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3251

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on June 28, 2013, 08:00 AM »

Strange he's staying so long in that airport... (that is if he is still there)

-tomos (June 28, 2013, 02:43 AM)

The next move is very important.  He's right now in a limbo sort of state as Russia won't go after him.  The next place might not be so forgiving.  This isn't the first time this has happened, i.e. political refugee stuck in an airport.

-wraith808 (June 28, 2013, 07:17 AM)

Snowden did a classic castling move when he left the US.

However, the longer he is 'stuck' in a diplomatic impasse, while still remaining in full public view, the safer he is.



He was also allegedly smart enough to set himself up with some "insurance" according to this article:

...Edward Snowden suggested Monday that he believes the federal government wants to either jail or murder him.

"How many sets of the documents you disclosed did you make, and how many different people have them? If anything happens to you, do they still exist?" a questioner asked Greenwald in a livechat on the website of The Guardian, to whom Snowden has provided some of the documents.

Here is his answer:

"All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped."

The lack of shadows and fog severely limits what the US can do right now. It pretty much forces the US to keep all its actions mostly legal and above board. That's a brightly lit environment not conducive for the shenanigans of most covert and intelligence agencies.

There's already evidence of some advanced damage control when the president recently downplayed the significance of the entire affair by clearly indicating he felt it a purely criminal justice issue. And one not worthy of "escalation," or having chiefs of state "wheeling and dealing" or making direct phone calls over. Which is a standard strategy to play ("Yeah. So it happened. It's really not that big deal. We'll deal with it.") when you're currently looking like a fool who got caught completely by surprise.

Washington's has the next move - right after this short break.

3252

Developer's Corner / Stanford University - free course for building a start-up - starting from zero.

« Last post by 40hz on June 28, 2013, 07:48 AM »

BusinessInsider has recently posted a heads-up about a free 10-week college-level course being offered for people interested in creating or joinig a tech start-up.

Why re-invent the wheel when somebody (who has actually done it) will will share their plans with you?

From BusinessInsider (full article here)

You Can Take Stanford's Course On Startup Engineering Online
Kyle Russell   Jun. 17, 2013, 4:40 PM 4,633 2

------------------------------------

Interested in joining or founding a startup but have no idea where to begin? Or perhaps you're interested in walking a mile in the shoes of a developer at a startup to see what it's like?

There's a (free) class for that, and it's taught by two of the best computer science professors in the Silicon Valley.

Available on Coursera, one of the companies we recently wrote about that's trying to disrupt education in this country, Startup Engineering aims to teach you everything there is to know about creating a modern tech startup.

Going beyond merely teaching students how to code, the course goes in-depth on topics like turning your app into a product that generates revenue, creating a project that can scale to audiences in the millions, and creating an API that can let your final project turn into a platform for others to build from.

Whether you're an experienced programmer or you've merely dabbled in coding (you do need some experience), you should see if the course is for you. It could be very lucrative, according to an email from the professors teaching the class:

<more>

Looks like an excellent opportunity for any with the requisite personal ambition and the technical background to see it through. Course info and sign-up page is here.

Course Format

The first part of the course will cover modern software engineering principles with a focus on mobile HTML5 development, taught via 5-10 minute video lectures with in-video quizzes, programming assignments, and multiple choice questions. Guest lecturers from top Silicon Valley startups will bring these concepts to life with real engineering problems from their work.

In the second part, you will apply these concepts to develop a simple command line application, expose it as a webservice, and then integrate other students' command line apps and webservices together with yours to create an open-source mobile HTML5 app as a final project.  Lectures will continue in the second part, but will be focused on the design, marketing, and logistical aspects of creating and scaling a startup. No other homework will be given in the second part to permit full focus on the final project.

Grading will be based on multiple choice questions and programming assignments, and there will be a substantial final project. The best final projects in each category (e.g. genomics, transportation, law, etc.) will qualify for prizes sponsored by startups.

If you're at all serious about doing a tech start-up, this may be the ticket for you.


 

3253

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 03:22 PM »

I'll be writing him another letter, this time saying not only that isn't PRISM and other domestic spying unacceptable, but that the necessary remedy is, at a minimum, the repeal of USA PATRIOT and of the AUMF.

-CWuestefeld (June 27, 2013, 01:31 PM)

Brother CWuestfeld 48 hours after the above letter was received:



(P.S. Sincerely hope the above is just a joke! )

3254

Official Announcements / Re: New Visitors to Our Forum - Please Read This First

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 02:06 PM »

Next question is "the payment fee" What do you mean by that?.

-DM_Deleter (June 27, 2013, 01:42 PM)

That's the fee that gets charged to Donation Coder to process somebody's donation payment. Card processing companies and PayPal don't work for free. The fee gets deducted from the donation as a service change, and Donation Coder gets the balance.

