordan Page, Tatiana Moroz, and more, with nationally renowned speakers from across the political spectrum like antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, Dan Johnson, We Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski, Jeff Lewis from the Patriot Coalition and more.
Signed on December 31st, 2011, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has been largely ignored by mainstream media sources. It received a whopping two mentions of primetime CNN coverage, 45 seconds of FOX News coverage, and 30 minutes from MSNBC. Comedy Central had a larger segment on the NDAA than most of these networks combined.
Since the 2012 NDAA is the first law in American history to authorize the indefinite military detention of any person, including American citizens, adding Congressional approval to the same actions of the now-infamous executive order authorizing the detention of 110,000 Japanese-Americans in WWII. The detention sections, 1021 and 1022, authorize the President to detain, torture, or extra-judicially execute any person, including someone on U.S. Soil, merely suspected of terrorism without a charge, trial, or a day in court.
Founded in January 2012, People Against the NDAA (PANDA), and the NDAA Resistance it created, is the nations leading movement against the detention provisions of the 2012 NDAA. Since 2012, PANDA has introduced 21 pieces of state-level legislation, helped citizens ban the laws of war in four cities, and raised national awareness of the issue reaching 30,000 – 1.2 million people per week through email, Facebook, twitter and partner sites, .
Since the mainstream media has refused to cover such an important issue, PANDA has gathered nearly 20 artists, a crack event team led by Robert Rodrigo and Rustic Justice Productions, and several powerful speakers to get the word out a different way: through music.
The goals of the Take Back Tour are threefold. Firstly, to bring awareness to the NDAA, and spark serious action against it as PANDA has done in the past. Secondly, to encourage local-level action on the issues. Our lawmakers in D.C. want to live in a bubble, so let them. Take local level action to solve national issues. Thirdly, to bring people, especially youth, from across the political spectrum together to discuss issues. There is a huge left/right divide in this nation, and we need to unite to defeat threats like the 2012 NDAA. If we cannot hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
The Take Back Tour will stop in Kalamazoo, MI on April 19th, the anniversary of the beginning of the American revolution, Atlanta, GA on May 25th, the anniversary of the Constitutional Convention, and Albany, NY on June 7th, anniversary of the introduction of the Resolution for Independence to the colonies.
How can I help?
PANDA has launched an IndieGogo campaign to raise the $10,000 necessary to cover the initial costs of the Tour. Donate and receive awesome perks like tickets to the event of your choice, meet and greet with the artists, shout-outs on the Facebook page, and PANDA gear. If you run an organization, business, or other group you want to advertise, get your logo and name in front of thousands of people for rock-bottom prices, while supporting activism in your community. HELP LAUNCH THE TOUR: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/panda-take-back-concert-tour/x/6276168
If you have more time than money, you can help by volunteering for the tour. We are currently looking for graphic designers, video editors, and writers, but anyone can help make this tour a success. Email us at events@pandaunite.org If you have a group, and want to sponsor the Tour, the more publicity this gets the better. Contact us HERE: http://pandaunite.org/aboutus/contactus/
We don’t need the mainstream media. We don’t need D.C. Help spread the word about this Take Back Tour across social media, publish it on a blog, or write about it for your hometown newspaper. Let’s rock the nation awake.
PN 