HACKTIVISM

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1. HACKTIVISM

"American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have 'high confidence' that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have been briefed on the evidence." From NYT - Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C.

+ "'Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference here in an apparent reference to Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails. 'I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.'" From NYT - Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails

+ "WikiLeaks is always going to be releasing information some people don’t like. That is the point of them. But lately the timing of and tone surrounding their leaks have felt a little off, and in cases like the DNC leak, more than a little biased." From Wired - WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

+ "Do these e-mails [DNC-leaked emails] strike anyone as appalling and outrageous? Not me. They strike me as . . . e-mails. The idea that people might speak casually or caustically via e-mail has been portrayed as a shocking breach of civilized discourse. Imagine! People bullshitting on e-mail!" From New Yorker - Why the D.N.C. E-Mails Aren’t Scandalous

2. THE TERROR BUSH LEAGUERS

So now we have "pro" terrorists and "amateur" terrorists. Sad thing is, the result is the same: dead people. "The Islamic State’s war on Europe seems to have entered a dangerous new phase, evolving from highly coordinated operations on the grand boulevards of Paris and Brussels to amateur assaults in the hinterlands that have suddenly turned anyone, anywhere into a target." From WaPo - Amateur Terror Attacks May Mark a New Chapter in the ISIS War in Europe

+ "Mr. Comey [FBI Director] predicted that the military coalition would eventually succeed in crushing the Islamic State, but that 'through the fingers of that crush are going to come hundreds of really dangerous people and they are going to flow primarily to Western Europe.' But some, he said, could well end up in the United States." From NYT - Defeat of ISIS Could Send ‘Terrorist Diaspora’ to West, F.B.I. Chief Says

3. CIGARETTES DON'T CAUSE CANCER...

Haven't we already tread this ground in the NFL? I think the science is clear: contact sports cause concussions. Concussions contribute to C.T.E. "Responding to written questions from a United States senator about the effects of concussions in hockey, N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman continued to deny a link between concussions and the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E." From NYT - N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman Continues to Deny C.T.E. Link

+ "The league [NFL] and U.S.A. Football have sold Heads Up Football to thousands of leagues and parents as having been proved effective — telling them that an independent study showed the program reducing injuries by 76 percent and concussions by about 30 percent. That study, published in July 2015, showed no such thing, a review by The New York Times has found." From NYT - N.F.L.-Backed Youth Program Says It Reduced Concussions. The Data Disagrees

4. ICE BUCKETS...OF MONEY

"According to CNN, the ALS Association planned to spend $77 million of the $115 million raised through the [ice bucket] challenge on research like the project that led to this particular discovery. The project in question, Project MinE, received just $1 million of that windfall." Nice to know that money is helping. From WaPo - The ALS ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ is working

5. AND THEN BILL O'REILLY SAID THIS...

"Addressing Michelle Obama’s remarks about slaves having built the White House, Bill O’Reilly said that those slaves were 'well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.' So it's okay to be enslaved if you're well fed and have decent lodgings...? From NYT - Bill O’Reilly Defends Comments About ‘Well Fed’ Slaves

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