 

3255

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 01:33 PM »

From the: finished production but not yet released department

Just ran across this over at QuietEarth.

Have you ever taken a philosophy or ethics course and played The Sanctuary Game? That's the one where your class had to decide amongst themselves which of you would be allowed into a survival habitat if WWIII broke out. And the ethical catch was that there were always several fewer spaces available in the shelter than the total number of people in your class...so who gets to survive - and why?

It's probably far less poignant doing it now than it was during the Cold War when this scenario didn't feel quite so far fetched as it might today.

Or maybe not. Because somebody made a film out of that very exercise. It's called The Philosophers. And the synopsis and trailer both look rather good.

Synopsis:

At an international school in Jakarta, a brilliant but mysterious philosophy teacher challenges his class of twenty graduating seniors to undertake one final thought experiment in order to complete the requirements for graduation. The experiment is to be the most extreme they have ever had to face. Using the power of logic alone, the students must choose which of them would be worthy of a place in an underground shelter built to withstand a fast-approaching nuclear apocalypse. The shelter only has space for ten people, which means certain death for those that are not chosen.

The real-life world of the classroom dramatically segues into the imaginary yet all too real world of the nuclear bunker and the approaching atomic catastrophe. Forced to make impossible decisions, the twenty young students enter an explosive and highly stylised world in which the survival instinct reigns supreme. Murder, deceit, sex and betrayal become the norm as the students strive to survive the impossible scenario. In doing so, they take the audience on an exhilarating journey across multiple realities, each one ever more intense than the last.

Here's the trailer:

Definitely going on my "look for" list.

3256

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 12:16 PM »

So ... what's with this Scorched Earth approach to getting him back?

-wraith808 (June 27, 2013, 12:00 PM)

Hell hath no fury to rival that of a government bureaucracy scorned.

Because his very existence tasks them. He's an ongoing embarassment, the Streisand Effect is in full swing, and there are those who think they can ultimately either finesse this - or be so outrageously capricious and above the law with what they do to him that he'll emerge as:

The Terrible Example of What Could Happen to You 'Dear Child' If You So Much As Think of Crossing Us.



I think it's a little to late for a 'win' even if they do go to that extreme.

And they probably will.

The US concentration camp in Cuba is still there despite its near universal condemnation - both at home and abroad - to say nothing of it being in complete violation of just about every law you can think of.

The Administration doesn't care what anybody thinks - or what the law says.

They've sat down, debated, and wrote a little memo that established (to their own satisfaction) that they have the legal and moral authority to do what they're doing. And no...you can't read it either.

They're thinking the same way here.
 

3257

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 10:27 AM »

And so the game continues...



Moscow moves (from TheWEEK):

...Putin dismissed Washington's demand that Russia return Snowden to face espionage charges, saying Russia had no grounds to arrest him.

Refusing to send Snowden back to the U.S. could cost Putin diplomatically. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry lashed out at Moscow for giving Snowden a safe stopover en route — according to several reports — to Ecuador, where he has requested asylum. Putin, however, has several reasons to thumb his nose at the U.S.

The reason Putin gave publicly was that Snowden had committed no crime since arriving in Russia on a flight from Hong Kong. "We can only send back some foreign nationals to the countries with which we have the relevant international agreements on extradition," Putin said. "With the United States we have no such agreement."

The Russian leader probably has other motives, too. But Andrew Ryvkin at Britain's Guardian says that the most obvious one — picking Snowden's brains for intelligence secrets — is not why Putin is holding out. After all, Ryvkin says, Moscow has its own "(albeit weaker) NSA with spies, satellites, cryptography specialists, and a general understanding of an intelligence agency's modus operandi that is far beyond that of any journalist or civilian in the U.S." What it does not have, he adds, is an abundance of opportunities to stick its finger in the American government's eye.

Washington makes a counter-move:

From the BBC (full article here)

Obama refuses to barter for Edward Snowden

President Obama "not going to be scrambling jets to get Snowden"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 President Barack Obama has said there will be no "wheeling and dealing" as part of extradition efforts against US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

Speaking on a visit to the West African nation of Senegal, Mr Obama also said the case would be dealt with through routine legal channels.

"I am not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he added.

Mr Snowden, who faces espionage charges, flew to Moscow last weekend and requested asylum in Ecuador.

Mr Obama said on Thursday that he had not called China and Russia's presidents about the case, adding: "I shouldn't have to."

He told a news conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar: "I'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues."

Ecuador moves next (from the BBC):

Meanwhile, Ecuador's government said on Thursday that it had not processed Mr Snowden's asylum request because he had not reached any of its diplomatic premises.

