cannabis – Jupiter Broadcasting

Guccifer 2.0 debunks DNC claim it was hacked by Russia & we dig through some of the leaked docs. The gun debate is going crazy in the US & the 2016 election could be about to take a major twist.

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The post DNC_Secret_Documents.zip | Unfilter 193 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Echo Chambered Press | Unfilter 187

chris — Wed, 11 May 2016 20:54:54 +0000

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Fooling the press & bragging about it, a new tool in the cyber war built to replace humans, emails still plague Hillary & we bust the recent anti-weed spin.

Plus a packed Overtime & much more!

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What is the TPP | Unfilter 162

chris — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 21:02:51 +0000

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The Trans Pacific Partnership, Obama’s big legacy making deal is signed. Early details about how it handles copyright law, the pharma industry & labor have been leaked. We dig into how the TPP will impact online intellectual property & consumers.

Plus deeper look at Russia’s involvement in Syria, a high note & much more!

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U.S. Weaponry Is Turning Syria Into Proxy War With Russia – The New York Times

CIA Weapons now flooding into Syria since Russian support began.

The American-made TOW antitank missiles began arriving in the region in 2013, through a covert program run by the United States, Saudi Arabia and other allies to help certain C.I.A.-vetted insurgent groups battle the Syrian government.
The weapons are delivered to the field by American allies, but the United States approves their destination. That suggests that the newly steady battlefield supply has at least tacit American approval, now that Russian air power is backing President Bashar al-Assad.
“By bombing us, Russia is bombing the 13 ‘Friends of Syria’ countries,” he said, referring to the group of the United States and its allies that called for the ouster of Mr. Assad after his crackdown on political protests in 2011.

The C.I.A. program that delivered the TOWs (an acronym for tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles) is separate from — and significantly larger than — the failed $500 million Pentagon program that was canceled last week after it trained only a handful of fighters. That was unsuccessful largely because few recruits would agree to its goal of fighting only the militant Islamic State and not Mr. Assad.

Rebel commanders scoffed when asked about reports of the delivery of 500 TOWs from Saudi Arabia, saying it was an insignificant number compared with what is available. Saudi Arabia in 2013 ordered more than 13,000 of them. Given that American weapons contracts require disclosure of the “end user,” insurgents said they were being delivered with Washington’s approval.

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Radicalized and Viral | Unfilter 147

chris — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 22:10:12 +0000

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Over the weekend the media blew the doors off the Cyber propaganda, cranking up the fear machine over ISIS radicalization via one tweet at a time. We’ll give you our analysis on the larger motive behind this media blitz.

Plus the new plan to fight ISIS that’s just like the old plan, the details on that big gov data breach & a high-note that might inspire your next big idea!

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Reigning In Blood | Unfilter 145

chris — Wed, 27 May 2015 22:40:29 +0000

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The media is sure the “strategy” against ISIS has failed & the time has come for boots on the ground in Iraq again, but the real game is a much longer player & the intention is to sell the American public on arming more militants. We’ll break it down.

The Senate fails to reform NSA spying & the Patriot Act is set to expire this Sunday. We’ll explain where things are at & why regardless of anything, the larger transgressions by the NSA are being left untouched.

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The Senate Fails to Reform NSA Spying, Votes Against USA Freedom Act

A last-minute bid to reform NSA spying before lawmakers break for a week-long recess failed early Saturday morning after hours of debate and filibuster overnight when Senate lawmakers voted 57-42 against the USA Freedom Act.

Senator Mitch McConnell then tried to lead an effort to extend the key provision in the Patriot Act that has been used to justify NSA spying, which is set to expire on June 1. But that vote also failed. Temporarily, that means the government’s bulk collection of phone records from U.S. telecoms is on hold.

USA Freedom Act aimed to put an end to that program, first uncovered by USA Today in 2006 and re-exposed in 2013 by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The bill called for records to be retained by telecoms and would have forced the NSA to obtain court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gain access to them. It also would have required the agency to use specific search terms to narrow its access to only relevant records.

A companion bill passed in the House earlier this month by a landslide vote of 338 to 88 but encountered trouble in the Senate where opponents said it would handicap the fight against terrorism and harm national security.

Proponents of the bill were pushing to get it passed before lawmakers could vote on whether or not to re-authorize sections of the US Patriot Act. Section 215, which the government has long said legally justifies its collection of phone records, is set to expire at midnight June 1.

On Patriot Act Renewal and USA Freedom Act: Glenn Greenwald Talks With ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer – The Intercept

Unlike many privacy and civil liberties groups, the ACLU has refrained from endorsing the USA Freedom Act and instead is advocating for allowing the Patriot Act provisions to sunset — i.e., to die a long overdue death rather than being “reformed.” Meanwhile, almost all of the 86 “no” votes in the House were based on the argument that the USA Freedom Act either does not go far enough in limiting the NSA or that it actually makes things worse.

Defeat in Senate

The USA Freedom Act was rejected by the U.S. Senate on May 22, 2015. By a vote of 57-42, the Senate did not pass the bill that would have required 60 votes to move forward, which means that the NSA must start winding down its domestic mass surveillance program this week. The Senate also rejected, by 54-45, also short of the necessary 60 votes, a two-month extension for the key provision in the Patriot Act that has been used to justify NSA spying, which is set to expire on June 1, 2015.

Inside the battle for Ramadi: Iraqi soldier speaks

He believes that the order to withdraw was a betrayal. The Iraqi government has said it launched an investigation to find out what went wrong and how the order was issued, but so far, no one has given a viable explanation.

“I want to quit the army, I would, if I thought I wouldn’t get into trouble,” Al-Yassiri says. “I want to join the militias and go back to the fight.”

Ramadi Fell to ISIS Fighters Even Though They Were ‘Vastly Outnumbered’ by Iraqi

The city of Ramadi is controlled by “hundreds” of ISIS fighters who were able to seize the city after Iraqi military commanders ordered the withdrawal of several thousand Iraqi troops from the city.

That’s according to a U.S. official who also confirmed that the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Ramadi may have been prompted by the unexplained pullout of the elite Iraqi counterterrorism force based in the city.

The pullout of the Iraqi counterterrorism unit from Ramadi first appeared in the Kurdish news agency Rudaw.

Ramadi – Wikipedia

Ramadi occupies a highly strategic location on the Euphrates and the road west into Syria and Jordan. This has made it a hub for trade and traffic, from which the city gained significant prosperity. Its position has meant that it has been fought over several times, during the two World Wars and again during the Iraq War and Iraqi insurgency. It was heavily damaged during the Iraq War, when it was a major focus for the insurgency against occupying United States forces. Following the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in 2011, the city was contested by the Iraqi government and the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and fell to ISIL in May 2015.

The King of Tech Talk Showed Everyone a (His?) Naked Dick

This particular incident occurred on May 24th, during an explanatory segment on Apple’s new Photos app. Most of the clip is the same sort of David Pogue explainer-mush that’s been Laporte’s bread and butter for years. While clicking through his photo library, Laporte brings up a grid of imported images: family, friends, food, and an erect penis.

The Tech Guy Leo Laporte Accidentally Shows A Penis Photo During His Live Tech Program! See The Awkward Moment HERE!

Wikileaks reveal massive haul of 1978 Documents

Today WikiLeaks has released more than half a million US State Department cables from 1978. The cables cover US interactions with, and observations of, every country.

1978 was an unusually important year in geopolitics. The year saw the start of a great many political conflicts and alliances which continue to define the present world order, as well as the rise of still-important personalities and political dynasties.

