Big Brother watching, listening, and tapping into your phone.
How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking. Flock’s array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other systems.
A Texas deputy searched 83,000 Flock cameras to track down a woman who had an abortion. Johnson County deputy used Flock Safety’s 83,000-camera network across 45 states to locate a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion.
An Israeli surveillance firm is selling $1 million spy vans to U.S. police. A standard Chevy Tahoe rolls through Texas traffic, indistinguishable from any other police SUV on the road. Inside, hardware is silently harvesting the phone identifiers of every person within range — commuters, shoppers, bystanders, all of them.
Little Rock, Arkansas, drops intrusive, ineffective ShotSpotter system. While billed as a means of speeding response to violent crime the technology has a history of unreliability, generating large numbers of bogus reports. Also, being based on the use of microphones, ShotSpotter can capture sounds other than gunshots, including private conversations.
KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 149 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 899 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Talks? What talks? Iran says no talks with the U.S. on Hormuz Strait. Iran said there weren’t any talks with the U.S. that were are under way or planned, after President Trump said he called off a major military strike. Trump calls Tehran ‘unbelievably duplicitous’. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Have we heard this before? Trump says new talks are Iran’s “last chance” to make a deal. (AP)
Maybe this is the reason for the cease-fires: The U.S. is running low on weapons. TLDR: Military planners appear to have been operating under the assumption that future wars would be short and containable. And countries like Ukraine have developed guided weapons like small drones that can be built quickly, are effective, and cost a fraction of the cost of expensive missile systems.
(The Atlantic free article)America getting lesson in consequences of Trump’s war on public health as rare disease outbreaks ravage the country. There’s the cyclospora outbreak, of course, spreading from tainted lettuce to over 18,000 victims across 45 states, and two deaths reported. And those are just the ones we know about- the true extent may be far worse, as reporting delays create a major lag in fresh data. And while cyclospora flare ups come and go, it’s hard to overlook the fact that Trump officials made reporting of the parasite optional for the CDC in 2025, right before the largest known outbreak in modern history. (Futurism)
Republicans let Trump keep unparalleled benefit: I.R.S. immunity. The rebellion against Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general, now seemingly contained, at no point fundamentally questioned President Trump’s new protections from the I.R.S. (New York Times gift article)
MAGA erupts at Trump DHS chief—and accidentally exposes big MAGA scam. Markwayne Mullin just said the unsayable: that immigration can sometimes help the economy and the country. Now MAGA wants his head. (The New Republic)
Trump says Pirro ‘folded like an umbrella’ in bid to drop Reflecting Pool vandalism charges. Meanwhile, charges also have been dropped against three other people charged in the same D.C. court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the Reflecting Pool, according to online court records. (AP)
Trump’s wacky weekend slop spree ends with truly bizarre new AI image. (HuffPost)
It appears that the US military accidentally killed everybody on board a civilian medevac flight in New Mexico. “When those lights go out, man, you know you are in big trouble.” (Futurism)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
2020 – Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people were killed and over 5,000 were wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut, Lebanon. (Video)
Quote of the day:
Look, when I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point.
--Barack Obama (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,674 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more Barack Obama quotes
Today’s holidays:
Assistance Dog Day, Hooray for Kids Day, International Clouded Leopard Day, National Champagne Day, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, National Night Out, National White Wine Day, Single Working Women’s Day, and U.S. Coast Guard Day.
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—Kevin G. Barkes (KGB)
On This Day:
2020 – Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people were killed and over 5,000 were wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut, Lebanon. (Video)
2019 – Nine people were killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This came only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed.
1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinded the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to give equal time to opposing views.
1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
1964 – Second Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy mistakenly reported coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they found and arrested Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
1914 – World War I: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declared war on Germany. The United States declared its neutrality.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She was be tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.
1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.
1873 – Colonel Custer and 7th Cavalry clashed with Indians.
1821 – The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act created the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon’s invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (died 2009)
1970 – Bret Baier, American journalist
1970 – John August, American director and screenwriter
1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, South Korean-American actor
1965 – Dennis Lehane, American author, screenwriter, and producer
1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate
1958 – Mary Decker, American runner
1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1944 – Richard Belzer, American comedian, writer, and actor (died 2023)
1941 – Cliff Nobles, American musician (died 2008)
1940 – Larry Knechtel, American bass player and pianist (died 2009)
1935 – Carol Arthur, American actress and producer (died 2020)
1928 – Gerard Damiano, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2008)
1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (died 2013)
1915 – Warren Avis, American businessman, founded Avis Rent a Car System (died 2007)
1901 – Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (died 1971.)
1900 – Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Queen Consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom, Empress Consort of India (died 2002)
1898 – Ernesto Maserati, Italian race car driver and engineer (died 1975)
1834 – John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher (died 1923)
1821 – Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (died 1892)
1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (died 1822)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2015 – Elsie Hillman, American philanthropist and politician (born 1925)
2014 – James Brady, American activist and politician, 15th White House Press Secretary (born 1940)
2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1929)
1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (born 1913)
1997 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian; holds records for the world’s substantiated longest-lived person (born 1875)
1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (born 1901)
1962 – Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (born 1926)
1938 – Pearl White, American actress (“The Perils of Pauline”)(born 1889)
1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1805)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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