Washington counters (from Bloomberg):

...U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would lead the effort to block renewal of trade preferences for Ecuador if it granted Snowden asylum. The Andean nation has been lobbying the U.S. congress to renew the preferences, known as ATPDEA, which are due to expire next month.

“Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior,” Menendez said yesterday in a statement. “If Snowden is granted asylum in Ecuador, I will lead the effort to prevent the renewal of Ecuador’s duty-free access under GSP and will also make sure there is no chance for renewal of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act. Trade preferences are a privilege granted to nations, not a right.”

Ecuador would lose at least 40,000 jobs if the trade preferences aren’t renewed, the nation’s Ambassador to the U.S. Nathalie Cely said last year. While most of the $1.01 billion in exports to the U.S. in April were oil, shipments also included more labor intensive products such as cut flowers, broccoli and shrimp. Exports fell from $1.14 billion in April 2012, according to U.S. Census data.

Ecuador moves (from the BBC):

Ecuador also renounced a $23m (£15m) trade relationship it has with the US, saying its forthcoming renewal would not influence any decision on Mr Snowden's case.

"Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests," said government spokesman Fernando Alvarado.

He also made an apparently tongue-in-cheek offer of economic aid to the US for human rights training.

3258

Living Room / Re: FTC: Reclaim Your Name

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 09:53 AM »

they still don't go far enough.

-Tinman57 (June 26, 2013, 08:51 PM)

And never will.

The FTC is still part of the federal government. And our federal government hasn't been a big advocate of personal privacy, or putting the rights of consumers above the interests of business.

Not for the last 20 years at any rate.

3259

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8.1 Preview

« Last post by 40hz on June 27, 2013, 09:42 AM »

I have it downloaded. I'm waiting until this weekend when I should have the time - and also be in a more unbiased and receptive mood - to give it a fair tryout.

3260

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 03:24 PM »

This has been a concern for some time even if it's smoldered mostly below the surface.

Back in 1968, this made for TV movie ran precisely one time and was never aired again.

It's very loosely based on Sinclair Lewis' cautionary tale It Can't Happen Here. (The book was better.)

Sinclaire sketches out a future American fascist state under the rule of President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip and his single party American Corporate State (the "Corpos") with it's squads of armed and uniformed Minute Men brigades. Well worth a read.

Some excerpts from the book

(15) Congress shall, immediately upon our inauguration, initiate amendments to the Constitution providing (a), that the President shall have the authority to institute and execute all necessary measures for the conduct of the government during this critical epoch; (b), that Congress shall serve only in an advisory capacity, calling to the attention of the President and his aides and Cabinet any needed legislation, but not acting upon same until authorized by the President so to act; and (c), that the Supreme Court shall immediately have removed from its jurisdiction the power to negate, by ruling them to be unconstitutional or by any other judicial action, any or all acts of the President, his duly appointed aides, or Congress.

Addendum: It shall be strictly understood that, as the League of Forgotten Men and the Democratic Party, as now constituted, have no purpose nor desire to carry out any measure that shall not unqualifiedly meet with the desire of the majority of voters in these United States, the League and Party regard none of the above fifteen points as obligatory and unmodifiable except No. 15, and upon the others they will act or refrain from acting in accordance with the general desire of the Public, who shall under the new régime be again granted an individual freedom of which they have been deprived by the harsh and restrictive economic measures of former administrations, both Republican and Democratic.

In mid-August, President Windrip announced that, since all its aims were being accomplished, the League of Forgotten Men (founded by one Rev. Mr. Prang, who was mentioned in the proclamation only as a person in past history) was now terminated. So were all the older parties, Democratic, Republican, Farmer-Labor, or what not. There was to be only one: The American Corporate State and Patriotic Party--no! added the President, with something of his former good-humor: "there are two parties, the Corporate and those who don't belong to any party at all, and so, to use a common phrase, are just out of luck!"

The idea of the Corporate or Corporative State, Secretary Sarason had more or less taken from Italy. All occupations were divided into six classes: agriculture, industry, commerce, transportation and communication, banking and insurance and investment, and a grab-bag class including the arts, sciences, and teaching. The American Federation of Labor, the Railway Brotherhoods, and all other labor organizations, along with the Federal Department of Labor, were supplanted by local Syndicates composed of individual workers, above which were Provincial Confederations, all under governmental guidance. Parallel to them in each occupation were Syndicates and Confederations of employers. Finally, the six Confederations of workers and the six Confederations of employers were combined in six joint federal Corporations, which elected the twenty-four members of the National Council of Corporations, which initiated or supervised all legislation relating to labor or business.