The cables document the start of the Iranian Revolution, leading to the stand-off between Iran and the West (1979 — present); the Second Oil Crisis; the Afghan conflict (1978 — present); the Lebanon–Israel conflict (1978 — present); the Camp David Accords; the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua and the subsequent conflict with US proxies (1978 — 1990); the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia; the Ethopian invasion of Eritrea; Carter’s critical decision on the neutron bomb; the break-up of the USSR’s nuclear-powered satellite over Canada, which changed space policy; the US “playing the China card” against Russia; Brzezinski’s visit to China, which led to the subsequent normalisation of relations and a proxy war in Cambodia; with the US, UK, China and Cambodia on one side and Vietnam and the USSR on the other.

Through 1978, Zbigniew “Zbig” Brzezinski was US National Security Advisor. He would become the architect of the destabilisation of Soviet backed Afghanistan through the use of Islamic militants, elements of which would later become known as al-Qaeda. Brzezinski continues to affect US policy as an advisor to Obama. He has been especially visible in the recent conflict between Russia and the Ukraine.

WikiLeaks’ Carter Cables II comprise 500,577 US diplomatic cables and other diplomatic communications from and to US embassies and missions in nearly every country. It follows on from the Carter Cables (368,174 documents from 1977), which WikiLeaks published in April 2014.

The Carter Cables II bring WikiLeaks total published US diplomatic cable collection to 2.7 million documents.

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Putin on Ice | Unfilter 137

chris — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 23:44:52 +0000

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Where in the world has Vlad been? After more than a week of silence, Russia’s president has broken his silence in a big way that could shape the future of the Arctic forever.

Plus a quick ISIS update, how Oil explains it all, some feedback & a lot more!

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Wikipedia Sues NSA Over Dragnet Internet Surveillance – The Intercept

The lawsuit argues that this broad surveillance, revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, violates the First Amendment by chilling speech and the open exchange of information, and that it also runs up against Fourth Amendment privacy protections.

Edward Snowden is right—NSA surveillance won’t stop terrorism

The controversial whistleblower made a surprise appearance via Google Hangout at SXSW this week, where his remarks proved captivating as always. Essentially a less flashy sequel to his ACLU speech from 2014, Snowden only spoke to a few people this time around, engaging in a conversation with a select group of leaders from America’s tech sector. In particular, he urged tech companies to become “champions of privacy,” suggesting that they use their power to help shield Americans from an increasingly watchful government.

Even with hiring up, Fed want further gains before rate hike – Houston Chronicle

The Fed signaled Wednesday that it needs the job market to improve further and inflation to rise above low levels before it begins nudging borrowing rates up. Even then, it suggested it will do so only very gradually.

The statement the Fed issued after its latest policy meeting seemed to catch investors by surprise in suggesting that a rate increase might be further off than many had assumed. Stock prices jumped, and bond yields fell.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down nearly 100 points before the statement was issued, closed up 227 points, or 1.3 percent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which influences long-term mortgage rates, tumbled from 2.04 percent just before the Fed’s announcement to 1.92 percent.

The US Assuming Chairmanship of Artic Council

Admiral Robert Papp, U.S. special representative to the Arctic, delivered a keynote address on U.S. policy in Arctic. He stressed the importance of U.S. leadership in the Arctic, and the need to educate younger generations on climate change and the Arctic at an early age. His comments preceded U.S. assumption of the Arctic Council chairmanship for a two year term.

“U.S. Leadership in the Arctic” was held at the Brookings Institution.

In April US assumes the chairmanship of the Arctic council for two years

The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses primarily environmental protection and sustainable development issues in the Arctic region. The eight founding nations (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States) of the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy comprise the Member States of the Arctic Council. Six Arctic indigenous groups hold Permanent Participant status, and a number of other countries and organizations are accredited observers. The Council meets every two years at the Ministerial level to coordinate Council activities and oversee the work of the six working groups. Senior Arctic Officials from each member state meet more frequently to oversee Council operations between Ministerial meetings. The Arctic Council website includes general information about the Council and its activities, projects, and upcoming events, as well as archives of Council documents and links to the working group websites.

The United States participates in the Arctic Council under the leadership of the Department of State. Many other agencies, including the Departments of Interior, Energy, Commerce (NOAA), Transportation (FAA), and Homeland Security (Coast Guard), the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Arctic Research Commission, and the State of Alaska support or actively participate in the Arctic Council’s work.

The United States actively seeks to promote the viability and socioeconomic well being of Arctic communities and supports scientific research and international cooperation in achieving these goals. The United States is committed to working with its partners in the Arctic Council to advance shared objectives and looks forward to its 2015-17 Chairmanship.

Russia’s Arctic pivot is a massive military undertaking – Business Insider

Russia’s biggest new military development in the Arctic is the creation of the Russian Joint Strategic Command North (JSCN), which is built out of the former Northern Fleet. The command, according to Defense News, has a surface fleet and a submarine fleet of about 40 vessels each, although between 40% and 70% of those ships are currently unusable.

According to the Polish Institute of International Affairs, the JSCN won’t be an ordinary naval fleet. The command will ultimately feature an air defense division, two Arctic mechanized brigades, a naval infantry brigade, a coastal defense missile system, and the placement of missile regiments in outlying archipelagos in the Arctic Ocean.

Russia’s Arctic Militarization ‘Disturbing,’ US Lawmakers Say | Defense Tech

“When you look at what the Russians are doing in the Arctic, it is actually quite impressive –impressive, but disturbing,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska., told military leaders at a recent Senate Armed Services Committee Navy budget hearing.

“The Russians are looking at adding four new combat brigades in the Arctic as our U.S. Army is thinking at pulling them out of there,” he said. “I think that would give Vladimir Putin a lot of joy. They are building 13 new airfields and conducting long-range air patrols off the coast of Alaska.”

Petroleum exploration in the Arctic – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A 2008 United States Geological Survey estimates that areas north of the Arctic Circle have 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil (and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids ) in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum. This represents 13% of the undiscovered oil in the world.

Arctic drilling is inevitable: if we don’t find oil in the ice, then Russia will – Telegraph

Forget the North Sea and the Middle East, it is the frozen oceans of the Arctic which are the next great frontier that big oil companies plan to exploit over the coming 15 years.

“There aren’t that many places left on the planet that are on the kind of scale as the Arctic in terms of possible resources for the oil companies to go at,” Andrew Latham, vice-president of exploration services at Wood Mackenzie told The Daily Telegraph.

Jason and The Argonauts

I’ve written into the show once before, but I still hear my name called from time to time. So I decided to do some digging…

Looking at the Unfilter Patreon page[1] I noticed that the amount of patrons named Jason is way above average. According to NameStatistics.com[2] about 0.66% of males in the USA are named Jason. Of the Unfilter patrons, 2.1% are named Jason. That’s over three times the average.

So way to go all the other Jasons out there!

Non-Lethal Aid: US Spends $15 Million on Journalists for Anti-Assad Reports — News from Antiwar.com

$15 million of the funding is going to go to journalists and opposition figures “to support documentation of war crimes, human rights violations, and other Syrian government abuses.”

Reports link Islamic State recruiter to Canadian Embassy in Jordan

Canada’s embassy in Jordan, which is run by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s hand picked ambassador and former top bodyguard, is being linked in news reports to an unfolding international terrorism and spy scandal.

The federal government refused to comment Friday on multiple Turkish media reports that a foreign spy allegedly working for Canadian intelligence — and arrested in Turkey for helping three young British girls travel to Syria to join Islamic State militants — was working for the Canadian embassy in Amman, Jordan.

High-Note:

Top Pot Researcher Weighs in on Long-Term Effects of Marijuana Use | High Times

Allegations from anti-pot proponents that cannabis use by adults causes serious harms are unwarranted and unproven. So says one of the nation’s leading marijuana researchers.

