For the first time, NSA deputy director John C. Inglis disclosed Wednesday that the agency sometimes conducts what's known as three-hop analysis. That means the government can look at the phone data of a suspect terrorist, plus the data of all of his contacts, then all of those people's contacts, and finally, all of those people's contacts.

If the average person calls 40 unique people, three-hop analysis could allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist. link

Blink.  Blink.  That would be the definition of a "show trial" (as they say in Russia.)

What is terrifying to the politicians at the top is that you may be our truest patriot at the moment. Which makes all of them, with their marble buildings and illustrious titles, their security details and all the pomp, the flags, the saluting soldiers, so many traitors. The government is the enemy of the people; the state is the enemy of the country. I love that country, too. I fear that state and this new information age as they spread and twine like a poison vine around everything and everyone. You held up a mirror and fools hate the mirror for it; they shoot the messenger, but the message has been delivered.

more...
Emerging From Darkness, the Edward Snowden Story
Rebecca Solnit, writing at TomDispatch, 8:15am, July 18, 2013

Vol. 71
Vol. 70
And a rerun, Vol. 10

The nonsensical theories about who should do what by all these supposed freedom loving people amazes me.

Ralph Nader's long-awaited Tort Museum project may have finally found its home.....

....Nader first expressed interest in creating a museum dedicated to the liabilities of wrong doings over 10 years ago, proposing exhibits that highlighted faulty products such as the Ford Pinto and untreated flammable pajamas, but was met with some skepticism. A 1998 New York Times article wondered, "Would it be able to serve hot coffee in a museum cafe for fear of scalding customers' mouths? Should display cases be built without sharp corners that could accidentally cut frisky children? And will lawyers whose work is portrayed in a less-than-flattering light sue for defamation?"

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) is not the father of a 24-year-old woman he believed was his out-of-wedlock daughter, a paternity test performed by CNN revealed Thursday.

The DNA test found that there was a zero percent chance that Cohen was the father of Victoria Brink, who in fact is the biological daughter of Texas oilman John Brink.

In a statement, Cohen said he was "stunned and dismayed" by the result of the test.

"I was overjoyed when I was informed that Victoria was my daughter," Cohen said. "Since then, I have given her my unconditional love and done my best at being a father as I tried to make up for lost time."

"I was stunned and dismayed when DNA tests disproved what Victoria and I believed about our relationship. I still love Victoria, hold dear the time I have shared with her, and hope to continue to be a part of her life."

Rakes had long alleged publicly that Bulger and the Winter Hill mob coerced him at gunpoint to sell his liquor store back in 1984, and he was reportedly upset when told earlier this week by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office that prosecutors were not going to call him to the stand. His cause of death is under investigation.

The 83-year-old Bulger is currently on trial in federal court in Boston, after having been arrested in June 2011 in Santa Monica, CA following 16 years on the lam.

The City of Detroit filed this afternoon for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in federal court, laying the groundwork for a historic effort to bail out a major U.S. city that is sinking under billions of dollars in debt and decades of mismanagement, population flight and loss of tax revenue.

The filing begins a 30- to 90-day period that will determine whether the city is eligible for Chapter 9 protection and define how many claimants might compete for the limited settlement resources that Detroit has to offer. The bankruptcy petition would seek protection from creditors and unions who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and other liabilities

The city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, making it the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history and marking a new low for a city that was the cradle of the U.S. automotive industry.

Chicago Tribune

Detroit's two pension funds filed their lawsuit Wednesday against Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr earlier than initially planned because of the pace of the city's march toward bankruptcy.

Detroit Free Press

And home to one of America's great collections of art the DIA may be forced to sell off its collection.

When Johnathan Shearrod gazes at van Gogh's "Self Portrait," Bruegel the Elder's "Wedding Dance" or any of the other treasures at the Detroit Institute of Arts, he can't help but fear for their future.

If Detroit falls into bankruptcy, those masterpieces and other prized artwork could go on the auction block to help satisfy the city's staggering debts. Though the auctions would raise much-needed cash, they would also strip the city of its cultural riches, including paintings by Rivera, Renoir and Matisse, and maybe even zoo animals and historic automobiles.

Here's why:

A headline about the health care law driving down premiums, by this level of magnitude, is a rarity. But it shouldn't be shocking: New York has, for two decades now, had the highest individual market premiums in the country. A lot of it seems to trace back to a law passed in 1993, which required insurance plans to accept all applicants, regardless of how sick or healthy they were. That law did not, however, require everyone to sign up, as the Affordable Care Act does.

