As homes in the US become increasingly unaffordable, those who can afford to buy probably chafe at the insanely high commissions paid to agents and brokers, which can amount to 6% of the sales price. And as more buyers balk at these fees, turning instead to 'iBuyers' like Open Door and Zillow (which will buy a home with the intention of flipping it), it appears the DoJ has finally taken an interest in the phenomenon.

The Environmental Protection Agency has a detailed process for dealing with new cybersecurity weaknesses: develop a plan to remediate with clear goals and milestones, then attack the problem. The only issue: Those plans aren’t being logged, managed or tracked, according to the agency inspector general.

Amazon is developing a voice-activated gadget that can recognize human emotions. The wrist-worn device is described as a health and wellness product according to internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg, which is being developed in partnership with Lab126, the group behind Amazon's Fire phone and Echo smart speaker. The Alexa voice software team is also involved.

Last year, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that it was seeking noninvasive ways “to achieve high levels of brain-system communications without surgery.” The techniques would “allow precise, high-quality connections to specific neurons or groups of neurons.” The agency wants to create mind-controlled weapons of war, as it (vaguely) explained in two recent press releases. To achieve this goal, DARPA recently formed a program called Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3).

As Congressional Democrats insist on conducting post-Mueller probes into President Trump and those around him, much of the recent infighting and backpedaling we’ve seen from former Obama intel chiefs is starting to make sense.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking for a cloud-based subscription service that can pinpoint the exact locations of cellphones, laptops and other connected devices—even going back in time.

The director-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said yesterday that the Israeli army had deliberately targeted journalists in the occupied Gaza Strip. Christophe Deloire was speaking to the Jerusalem Post, having received the Dan David Prize in Tel Aviv on behalf of the international press freedoms watchdog.

The recent decision by the Scholastic Aptitude Test to add a so-called adversity score to test takers’ results for college admissions’ officials to weigh has been almost universally panned. Few think it’s a good idea to give students an “overall disadvantage level” ranking. First, conservative scholar Heather Mac Donald laid out several big problems with the new index, noting it’s basically affirmative action and reinforces the soft bigotry of low expectations.

It's been exactly one year since US scientists reported a mysterious surge in ozone-destroying chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Banned in 1987 under the globally signed Montreal Protocol, there was only one explanation: somewhere out there, in an unknown location, someone must have gone rogue, setting back progress on the ozone hole by a decade or more.

While the trade dispute between the US and China is leaving scores of companies in a state of confusion and uncertainty, some beneficiaries are emerging. Read Full Article at RT.com

The global gold fever, led by Russia which is diversifying its foreign exchange reserves, is the right thing to do as the US dollar’s value is being diminished, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff told RT. Read Full Article at RT.com

Deflation eats credit-dependent, mass-consumption economies alive from the inside.

The growth of intelligence agencies in the 21st century has been powered by the development of new technologies, created by start-ups, which are powered by intelligence agencies. This unvirtuous circle of money and espionage is a new and daunting challenge for civil liberties and human rights groups.

The United States is seeking to shut down Venezuela’s emergency food aid program, according to the Wall Street Journal. The stated goal of U.S. policy is combatting the corruption of the Venezuelan government. The unstated reality is that the Trump administration is doing exactly what it accuses the Maduro government of doing: weaponizing access to food.

The hot-air figures the U.S. used for its regime change efforts in Venezuela failed to do their job. The New York Times declares their movement «deflated».

Forty-three percent of Americans think socialism would be a good thing for the United States, while a slim majority — 51 percent — of those surveyed in a Gallup Poll released on May 20 think it would be a bad thing. The figures contrast markedly with a Roper/Fortune survey taken in 1942, in which 25 percent of those polled described socialism as a good thing, 40 percent as a bad thing, and 34 percent did not have an opinion.

Opposition to Amazon's sale of its facial recognition technology to US police forces is set to come to a head at its annual general meeting on Wednesday. Shareholders will vote twice on the matter. First, over whether the company should stop offering its Rekognition system to government agencies. And second, over whether to commission an independent study into whether the tech threatens people's civil rights.

New details have emerged about the recently revealed dossier(s) Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, compiled to sway public opinion on herbicides. The dossier(s) included people from 7 European states and potentially beyond, according to a new report by RT. Monsanto files reportedly listed prominent public figures who were opinionated on either side of the herbicide debate. The list included “stakeholders in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as regarding stakeholders related to EU institutions.”

Individuals from all corners of the political spectrum have been stirred up by the recent bans of various figures including Alex Jones and Louis Farrakhan. Some have praised these bans for providing good constraints on what they deem «fake news» or “hate speech.” Others have attacked these bans for being influenced by nefarious motives that are contra free speech. The debate regarding the extent to which social media sites may regulate speech has been going on for years now. Perhaps it is time for a reassessment.

