Defenders of the NSA’s mass spying have lost an important talking point: that the erosion of our privacy and associational rights is justified given the focus of surveillance efforts on combating terrorism and protecting the national security. That argument has always been dubious for a number of reasons. But after a November 2015 ruling [.pdf] by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was unsealed last week, it’s lost another chunk of its credibility. The ruling confirms that NSA’s warrantless spying has been formally approved for use in general criminal investigations. The national security justification has been entirely blown. That’s because the secret court, over the objection of its hand-selected amicus, determined that once information is collected by the NSA for “foreign intelligence” purposes under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, that information can be searched by the FBI for regular criminal investigations without any need for a warrant or prior court oversight. Although the FISC has signed off on the FBI’s procedures claiming this authority for years, this ruling from late 2015 may be the first time the FISC has actually considered their legality. —Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Secret) Court Takes Another Bite Out of the Fourth Amendment
The Dumification of the United States
Quote of the Day:
Obama (2008’s ‘Lessor Evil’) — Corporations Über Alles: Calling Corporate-Backed Deals an “Indisputable” Good, Obama Makes Pitch for TTIP: Sitting next to Chancellor Angela Merkel during a summit in Germany, U.S. president continued to ignore opponents as he defended controversial agreement with European nations by Jon Queally
I’m on the Kill List. This is what it feels like to be hunted by drones: Friends decline my invitations and I have taken to sleeping outside under the trees, to avoid becoming a magnet of death for my family By Malik Jalal
The Rich Get Richer: 50 Billionaires Got Federal Farm Subsidies By Robert Coleman 
Oxfam Media Briefing — Broken at the Top: How America’s dysfunctional tax system costs billions incorporate tax dodging 
The Panama Papers: Laundering Havens for War Budgets (Video): In mid-April, economist Michael Hudson told The Real News Network that global oil and mining industries and the U.S. State Department created Panama and Liberia for the express purpose of tax evasion.
The Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn’t: the Shameful Ordeal of Abu Zubaydah by Rebecca Gordon
Environment:
Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:
Energy News:
Labor:
World: 
Amazonian Tribe Seizes Military Helicopter And Takes Government Officials Hostage After Oil Spill by Dane Arr
