THIS IS JOURNALISM: FBI Targets American Citizens For 'Extremism' AND AI Glasses Tech Gets Very Scary
Stories you might have missed this week. Following, sharing, donating, and subscribing to public interest journalism is literally an action you can take to fight for democracy.
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Here’s what you may have missed:
Ken Klippenstein, FBI Making List of American “Extremists,” Leaked Memo Reveals
A leaked Department of Justice memo directs the FBI to create a list of “groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism.” The memo outlines broad, vague categories while proposing a bounty fund to reward tipsters, pitting citzens against one another. Americans can be targeted by the government (and their neighbors!) for “extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Americanism,” “anti-Christianity,” and support for “radical gender ideology.” The criteria are so broad that they will surely ensnare citizens engaged in constitutionally protected speech. Klippenstein frames the memo as signaling a major expansion of domestic surveillance power under the Trump administration.
Jacobin, The GOP’s Groyper Fringe Became Its Future
This piece chronicles how “the rise of Nick Fuentes and the GOP’s radicalization reflects decades of intellectual groundwork and the material decline that pushed a generation toward conspiracy-laden populism.”
Since Carlson’s termination from Fox News in 2023, his brand has gotten more extreme as he has devolved into conspiracy theories about everything from chemtrails to 9/11 to Israel. Carlson’s appeal is in his effusive bluntness: Why can’t we talk about demographics? Is it a crime to say “Jewish”? Why don’t they want us asking questions?
Carlson wasn’t simply boosting Fuentes, nor was he engaged in some neutral exercise in free expression. The act of hosting functioned more as quiet validation, a signal that Fuentes belonged within the bounds of acceptable debate.
The Intercept, Pardoned Capitol Rioter Tried to Hush Child Sex Victim With Promise of Jan. 6 Reparation Money, Police Say
A January 6 rioter pardoned by Donald Trump, Andrew Paul Johnson, has been charged in Florida with multiple sex crimes involving two minors, including molesting an 11-year-old. Police reports say Johnson claimed he was entitled to $10 million in “reparations” for his January 6 arrest and told one child he would include them in his will to stop them from “exposing what Andrew had done.” The article notes that Johnson joins a small group of pardoned insurrectionists later charged with child-related sex offenses.
Democracy Docket, DOJ’s New Voting Lawyer Brought Flawed Charges Pushed By Election Deniers
The newly hired DOJ voting-section lawyer, Eric Neff, was perviously placed on leave from his prosecutor job for Los Angeles County after bringing charges based on bad information from a prominent far-right election-conspiracy group. Those charges were dismissed, and the county ultimately paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit over a “flawed prosecution.” Neff has publicly promoted baseless claims about voting, including conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines. The article argues Neff’s hiring to a key DOJ role shows the current administration has shifted from protecting voting rights toward supporting policies and personnel that undermine them.
Popular Information, The casino-fication of news
New partnerships between major news networks like CNN and the prediction market Kalshi are turning news events into betting opportunities. Integrating Kalshi markets into news coverage trivializes serious events by framing them as speculative wagers. The article raises concerns that prediction markets are vulnerable to manipulation and give wealthy traders an outsized influence on how national events are perceived. Ultimately, this trend could distort journalism, amplifying market sentiment to the detriment of substantive reporting.
TechDirt, Three Tweets That Capture The Entire Elon Musk Free Speech Con
Techdirt highlights three tweets from Elon Musk over the course of a week that perfectly expose his so-called ‘free speech absolutism’ philosophy as a sham. In one tweet, Musk suggests that calling non-violent people Nazis should be treated as “incitement to murder,” an inherently anti-free-speech stance. Days later, Musk took to Twitter to label the EU Commission (which has fined one of his companies) as Nazis, applying the very label he claimed was incitement to murder. Musk only defends free speech when it flatters him and condemns it when it challenges him. His proclaimed free speech absolutism is really hollow, self-serving hypocrisy.
Mother Jones, Donald Trump’s Restitution Scheme Is Among the Greatest Heists in US History
Trump is demanding about $230 million from the Justice Department (read, you the taxpayer!) to repay him for costs incurred while defending himself against past investigations into his misconduct. Trump has installed loyalists at DOJ who previously attacked the investigations into him, raising grave conflict-of-interest concerns. Trump is using presidential power to enrich himself while leaving taxpayers to carry the cost.