Speaking recently to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Dr. Igor Grant acknowledged, “There is no evidence for long-term damaging effects in adults.”

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Profiting From Paris | Unfilter 129

chris — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:07:13 +0000

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A week after the attacks in Paris we look at the connections to terrorists in Yemen, the different groups trying to claim credit & how this tragic event is greatly benefiting politicians pushing for more surveillance.

Plus Wall Street throws big money at Cannabis startups & a look at Colorado one year after recreational legalization.

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News

An Ohio man who allegedly wanted to set up an ISIS cell in the U.S. was arrested Wednesday and accused of planning to attack the U.S. Capitol. But U.S. officials told NBC News the man was dealing with a government informer working undercover the entire time and was never in a position to carry out his plan.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, near Cincinnati, was arrested after he bought two M-15 semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition as the undercover operative watched, according to an FBI affidavit.

Officials said Cornell never bought any components for pipe bombs. “There was never a danger to the public,” an official told NBC News.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 22 in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on charges of the attempted killing of a U.S. government officer and possession of a firearm in furtherance of an attempted crime of violence.

High Note

Wall Street and Weed: $2 billion company betting big on marijuana

Geoff Lewis’s firm, Founders Fund, a $2 billion company, made its name investing early in new companies like Facebook, Spotify and SpaceX. But now it’s betting on pot.

Feedback

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Legal Cannabis Fallout | Unfilter 128

chris — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 22:44:24 +0000

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A major downside to the legalization of Marijuana is being missed by mainstream commentators & it’s an issue of critical importance. We explain our position from ground zero.

Plus the tragic shooting in France, another look at the falling price of oil, the Sony hack & of course much, much more!

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Speaking of receiving… Unfilter SWAG level patrons are starting to get these! #bacon

A photo posted by Jupiter Broadcasting (@jupiterbroadcasting) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:18pm PST

News

Police hunt three Frenchmen after 12 killed in Paris attack | Reuters

Police are hunting three French nationals, including two brothers from the Paris region, after suspected Islamist gunmen killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday, a police official and government source said.

The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades.

French police staged a huge manhunt for the attackers who escaped after shooting dead some of France’s top cartoonists as well as two police officers. About 800 soldiers were brought in to shore up security across the capital.

The three men being sought include two brothers aged 32 and 34 as well as a man aged 18 from the area of the northeastern city of Reims, the government source told Reuters.

Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris | Informed Comment

The horrific murder of the editor, cartoonists and other staff of the irreverent satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, along with two policemen, by terrorists in Paris was in my view a strategic strike, aiming at polarizing the French and European public.

The Gasoline Price Crash Continues

CRUDE INVENTORIES:

Crude oil inventories decreased by 3.1 million barrels to a total of 382.4 million barrels. At 382.4 million barrels, inventories are 24.5 million barrels above last year (6.8%) and are well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

**GASOLINE INVENTORIES: **

Gasoline inventories increased by 8.1 million barrels to 237.2 million barrels. At 237.2 million barrels, inventories are up 10.2 million barrels, or 4.5% higher than one year ago.

Former US cybersecurity official gets 25 years for child porn charges

On Monday, a federal judge in Nebraska sentenced the former acting director of cybersecurity for the US Department of Health and Human Services to 25 years in prison on child porn charges.

Timothy DeFoggi, who was convicted back in August 2014, is the sixth person to be convicted in relations to a Nebraska-based child porn Tor-enable website known as PedoBook. That site’s administrator, Aaron McGrath, was sentenced to 20 years last year by the same judge. McGrath famously did not have an administrator password, a mistake that federal investigators were easily able to make use of.

US Airstrikes against ISIS Destroy 184 Humvees and 58 Tanks

At least 184 Humvees, 58 tanks and nearly 700 other vehicles have been destroyed or damaged in the more than 1,600 airstrike missions that have hit more than 3,200 ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since bombing began last Aug. 8, the U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.

In addition, a total of 26 MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 79 artillery and mortar positions, and 673 infantry fighting positions were destroyed, CentCom officials said.

On Tuesday, Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said that the cumulative effects of the airstrikes had put ISIS on the defensive and severely restricted the terror group’s ability to communicate and maneuver. The airstrikes have averaged about 11 daily since President Obama authorized them to begin on Aug. 8.

FBI reveals ‘sloppy’ mistakes that connect North Korea to Sony hack

Comey added that the hackers behind the attack, who referred to themselves the Guardians of Peace, made a key “mistake” multiple times when sending emails to Sony employees and publishing leaked data from Sony online.

“Several times they got sloppy,” Comey said at a cybersecurity conference in New York City. “Either because they forgot or they had a technical problem, they connected directly and we could see them. And we could see that the IP addresses that were being used to post and to send the emails were coming from IPs that were exclusively used by the North Koreans.”

“They shut it off very quickly once they saw the mistake,” he added. “But not before we saw where it was coming from.”

FBI explains how it linked North Korea to the Sony Pictures hack

FBi director: "Some serious folks suggested we have it wrong" on #SonyHack "They don't have the facts that I have hey don't see what I see"

— Kaja Whitehouse (@kajawhitehouse) January 7, 2015

Comey isn’t willing to spill the beans on everything since it might show how the US collects intelligence, but he’s quick to chide critics who suggest the hack came from somewhere else (such as an inside job) based solely on the publicly available details. “They don’t see what I see,”

Schneier on Security: Did North Korea Really Attack Sony?

I am deeply skeptical of the FBI’s announcement on Friday that North Korea was behind last month’s Sony hack. The agency’s evidence is tenuous, and I have a hard time believing it. But I also have trouble believing that the US government would make the accusation this formally if officials didn’t believe it.

Clues in the hackers’ attack code seem to point in all directions at once. The FBI points to reused code from previous attacks associated with North Korea, as well as similarities in the networks used to launch the attacks. Korean language in the code also suggests a Korean origin, though not necessarily a North Korean one, since North Koreans use a unique dialect. However you read it, this sort of evidence is circumstantial at best. It’s easy to fake, and it’s even easier to interpret it incorrectly. In general, it’s a situation that rapidly devolves into storytelling, where analysts pick bits and pieces of the “evidence” to suit the narrative they already have worked out in their heads.

No, North Korea Didn’t Hack Sony – The Daily Beast

The FBI and the President may claim that the Hermit Kingdom is to blame for the most high-profile network breach in forever. But almost all signs point in another direction.

Taking a look at these addresses we find that all but one of them are public proxies. Furthermore, checking online IP reputation services reveals that they have been used by malware operators in the past. This isn’t in the least bit surprising: in order to avoid attribution cybercriminals routinely use things like proxies to conceal their connections. No sign of any North Koreans, just lots of common, or garden, internet cybercriminals.

It is this piece of evidence—freely available to anyone with an enquiring mind and a modicum of cyber security experience—which I believe that the FBI is so cryptically referring to when they talk about “additional evidence” they can’t reveal without compromising “national security”.

Essentially, we are being left in a position where we are expected to just take agency promises at face value. In the current climate, that is a big ask.

If we turn the debate around, and look at some evidence that the North Koreans might NOT be behind the Sony hack, the picture looks significantly clearer.

First of all, there is the fact that the attackers only brought up the anti-North Korean bias of “The Interview” after the media did—the film was never mentioned by the hackers right at the start of their campaign. In fact, it was only after a few people started speculating in the media that this and the communication from North Korea “might be linked” that suddenly it did get linked. My view is that the attackers saw this as an opportunity for “lulz”, and a way to misdirect everyone. (And wouldn’t you know it? The hackers are now saying it’s okay for Sony to release the movie, after all.) If everyone believes it’s a nation state, then the criminal investigation will likely die. It’s the perfect smokescreen.

