The real IRS scandal

By Herman Schwartz – As rewritten and interpreted by the IRS, the tax-exempt statute cannot be applied in any clear and consistent way – particularly by a shell-shocked, under-staffed and under-trained agency. The agency’s primary purpose is to collect money, yet it was mandated to evaluate partisan political activity.

Because the IRS has now been condemned so harshly on all sides, it may approve just about anything. Big money will likely be able to continue spending billions of secret dollars – and making a mockery of democracy.

That’s the real scandal. more> http://tinyurl.com/n6fu44e

Related articles

• IRS Officials in DC Oversaw Targeting Operation in Cincinnati (independentsentinel.com)
• “Focusing On The Wrong People”: The Real IRS Scandal Is Secret Money Influencing US Elections (mykeystrokes.com)
• The Real Scandal at the IRS (bloomberg.com)

You Probably Agreed to NSA Snooping When You Accepted That Website’s Terms of Service

By Victor Luckerson – Tucked away in those long paragraphs of legalese on pretty much every major Internet website (including Time.com) is a clause about how a business will handle your private data when the feds come knocking. In general, these companies grant themselves wide latitude. Yahoo says it might hand out your data to investigate or prevent “situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person.” Facebook will respond to a court order, search warrant or other legal request “if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so.” Apple provides user data to government agencies if “for purposes of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary or appropriate.”

Whatever the case, the now-acknowledged program takes data collection to a scope beyond what many users likely expected and possibly beyond what some companies’ terms of service allow. more> http://tinyurl.com/kl56mmw

Related>

• Updates from Senator Rand Paul ↓
• Buying into Big Brother ←
• European Internet Dialogue: how to serve the public interest? Gutenberg, neurope.eu
• U.S. surveillance architecture includes collection of revealing Internet, phone metadata, Barton Gellman, Washington Post
• After Profits, Defense Contractor Faces the Pitfalls of Cybersecurity, David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth, NYTimes.com
• Potential Blind Spots in Clearance Process that Gave Snowden Top-Secret Access, Andrew Katz, TIME
• NSA leaks threaten Obama’s G8 agenda, Julian Pecquet, Hill
• NSA spying flap extends to contents of U.S. phone calls, Declan McCullagh, CNET News
• NSA spying just pushes envelope, Charles Krauthammer, Boston Herald
• Obama doesn’t think NSA programs violated Americans’ privacy, WH says, Lindsey Boerma, CBS News

Related articles

• NSA programs may be legal, but are they ethical? (cbsnews.com)

Buying into Big Brother

BOOK REVIEW

Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics, Author: Nicholas Wapshott.

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Author: George Orwell.

By Nicholas Wapshott – Some, like Google and Facebook, pose primarily as software companies when their main revenue source, and their main business, is to mine data and sell advertisers access to customers. We knew this already, of course, though it seems many of us would prefer to forget the true nature of the technology firms that have boomed in the last decade. Seduced by their dazzling baubles, we have bought in to Big Brother without truly understanding the true price we are paying and will continue to pay for access to their brave new world.

We all use George Orwell’s phrase “Big Brother” to describe an overweening state. Just as telling about the way big government and big business treat small people, however, is Orwell’s satire on fake democratic slogans: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” more> http://tinyurl.com/nxqh6h7

Related>

• Updates from Senator Bernie Sanders ↓
• You Probably Agreed to NSA Snooping When You Accepted That Website’s Terms of Service →
• How Big Is the NSA Police State, Really? ←
• Would Ben Franklin Trade Liberty for Wiretapping? Benjamin Wittes, Brookings Institution
• Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind, Claire Cain Miller, NYTimes.com
• Edward Snowden shows evolution of smuggling secrets, Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times
• T-Mobile, Verizon not under U.S. data watch due to foreign ties: WSJ, Reuters
• Feds hunted for Snowden in days before NSA programs went public, Mark Hosenball, Reuters/Yahoo
• Utah home to NSA’s new mega-warehouse for data, Brady McCombs, AP
• NSA surveillance retrospective: AT&T, Verizon never denied it, Declan McCullagh, CNET News
• Response to Revelations of NSA’s Data Collection Program: From Denial to Nonchalance, Andrew Katz, TIME
• Big Brother Is Watching You Swipe: The NSA’s Credit Card Data Grab, Martha C. White, TIME
• The Real Reason Telecoms Cooperate on National Security? Money, Ira Stoll, TIME

Economic worries and the global elite

By Chrystia Freeland – Here’s one sign the global elite is starting to get worried that capitalism isn’t working for the Western middle class. At the TED Global gathering in Scotland’s elegant capital city this week, much of the spotlight was on what’s going wrong with the 21st-century economy.

That matters because the TED conferences are one of the obligatory stops on the itinerary of any self-regarding plutocrat.

Former Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece is a son of privilege — both his father and grandfather were prime ministers of Greece — but, in a sign of the times, he inveighed against “plutocrats hiding their assets in tax havens” and “powerful lobbies protecting the powerful few.” His comments made an impact partly because he was so open in declaring his own shortcomings. Nor did he shy away from how angry a lot of people are about them. more> http://tinyurl.com/nbs7s3s

Related>

• Will The 21st Century Be A Horror Show Of Epic Proportions? Tim Reuter, Forbes
• A Rapidly Evolving World, Jean-David Levitte, Brookings Institution

Google’s Not-So-Evil Plan To Lower Your Cable Bill

By Jeff Bercovici – The most compelling theory about what Google’s really up to came from Jason Bazinet, an analyst who covers cable, satellite and entertainment at Citigroup C -1.02% Global Markets. In Bazinet’s view, Google Fiber is a regulatory play aimed at driving down the cost of a cable subscription.

While Google could theoretically solve that problem by rolling out Fiber nationwide, it would be an enormous undertaking, and an unnecessary one, says Bazinet. All it has to do is introduce it to a few selected markets and then watch how the cable operators in those markets respond. If they drop their prices to compete with the ultrafast, ultracheap Fiber, they’ll have to do the same in other markets or else face uncomfortable questions from regulators about why they charge more in cities where they face less competition. more> http://tinyurl.com/la3ft3f

Related>

• Only 2% of Europeans have ultrafast broadband, New Europe