He most noticed a number of stray imitation soldiers, without side-arms or rifles, but in a uniform like that of an American cavalryman in 1870: slant-topped blue forage caps, dark blue tunics, light blue trousers, with yellow stripes at the seam, tucked into leggings of black rubberoid for what appeared to be the privates, and boots of sleek black leather for officers. Each of them had on the right side of his collar the letters "M.M." and on the left, a five-pointed star. There were so many of them; they swaggered so brazenly, shouldering civilians out of the way; and upon insignificances like Doremus they looked with frigid insolence.

He suddenly understood.

These young condottieri were the "Minute Men": the private troops of Berzelius Windrip, about which Doremus had been publishing uneasy news reports. He was thrilled and a little dismayed to see them now--the printed words made brutal flesh.

Three weeks ago Windrip had announced that Colonel Dewey Haik had founded, just for the campaign, a nationwide league of Windrip marching-clubs, to be called the Minute Men. It was probable that they had been in formation for months, since already they had three or four hundred thousand members. Doremus was afraid the M.M.'s might become a permanent organization, more menacing than the Kuklux Klan.

Their uniform suggested the pioneer America of Cold Harbor and of the Indian fighters under Miles and Custer. Their emblem, their swastika (here Doremus saw the cunning and mysticism of Lee Sarason), was a five-pointed star, because the star on the American flag was five-pointed, whereas the stars of both the Soviet banner and the Jews--the seal of Solomon--were six-pointed.

The fact that the Soviet star, actually, was also five-pointed, no one noticed, during these excited days of regeneration. Anyway, it was a nice idea to have this star simultaneously challenge the Jews and the Bolsheviks--the M.M.'s had good intentions, even if their symbolism did slip a little.

Yet the craftiest thing about the M.M.'s was that they wore no colored shirts, but only plain white when on parade, and light khaki when on outpost duty, so that Buzz Windrip could thunder, and frequently, "Black shirts? Brown shirts? Red shirts? Yes, and maybe cow-brindle shirts! All these degenerate European uniforms of tyranny! No sir! The Minute Men are not Fascist or Communist or anything at all but plain Democratic--the knight-champions of the rights of the Forgotten Men--the shock troops of Freedom!"

On a day in late October, suddenly striking in every city and village and back-hill hide-out, the Corpos ended all crime in America forever, so titanic a feat that it was mentioned in the London Times. Seventy thousand selected Minute Men, working in combination with town and state police officers, all under the chiefs of the government secret service, arrested every known or faintly suspected criminal in the country. They were tried under court-martial procedure; one in ten was shot immediately, four in ten were given prison sentences, three in ten released as innocent . . . and two in ten taken into the M.M.'s as inspectors.

There were protests that at least six in ten had been innocent, but this was adequately answered by Windrip's courageous statement: "The way to stop crime is to stop it!"

December tenth was the birthday of Berzelius Windrip, though in his earlier days as a politician, before he fruitfully realized that lies sometimes get printed and unjustly remembered against you, he had been wont to tell the world that his birthday was on December twenty-fifth, like one whom he admitted to be an even greater leader, and to shout, with real tears in his eyes, that his complete name was Berzelius Noel Weinacht Windrip.

His birthday in 1937 he commemorated by the historical "Order of Regulation," which stated that though the Corporate government had proved both its stability and its good-will, there were still certain stupid or vicious "elements" who, in their foul envy of Corpo success, wanted to destroy everything that was good. The kind-hearted government was fed-up, and the country was informed that, from this day on, any person who by word or act sought to harm or discredit the State, would be executed or interned. Inasmuch as the prisons were already too full, both for these slanderous criminals and for the persons whom the kind-hearted State had to guard by "protective arrest," there were immediately to be opened, all over the country, concentration camps.

Doremus guessed that the reason for the concentration camps was not only the provision of extra room for victims but, even more, the provision of places where the livelier young M.M.'s could amuse themselves without interference from old-time professional policemen and prison-keepers, most of whom regarded their charges not as enemies, to be tortured, but just as cattle, to be kept safely.

On the eleventh, a concentration camp was enthusiastically opened, with band music, paper flowers, and speeches by District Commissioner Reek and Shad Ledue, at Trianon, nine miles north of Fort Beulah, in what had been a modern experimental school for girls. (The girls and their teachers, no sound material for Corpoism anyway, were simply sent about their business.)

And on that day and every day afterward, Doremus got from journalist friends all over the country secret news of Corpo terrorism and of the first bloody rebellions against the Corpos.

