topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 9:27 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Last post Author Topic: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)  (Read 14851 times)

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« on: January 19, 2014, 07:55 AM »
SUMMARY: When all was said and done...very little was said, and virtually nothing was done.

From OS News:

Obama's changes to government surveillance
posted by Thom Holwerda   on Fri 17th Jan 2014 23:38 UTC



President Obama announced on Friday that he will place new limits on intelligence agencies' bulk collection of phone call records. But he rejected some other recommendations to rein in surveillance made by a panel of outside advisers.

The NYT lists the changes. It's insubstantial.

Oh well...we can always get this mess straightened out after the "next election" right?

democracy cartoon.jpg

Yeah right! No worries. :-\



Tuxman

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 2,466
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2014, 08:54 AM »
I really wonder how this is related to "OS".

Also, US-American elections are a bad joke. Republicans, "Democrats" or...? I wish the Liberal Party had more influence, but no one votes for them. Why not? Stupidity.

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2014, 11:25 AM »
Why not?  Electoral College.

On point, however, that was a very good concise summary.  Thanks for posting it.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2014, 07:39 PM »
Hmm...
I really wonder how this is related to "OS".
 

Considering the NSA has back-doored Windows - and Microsoft fully cooperates with the US intelligence community when asked - anything involving the NSA is OS related.

BTW... which "Liberal Party" are we speaking about not listening to? There are at least twenty would-be US political parties currently calling themselves that.

Tuxman

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 2,466
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2014, 07:46 PM »
Considering the NSA has back-doored Windows

... and, according to Edward Snowden, every other major operating system, yes.

which "Liberal Party" are we speaking about not listening to?

Any!

(Is there a Pirate Party USA?)

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2014, 09:28 PM »
^Of course there is. They even have a snazzy logo.   ;D

image.jpg

Tuxman

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 2,466
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2014, 03:03 AM »
Aw neat.

See, this is a good example of a political party which would never had allowed the NSA things to happen. Why didn't they get enough attraction? Right: because they are not "the ones"  nor "the others".

Sigh.

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2014, 02:40 PM »
SUMMARY: When all was said and done...very little was said, and virtually nothing was done.

...

The NYT lists the changes. It's insubstantial.

Nothing said? They said they're going to continue.

Nothing done? They stayed the course.

Insubstantial? They affirmed that they're going to continue exactly what they're doing now, but perhaps with a minor tweak here or there.

Your tax dollars at work! Perhaps this thread might be useful. ;)

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2014, 03:15 PM »
Nothing said? They said they're going to continue.

Nothing done? They stayed the course.

Insubstantial? They affirmed that they're going to continue exactly what they're doing now, but perhaps with a minor tweak here or there.

The speech was supposed to be about reforms and changes to be made to government surveillance programs.

Therefore: Nothing of substance was said. Nothing of any substance will be done. And whatever else was being offered as a proposed course of 'action' is insubstantial when viewed in that context.

 8)

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2014, 03:35 PM »
To me their intentions are and have been made crystal clear in the handling of the standards for commercial encryption issue. It was carefully ignored. e.g. The security of and for "We The People" is irrelevant to the NSA.

So all of the security technologies available to us today are in reality completely pointless academic waste of time/money/energy placeboes. Because regardless of how complex they are locks only keep out honest people ... And that assumes they were designed to work correctly in the first place.

The web was a much safer place when Anonymous was running amuck.


40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2014, 04:14 PM »
The web was a much safer place when Anonymous was running amuck.



Agree. At least they had no agenda against the people as a whole.

And they didn't have multi-billlion dollar budgets, or armed thugs at their beck and call, to make it all happen. :-\

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2014, 10:20 AM »
Nothing said? They said they're going to continue.

Nothing done? They stayed the course.

Insubstantial? They affirmed that they're going to continue exactly what they're doing now, but perhaps with a minor tweak here or there.

The speech was supposed to be about reforms and changes to be made to government surveillance programs.

Therefore: Nothing of substance was said. Nothing of any substance will be done. And whatever else was being offered as a proposed course of 'action' is insubstantial when viewed in that context.

 8)

I was trying to point out the utter insanity there.

They don't give a shit.

They perfectly well plan to fuck you in the ass up through your throat and through your nose/mouth/ears as hard as possible.

They hate you.

They want to fucking destroy you.

They are actively trying to ruin as much as they can.

They need to be... <signal lost... />
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #12 on: January 22, 2014, 06:52 PM »
The SnowdenGate revelations about the NSA  would seem to be what is arguably just another huge example of what, in hindsight, appears to have been a continuing government-mandated onslaught on the American Constitution over many years. It has apparently all been happening in various guises, whilst the American people were wide-awake, and it's apparently been happening right under their noses.