New York has, for 20 years now, been a long-running experiment in what happens to universal coverage without an individual mandate. It's the type of law the country would have if House Republicans succeeded in delaying the individual mandate, as they will vote to do this afternoon. The result: a small insurance market with very high insurance premiums.

SNIP

While insurers in states such as Maryland predicted the general mix of people they cover to become significantly less healthy, as those with pre-existing conditions flooded into the individual market, the Deloitte report predicted the exact opposite. Analysts expected all the healthier people, previously scared off by the high premiums, to come into the system.

A less sick population generally means a less expensive population, as insurers calibrate their premiums to the amount of claims they expect to pay in the next year.

"The expected increase in the size of the non-group market post-ACA could introduce a much more typical distribution of health care needs to this market," the Deloitte paper predicted, "Thus leading to significantly lower premiums."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is considering canceling a fall summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a move that would further aggravate the already tense relationship between the two leaders.

The White House is dangling that option over the Russians as Moscow considers a temporary asylum petition from Edward Snowden, the American accused of leaking information about classified U.S. intelligence programs. But officials have privately signaled that scrapping the bilateral talks would also be retaliation for other areas of disagreement with Russia, including its continued support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's attacks against civilians.

Regardless of what happens with Snowden, the White House says Obama will still attend an international summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. But officials have gone out of their way in recent days to avoid publicly committing to the meetings in Moscow. link

Trustees in Deer Trail, a town of just 600, will bring up an ordinance next month that would allow residents to pay $25 for a license to shoot down "unmanned aerial vehicles" flying under 1,000 feet with a 12-gauge shotgun, according to Reuters. Anyone who could produce "either the nose or the tail" of a drone would be paid $100 under the proposal.

The resident who crafted the measure, Army veteran Phillip Steel, told Reuters that his proposal is symbolic, although he finds the government's use of drones for surveillance purposes disturbing.

"If you don't want your drone to go down, don't fly it in town," Steel said. link

The PBS series "Downton Abbey" was nominated for best drama series, as well as in all four acting categories: best actor (Hugh Bonneville), best actress (Michelle Dockery), best supporting actor (Jim Carter) and best supporting actress (Dame Maggie Smith). AMC's "Breaking Bad" and Mad Men," HBO's "Game of Thrones," Showtime's "Homeland" and Netflix's "House of Cards" round out the competition in the drama category.

In comedy, the just-concluded NBC series "30 Rock" scored 13 nominations in its final go-round, including best comedy series, best actress (Tina Fey) and best actor (Alec Baldwin). Its competition this year includes "Modern Family (ABC), "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS), "Girls" (HBO), "Veep" (HBO) and "Louie" (FX).

Among individual shows, FX's miniseries "American Horror Story: Asylum" led the way today with 17 nominations, including best miniseries / movie,  best actress (Jessica Lange) and two for best supporting actor (James Cromwell and Zachary Quinto). Along with the aforementioned "Behind the Candelabra," HBO's "Phil Spector" is also in the running, as are its lead actors Al Pacino and Helen Mirren and director David Memet.  

Always fun to note are the perceived Emmy snubs, which this year include Julianna Marguiles ("The Good Wife"), Michael C. Hall ("Dexter"), Jon Cryer ("Two and Half Men"), Eric Stonestreet ("Modern Family"), Steve Buscemi ("Boardwalk Empire"), FX's "Sons of Anarchy" and AMC's popular zombie apocalypse series, "The Walking Dead."

The ever-popular Neil Patrick Harris will be back again as host for The Emmy Awards, which will air Sept. 22 on CBS.

DNA tests confirm that the man who once claimed to be the Boston Strangler did kill the woman believed to be the serial killer's last victim and was likely responsible for the deaths of the other victims, authorities said Friday.

Albert DeSalvo admitted to killing Mary Sullivan and 10 other women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964 but later recanted. He was later killed in prison.

The DNA finding "leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan" and it was "most likely" that he also was the Boston Strangler, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.

Authorities said recently that new technology allowed them to test semen left at the crime scene of Sullivan's death using DNA from a living relative of DeSalvo's. That produced a match with DeSalvo that excluded 99.9 percent of suspects.

To confirm the match, investigators unearthed his remains a week ago and said Friday that the odds that the semen belonged to a male other than DeSalvo were 1 in 220 billion.