IBM Watson Dehumanizing Veterans Care

IBM, whose stock price has sunk to its lowest in four years, has recently “announced a $1 billion investment to establish the new Watson Group.” IBM’s Watson computer processes large amounts of your information to make a better decision for you. Watson is now embedded in the Department of Veterans Affairs Data Center in Austin, Texas to “advise doctors on treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder.” According to their press release, the technology will “transform decision making,” or said in a different way, if you are a Veteran in need of care, IBM’s Watson will soon make the decision about your health care for you.

Big Data Used Against You

IBM’s Watson can “understand and respond to Big Data.” This is a catch-all phrase that encompasses medical literature, clinical data, personal electronic records, and doctors’ personal comments on patients.

For years, it has been an open secret that all of our “Big Data” has been harvested and stored without our consent. This includes every Facebook thought, phone conversation, every purchase, andhousehold conversation to name a few. There is no doubt that this “Big Data” is waiting to be used towards withholding or forcing medical treatment at the stroke of a bureaucratic pen in the future.

Clinton's 2016 White House launch contrasts with her 2008 bid

(Reuters) - Hillary Clinton cast herself as a champion for everyday Americans on Sunday, kicking off her long-awaited second run for the White House with a vow to fight for a level playing field for those recovering from tough economic times.

Clinton, who begins the 2016 presidential race as the commanding Democratic front runner, entered the fray with a flurry of video, email and social media announcements that indicated she had absorbed some of the lessons of her painful 2008 loss and would not take anything for granted this time.

When she lost the Democratic nominating battle to Barack Obama, her campaign was heavily criticized for conveying a sense of arrogance and entitlement, and for being out of touch with the party's progressive wing.

This time, the video launching her campaign portrayed her as a warmer, more empathetic figure and laid the groundwork for a more populist economic agenda.

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Obama Admin Gives $128 Million From Agency to Feed the World’s Hungry to Pro-Abortion Groups

Washington DC (CFAM) — A government report shows two international abortion advocacy groups received $128 million from USAID, a federal agency that distributes foreign aid.

One of them – International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) – works at the UN Its goal is to require countries to regard abortion as a right and include it in global poverty and health programs. The other, Population Council, works to make abortions widely available in developing countries where it is especially dangerous.

Both groups have origins in the eugenics movement.

U.S. law prohibits foreign aid paying for abortions. But under an executive order by President Obama, tax dollars can go to international groups that provide and promote abortion. While the money cannot be spent to do abortions, paying for items like overhead, advocacy and materials frees other money to be spent on abortions.

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Facebook Biometric Snooping Called Illegal

CHICAGO (CN) - Facebook violated its users' privacy to acquire the largest privately held stash of biometric face-recognition data in the world, a class action claims in Chancery Court.

Lead plaintiff Carlo Licata claims Facebook began violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy act of 2008 in 2010, in a "purported attempt to make the process of tagging friends easier."
Through its "tag suggestions" program, Facebook scans all pictures uploaded by users and identifies any Facebook friends they may want to tag, according to the April 1 lawsuit in Cook County Court.
Facebook got its facial recognition technology from the Israeli company Face.com, which Facebook later bought. Face.com is not a party to the lawsuit.

Though it may seem at times that a major purpose of Facebook is to allow people to share too much information about themselves, Licata says this form of data mining violates users' privacy.

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Keystone XL Traded For Arctic Drilling Rights?

Few debates in energy have been more contentious than Keystone XL (KXL). Environmental groups opposed the pipeline and turned out a grass roots movement that astonished even battle weary Enviros. It also caused serious problems for the industry as their assets became stranded and they were forced to ship crude by rail and barge. It is estimated that this amounted to approximately $17Bover the past few years in lost revenue due to public accountability campaigns. But it looks as though the Obama Administration and Big Oil merely traded KXL for Arctic drilling rights.

An announcement was made, rather quietly, this week which did not seem to receive much attention. It came from the Department of Energy’s Oil Council which is made up largely of energy company executives, some government officials, analysis firms and nonprofit organizations. The Council released a study which was produced by the National Petroleum Council at the request of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. It claims that the U.S. should begin Arctic drilling immediately.

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Yet another area of unjustified government takeover: the Internet

An article I wrote twenty years ago described the Internet as America's next frontier. And for the past twenty years, it has been a wide-open, innovative, constantly changing – and yes, somewhat unruly – frontier. But all that may have changed with the Federal Communication Commission's recent announcement that it will now treat the Internet as a public utility, regulated under the same laws that once governed the Ma Bell telephone monopoly.

This dramatic change in the government's regulatory oversight of the Internet is the most extreme expression of the "net neutrality" movement. In basic principle, net neutrality is a concept that commands near universal agreement. Net neutrality refers to an open Internet, free of discrimination based on content. There is no disagreement on that principle – just with the definition of open.

To supporters of the FCC's Open Internet Order, open means an Internet regulated in the name of the purported interests of small users vis a vis the cable and telecom broadband providers. To the opponents of the FCC order, open means an Internet free of government regulation and characterized by flexible, adaptive, and vibrant private competition.

The FCC obviously chose the former notion of open. In ruling that the Internet would henceforth be governed pursuant to Title II of the 1934 Communications Act, the agency changed the Internet from a lightly regulated information service to a much more heavily regulated telecommunications service. Because the 1934 Act conferred near total government control over the AT&T telephone monopoly, it now confers a similar degree of government regulatory power over the Internet.

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US Government Rolls Out Mandatory Adult Vaccination and Tracking Program

This month, federal health officials are rolling out a national adult immunization plan that contains a new Mandatory Adult Vaccination1,2 and Electronic Tracking Program. The government is urging Americans to fulfill their obligation to support and comply with the anti-choice requirement to relinquish responsibility for personal health and well-being to federally appointed health officials through pharmaceutical enhancements.

Public health officials will be monitoring Twitter and Facebook posts for anti-vaccine chatter that may indicate non-compliance with federal vaccine recommendations and state vaccine mandates.


"The measles outbreak in Disneyland is a prime example of how Americans are incapable of protecting their own health and making wise health choices,” said a spokesman for the federally sponsored Anti-Choicers United Campaign.

"We are delighted that every state has pledged to move forward on bills to eliminate vaccine exemptions and support mandatory vaccine compliance, and we remind Americans that failure to vaccinate is a serious biothreat that simply will no longer be tolerated.”

French time-management specialist Aucun Choix—who was not consulted during the negotiations with drug companies that preceded the mandate—commented that “removing choice is one of the most basic steps you can take to simplify your life,” noting that Americans suffer an inordinate amount of stress as a result of having too many choices.

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