For the first time in America, except during the Civil War and the World War, people were afraid to say whatever came to their tongues. On the streets, on trains, at theaters, men looked about to see who might be listening before they dared so much as say there was a drought in the West, for someone might suppose they were blaming the drought on the Chief! They were particularly skittish about waiters, who were supposed to listen from the ambush which every waiter carries about with him anyway, and to report to the M.M.'s. People who could not resist talking politics spoke of Windrip as "Colonel Robinson" or "Dr. Brown" and of Sarason as "Judge Jones" or "my cousin Kaspar," and you would hear gossips hissing "Shhh!" at the seemingly innocent statement, "My cousin doesn't seem to be as keen on playing bridge with the Doctor as he used to--I'll bet sometime they'll quit playing."

Every moment everyone felt fear, nameless and omnipresent. They were as jumpy as men in a plague district. Any sudden sound, any unexplained footstep, any unfamiliar script on an envelope, made them startle; and for months they never felt secure enough to let themselves go, in complete sleep. And with the coming of fear went out their pride.

Daily--common now as weather reports--were the rumors of people who had suddenly been carried off "under protective arrest," and daily more of them were celebrities. At first the M.M.'s had, outside of the one stroke against Congress, dared to arrest only the unknown and defenseless. Now, incredulously--for these leaders had seemed invulnerable, above the ordinary law--you heard of judges, army officers, ex-state governors, bankers who had not played in with the Corpos, Jewish lawyers who had been ambassadors, being carted off to the common stink and mud of the cells.

To the journalist Doremus and his family it was not least interesting that among these imprisoned celebrities were so many journalists..

Project Gutenberg Australia has the full text up online here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And on that happy note I think I'm gonna bow out of this discussion since I've said everything I really have to say about this - and I don't want to start (or possibly continue?) boring people by repeating myself.

The rest of you carry on. This is an important discussion you're having.

3261

Living Room / Re: Blowback from Snowden's revelations... this isn't pretty...

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 02:20 PM »

We don't have (and never will) the full story on anything that happens

-wraith808 (June 26, 2013, 01:48 PM)

  Actually...that's a very key point. None of us really do any more. Little of anything beneath all this is directly verifiable. What is emerging as "fact" is the result of inductive and deductive reasoning.

We're largely discussing things we don't really know for sure about. Information we believe to be true - largely based on what we've been told -  by nothing resembling what you'd call disinterested parties.

Not exactly a good set of "facts" to base a discussion on is it?

3262

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 02:03 PM »

Actually I posted the graphics assuming that's what you're LOL'ing.

-Stoic Joker (June 26, 2013, 01:34 PM)

Yep, you for the graphics. I missed they were by you. All fixed now.  

3263

Living Room / Re: Blowback from Snowden's revelations... this isn't pretty...

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 01:55 PM »

Depends...

Anti-marijuana enforcement efforts justify surveillance systems, "enhanced" border security, additional police powers and expenditures, create industries to support the same, and instill a sense of anxiety in the public that can be exploited when the time is right. (Danger Will Robinson!!!!)

Transparency? Our security services are diametrically opposed to transparency in any way shape or form. They have a great deal of influence over the actions of politicians. And our military hates (with some justification on the field - less so on appropriations) to be second guessed by politicians. And anything said that touches on the operations of the military or law enforcement community is actively resented by them. They're known to drag  their feet and publicly blame our politicians when they don't get their way.

Lobbyists? The ones representing the defense industry easily make up more than half their number.

So no...I think once in office, any prez gets a come to Jesu session with some of the big boys (possibly in his own party - not that there's any real difference between them) who carefully explain what's at stake and how the game in Washington works.

They wouldn't need  to threaten or do anything so obvious. They just need to let it be known that he's there for only four years unless he plays ball. And if he hopes to accomplish anything he'll be remembered for in that relatively brief time frame (and not be made to look like a complete incompetent fool) there are a few unwritten rules and caveats he'll need to be aware of - and respect.

The entrenched power structure in the United States government is bigger than any individual. Even the President.

That's the real problem with allowing a huge bureaucracy to work hand in glove with powerful business and military/security interests. That alliance of convenience becomes a second very real government in its own right.

3264

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 01:26 PM »

@SJ Wraith & CU - LOL!

But please remember what happens when governments really become afraid of somebody.

People living in places like Baghdad, or who are being detained indefinitely and without charges under utterly inhumane conditions, can tell you exactly what some governments can also do when they get really nervous and pissed-off about something.
 

3265

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 01:20 PM »

We need to come together as one voice, one people... sex, creed, race, beliefs, orientation be damned and say that we stand for Truth and the Rule of Law, and we will accept nothing else.  No games, no twisting of words, nor hyperbole to exaggerate the situation.  And not let any of those things divide us.  That is why I'm against any hint of partisan politics as usual in the phrasing of any of this.  It's about something greater than that, IMO.

-wraith808 (June 26, 2013, 11:50 AM)

I agree.

