Archives for May 2020

How Big Wireless Lobbied Governments to Build 5G For Citizen Data Collection and Surveillance

While selling 5G technology to the public as a means for faster downloads, Big Wireless — comprising a web of telecom companies, lobbyists and law firms– is spending millions to lobby governments the world over to implement the next generation of cellular technology because of its potential for data collection and surveillance of citizens.

5G Feature photo

While the debate continues around 5G’s potential impact on human health, the environment and wildlife, often overlooked in the discussion about 5G  is how the technology will be used for data collection and surveillance. Big Wireless has spent over three decades lobbying  state powers to build this technology while selling it to the public as a

The US Keeps Trying, and Failing, to Deport a Former CIA Operative Back to Haiti

Emmanuel “Toto” Constant was supposed to board an ICE deportation flight along with 100 other Haitian nationals in what is the third such flight the Trump administration has carried out to Haiti in the last several weeks.

Emmanuel Constant Feature Photo

Emmanuel "Toto" Constant exercised his insurance clause as soon as he was apprehended in the Spring of 1995 in New York by the extant Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), now a part of the Department of Homeland Security. The infamous leader of Haiti's Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) had to flee his home country

World’s Super Rich Buying Pandemic Escape Mansions in New Zealand

A number of the planet’s richest people, including billionaire co-founder of Paypal Peter Thiel, are escaping to New Zealand to shelter in luxury bunkers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survival Bunker Feature photo

Instead of paying $24,000 for a haircut or spending $120,000 on a banana duct taped to a wall, the world’s super wealthy have found a new commodity to purchase: pandemic bunkers in New Zealand. A number of the planet’s richest people, including billionaire co-founder of Paypal Peter Thiel, have, amidst a growing global pandemic, escaped to the

The Execution of Julian Assange

As the extradition trial of Julian Assange nears, Patrick D. Anderson revisits the historic role of the US government and media in retaliating against those who refuse to submit.

Julian Assange Feature

I do not respect anyone who has not been to prison." Julian Assange once said to Renata Avila, a Guatemalan human rights activist who serves as legal counsel for WikiLeaks. “What he meant,” Avila says, “was that being in prison means that you have made so much trouble for the system that the only way for the system to deal with you is to lock you

The Botched Infiltration of Venezuela Leaves Guaidó Tainted Beyond Repair

Given Guaidó’s involvement, it is impossible for Washington to wash its hands of the plot. The Trump administration is responsible for giving him what little power he has, and therefore it is responsible for his actions.

Venezuela failed coup Feature

The latest chapter in the ongoing effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government reads like a bad spy thriller: a group of mercenaries piloted speedboats from Colombia to Venezuela; half of them were killed or captured by Venezuelan security forces immediately upon landing, while the other half – apparently delayed by mechanical issues with their

Joe Biden is Ridin’ the Pandemic All the Way to the White House

A ruling class consensus is coalescing that Trump will be the fall guy, blamed for the increasingly undeniable defects of the neoliberal model.

Joe Biden Face Mask Feature

The world is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis and in our corner of the planet, a presidential campaign has been reduced to a single issue: Trump or not Trump. Pick your poison. At a time that calls for national leadership, or least debate on the issues, Congress has unanimously passed the two-trillion-dollar Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and