The Verge, The war on disinformation is a losing battle
Defeatist headline aside, this excellent deep dive exposes how propagandists like Jim Jordan, Elon Musk, Michael Shellenberger, and Matt Taibbi framed fact-checkers and disinformation researchers as a “censorship-industrial complex” and leveraged their unfounded attacks to shut down research programs, intimidate institutions, and destroy careers. Serbian police even raided a newsroom based on their lies.
Less than two weeks after Taibbi testified to Congress, police in Serbia launched a raid of the newsroom of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), which has received funding from USAID and Internews. “The authorities in Serbia are citing these baseless statements about USAID from Musk and Trump as a justification for their investigation,” said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, of which CRTA is a member.
With Trump back in office and tech companies capitulating, the article argues that the people and institutions once tasked with protecting the information environment have been scrambled, leaving the public to sort truth from lies alone.
KERA, International student enrollment dip could lead to $1 billion drop in spending
A new report shows international student enrollment in the U.S. dropped 17 percent this fall, costing an estimated $1.1 billion in spending and nearly 23,000 jobs. Analysts say the decline began after the Trump administration abruptly canceled thousands of student visas, leaving many students abroad fearful of studying in the U.S. States like Texas are feeling the hit as universities brace for tighter budgets and fewer students. NAFSA (National Association for Foreign Student Advisers) warns that without more reliable visa policies and a more welcoming climate, the U.S. will keep losing global talent and the economic strength that comes with it.
Associated Press, COVID-19 vaccines may help some cancer patients fight tumors
COVID-19 vaccines are under constant attack from the heads of our health agencies. They are going to get people killed by sowing doubt about the safety and efficacy of life saving vaccines. That’s why this short video report by the AP on promising findings at the MD Anderson Cancer Center is worth sharing.
People with advanced lung or skin cancer who were taking certain immunotherapy drugs lived substantially longer if they also got a Pfizer or Moderna shot within 100 days of starting treatment, according to preliminary research.
For Folks Who Don’t Want To Read
WCCO, An incredible local news report on Republican State Senatro Jim Abeler who is standing up for his Somali neighbors in the face of Trump’s racist attacks. Deeply humanizing and important to share as POTUS makes life more dangerous for Somali immigrants with strategic xenophobia meant to rile up his base.
More Perfect Union, Uncovering The Corporate Scheme To Increase Grocery Prices
EXCLUSIVE: We uncovered a secret corporate scheme to raise grocery prices. We found that Instacart is using AI algorithms to charge customers different prices for the same items. The scary part? It’s not just online. It’s in physical grocery stores, too. Our months-long investigation with @consumerreports and @thegroundworkcollaborative found it could cost families $1,200/year. Featuring Errol Schweizer, Grocery Nerd
Eva, Journalist Uses AI Glasses To Instantly Surveil Strangers He Meets On The Street
On a Dutch television program, tech journalist Alexander Klöpping took to the streets of Amsterdam to demonstrate a pair of smart glasses that he had connected to a powerful AI program. The experiment raises important questions about tech, AI, and ethics. Here’s a very brief article you can translate from the original Dutch. And here’s the chilling video.
If you speak Dutch, here’s a video from the in-studio segment on the Eva show where Klöpping explained the technology.
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Last year, 404 Media wrote an article about two Harvard students who also demonstrated how facial recognition technology can be added to the code in these glasses.
404 Media, Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta’s Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers
Did you like this? Let me know in the comments. And share other great journalism you saw this week so I can put it in the next one. Be sure to check out my Bluesky lists for an easy way to find pro-democracy journalism and commentary in just minutes each day. You can literally beat Aaron Parnas to breaking stories with these lists!
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Thanks a lot for this. But what do you suggest for people to replace Parnas with who can't follow all of the above.
Do you have ideas of sources that curate but give credit and links appropriately?
Personally, I've been checking out Portside.
https://portside.org/
Impressive curation. The AI glasses facial recognition story is genuinely unsettling when you think about the infrastructure gap between surveilance capability and regulatory frameworks. I ran into similar doxing tech demos at a conference last year, and the fact this can now run on consumer hardware without any meaningful consent layer is pretty wild. Gu ess we're basically beta-testing a future where anonymity in public spaces doesn't exist.