Revenue from federal estate tax fell by almost 50% after Republicans raised threshold. “…’the dramatic decline is largely the result of the tax overhaul enacted by Republicans in 2017, which doubled the amount that wealthy couples can pass to heirs without triggering the levy’ to $23.4 million. ‘The modern estate tax was introduced in 1916 to help counter the growth of dynastic wealth.’ Since 2016, U.S. billionaires have doubled their collective net worth to more than $5 trillion.” https://news.yahoo.com/disappearing-estate-tax-105225647.html
American Josephine Baker to be reburied in France’s Pantheon, one of the country’s highest honors. “Born Freda Josephine McDonald in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker rose to stardom in the 1930s after moving to France to pursue a career in show business and escape racial discrimination in the U.S. …. Following Nazi Germany’s invasion of France during the second World War, Baker joined the French Resistance, relaying intelligence to the Allies while performing for Axis troops in enemy territory…. An advocate for social change, Baker returned to the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s to protest for racial justice, speaking at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.” https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/583378-american-dancer-and-spy-who-was-worlds-first-black
NLRB decides Bessemer, Alabama Amazon workers deserve a second chance to vote on unionization. “By installing a postal mailbox at the main employee entrance, the employer essentially highjacked the process and gave a strong impression that it controlled the process. This dangerous and improper message to employees destroys trust in the board’s processes and in the credibility of the election results.” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/labor-official-confirms-election-amazon-workers-81453063
Turkish court finds man implicated in 2016 coup attempt was in contact with CIA agents. “According to the court records, in those exchanges, [Enver] Altaylı disclosed state secrets…. In the email, Altaylı said he wanted to warn ‘his friends’ regarding what he described as a shift in [Turkey’s] foreign policy direction, claiming that Erdoğan was steering Turkey toward the Shanghai Alliance. Among the seized documents were Altaylı’s pictures with CIA agents Ruzi Nazar and Duane Clarridge, who were once stationed in Turkey.” https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/enver-altayli-exchanged-emails-with-cia-agents-court-169740
FBI can easily obtain WhatsApp and iMessage ‘metadata’, claims internal document. “The document — titled Lawful Access and prepared jointly by the bureau’s Science and Technology Branch and Operational Technology Division — offers a window into the FBI’s ability to legally obtain vast amounts of data from the world’s most popular messaging apps, many of which hype the security and encryption of their services…. WhatsApp is unique in how quickly it can produce data to law-enforcement agencies in response to a so-called pen register — a surveillance request that captures the source and destination of each message for a targeted individual. WhatsApp will produce certain user metadata, though not actual message content, every 15 minutes in response to a pen register, the FBI says…. Even without the ability to legally request message content from WhatsApp, however, the metadata provided by WhatsApp to law enforcement captures which users talk to one another, when they do it, and which other users they have in their address book.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/whatsapp-imessage-facebook-apple-fbi-privacy-1261816/
TechCrunch reporter says FBI agents showed up at his home to ask about a news story he had written. “Zack Whittaker, the top notch cybersecurity reporter for TechCrunch got to experience the fun of [government scrutiny] when the FBI showed up at his door over a year after he had published a story about a hacker dumping thousands of Mexican embassy documents from Guatemala after the Mexican embassy left the data exposed online…. ‘After we published our story the Mexican government requested the help of the U.S. Department of Justice through diplomatic channels to investigate the hack and presumably try to identify the hacker. Because I had contact with the hacker, that must have made me a subject of interest to the Mexican authorities, hence the visit a year on.” https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20211124/17414748005/when-fbi-shows-up-your-door-about-your-reporting-thats-intimidation.shtml Whittaker declined to reveal any details about who his source was.
Arvada shooter Ronald Troyke referred to ‘sovereign citizen’ movement during an earlier encounter with Arvada police officers, and in his manifesto, where he also mention Elijah McClain. “I dedicate what I did to Aurora PD. Especially those officers involved in the killing and mocking of Elijah McClain.” https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/olde-town-arvada-suspect-police-interaction-before-shooting/73-292890ad-ae38-41e2-8a9e-dc8fc4e3cb36 Troyke’s family told police he had been ‘warped’ by watching videos about police brutality. “‘He gets up early in the morning and calls my sister up and tells her about all this negative police stuff that YouTube always shows and all the lies and crap they give out and he just, I don’t know, he just kept watching it and watching it… so I think this is part of it,’ one of Troyke’s relatives told law enforcement. Investigators searched Troyke’s internet history after he was killed and found ‘an extensive YouTube history which consisted of almost exclusively of anti-police / police misconduct / 1st Amendment auditor videos.’” https://www.denverpost.com/2021/11/12/ronald-troyke-arvada-shooting-gunman/ The FBI reportedly opened a terrorism investigation into Troyke, based on his manifesto.