The hackers dumped the data. Would a state with a keen understanding of the power of propaganda be so willing to just throw away such a trove of information? The mass dump suggests that whoever did this, their primary motivation was to embarrass Sony Pictures. They wanted to humiliate the company, pure and simple.

High Note

Mother: Medical marijuana is a ‘miracle drug’ for my son

At least three bills are expected to be before lawmakers in Olympia during the upcoming legislative session that could provide clarity to the legal gray area surrounding medical marijuana.

Right now, medical marijuana is largely unregulated in Washington state. Recreational stores complain that medical retail shops aren’t required to pay taxes or jump through the same administrative hoops. Without legal clarity, medical marijuana stores face the threat of being shut down.

Medical Marijuana a Challenge for Legal Pot States – NYTimes.com

A year into the nation’s experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from _medical marijuana_or even outright black market sales.

In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system.

And the number of patients on Colorado’s medical marijuana registry went up, not down, since 2012, meaning more marijuana users there can avoid paying the higher taxes that recreational pot carries.

They’re looking at reining in their medical systems and fixing the big tax differential between medical and recreational weed without harming patients.

“How can you have two parallel systems, one that’s regulated, paying taxes, playing by the rules, and the other that’s not doing any of those things?” said Rick Garza of the Washington Liquor Control Board, which oversees recreational pot.

The difficulty of reconciling medical marijuana with taxed recreational pot offers a cautionary tale for states that might join Washington and Colorado in regulating the adult use of the drug.

Seattle officials have signaled that they intend to start busting delivery services that flout the law and recently sent letters to 330 marijuana businesses warning them that they’ll eventually need to obtain state licenses or be shut down.

Tacoma has also announced plans to close dozens of unregulated pot shops.

Key lawmaker’s proposal: medical pot shops without dried pot

A bill being filed this week by Sen. Ann Rivers would create licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries and require product testing that’s at least as strict as what the state requires in its recreational marijuana stores. But the medical stores could only sell edibles and marijuana concentrates, such as oil — no dried bud. The products would be sales-tax-free.

The bill makes a wide array of changes. Among them: creating a registry of medical marijuana patients and providers, and tightening restrictions on health professionals who authorize medical use. It would have the state Health Department determine what levels of THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive compound, and what ratio of THC to other compounds would be OK for products sold in medical outlets.

It would also strictly limit cooperative gardens. Under current law, such gardens can have up to 10 patients or 45 plants, but there’s no limit on how many cooperative grows are allowed on one property. That loophole has been cited as a reason for the proliferation of medical grows serving hundreds or thousands of patients.
Under Rivers’ bill, cooperative gardens would be limited to four people, one garden per tax parcel

Feedback

Thanks for the holiday show : unfilter

The post Legal Cannabis Fallout | Unfilter 128 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Tortured Logic | Unfilter 127

chris — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:08:05 +0000

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Apologist for the CIA were out in full force since our last episode. We’ve clipped their labored justifications & break them down point by point. Plus the critical president Obama is silently setting for future administrations.

It’s been a bad week for Russia & our local correspondent discusses the tragic events in Sydney Australia, then we wrap the show with a little good news.

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— Show Notes —

CIA Torture Report

‘Rectal Hydration’: Inside the CIA’s Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Along with the waterboarding, Mohammed was subjected to days of standing sleep deprivation, slapping and “stress positions,” the report says. And it says that several times he underwent an emergency medical procedure known as “rectal rehydration,” or proctolysis

The report matter-of-factly notes that such** treatment was “medically unnecessary” for Mohammed**, whom it describes as having been doused with, submerged in or force-fed water hundreds of times. After one session, the medical officer present reported that Mohammed’s gastric contents were “so diluted by water” that Mohammed was in danger of water intoxication. The medical officer later wrote that “in the new technique we are basically doing a series of near drownings.”

Is rectal feeding an actual modern medical practice?

**”It’s almost never done,” **he wrote to the NewsHour in an email. “There are so many easier and more effective ways to hydrate or feed a patient.”

Thomas Burke, an emergency doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital who teaches at Harvard Medical School echoed that in an interview with the Washington Post.

“For all practical purposes, it’s never used,” Burke said. “No one in the United States is hydrating anybody through their rectum. Nobody is feeding anybody through their rectum. … That’s not a normal practice.”

Fact Check: CIA’s Use of Rectal Rehydration, Feeding Not Medical Procedures – Press Releases – News Room – United States Senator Dianne Feinstein

Contrary to some claims, this is not a medical procedure, nor was it ever approved by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel as an authorized interrogation technique. On December 10, 2014, the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights stated that “Contrary to the CIA’s assertions, there is no clinical indication to use rectal rehydration and feeding over oral or intravenous administration of fluids and nutrients.”

Dick Cheney’s Tortured Appearance On ‘Meet The Press’ Should Be His Public Swan Song

Torture is “an American citizen on his cellphone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York on 9/11.”

Cheney would be right were he to pose this as an example rather than the defining metric when seeking to determine an act of torture. The horrendous, unthinkable experience referred to by Cheney is, unquestionably, one example of inflicting torture—and a pretty good example of horrific torture at that—but hardly the sole method that Cheney insisted on pretending to be the case.

Yet, each time Cheney was asked for a more realistic and more encompassing definition of torture that would rationally go beyond any one particular example, he continuously returned to the experiences of our lost countrymen on 9-11. This seemed, in the mind of Dick Cheney, to be the only standard to be applied when determining if our interrogation methods may have exceeded the legal bounds imposed by the Geneva Convention for the treatment of detainees.

At a point, it became more than clear that Cheney had pre-planned this “non-answer” for his appearance, thinking it to be very clever.

By pretending that only a horrible infliction of agony similar to what was heaped on the victims of 9-11 would rise to a level that could be termed torture, the Vice-President was simply sending a coded message to his supporters to remind them that, given what the bad guys did to us, there was nothing too horrible that we could do to them—Geneva Convention be damned.

The 11 Most Psychotic Things Dick Cheney Said About Torture on Meet the Press | The Daily Banter

U.S. Sen. Rockefeller helps release CIA report; torture practice

On Dec. 8, the outgoing senator spoke on the floor after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the Executive Summary of its Study on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. The redacted summary was released after the Intelligence Committee voted in April 2014 to declassify the summary and after negotiations among the Committee, the White House, and the CIA.

News

Sony Just Canceled The Pre mire Of ‘The Interview’

Sony Pictures has decided to cancel the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” after major theaters said they wouldn’t screen the movie.

“We have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release of ‘The Interview,'” the company said in a statement.

Sony dropped its plan to release the film after the four largest theater chains in the United States — Regal Entertainment, AMC Theaters, Cinemark and Carmike Cinemas — and several smaller chains said they would not show the film. The cancellations virtually killed “The Interview” as a theatrical enterprise, at least in the near term, one of the first known instances of a threat from another nation pre-empting the release of a movie.

Seth Rogen and James Franco Cancel All Media Appearances for ‘The Interview’

The duo has withdrawn from previously scheduled press appearances, including Rogen’s Thursday appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and an interview with both of them on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday, leading up to “The Interview’s” Christmas Day release. They were also booked for an appearance on Buzzfeed Brews in New York on Tuesday.

U.S. Links North Korea to Sony Hacking

American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government was “centrally involved” in the recent attacks on Sony Pictures’s computers, a determination reached just as Sony on Wednesday canceled its release of the comedy, which is based on a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

Senior administration officials, who would not speak on the record about the intelligence findings, said the White House was still debating whether to publicly accuse North Korea of what amounts to a cyberterrorism campaign.