“The Fourth Amendment was designed to stand between us and arbitrary governmental authority. For all practical purposes, that shield has been shattered, leaving our liberty and personal integrity subject to the whim of every cop on the beat, trooper on the highway and jail official. The framers would be appalled.”—Herman Schwartz, The Nation We’ve all been there before. You’re driving along and you see a pair of flashing blue lights in your rearview mirror. Whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach.

If the U.S. economy is “booming” and very bright days are ahead, then why are many large U.S. corporations laying off thousands of workers?  Layoffs are starting to come fast and furious now, and this is happening even though the coming recession has not even officially started yet.  Of course many are convinced that we are actually in a recession at this moment.  In fact, according to John Williams of shadowstats.com if the government was actually using honest numbers they would show that we have been in a recession for quite some time.  But the narrative that the mainstream media keeps feeding us is that the U.S. economy is “doing well” and that the outlook for the future is positive.  Well, if that is true then why are big companies laying off so many workers right now?

Nearly 40 percent of US corporations operating in China are mulling leaving the country amid the ongoing trade dispute between the two countries, the latest poll carried out by two American business lobby groups in China reveals. Read Full Article at RT.com

Beijing has yet another economic weapon to use against Washington in the escalating trade row – a possible embargo on vital rare earth metals needed to make everything from high-tech devices to fighter jets. Read Full Article at RT.com

Tesla's stock has been under serious pressure over the past week, at times dropping below $200 per share. Even though shares have pared some of the losses so far, the stock is still down 3.11 percent to $205.08. Read Full Article at RT.com

Google tracks a lot of what you buy, even if you purchased it elsewhere, like in a store or from Amazon.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means.

Shares of Tesla continued to nosedive on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley cut its worst-case scenario for the automaker’s stock to just $10, citing concerns over slowing Chinese demand for its electric cars. Read Full Article at RT.com

China Eastern Airlines has requested compensation from the US aerospace giant Boeing over financial damages the carrier had to sustain over the compulsory grounding and suspended delivery of 737 MAX aircraft since March. Read Full Article at RT.com

South Korea’s Ministry of Environment reported this month on a rare Asiatic black bear, also called Moon Bear, which has been spotted living in the mined border area between North and South Korea. Read Full Article at RT.com

The recently exposed illegal dossier US herbicide maker Monsanto, now owned by German pharmaceutical firm Bayer, apparently compiled to influence public opinion, included people from seven European states and maybe beyond. Read Full Article at RT.com

A massive database containing contact information of millions of Instagram  influencers, celebrities and brand accounts has been found online. The database, hosted by Amazon Web Services, was left exposed and without a password allowing anyone to look inside. At the time of writing, the database had over 49 million records — but was growing by the hour. From a brief review of the data, each record contained public data scraped from influencer Instagram accounts, including their bio, profile picture, the number of followers they have, if they’re verified and their location by city and country, but also contained their private contact information, such as the Instagram account owner’s email address and phone number.

A misleading article in WSAZ3 News titled, «New app targets distracted drivers with traffic alerts» would lead you to believe that the makers of the app are actually concerned with everyone's safety, but of course that is not the case. Have you ever wanted an app that lets Big Brother know when you are speeding and where you are going in real-time? If you have, then your wait is over. A new app called TravelSafely, sends warning signs to your smartphone for everything from your speed in a school zone to a light that’s about to change.

Sparking outcry from indigenous tribes and environmental groups, the Texas state Senate on Monday passed industry-backed Republican legislation that would hit pipeline protestors with a third-degree felony and up to ten years in prison. «Here in Texas, members of the legislative body are looking to pass laws that harshly criminalize free speech and the right to protest,» Juan Mancias, Tribal Elder with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, said in a statement.

Utility companies won’t admit it but their wireless “Smart” Meters have been nothing but trouble from the jump.  Tens of millions have been installed in the U.S. and around the world and people everywhere (including elected officials) have been fighting to get them off their homes and out of their communities (see 1, 2, 3).  These meters have been associated with so many problems (including fires and explosions) that there was even a documentary produced about them. Now utility companies are warning the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that auctioning off more 5G spectrums for unlicensed and untested WiFi applications will make their horrible “Smart” Meters even worse.  This is on top of the Telecom Industry saying that they have no scientific evidence that 5G is even safe and plenty of researchers saying it’s not.

Nearly seven years ago, Colorado citizens—tired of the war on drugs and wise to the near-limitless benefits of cannabis—made US history by voting to legalize recreational marijuana. Now, this state has once again placed themselves on the right side of history as they voted this month to decriminalize magic mushrooms. But this was just the beginning and their momentum is spreading—faster and stronger, toward decriminalizing all plant-based psychedelics. Now, a major city in California is following suit, but not just with psilocybin—Oakland is calling for decriminalization of other psychedelics like mescaline cacti, ayahuasca and ibogaine.