The action/inaction of the Senate and now Obama regarding NSA surveillance would seem to demonstrate that the political leaders are evidently not going to do anything to rectify matters or reverse any damage already done to the Constitution and people's rights/freedoms, so one probably needs to accept this and get used to it.
Apparently nothing materially effective has been done or seems likely can/will be done about it by the people either, presumably variously due to (say) apathy, a lack of interest, a lack of spine or a lack of any real sense of individual empowerment.
The only individual effort recently seems to have been Snowden's, and sadly that would not seem to have achieved much other than to confirm that things were apparently already much worse than we might have otherwise supposed.

Therefore, it could be true to say that it was already "game over" even before Snowden's revelations, and those revelations merely announced the fact into our awareness.
If that is the case, then no amount of belated shouting, invective, screaming or throwing of tantrums at the enormous reinforced concrete walls of the Establishment is going to make a blind bit of difference. One does not really have a choice under such circumstances. One is probably in an anechoic chamber anyway.

My suggestion would be to focus one's cognitive surplus on what is important to oneself and that which one can effectively exert some beneficial and positive influence over - including, for example (say), one's family and loved ones, one's work, one's hobbies, one's friends.

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2014, 12:36 PM »
Perhaps so. But I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees. Because my generation wasn't taught to just give up and bend over on cue.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #14 on: January 23, 2014, 01:35 PM »
Perhaps so. But I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees. Because my generation wasn't taught to just give up and bend over on cue.

This. :Thmbsup:

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #15 on: January 23, 2014, 01:58 PM »
Perhaps so. But I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees. Because my generation wasn't taught to just give up and bend over on cue.

This. :Thmbsup:

Double this  :Thmbsup:

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #16 on: January 23, 2014, 02:38 PM »
Perhaps so. But I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees. Because my generation wasn't taught to just give up and bend over on cue.
_______________________
That sounds great!    :Thmbsup:
I mean it - it really does - and it echoes my own sentiments exactly, but it does not seem to indicate how  - given that what I wrote was probably generally correct (not disputed anyway) - you might achieve some useful result with large amounts of:
...belated shouting, invective, screaming or throwing of tantrums at the enormous reinforced concrete walls of the Establishment...
_______________________
For example of invective, refer what @Renegade said above.

Nor does "I'd rather die on my feet..." make much sense in that no-one has suggested you are going to have to die. What I suggested was leading a possibly more useful and focussed life, rather than expend one's energies and cognitive surplus (life) impotently railing against the machine.

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #17 on: January 24, 2014, 12:05 PM »
Inurement by gilded cage ... Are the bars really that noticeable if we like it here. It's almost as easy as boiling a frog. It's such a small request...

When you're getting screwed, take the time to protest it then. Don't just let it go.


40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #18 on: January 24, 2014, 11:51 PM »
Nor does "I'd rather die on my feet..." make much sense in that no-one has suggested you are going to have to die.

Considering how it's become fairly easy to get one's self killed for not showing sufficient deference to a police officer (in the USA) these days, it's not all that far fetched however. Just sayin'. 8)

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2014, 01:18 AM »
..When you're getting screwed, take the time to protest it then. Don't just let it go.
Absolutely. It should have been protested several years ago when these things (the bars) were being put in place around us, under our noses, but everybody was too distracted by the fearful necessity to fight "the war against terror" (who conjured up that phrase, I wonder?), or something else equally distracting/fearful.
Just because someone has now drawn our collective attention to the awful fact that we have already been screwed and that we are already in a cage of our own government's making and have been for some time, it would seem to be somewhat belated to make a protest - one which would be guaranteed to be ineffective/impotent at such a late stage. It is a fait accompli. Game over, sleepyheads.
Get on with life and make the most of it before @40hz's postulated policemen accidentally kill you for loitering with intent, or thinking too hard, or something.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #20 on: January 25, 2014, 11:28 AM »
Game over, sleepyheads.
Get on with life and make the most of it before @40hz's postulated policemen accidentally kill you for loitering with intent, or thinking too hard, or something.

Dunno...Sounds like the philosophy expressed in the song lyric: "Life is a Cabaret (old chum!)"

If you can live your life like that, all well and good, I suppose.

But I really can't.  :)

« Last Edit: January 25, 2014, 01:17 PM by 40hz »

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #21 on: January 25, 2014, 11:59 PM »
Dunno...Sounds like the philosophy expressed in the song lyric: "Life is a Cabaret (old chum!)"
If you can live your life like that, all well and good, I suppose.
But I really can't.  :)
______________________
Sooo...wotcha' gonna' do 'bout it?    :tellme:

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #22 on: January 26, 2014, 12:26 AM »
Dunno...Sounds like the philosophy expressed in the song lyric: "Life is a Cabaret (old chum!)"
If you can live your life like that, all well and good, I suppose.
But I really can't.  :)
______________________
Sooo...wotcha' gonna' do 'bout it?    :tellme:

No comment. Loose lips and ships... ;)

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #23 on: January 26, 2014, 01:27 AM »
Yes, I think there is the implied assumption that nothing is being done...when perhaps something is, but it just isn't evident on this board.

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)
« Reply #24 on: January 26, 2014, 05:51 AM »
..If you can live your life like that, all well and good, I suppose...
By the way, your supposition is incorrect.
Good luck.