Read

Buzzfeed(?) with a great story on FBI entrapment of "militia" group.

It was Dan, too, they said, who had brought Fox into the group despite objections from multiple Watchmen that he seemed “crazy.” It was Dan, along with Robeson — another informant — who had supported Fox’s kidnapping plan, and Dan who acted as the personal chauffeur to the Watchmen, Fox, and others to ensure they had every opportunity to conspire. He even provided snacks.

“The Confidential Informant took the Wolverine Watchmen from YouTube copycats to a combat group with military-style training,” Johnson wrote in his entrapment motion, which is still pending.

Andd Glenn Greenwald, commenting on same.

The idea of kidnapping Gov. Whitmer came from the FBI. It was a plot designed by the agency, and they then went on the hunt to target people they believed they could manipulate into joining their plot — either people were easily manipulated due to psychological weakness, financial vulnerability, and/or their strongly held political views. In sum, the FBI devised this plot, was the primary organizer of it, funded it, purposely directed their targets to pose for incriminating pictures that they then released to the press, and then heaped praise on themselves for stopping what they themselves had created.

For anyone covering the FBI during the first War on Terror, none of this is new. So many of the supposed “terror plots” the FBI purported to disrupt over the last twenty years were — just like the Michigan plot — ones that were created and driven by, and would not have happened without, the FBI's own planning, funding and direction.

Just as they are doing now, the FBI used those plots to elevate fear levels and justify more domestic surveillance power and funding for the U.S. security state. While the targets then were typically young American Muslims with anti-government views rather than young right-wing white men with anti-government views, the tactics were identical.

#USG #FBI #GlennGreenwald #BuzzFeed

The Insect Apocalypse That Never Was

The tsunami of crisis articles certainly served as a wake-up call. But to what? A number of studies suggest that insect populations are declining in some areas of the world (but not in others) or that certain kinds of insects (taxa) may be in decline in those regions (even as others are increasing). But Armageddon? Such catastrophic framing and the policy implications that follow are significant.

#Quillette #science #bees #JonEntine

Tech

The importance of self hosting.

Self hosting empower the users instead of making profit from them. Self hosting is better when it's done in community, a common mail server for a group of people and a communication server federated to a bigger network (such as XMPP or Matrix) are a good way to create a resilient Internet while not giving away your rights to capitalist companies.

#selfhosting