And if you ever figure out how to make that work, let me know and I'll be the first to sign on.

Unfortunately, my experience with both attempting and actually bringing about social change doesn't bear that sentiment out. And I should know. I felt the same way you do for a good portion of my life.

In the end it always took something fairly stupid, providential, and semi-unrelated to get the ball rolling with the issues I got seriously involved in. Most people I've met don't like to think about higher principles. They're annoyed by them more often than not. But what they do understand is feelings, and "gut" reactions, plus what they "just know."

Long aside. Feel free to skip.

It used to frustrate me. And for a while it even made me see the "uninvolved" as worthy of contempt. But I soon realized that people are people - and they are what they are. It's not so much a "sheeple" thing, to use the current vernacular. It's just that they have a lot of things to worry about and do. And anything that doesn't directly and immediately interfere with what they want/need to do (i.e. make money, eat, sleep, feel safe, have sex, raise kids, see a dentist, keep their job, feed the dog, etc.) gets pushed onto their back-burner. It's a survival tool. Triage plain and simple. You start at the bottom of the needs hierarchy and move up from there.

I have a personal theory that social activism and revolutionary thinking springs from the extreme opposite poles of a single continuum. On one side is the point where people's backs are completely against the wall. At the other end is the point where too many people have too much free time on their hands. From my perspective, societal change and reform is born out of either desperation - or excess leisure.

Sometimes there's a bit of both. You have the have-nots working in conjunction a small group of morally motivated haves to bring about change. This creates a push-pull dynamic where those who stand to benefit maintain pressure - while those on the other end get more of their peers to see it their way and support the underdog.

The American civil rights movement back in the 50s/60s worked that way. College kids, wealthy people and self-styled intellectuals worked side by side with an oppressed social minority and its religious ministers to make it happen. The 60s/70s Viet Nam antiwar movement largely did not. That was mostly an upper class college movement. One which took considerably longer to succeed since people subject to the draft  (who were not in college) mostly just went. And it wasn't until those on the short end of the stick stopped defending the US policy in Viet Nam that their politicians finally deemed it safe to break ranks and get the hell out of there.

Fancy way of saying a catchy slogan and the occasional cheap trick invariably accomplished more to kindle a fire than a summit of long meaningful discussions and "feel good" high road sessions ever did. Especially if it caused a laugh. (Those in power hate to be laughed at.)

Initiating any meaningful movement or groundswell relies on tactics. The long game needs a strategy to keep it on course, and make sure it follows through to its objective.

Right now I think we're in the tactical phase. Mr. Roberts' comments are pure tactics.

We haven't made it to the strategy phase because we still don't know the true extent of this problem. And there is a concerted effort afoot to make sure "we the people" won't ever know.

To get to the bottom of this tar pit, we'll need people who are genuinely in a position to know break ranks and inform us. Snowden was the first. But we'll need people who are both involved and much closer to the seats of power (i.e. Reps/Senators) to be jolted out of their fog and take a step back and find the "high road" again.

Because they're the ones who will ultimately have to put this nation back on it. In both a representative and truly legal manner. That's their charter and sworn duty. Otherwise, this government has reached the point of catastrophic failure - and it's mob rule time.

And that's one "solution" that would be ten times worse than the problem we already have.
 

3266

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 10:41 AM »

@40hz: I'm confuzzled. Do Americans really need things like the 2 articles by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts before they can see the stark reality of what has been happening and what is still happening to their country and the US Constitution?

-IainB (June 26, 2013, 10:14 AM)

Yes.

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Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 10:40 AM »

I find it interesting how so many are willing to concede our government's right to spin stories, send off flames, bully pulpit and dead-cat its opponents, and lie at will to the public - yet very quickly label any nose tweaking or blunt editorial characterizations in return as being "partisan politics."

Our enthroned leadership has made an art form out of using so-called "partisan" political strategies and debating techniques. That's one of the reasons they have been - and continue to be - so successful.

FWIW, I think we can have "intelligent" and "measured" and "respectful" dialog about this whole problem until the cows come home. The only way any real change will come about (or even become possible) is if the general public feels sufficient anger and disgust about what is going on to force changes. Because it isn't ever the "bright promise for the future" that stirs our public out of its chronic political llethargy. It's the hard realization that "enough is enough" and that "I am no longer willing to tolerate this behavior - starting now" that brings about social change. Something that our politicians understand and have learned to take advantage of all too well. Because they're often the first to remind you "you're better than that"; and that "you shouldn't talk that way"; and suggest you try to "exercise proper restraint and some consideration with your comments" - because they certainly aren't going to do the same with theirs.