Kerry speaks of lifting Russia sanctions if Putin makes the right decisions

Russia has made constructive moves in recent days towards reducing tensions in Ukraine, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday (16 December), and he raised the possibility that Washington could lift sanctions if Moscow keeps taking positive steps.

Speaking in London, Kerry said the United States and Europe could lift sanctions within days or weeks if President Vladimir Putin keeps taking steps to ease tensions and lives up to commitments under ceasefire accords to end the Ukraine conflict.

—

“These sanctions could be lifted in a matter of weeks or days, depending on the choices that President Putin takes,” Kerry told reporters.

“Their sole purpose here is to restore the international norm with respect to behavior between nations,” to ensure respect for borders, sovereignty and rights, he said.

Russia imposes steep interest rate hike as ruble plummets

The fear was sparked by the plummeting ruble, which has dropped 17 percent against the dollar in two days despite a dead-of-night decision Tuesday by the Russian central bank to impose a steep interest-rate hike to stem the currency losses.

GOP rep attempted late bid to kill spy bill | TheHill

One of the biggest thorns in the side of the country’s intelligence agencies attempted to mount an eleventh hour bid to kill the spy agencies’ funding bill on Wednesday.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) wrote on Facebook that the intelligence authorization bill that easily passed through the House contained “one of the most egregious sections of law I’ve encountered during my time as a representative.”

“It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American,” explained Amash, who has a record of skepticism toward the National Security Agency and other agencies. Last year, he nearly succeeded in an attempt to end the NSA’s controversial phone records program.

That type of collection is currently allowed under an executive order that dates back to former President Reagan, but the new stamp of approval from Congress was troubling, Amash said. Limits on the government’s ability to retain information in the provision did not satisfy the Michigan Republican.

Despite Amash’s late attempt,** the bill easily passed, 325-100**.

The bill passed the Senate earlier this week and is now on its way to President Obama.

Bush, Cheney, Hayden, Rodriguez & Yoo on Sunday talk shows. It's not where they should be appearing. #TortureReport pic.twitter.com/mG7Ze4XbwJ

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) December 14, 2014

Russia invites North Korea leader for May visit: paper | Reuters

Russia has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to attend a May ceremony marking the end of World War Two, in what would be Kim’s first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive state in 2011, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily said on Wednesday.

First ground clash between ISIS and US forces in Iraq

An American force has fought its actual first battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “ISIS” organization during a counter-attack that was carried out by tribal forces

and other force of the Iraqi army near Ein al-Asad base, west of Anbar, in an attempt to remove them from the base of which includes about 100 US adviser in it.

A field commander of the Iraqi Army in Anbar province, said that “the US force equipped with light and medium weapons, supported by fighter force model” F-18 “, was able to inflict casualties against fighters of ISIS organization, and forced them to retreat from the al-Dolab area, which lies 10 kilometers from Ain al-Assad base .

US troops have entered with its Iraqi partner, according to Colonel , Salam Nazim in line against ISIS elements and clashed with them for more than two hours, to succeed in removing them from al-Dolab area, and causing losses in their ranks, at a time American fighter jets directed several strikes focused on ISIS gatherings that silenced their heavy sources of fire. “He points out that the clashes took place between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sunday night.

ISIS using bombs containing live SCORPIONS in effort to spread panic

Canisters packed with poisonous varieties of scorpion are being blasted into towns and villages, which explode on impact – scattering the scorpions and causing panic among the innocent local population.

High Note

Tacoma to close medical marijuana collectives

All medical marijuana collectives in Tacoma could soon have to shut down.

City leaders addressed plans last week to send out letters to cease operations as early as January, as they are not licensed under Initiative 502. Both business owners and patients are now expressing concerns.

Medical marijuana wins but marijuana legalization loses in congressional spending deal

The spending bill passed by Congress on December 14 includes a provision that prevents the Department of Justice, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, from interfering with states’ medical marijuana laws.
The provision applies to 32 states and Washington, DC, which allow the use of marijuana or a marijuana-based compound, such as the non-psychoactive CBD, for medical purposes.

Teen marijuana use falls as more states legalize – The Washington Post

Teen alcohol and drug use — including marijuana use — was down across the board in 2014.

That’s the big take-home from the 2014 Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, which was released Tuesday morning. The MTF is an annual survey of 40,000 8th-graders, 10th-graders and 12th-graders. It’s notable both for its size and for the fact that it was conducted this past spring, in the midst of a nationwide conversation about drug reform in the run-up to the midterm elections

The post Tortured Logic | Unfilter 127 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Putin’s Pipe Dream | Unfilter 125

chris — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 22:24:20 +0000

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The price of oil has been dropping & consumers are enjoying some extra cash, but the pressure being put on governments around the world may be unbearable. We’ll deep dive into how lower oil prices are dramatically impacting Russia & the surprise big move made by Putin this week.

Plus the over hyped cyber attacks of the week, the sales from Green Friday & much more!

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— Show Notes —

News

Sony to Officially Name North Korea as Source of Hack Attack | Re/code

Sony Pictures will officially name North Korea as the source of a hacking attack that has exposed sensitive files and brought down its corporate network last week, two sources close to the investigation tell Re/code. An announcement could come as soon as today.

Sony Pictures and F.B.I. Investigating Attack by Hackers – NYTimes.com

Sony Pictures Entertainment and the F.B.I. on Wednesday were hunting for information into a destructive attack on Sony’s computer systems, including whether North Korea, or perhaps a former employee, was responsible. But the studio said that, contrary to an online report, it was not ready to identify a likely culprit.

Sony’s New Movies Leak Online Following Hack Attack | Variety

At least five new movies from Sony Pictures are being devoured on copyright-infringing file-sharing hubs online in the wake of the hack attack that hobbled the studio earlier in the week.

Copies of DVD screeners of four unreleased Sony movies including the upcoming “Annie” are getting some unwelcome early exposure, but nothing compared with the frenzy enveloping “Fury,” the war pic still in theaters that bowed last month.

“Fury” has been downloaded by over 888,000 unique IP addresses since showing up on peer-to-peer networks on Nov. 27, according to piracy-tracking firm Excipio. That’s high enough to be the second most-downloaded movie currently being pirated, and it’s not out of movie theaters yet.

Another big Sony movie, “Annie,” is also being pirated, this one three weeks ahead of its own wide release. Other Sony movies being downloaded include “Mr. Turner,” “Still Alice” and “To Write Love on Her Arms.”

“The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it,” a Sony spokeswoman said in a statement to Variety.

Putin says Russia will scrap South Stream pipeline

He said Russia can’t implement the South Stream project because of the European Union’s opposition to it. The project would have involved running a pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and farther on to Southern Europe.

However, Moscow will boost gas supplies to Turkey and may cooperate with it in creating a hub for natural gas supplies on the border with Greece, he said.

Putin’s Surprise Call to Scrap South Stream Gas Pipeline Leaves Europe Reeling – NYTimes.com

LONDON — Energy executives across Europe were scrambling on Tuesday to understand the implications of President Vladimir V. Putin‘s surprise announcement that Russia would scrap the long-planned South Stream project that was to pipe natural gas to Europe.

The pipeline, which had a projected $22 billion cost and was a geopolitical sore point in recent months, had never been a certainty. But Western partners on the project, including the Italian energy giant Eni, appear to have been surprised by Mr. Putin. They said they learned of his decision, announced late Monday during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, only through the news media.

Despite Mr. Putin’s announcement, officials from the European Union, which had lobbied against the project as part of Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine tensions, said a previously planned meeting between the main European Union countries involved in the project and the bloc’s energy commissioner would still take place next week.

Vladimir Putin’s worst nightmare may be happening right now

Russian officials on Tuesday warned the country faces a recession in 2015 that could see the economy shrink for the first time in five years.