Video shows $133 million F-35B fighter slowly rolling off the end of British aircraft carrier. “In a shocking security breach, the 16-second clip was copied using a smartphone and put on Twitter…. The cause of the crash is under investigation, but it is thought that a red plastic rain cover for the jet was accidentally left on and sucked into an engine.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10255359/Footage-emerges-moment-F-35-jet-topples-end-HMS-Queen-Elizabeths-runway.html
Deaths of civilians during U.S. military actions are routinely covered up instead of being investigated, claims writer. “A 2019 investigation by Human Rights Watch determined that approximately 7,000 civilians had been killed in the previous five years in Iraq and Syria in air strikes by the U.S. and its allies. With virtually no negative reaction in Washington, D.C., or coverage in the mainstream media, there should be no surprise that the Pentagon thought they could get away with the 2019 massacre in Baghuz. There appears to be a sense that, given the horror of ISIS, the killing of large numbers of civilians may be necessary to ensure their defeat, so it’s important to keep such tragedies quiet.” https://progressive.org/latest/pentagon-doesnt-care-about-civilian-casualties-zunes-211126/
National Guardsman to be deployed to Africa. “On Saturday, 800 Virginia and 200 Kentucky Guardsmen shipped off for about a month of pre-deployment training at Fort Bliss, Texas. The soldiers recently wrapped up three weeks of training at Fort Pickett, Va, according to a Guard spokesperson. The soldiers are expected to be sent to unspecified countries in Africa in early 2022.” https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/11/29/1000-national-guard-soldiers-deploy-africa-mid-east-wars-wind-down.html
Sri Lankan security forces accused of driving Tamil families from cemeteries, attacking journalists. “Grieving relatives were forced out of cemeteries on the weekend as they attempted to light lamps at graves of loved ones who died in the island’s decades-long conflict, which ended in 2009. The Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions on Monday said Tamil journalists covering a memorial in Mullaittivu, a northeastern fishing town where the war’s final battle was fought, were assaulted by soldiers.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/29/sri-lanka-troops-tamil-remembrance-civil-war-dead
Pakistani man who went to college in the U.S. claims the FBI turned him into a social outcast after he refused to become an informant. “[Aswad] Khan and his legal team believe he was placed on the U.S.’s no-fly list as well as the terrorist watchlist…. His [personal] contacts said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers suggested to them during interrogations that Khan was a dangerous person, a possible terrorist. The officials made it clear that he was the source of their problems at the border. For many of his friends, the pressure was too much. People whom Khan had known for years started calling him to apologize that they were going to have to unfriend him on social media. At weddings in Karachi, other guests started asking that he be excluded from group photographs. His invitations to events started drying up. Spouses and parents of his friends began telling them that being associated with Khan was not worth the trouble.” https://theintercept.com/2021/11/30/fbi-informant-watchlist-reputation-damage/
Iranian movie examines impact of the death penalty on society. “There Is No Evil consists of four short stories – with twists and ingeniously concealed interconnections – on the topic of the death penalty and how it is poisoning the country’s soul. Hundreds of people are executed a year in Iran, including children. Execution of the condemned criminal is the job of civilian functionaries but also widely carried out by soldiers doing compulsory national service.” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/nov/30/there-is-no-evil-review-passionate-plea-against-irans-soul-poisoning-executions
Lawyers for victims of 2017 mass shooting in Texas and U.S. government spar over compensation for families. “[Devin Kelley] killed 26 people and injured 22 more when he shot more than 500 bullets from an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle and a handgun into the [Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church] frequented by his wife’s family. This July, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled that the Air Force was 60% responsible for the mass killing, which was carried out with weapons Kelley would not have been able to purchase if the Air Force had submitted Kelley’s criminal record to the FBI’s background check database, as the military branch is required by law.” https://www.courthousenews.com/us-offers-less-than-10-of-damages-requested-by-sutherland-springs-shooting-victims/ Another case of the government apparently enabling a mass shooting through its inaction.