I have long since passed the point where I am willing to allow our politicians to unilaterally frame (or more often re-frame) the debate, set the rules for discourse, or define the terms being used. That is a courtesy I will extend to people of goodwill who are actively and honestly attempting to work toward finding a solution and undoing the damage they have caused. And I have yet to see any politicians matching that description show up.



If Robert's articles step on some toes - or offend some sensitivities - so be it. Some toes deserve to be stepped on. And some sensitivities need to be offended. Because as long as this situation can be ignored, or finessed, or rationalized ("It's legal!) or endlessly and genteelly debated on forums and in coffee shops by "people who think and worry too much"...then it will only continue.

Right now we live with the uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situation of a powerful administration being caught out in series of incontrovertible lies and hypocritical acts going back several years. And, like all liars who have been found out, this administration is responding predictably as liars do. We're now seeing the usual psychotic attempts for it to"explain (i.e. lie) it's way out" as its former support base begins to crumble.

Hardly a time to pull too many punches IMHO.

But maybe that's just me? My problem is -  I've seen this sort of thing before. Although nowhere near this bad. And it wasn't fixed that time by people being overly polite about it.

And it won't this time either.

YMMV

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Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 09:07 AM »

@nosh - Thx for the pointer to Bazqux. I set up a trial and it looks pretty nice. Blazingly fast and quite readable too. And it sucked in  a very large OMPL file without a hiccup in just a few seconds.  So far, there's a lot to like here.

  I especially appreciated this bit of candor in the FAQ:

Will you add free accounts?

No. I don't want to close reader like Google.

Yeah...I just might subscribe to this thing after the trial period...

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Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 08:49 AM »

Two mind-numbing articles by Paul Craig Roberts:

Robert's Bio

About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

A New Beginning Without Washington’s Sanctimonious Mask

and

Stasi In The White House

These posts pull no punches. (And here I thought I was royally pissed off! )



Here's a few highlights:

Obama’s speech was delivered to a relatively small, specially selected audience of invitees.  Even so, Obama spoke from behind bullet proof glass.

Obama’s speech will go down in history as the most hypocritical of all time. Little wonder that the audience was there by invitation only. A real audience would have hooted Obama out of Berlin.

This is the same Obama who promised to close the Guantanamo Torture Prison, but did not;  the same Obama who promised to tell us the purpose for Washington’s decade-long war in Afghanistan, but did not;  the same Obama who promised to end the wars, but started new ones;  the same Obama who said he stood for the US Constitution, but shredded it;  the same Obama who refused to hold the Bush regime accountable for its crimes against law and humanity;  the same Obama who unleashed drones against civilian populations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen;  the same Obama who claimed and exercised power to murder US citizens without due process and who continues the Bush regime’s unconstitutional practice of violating habeas corpus and detaining US citizens indefinitely; the same Obama who promised transparency but runs the most secretive government in US history.

Obama has taken hypocrisy to new heights. He has destroyed US civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.  In place of a government accountable to law, he has turned law into a weapon in the hands of the government.  He has intimidated a free press and prosecutes whistleblowers who reveal his government’s crimes. He makes no objection when American police brutalize peacefully protesting citizens. His government intercepts and stores in National Security Agency computers every communication of every American and also the private communications of Europeans and Canadians, including the communications of the members of the governments, the better to blackmail those with secrets.  Obama sends in drones or assassins to murder people in countries with which the US is not at war, and his victims on most occasions turn out to be women, children, farmers, and village elders. Obama kept Bradley Manning in solitary confinement for nearly a year assaulting his human dignity in an effort to break him and obtain a false confession. In defiance of the US Constitution, Obama denied Manning a trial for three years.

Obama has turned America into a surveillance state that has far more in common with Stasi East Germany than with the America of the Kennedy and Reagan eras. Strange, isn’t it, that freedom was gained in East Germany and lost in America.

------------------

It is not clear to an ordinary person what Snowden has revealed that William Binney and other whistleblowers have not already revealed. Perhaps the difference is that Snowden has provided documents that prove it, thereby negating Washington’s ability to deny the facts with its usual lies.

Here we have a US Secretary of State lost in delusion along with the rest of Washington. A country that is bankrupt, a country that has allowed its corporations to destroy its economy by moving the best jobs offshore, a country whose future is in the hands of the printing press, a country that after eleven years of combat has been unable to defeat a few thousand lightly armed Taliban is now threatening Russia and China. God save us from the utter fools who comprise our government.

The world is enjoying Washington’s humiliation at the hands of Hong Kong. A mere city state gave Washington the bird.