They believe it will contract by 0.8 percent next year, down from a previous estimate of 1.2 percent growth.

Ordinary Russians have watched as their currency lost nearly 40 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. They can also expect double-digit inflation by early next year, officials predict.

Russian Central Bank Defends Record Low 55 Level, Bonds Tumble

Since the top in oil in June, crude has dropped around 37%… and so has the Russian Ruble. **Monday saw the Russian Central Bank (rumored) to intervene to protect the 54 Ruble to the USDollar level. Yesterday saw weakness resume as oil prices slipped and today it appears 55 is the new line in the sand as the USDRUB was smashed 2 handles lower earlier today (only to begin selling off once again since). **Russian 10Y bond yields are leaking higher however, +20bps to break the 11% line in the sand.

Crude Slides After Saudis Suggest Oil Stabilizes Around $60

Oil may stabilize around $60/barrel, WSJ reports, citing unidentified people familiar.

US Army Sends 100 Tanks To Eastern Europe To “Deter Russian Aggression” | Zero Hedge

U.S. Army Europe, said the Army was looking to add about 100 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the forces in Eastern Europe.

These U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams tanks are part of the European Activity Set,
a combined-arms battalion-sized set of vehicles and equipment pre-positioned
at Germany’s Grafenwoehr Training Area. Markus Ruachenberger/U.S. Army**
**

“We are looking at courses of action for how we could pre-position equipment that we would definitely want to put inside a facility where it would be **better maintained, **that rotational units could then come and draw on it and use it to train, **or for contingency purposes,” **Hodges said in a briefing from Vilnius, Lithuania.

So “better maintained… or for contingency purposes.” Got it. That probably also explains why as NATO is seeking to deliver 100 tanks to Eastern Europe, it has already added several squadrons of fighter jets just minutes away from Russia’s border. For “contingency purposes.”

Before:

After:

As before, we wonder how the US would react if Russia were to place a few extra fighter jets in Cuba or a few hundred tanks in Mexico. Aside from historical fact of course.

But back to NATO’s tanks whose only mission is “contingency”, and certainly not to intimidate Putin that the NATO ring around the nation is closing.

High Note

City Attorney Sues To Shut Down Pot Delivery Smartphone App

More than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city have been closed, and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer says he is now taking aim against the creator of a pot delivery app.

Officials say the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has filed more than 200 criminal cases against 743 defendants, including both dispensary operators and property owners, effectively closing 402 medical marijuana dispensaries in the 17 months since Feuer took office.

“My office has moved aggressively to shut down unlawful medical marijuana businesses, already closing half the dispensaries operating in Los Angeles,” Feuer said in a statement. “And today we’re taking action on a new front, tackling medical marijuana delivery.”

Nestdrop is not acting as a “dispensary, collective, grower or even a delivery service,” but is the “technology platform that connects law-abiding
medical marijuana patients with local dispensaries to receive the medication that they need in a safe and secure manner,” Pycher said.

“Our goal is make access to this legal medicine convenient for patients who truly need it — especially as many of these suffering patients may have
limited mobility and may be unable to visit a dispensary unassisted,” and he said he does not “understand why the city is trying to restrict their access
to the important medicine.”

The case is being spearheaded by Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg.

What researchers are working on to keep pot smokers off the road?

Researchers at Washington State University are working on a handheld breathalyzer that could detect if a driver tests positive for marijuana use.

WSU chemistry professor Herbert Hill and doctoral student Jessica Tufariello are developing a tool that would give police an immediate way to detect whether THC is present in the driver’s blood stream (but won’t yet tell exactly how much), The News Tribune first reported.

The name and release date of Washington State University’s breathalyzer are currently unknown.

Lessons From ‘Green Friday’: Tips for Successful Holiday Sales & Promotions

“We had our biggest day yet” on Black Friday, said Cristy Aranguiz, the lead budtender at Cannabis and Glass in Spokane, Washington, which offered a free pipe similar to the one the character Gandalf smoked in the “Lord of the Rings” movies. “We had a ton of new customers come in.”

In Washington State, for example, cannabis businesses aren’t allowed to advertise within 1,000 feet of anywhere children tend to congregate including schools, daycare center, parks or arcades.

Instead of traditional advertising — like newspapers, billboards and TV ads — many business owners are finding ways to promote their sales using social media and email blasts.

The Happy Crop Shoppe in East Wenatchee, Washington, took 25% off some glassware and up to 30% off so-called Christmas packs that contained various items, promoting its sales on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram starting about a week in advance.

Roughly half the people who came to the store were new customers, owner Mark McCants said. Overall, the number of customers was up by about 30% from a normal day, he said.

Legal Pot In The U.S. May Be Undercutting Mexican Marijuana

“Two or three years ago, a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of marijuana was worth $60 to $90,” says Nabor, a 24-year-old pot grower in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa. “But now they’re paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It’s a big difference. If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they’ll run us into the ground.”

Multi-State MMJ Operators Embroiled in Lawsuits, Legal Disputes

Entrepreneurs seeking cannabis licenses in multiple states have a new concern: legal issues from one market affecting applications in others.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Nicholas Vita and Michael Abbott, partners whose companies have been awarded MMJ business licenses in Nevada, Massachusetts, Arizona and Washington DC, have been embroiled in at least three separate legal cases.

Those legal problems have given at least one Chicago alderman pause as he tries to evaluate whether or not to support any MMJ dispensaries opening in his neighborhood, including Vita’s and Abbott’s application to open a dispensary on the northwest side of the Windy City.

The post Putin's Pipe Dream | Unfilter 125 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Why Ferguson Burns | Unfilter 124

chris — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:35:17 +0000

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In the wake of the Ferguson shooting decision, protests have erupted throughout the United States. We’ll review what has brought the nation to this point & the underlying social issues that are fueling it & why this might only be the start of a greater social unrest.

Plus the big surprise from the Defense Department, why it doesn’t quite add up & a very special green holiday high-note.

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— Show Notes —

Ferguson Riots

The Meaning of the Ferguson Riots – NYTimes.com

Robert McCulloch, who is widely viewed in the minority community as being in the pockets of the police, made matters infinitely worse by handling this sensitive investigation in the worst possible way.

First, he refused to step aside in favor of a special prosecutor who could have been appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri. He further undermined public confidence by taking a highly unorthodox approach to the grand jury proceeding. Instead of conducting an investigation and then presenting the case and a recommendation of charges to the grand jury, his office shifted its job to the grand jury. It made no recommendation on whether to indict the officer, Darren Wilson, but left it to the jurors to wade through masses of evidence to determine whether there was probable cause to file charges against Officer Wilson for Mr. Brown’s killing.

Under ordinary circumstances, grand jury hearings can be concluded within days. The proceeding in this case lasted an astonishing three months. And since grand jury proceedings are held in secret, the drawn-out process fanned suspicions that Mr. McCulloch was deliberately carrying on a trial out of public view, for the express purpose of exonerating Officer Wilson.

Inconsistency the only constant with evidence in Michael Brown case – The Washington Post

Overall, the witnesses provided a consistent account of many of the events surrounding the Aug. 9 encounter, which began through the window of the SUV and ended with Brown dead in the street.

An undated evidence photograph made available by the St. Louis County prosecutors office shows the cap that Michael Brown was wearing when he was shot to death by police officer Darren Wilson. (European Pressphoto Agency)

But the testimony fails to definitively clarify some of the most crucial details of the interaction between Wilson and Brown that day. Witnesses differed on critical aspects of the physical struggle, as well as what Brown was doing with his hands — whether he had them up in surrender as his supporters have insisted — when the fatal bullets struck.

