June 2013
5 posts
I am about to close this tumblr down
I am closing down all services I use that are PRISM related, moving over the last ones to (mostly distributed) alternatives. This tumblr will cease to exist in 3 days.
If you want the news I pass on, follow @lilithlela on twitter, or visit the “privately investigating” self-hosted blog.
This tumblr will also be closed. I am still on twitter as @NanaSilvergrim and running a self-hosted blog that will just become that little bit more used.
I will be adding the most interesting tumblrs that I follow to my rss feeds, so I will still be reading your contributions and reblogging with links to sources.
Discovery of Monsanto GMO wheat threatens #US exports (to #Japan) →
rt.com
I don’t think some “rapid test” kit is going to save the day for importing from an untrusted source.
Turkey, in case it is needed: Dial up internet access VPN Jabber … #occupygezi →
cyberguerrilla.org
These dial-up numbers are meant to help you connect to the Internet in case of blackout. Please be aware that they don’t prevent wiretapping (usual care applies, like using HTTPS) and they do cost the price of an international call.
France (provided by FDN)
Phone Number:
+33172890150
Username:
toto
Password:
toto
Sweden (provided by Gotanet)
Phone Number:
+46708671911
Username:
toto
Password:
toto
The Netherlands (provided by XS4ALL)
Phone Number:
+31205350535
Username:
xs4all
Password:
xs4all
Report a broken line
If you’re experiencing issues with one of the lines listed above please let us know. If you have a dial-up line and want to help people to connect, feel free to contact us @TelecomixSyria and we’ll list it
The CyberGuerrilla Anonymous Nexus also provide OpenVPN accounts, Jabber OTR, Crypto chat and secure mail al on servers of our own without logging ip’s. See https://www.cyberguerrilla.org/nexus/?page_id=110 and https://www.cyberguerrilla.org/nexus/ for what we can offer for ur safety contact @Doemela
May 2013
12 posts
Play
Top Watchdogs Absent at Agencies Representing 58% of U.S. Budget →
bloomberg.com
The U.S. State Department’s top watchdog, Howard “Cookie” Krongard, quit in January 2008, accused of impeding a federal probe of corruption and waste in Iraq.
More than five years later, the job is still vacant.
The State Department is among five agencies in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet without an inspector general. Those departments account for more than half the nation’s $1.29 trillion discretionary budget. The empty posts have left a wide gap in oversight of spending on weapons, embassy security and technology, according to academics and watchdog organizations.
“When you look at the magnitude of the budgets that these inspectors general should be keeping an eye on, not having independent, aggressive audits of those agencies is very troubling,” said Joe Newman, a spokesman for the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based nonprofit organization.
Anthrax drug brings $334 million to Pentagon advisor's biotech firm →
latimes.com
Over the last decade, former Navy Secretary Richard J. Danzig, a prominent lawyer, presidential advisor and biowarfare consultant to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, has urged the government to counter what he called a major threat to national security.
Terrorists, he warned, could easily engineer a devastating killer germ: a form of anthrax resistant to common antibiotics.
U.S. intelligence agencies have never established that any nation or terrorist group has made such a weapon, and biodefense scientists say doing so would be very difficult. Nevertheless, Danzig has energetically promoted the threat — and prodded the government to stockpile a new type of drug to defend against it.
Danzig did this while serving as a director of a biotech startup that won $334 million in federal contracts to supply just such a drug, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
By his own account, Danzig encouraged Human Genome Sciences Inc. to develop the compound, and from 2001 through 2012 he collected more than $1 million in director’s fees and other compensation from the company, records show.
The drug, raxibacumab, or raxi, was the first product the company was able to sell, and the U.S. government remains the only customer, at a cost to date of about $5,100 per dose.
A number of senior federal officials whom Danzig advised on the threat of bioterrorism and what to do about it said they were unaware of his role at Human Genome.
Dr. Philip K. Russell, a biodefense official in the George W. Bush administration who attended invitation-only seminars on bioterrorism led by Danzig, said he did not know about Danzig’s tie to the biotech company until The Times asked him about it.
“Holy smoke—that was a horrible conflict of interest,” said Russell, a physician and retired Army major general who helped lead the government’s efforts to prepare for biological attacks.
Federal law bars U.S. officials, including consultants, from giving advice on matters in which they or a company on whose board they serve have “a financial interest.”
Danzig said in an interview that he believed his position at Human Genome posed no conflict.
