President Trump is getting a second Supreme Court pick as Justice Anthony Kennedy steps down from the bench this summer. Justice Kennedy was considered a moderate judge selected by President Ronald Reagan in the late 80s he was expected to lean conservative.
Enlarge / Nothing like cartoony smiley faces to break down how smartphones, local networks, and TV devices could join forces to trigger microphones and listen to advertisements' audio. (credit: US Patent + Trademark Office)
As Facebook tries to get ahead of public pressure about what the service does and doesn't track about its users, a patent application has emerged which would enable something that the service's detractors have long theorized and feared: silently triggered microphones that keep tabs on Facebook users.
The patent, filed by Facebook in December 2016 and published on June 14 (PDF), emerged this week thanks to its discovery by UK publication Metro. The patent's language revolves specifically around advertisements—Facebook's biggest cash cow—and how a device with an installed app could be triggered by a vague "activation module" to turn on its microphone and listen to how those ads play out in an average home.
Proximity and “blockers”
How exactly would this work? We dove into the patent language to see that Facebook has, at least in this patent's described method, spelled out a specific mic-triggering scenario. Though the company mentions high-frequency sounds as part of the ambient-audio collection process, these sounds aren't what will activate this hypothetical Facebook app's recording feature. (Meaning, the patent doesn't appear to revolve around an always-on mic in your pocket.)
The House passed a resolution Thursday demanding the Department of Justice quickly turn over sensitive documents lawmakers have been demanding for months related to the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia and Hillary Clinton email investigations.
Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows pushed the resolution. Jordan grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the documents in a hearing Thursday, as members voted to pass the resolution on the House floor.
“Mr. Rosenstein, why are you keeping information from Congress?” Jordan asked in a particularly heated exchange, dismissing the attorney’s denials the DOJ is hiding anything to assert the House vote would dispute that notion. “I think in a few minutes the House of Representatives is going to go on record saying you haven’t complied with requests from a separate and equal branch of government, that you haven’t complied with subpoenas, and you got seven days to get your act together.”
The resolution demands the DOJ turn over thousands of documents by July 6, including documents related to the secret surveillance of Trump associate Carter Page and text messages between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on the Judiciary are investigating potential abuse in the FBI’s handling of both the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and its investigation into the Clinton email server.
Republicans have threatened to hold Rosenstein in contempt and go as far as to impeach him if the DOJ does not comply with their requests. The vote to pass the resolution was split cleanly along party lines, 226-183.
Seventeen representatives did not vote, including Republicans Diane Black, Ryan Costello, Glenn Grothman, Walter Jones, Raul Labrador and Blaine Luetkemeyer. Republican Rep. Justin Amash voted “present.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the deadly shooting at a Maryland newspaper Thursday, saying that a “violent attack on innocent journalists doing their job is an attack on every American.”Sanders tweeted that...
Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona is already planning his post-congressional future, as he reportedly ditched Senate votes earlier this week and met with executives from MSNBC and CNN instead.
Per a report from The Daily Beast, Flake — who has built his brand in the past couple years on being an anti-Donald Trump voice in the GOP — met with MSNBC’s Phil Griffin and CNN’s Jeff Zucker. He is not seeking re-election in November, leaving his post-Senate future wide open.
“That’s down the road—that’s six months,” Flake said to The Daily Beast when asked to comment on the meetings.
Presumably, Flake would fill the now-cliché role of #NeverTrump conservatives who sound off against the president on cable news panels — à la, Bill Kristol and Rick Wilson. Additionally, a number of other Republicans lawmakers have made cable news their post-congressional homes, as former Congressmen Charlie Dent and Jason Chaffetz signed with CNN and Fox News, respectively.
As for Flake, the Arizona lawmaker has butted heads with Trump repeatedly during his time serving alongside the current GOP administration. He even published a pundit style book that revolved around lambasting the president and suggesting he does not represent true conservative values.