The inconsistencies in a few cases stemmed from efforts by witnesses to mislead. But in other instances, it was more likely natural confusion, the result of people going about their day when suddenly a startling narrative unfolded.

According to the documents, in which most eyewitness names are redacted, some observed the events through car windows, while others came to their apartment windows and balconies when they heard a scuffle, catching only glimpses of what happened. Some watched, rapt, but missed key moments when they fumbled with cellphones in hopes of videotaping the incident.

For the grand jurors, the conflicting statements may have provided a boost to Wilson’s credibility or made it difficult to conclude there was probable cause, which is required for sending a case to trial.

Car plows through protesters during Ferguson rally in south Minneapolis | Star Tribune

The driver who lurched into a south Minneapolis intersection packed with Ferguson protesters was “attempting to flee from the mob” when he ran over and slightly injured a 16-year-old girl as others were atop the hood of his car, police said Wednesday.

The driver, a 40-year-old man from St. Paul, was questioned, and Minneapolis police said Wednesday that the case “remains under investigation.” The man was not arrested, and no charges have been filed.

A few hours after the incident late Tuesday afternoon at E. Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue S., the man’s mother said in an interview he was coming home from work and “didn’t even know what was going on” when he encountered the crowd of about 1,000 blocking the intersection.

The girl who was run over by the horn-blaring Subaru station wagon was taken by emergency responders to Regions Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, police said.

Church attended by Michael Brown’s family destroyed during Monday night’s protests | Daily Mail Online

Missouri church attended by Michael Brown’s father family was one of a dozen or so buildings burned to the ground during Monday night’s protests
While the majority of buildings destroyed were in downtown Ferguson, the Flood Christian Church is located some three miles away
Pastor Carlton Lee said he believes that white supremacists rather than protesters were to blame for the destruction
‘I’m very vocal in regards to the Michael Brown case,’ said Lee, who claims to have received 71 death threats

‘Sunday, we do the baptism, Monday, the church is one fire. It just doesn’t add up,’ he said.

He said Brown had pledged his help in repairing the damage to the storefront church that was once an automotive shop. The building and been a non-denominational church since February 2013.

‘We rebuild,’ Lee said. ‘We do not stop.’

Deadly Force, in Black and White – ProPublica

Young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts — 21 times greater i, according to a ProPublica analysis of federally collected data on fatal police shootings.

The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police.

Our examination involved detailed accounts of more than 12,000 police homicides stretching from 1980 to 2012 contained in the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report.

News

Report: Chuck Hagel Clashed With Susan Rice Before He Was Fired

Outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reportedly had a disagreement with Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice before he was removed by President Obama this week. The New York Times reports Hagel had “a dispute” with Rice over Obama’s policy on Syria.

Hagel remained skeptical of the Obama administration’s actions in Syria. Last month, he sent a two page memo detailing his concerns about the policy. According to the Times, Hagel pointed out that Obama’s policy was “in danger of unraveling” because it didn’t clarify its position toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Other analysts confirmed the Times report.

“He had a crappy relationship with Susan Rice,” Steve Clemons, the founder of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation tells NBC News.

New Snowden Docs Show GCHQ Paid Telcos For Cable Taps

According to a report in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

A new release of documents made available by Edward Snowden. The documents show British intelligence agency GCHQ had a deep partnership with telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (acquired later by Vodafone). The company allowed GCHQ to tap submarine cables around the world, and was paid millions of British pounds as compensation. The relationship was so extensive that a GCHQ employee was assigned to work full time at Cable & Wireless (referred to by the code name “Gerontic” in NSA documents) to manage cable-tap projects in February of 2009. By July of 2009, Cable & Wireless provided access to 29 out of the 63 cables on the list, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the data capacity available to surveillance programs. … As of July of 2009, relationships with three telecom companies provided access to 592 10-gigabit-per-second pipes on the cables collectively and 69 10-gbps “egress” pipes through which data could be pulled back. The July 2009 documents included a shopping list for additional cable access—GCHQ sought to more than triple its reach, upping access to 1,693 10-gigabit connections and increasing egress capacity to 390. The documents revealed a much shorter list of “cables we do not currently have good access [to].”

High Note

Marijuana stores offer high holidays with $1 joints | Stuff.co.nz

Cannabis sellers are gearing up for their first holiday season since recreational marijuana was legalised in the US state of Colorado.

At Grass Station, a shop in Denver that sells US$7 (NZ$9) joints, US$21 (NZ$27) chocolate bars and even a US$11 (NZ$14) lip balm, the goal is to get the same kind of post-Thanksgiving sales bump as department stores or clothing chains. Some pot sellers have even renamed the traditional Black Friday shopping day “Green Friday”.

“We have really high expectations,” said Grass Station owner Ryan Fox.

“Now we’ve got the legal means for people to give marijuana as a gift, and that’s never really been something that was feasible in the past.”

The shop expects a line at the door at 8am on November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, as tokers try to get their fingers on rationed specials. Sixteen customers will get an ounce of marijuana for US$50 (NZ$64) that generally sells for five times that amount. Sixty joints will go for US$1 each. The price for a US$30 (NZ$39) vape-pen cartridge will be cut in half.

cannablissingles.com – Find dates here!

The post Why Ferguson Burns | Unfilter 124 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Net Neutrality Reality | Unfilter 122

chris — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 01:50:30 +0000

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Obama calls on FCC to make ‘strongest possible rules’ to protect net neutrality, but the realities of this move might not be appealing. We’ll look at Net Neutrality from all sides & explain what Title II means.

Plus a high level US Diplomat is accused of Spying, a new study claims extended Cannabis uses causes brain damage, an ISIS update & much more.

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— Show Notes —

News

Hillary Donor Under Investigation in Counterintelligence Probe

A former high-ranking diplomat and Clinton ally at the center of an FBI counterintelligence probe was a registered foreign agent for the Pakistani government up until just days before she was appointed to run the U.S. State Department’s Pakistan aid team.

The Washington Post reported last week that the State Department’s aid coordinator for Pakistan, Robin Raphel, is the subject of a counterintelligence investigation and has had her security clearance revoked.

The FBI has not specified the nature of the probe, although the Post indicated that it could be espionage-related. She was reportedly placed on administrative leave last month, and the State Department said she is no longer employed by the agency.

Raphel previously served as an assistant secretary of state under President Bill Clinton and rejoined the State Department in August 2009 to focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan aid issues. She is also close to Hillary Clinton and contributed $2,000 to her presidential campaign in 2007.

FBI Investigation Of Robin Raphel – Business Insider

Robin Raphel, the ‘obstacle’ in India-U.S. ties – The Hindu

In 1995, U.S. diplomat Robin Raphel was the toast of the State department. President Bill Clinton appointed her the first Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia (the post later included Central Asia), and she was known to be close to him and Hillary Clinton, as she knew the U.S. President from his time at Oxford.

“Eventually, we have been vindicated by this investigation,” said an official who preferred not to be named, speaking about the just-announced U.S. federal probe against Ms. Raphel, “We repeatedly told the U.S. that Ms. Raphel’s position was anti-India, but it was also not in the U.S.’s interests.” As a diplomat Ms. Raphel was responsible for two other controversial policies: that of suggesting support for the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 1996, as a means of securing the U.S. company Unocal consortium’s pipeline plan in the region, as well as advocating dropping parts of the U.S.’s Pressler amendment that put strict oversight over aid to Pakistan. After she retired, Ms. Raphel joined consultancy group Cassidy & Associates and landed a massive $1.2 million contract from the Pakistan government under President Musharraf, to “improve Pakistan’s image” in the U.S. in 2007.