The stuck pig squeals from the NSA director–”Edward Snowden has caused irreversible damage to US”–are matched by the obliging squeals from members of the House and Senate, themselves victims of the NSA spying, as was the Director of the CIA who was forced to resign because of a love affair. The NSA is in position to blackmail everyone in the House and Senate, in the White House itself, in all the corporations, the universities, the media, every organization at home and abroad, who has anything to hide. You can tell who is being blackmailed by the intensity of the squeals, such as those of Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) and Mike Rogers (R, MI). With any luck, a patriot will leak what the NSA has on Feinstein and Rogers, neither of whom could possibly scrape any lower before the NSA.

The gangster government in Washington that has everything to hide is now in NSA’s hands and will follow orders. The pretense that amerika is a democracy responsible to the people has been exposed. The US is run by and for the NSA. Congress and the White House are NSA puppets.

Let’s quit calling the NSA the National Security Agency. Clearly, NSA is a threat to the security of every person in the entire world. Let’s call the NSA what it really is–the National Stasi Agency, the largest collection of Gestapo in human history. You can take for granted that every media whore, every government prostitute, every ignorant flag-waver who declares Snowden to be a traitor is either brainwashed or blackmailed. They are the protectors of NSA tyranny. They are our enemies.

The world has been growing increasingly sick of Washington for a long time. The bullying, the constant stream of lies, the gratuitous wars and destruction have destroyed the image hyped by Washington of the US as a “light unto the world.” The world sees the US as a plague upon the world.

Mr. Roberts, you're awesome!

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Living Room / Re: Blowback from Snowden's revelations... this isn't pretty...

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 08:20 AM »

And now for an enlightening non-US perspective from Jakob Augstein over at Germany's Der Speigel titled:  Obama's Soft Totalitarianism: Europe Must Protect Itself from America.

Read this excellent well reasoned article in its entity here.

A Monitored Human Being Is Not a Free One

What, exactly, is the purpose of the National Security Agency? Security, as its name might suggest? No matter in what system or to what purpose: A monitored human being is not a free human being. And every state that systematically contravenes human rights, even in the alleged service of security, is acting criminally.

Those who believed that drone attacks in Pakistan or the camp at Guantanamo were merely regrettable events at the end of the world should stop to reflect. Those who still believed that the torture at Abu Ghraib or that the waterboarding in CIA prisons had nothing to do with them, are now changing their views. Those who thought that we are on the good side and that it is others who are stomping all over human rights are now opening their eyes. A regime is ruling in the United States today that acts in totalitarian ways when it comes to its claim to total control. Soft totalitarianism is still totalitarianism.

We're currently in the midst of a European crisis. But this unexpected flare-up of American imperialism serves as a reminder of the necessity for Europe. Does anyone seriously believe that Obama will ensure the chancellor and her interior minister that the American authorities will respect the rights of German citizens in the future? Only Europe can break the American fantasy of omnipotence...

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Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by 40hz on June 26, 2013, 06:22 AM »

Just in time! A recent article on some open source RSS alternatives can be found here.

Some of the apps in the article have been mentioned previously in this thread. But some are new.

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Living Room / Re: Blowback from Snowden's revelations... this isn't pretty...

« Last post by 40hz on June 25, 2013, 06:06 PM »

Well, it's pretty much always come down to settling rather than choosing in every election I was ever old enough to vote in.

-40hz (June 25, 2013, 04:12 PM)

Why settle for the lesser evil?  Cthulhu for President!

(Really... when I don't have a choice, I write in Cthulhu... what?  )

-wraith808 (June 25, 2013, 05:30 PM)

LOL! I almost voted Elder Party in 2008. (Then I decided at the last second it was too important an election to screw around about.)



 

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on June 25, 2013, 05:18 PM »

On a side note: Your level of detailed insight on this stuff is truly frightening at time.

-Stoic Joker (June 25, 2013, 05:05 PM)

Think of me as Shepherd Book character in Firefly...

***

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: It's of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.

Shepherd Book: I wasn't born a shepherd, Mal.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You have to tell me about that sometime.

Shepherd Book: [pause] No, I don't.

 

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on June 25, 2013, 04:16 PM »

Ok...it's 17:15 EDT on 25-Jun-2013.

Mssr. Putin has just confirmed Mr. Snowden is currently standing in the 'international area' in Moscow's airport.

The US is insisting Russia has the legal authority to expel him immediately, and is insisting they do so.

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Living Room / Re: Blowback from Snowden's revelations... this isn't pretty...

« Last post by 40hz on June 25, 2013, 04:12 PM »

Have we forgotten so fast that the other ticket was *McCain-Palin*?!!
Does anyone want to speculate what *they* would have done, once in power?!!

-TaoPhoenix (June 25, 2013, 02:49 PM)

Well, it's pretty much always come down to settling rather than choosing in every election I was ever old enough to vote in.

Except for the last election.

Last election I left the president and VP lines on my ballot blank.