Smash the Man

Stickin' it to the man (because liberty is always unfinished business)

Smash the Man Blog

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Government

Complete list of ultra-elite attendees reported to have attended the 2010 Koch strategy meeting

Below is a widely-circulated list of attendees at the secret 2010 Koch strategy meeting. According to reports, organized strategic planning began in the early 1980’s and continued through the annual Koch strategy meetings. The rumored purpose of these meetings: to fight what the ultra-rich perceived to be the coming-of-age of liberal policies and agendas and to plan for public acceptance of their goals.

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News

Six banks to pay $4.33 billion in fines over allegations they manipulated foreign exchange rates

Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, RBS and UBS will collectively pay $1.4 billion to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and about$1.75 billion to the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority. UBS will also make a payment in Switzerland. In addition, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Bank of America, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase will pay a combined $950 in penalties.

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News

Obama: NSA must divulge unknown bugs like Heartbleed – unless the bug works to their advantage

In January 2014, in the midst of the NSA scandal, President Obama decided that the NSA must divulge any undisclosed flaws in Internet security that they were aware of. This means if the NSA is aware of software stack bugs like the recently discovered Heartbleed bug, they must publicly acknowledge the bug. But detractors have noted that a major loophole exists in the policy as stated by Obama

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News

During an era of public outcry against government corruption, the Supreme Court conservatives strike down limits on campaign contributions

Yesterday, the Supreme Court continued to ignore the voice of U.S. citizens, striking down a decades-old cap on the total amount any individual can contribute to federal candidates. The justices said in a 5-4 vote that Americans have a right to give the legal maximum to candidates for Congress and president. According to the Supreme Court, caps on campaign contributions restrict a person’s First Amendment free speech rights.

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News

New report discloses more than half of US Congress members are now millionaires

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there but in a country where the government was designed to be representative of the people, the little dogs in the U.S. are still finding themselves at a huge disadvantage. The Center for Responsive Politics has just completed their analysis of financial data disclosed by US Congress members and has found that more than half of the members of US Congress are now millionaires. At least 268 of the 530 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012.

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News

Texas teen has “affluenza” – wealthy 16-year-old with priors gets probation after killing four in drunk driving crash

North Texas residents were stunned today after State District Judge Jean Boyd sentenced an affluent 16-year-old teenager, who killed four pedestrians while driving drunk, to probation, despite the fact that the teen had already been charged with two alcohol-related offenses before he turned 16. The inebriated teen drove an estimated 70 MPH in a 40 MPH when he struck and killed four people, including three good Samaritans who were helping a disabled motorist. Two teens thrown from the truck suffered severe head injuries but recovered. Couch’s blood alcohol level tested at .24, three times the .08 legal limit.

Mitt Romney Impersonates a Police Officer? 0

News

Mitt Romney Impersonates a Police Officer?

Reports of come in of some strange Romney behavior during his college days. Romney apparently liked to dress up like a policeman and pull people over for random violations.

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Government

Did the United States install Middle East Internet Monitors?

Nearly 100% of the global Internet traffic is dependent upon deep-sea networks of fiber-optic cables that cover the ocean floor. As much as ¾ of the international communications between the Middle East and Europe are carried by two undersea cables: SeaMeWe-4 (which stands for South East Asia Middle East West Europe) and FLAG Telecom’s FLAG Europe-Asia cable. On January 30, 2008, both of these cables were cut, severely disrupting Internet and telephone traffic from India to Egypt. A few days later, on February 1, 2008, another undersea cable was cut in the Persian Gulf and two days after that, on February 3, 2008, another Middle East cable was cut. On February 4, 2008, a report was issued indicating two more cables had been cut. Five high-speed submarine communication cables had been cut which caused disruptions and slowdowns for users in the Middle East and India. And nobody was sure how or why the cables were cut.

US law enforcement phone snooping on the rise 0

News

US law enforcement phone snooping on the rise

An inquiry by Congressional Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass) has revealed that the number of requests wireless carriers receive from US law enforcement for information about their customers has increased steadily, but just how often...

FBI seizes anonymous mailer server putting 100s of legit users offline 0

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FBI seizes anonymous mailer server putting 100s of legit users offline

On Wednesday, April 18, at approximately 16:00 Eastern Time, U.S. Federal authorities removed a server from a colocation facility shared by Riseup Networks and May First/People Link in New York City. The seized server was operated by the European Counter Network (“ECN”), the oldest independent internet service provider in Europe, who, among many other things, provided an anonymous remailer service, Mixmaster, that was the target of an FBI investigation into the bomb threats against the University of Pittsburgh.