Pakistan lobbyist Robin Raphel under lens for alleged spying – The Times of India

In Ukraine, Shelling and Convoys of Armed Trucks Threaten Cease-Fire – NYTimes.com

An October report revealed that cluster munitions, which blanket a target area with bomblets filled with deadly shrapnel, have been used by government troops and possibly pro-Russian rebels against civilian population centers during the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Evidence strongly indicates that Ukrainian troops stationed about 30 kilometers, or 19 miles, southwest of the city launched attacks on Donetsk earlier this month, including an attack that killed a Swiss employee of the International Red Cross.

A shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine looked ever more tenuous on Sunday as European monitors confirmed reports of unmarked military vehicles driving through rebel-held territory while Donetsk, the region’s biggest city, endured a nightlong artillery battle.

The monitoring group, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said that long columns of unmarked military vehicles, some towing howitzers, were spotted over the weekend. The monitors did not speculate as to the origins of the trucks or the people inside them, but Ukrainian officials said the statements bolstered their claims that Russia was again arming and training separatists.

The O.S.C.E. reported that its observers had driven on Saturday past a column of more than 40 trucks on a highway outside Donetsk. The trucks were covered with tarpaulins and “without markings or number plates — each towing a 122 mm howitzer and containing personnel in dark green uniforms without insignia,” the O.S.C.E. statement said.

On Sunday, after what journalists in Donetsk described as the heaviest night of artillery shelling in and around the city in at least a month, the O.S.C.E. observers saw two more unmarked military columns. The observers noted 17 trucks in each column, some equipped with Grad ground-to-ground rocket launchers and others towing more howitzers.

Net Neutrality

Obama calls on FCC to make ‘strongest possible rules’ to protect net neutrality | Technology | The Guardian

President says ‘open internet is essential to way of life’ and comes out against so-called ‘fast lanes’ for higher-paying web users.

Dear Senator Ted Cruz, I’m going to explain to you how Net Neutrality ACTUALLY works – The Oatmeal

Net neutrality, Obama, FCC, Title II … Your ESSENTIAL guide to WTF is happening • The Register

Put simply, because rules that were created by the FCC in 2010 in order to deal with the modern reality of the internet — the so-called Open Internet Order — were struck down [PDF] by the US courts following a challenge by Verizon.

That left a potentially huge gap that people are worried that cable companies will exploit. Without new rules, it is possible — in fact, likely — that your cable provider, who is most cases is also your internet provider, will find ways to profit from the video, audio and text sent through its wires to subscribers.

The very fact that Verizon then went to the trouble of suing the FCC to get the existing rules that prevented it from discriminating on the basis of content overturned is, ironically, what is spurring people on to push the old 1934 law of “common carriers” onto the cable companies, so that they are legally prevented from touching the data and so from imposing a cable business model on the internet.

The cable companies make the valid point that the legislation that they would be pulled under is ancient, outdated and in many respects goes against the general philosophy of less government regulation that help the internet to thrive in the first place.

Wheeler added: “I am grateful for the input of the President and look forward to continuing to receive input from all stakeholders, including the public, members of Congress of both parties, including the leadership of the Senate and House committees, and my fellow commissioners.
“Ten years have passed since the Commission started down the road towards enforceable Open Internet rules. We must take the time to get the job done correctly, once and for all, in order to successfully protect consumers and innovators online.”
The resulting Telecommunications Act of 1996 did not really address how people gained access to the internet, however, or how companies that make that access to the web possible should be viewed.

There was one very small part — literally one paragraph — in the 128-page text that defined a new term, “advanced telecommunications capability”, as “high-speed, switched, broadband telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology.”

This is the Section 706 that is held up as the alternative to Title II for how to fit broadband providers into the law.

Just how out of date is Title II?

There are 76 sections to Title II, and those wanting to reclassify broadband under it want to retain just six sections. They are:
- 201: Services and charges — companies have to charge a reasonable sum for the service
- 202: Discrimination — you can’t discriminate over the service
- 208: Complaints — people can complain
- 222: Privacy — people’s privacy has to be respected
- 254: Universal service — you have to provide the service across the country
- 255: Disability access — make it possible for people with disabilities to use it

Put together, these six sections are pretty light on regulation, although parts of them are still horribly outdated.

There is specific reference in 201 to the law not impacting the ability of common carriers to “furnishing reports of positions of ships at sea to newspapers of general circulation.”

Section 202 reveals the startling sum of “$6,000 for each such offense and $300 for each and every day of the continuance of such offense.” At those rates, AT&T won’t exactly be trembling in its boots. In today’s currency, the legislation should read $100,000 for each offense and $5,000 per day.
Am I The Only Techie Against Net Neutrality?

AT&T to “pause” 100-city fiber buildout because of net neutrality rules | Ars Technica

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said today that his company will “pause” investments in fiber networks until the net neutrality debate is over. The statement came two days after President Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband as a utility and impose bans on blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

“We can’t go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed,” Stephenson told investors, according to Reuters. “We think it is prudent to just pause and make sure we have line of sight and understanding as to what those rules would look like.” Stephenson was speaking at a Wells Fargo event.

High Note

Regular marijuana habit changes your brain, study says – CNN.com

Researchers found that compared to nonusers, people who smoked marijuana starting as early as age 14 have less brain volume, or gray matter, in the orbitofrontal cortex. That’s the area in the front of your brain that helps you make decisions.

“The younger the individual started using, the more pronounced the changes,” said Dr. Francesca Filbey, the study’s principal investigator and associate professor at the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. “Adolescence is when the brain starts maturing and making itself more adult-like, so any exposure to toxic substances can set the course for how your brain ends up.”

Unfilter Debunk

..a study that looked at a relatively large group of marijuana users …

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used MRI scans to look at the brains of 62 non-marijuana users and 48 regular marijuana users, 27 of whom used marijuana but not other drugs.

21 of the 48 pot-smokers reported using other drugs aside from weed.

Puzzlingly High Correlations in fMRI Studies of Emotion, Personality, and Social Cognition

Major contention surrounding studdies that use MRI methods

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studiesofemotion, personality, and social cognition have drawn much attention
in recent years, with high-profile studies frequently reporting extremely high (e.g., >.8) correlations between brain activation
and personality measures. We show that these correlations are higher than should be expected given the (evidently limited)
reliability of both fMRI and personality measures. The high correlations are all the more puzzling because method sections
rarely contain much detail about how the correlations were obtained. We surveyed authors of 55 articles that reported findings
of this kind to determine a few details on how these correlations were computed. More than half acknowledged using a strategy
that computes separate correlations for individual voxels and reports means of only those voxels exceeding chosen thresholds.
We show how this nonindependent analysis inflates correlations while yielding reassuring-looking scattergrams.

New pot shops on the block not always so popular | Business | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

DENVER (AP) – The booming new marijuana industry has an image problem. Not with government officials and the public – but with other businesses.

From crime fears to smell complaints, new marijuana retailers and growers face suspicion and sometimes open antagonism from their commercial neighbors, especially in Denver, which now has 200 marijuana retailers and dozens of pot growing and manufacturing facilities.

The strife went public last week along a once-forlorn stretch of highway south of downtown Denver now sprinkled with marijuana shops.

About two dozen pot shops along this stretch of Broadway, often dubbed “Broadsterdam,” had a marketing idea for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Why not join forces with neighboring antique shops to market the whole area as “The Green Mile”?

The pot shops called a meeting, expecting an enthusiastic response from neighboring businesses that have seen boarded-up storefronts replaced with bustling pot shops with lines out the door. Instead, the suggestion unleashed a torrent of anger from the antique shops.

“We don’t want to work with you,” said James Neisler, owner of Heidelberg Antiques. “Your customers, they’re the long-haired stinky types. They go around touching everything and they don’t buy anything.”

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