In the last five months, the NSA's surveillance practices have been revealed to be a massive international operation, staggering in scope. But how do all of the NSA's programmes fit together -€“ and what does it mean for you? When Edward Snowden met journalists in his cramped room in Hong Kong's Mira hotel in June, his mission was ambitious. Amid the clutter of laundry, meal trays and his fou [...]

A record number of Americans renounced their citizenship or green cards in 2013, according to new data that may draw a complicated picture for US tax assessors who impose financial obligations on citizens living outside the country. [...]

Documents released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden show the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) used airport Wi-Fi to track passengers from around the world. Travelers passing through a major Canadian airport were potentially caught up in a vast electronic surveillance net, which allowed the nation’s electronic spy agency to track the wireless devices of thousands of airline p [...]

"€œDear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance." That's a text message that thousands of Ukrainian protesters spontaneously received on their cell phones today, as a new law prohibiting public demonstrations went into effect. It was the regime's police force, sending protesters the perfectly dystopian text message to accompany the newly minted, perfectly dystopian [...]

On February 11, a broad coalition of internet-involved organizations will go online to protest massive electronic surveillance by various governments. The action hopes to repeat the successful beating of SOPA/PIPA bills in 2012. [...]

Surveillance drones haven't started hovering outside and above the homes of Americans en masse just yet, but former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura claims he's left the United States just in case. Ventura, a 62-year-old professional wrestler-turned-politician, says his new Ora TV program 'Off the Grid' is being filmed in secret somewhere in Mexico where the all-seeing eye of American unmanned [...]

Logan Laplante is a 13 year-old boy who was taken out of the education system to be home schooled instead. Not only was he home schooled, but Logan had the ability to tailor his education to his interests and also his style of learning, something traditional education does not offer. As Logan has mentioned, when he grows up he wants to be happy and healthy. At a TEDx talk in 2013, he discussed [...]

A Pennsylvania community is asking questions after a government contractor, with help from the local police, pulled drivers off the road and into a parking lot to ask about their driving and 'most notably'€“ pressure them into providing a DNA sample. [...]

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been awarded the biennial "whistleblower prize"€ in Germany, in recognition of his "€œbold efforts"€ to expose the monitoring of communications data by his former employer. In Snowden’s address on the presentation of the 2013 Whistleblower Award - channeled by internet activist and journalist Jacob Appelbaum [...]

"What Has America Become" was the title of a letter to the editor written by Ken Huber of Tawas City, Michigan. It contains a series of comparisons and contrasts which causes one to think about the double-standards and conditions under which we now live here in America. Sadly America is in decline. [...]

If this doesn't wake you up, I don't know what will. [...]

Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire by Howard Zinn Narrated by Viggo Mortensen Art by Mike Konopacki Video editing by Eric Wold. Mr. Zinn's writings can certainly be critiqued as they should, but they greatly influenced my own love for storytelling and the hidden lessons buried in our past. And while I am responsible for helping kids wrap their head aro [...]