How Billionaire David Koch Gets PBS To Dance, Monkey, Dance →
gothamist.com
For us, this old voiceover brings back wholesome childhood memories: “Funding for this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.” But thanks to Republicans and people like David Koch, only 12% of PBS’s funding comes from the federal government. “Viewers like you” can barely pay their rent, let alone donate sizable amounts to PBS. So the public’s network is forced to “create content that educates, informs and inspires,” so long as it does not offend the plutocrats who keep it alive—even if that means censoring documentary filmmakers.
According to a deeply depressing report in this week’s New Yorker, David Koch withheld a “seven-figure” donation to New York’s cash-starved PBS affiliate, WNET, after a documentary critical of the Kochs aired in November. Jane Mayer, somewhat of an authority on the Kochs, reports that Koch’s influence essentially killed the airing of another film on PBS entitled Citizen Koch.
Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel exposed for killing animals for profit →
guardian.co.uk
These channels are failing the spirit of conservationism and education. They are failing inspiring awe in young people. Failing much needed inspiration in a very confused and conflicted world.
These shows are failing their core values, their main purpose, which is leadership in environmentalism and cultural education. Far worse, they are failing millions of young people - millions - who look up to them.
Please join me in asking Discovery, Animal Planet, and the History Channels to stop, apologize, and correct.
April 2013
9 posts
“April 12, 2013 | When McCraig and Miles Warren tried to claim their first-class seats on a US Airways flight, an employee told them to first change into more appropriate attire, according to a federal discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday. A ticket counter employee repeatedly told the Warrens, who are both black, that their jeans, hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps violated an alleged first-class dress code. As the complaint states: Doe employee informed plaintiffs that it was US Airways policy that everyone in first class is required to wear slacks, button up shirts and no baseball caps. Doe employee demanded plaintiffs to change from jeans into slacks, a button-up shirt and told plaintiffs to remove their baseball caps. The Warrens reportedly headed to the restroom where Miles conferred to a white passenger, Michael Heffernan, that he was worried he’d miss his flight because of his apparent dress-code violation. So, imagine Miles’ surprise when he saw Mr. Heffernan and a friend sitting in first-class, wearing almost the exact same outfits that barred the Warrens from sitting in their seats—jeans and hoodies. Andrew Christie, a spokesperson for US Airways told AlterNet, “We’ve received the complaint and are currently reviewing it.”
—US Airways Tells Black Passengers to Change Out of Jeans and Hoodies Before Boarding First-Class | Alternet (via aboriginalpressnews)
“Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women’s movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a prime minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity. MORRISSEY.”
—
Singer Morrissey’s Scathing Letter to the Public About Margaret Thatcher: “A Terror Without an Atom of Humanity” | Alternet (via aboriginalpressnews)
Note: I don’t think it will be “never”, but it may take several generations because of status quo gender perceptions and oppression. With all the atrocities and terror spread by male presidents and prime ministers, people are still “voting” for males in such roles.
Gender plays no part in my book. I happen to be a woman. Do I want that door? Do I want “leadership”? Do I want “domination” (except as agreed-upon roleplay in a “bedroom”)? Nope. I am all for “dominion” tho.
Monsanto Company: Tell The Truth About Pesticide-Resistant "Superworms"! →
act.watchdog.net
An agricultural giant called the Monsanto Company has risen to the top of the corporate food chains thanks to their genetically modified corn and soybean sees, seeds bred to withstand and even produce their own herbicides and pesticides.
But in the decades since they’ve appeared on the scene, two more things have sprung up: a new crop of “superweeds” that have evolved to resist our chemicals, and root worms that have become insecticide-resistant “superworms,” both of which are set to swarm the Midwest in the coming year.
Rather than come clean, Monsanto has been covering their tracks, working to market their corn as fresh produce and spending millions to kill California’s Prop 37 requirement to label their corn and soybeans as genetically modified products.
The FDA still doesn’t require safety studies for Monsanto’s new strains, they’re designing food to produce dangerous chemicals, and these same chemicals have been breeding superworms that will devastate the landscape in the decades to come.
Don’t stay silent. Please, join us in calling on Monsanto to stop fighting Prop 37 in California, and spread this information on the danger of genetically engineered crops to as many friends as you can.
It’s time we knew what’s in the food we’re eating and the crops these companies are growing. Stop the superworm swarm: Join us in calling for greater transparency at the Monsanto Company!
(Please click the headline to sign the petition.)