Slashdot Mirror

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/30/1220189/-Employers-Pay-Workers-with-Costly-Debit-Cards

One case where an employee sued over this type of payment. She wanted an actual check or cash due to the fees associated with the card.

How does that fit into the free market capitalism that made America great? If someone else can do the same job cheaper, hire them instead.

You mean to say, "If someone can be hired for slave wages and locked into a single-employer contract with no chance to move jobs rather than hiring people on an equal footing."

This is about as far from "free market capitalism" as it comes. The H-1B system deliberately alters the agreement and creates a semi-slave labor deliberately paying under-market wages.

And then there's all the fraud in the system. Including falsely inflated skills listings designed to keep anyone from successfully applying for the jobs later salted to H-1Bs with far less than the originally advertised qualifications. And of course the demand for H-1Bs rather than actual EB-5s where they would have legal right to leave for better employment if it was offered by another company.

Don't you dare use the term "free market capitalism", you fucking slavemonger. It's nothing of the sort.

Teller could beat that anyday and he was conducting experiments with radioactive materials and nuclear devices in Project Chariot.

Let's also not forget he suggested using nukes do close off the Straits of Gibraltar to make the Mediterranean Sea rise, freshen and then irrigate the Sahara.

He did of course acknowledge that this would mean losing Venice and other sea-level cities along the Mediterranean.

Let's also not forget that it was his assertions on Lasers and orbiting Nukes that got Reagan thinking about Star Wars...

It was Teller’s misleading views on the potential of the X-ray laser that first roused Reagan’s passionate interest in Star Wars. The idea was straightforward enough. Put into orbit nuclear weapons – which would require opting out of the Outer Space Treaty. Faced with an attack, the United States would set off the nukes to generate multiple beams of radiation to demolish incoming missiles. Teller claimed that a single, desk-sized laser could strike as many as 100,000 targets all at once, something others scientists said grotesquely overstated the case.

When this professor gets his own Nationally funded lab, personnel, materials and access to the White House and Congress, then we start worrying.

Productivity of the average American worker went through the roof since 1979:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-worker-productivity-rising-faster-wage-growth-1114871

Did your inflation-adjusted paycheck? Oh hell no, you're (the average American ) treading water.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3220

http://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-profits-just-hit-an-all-time-high-wages-just-hit-an-all-time-low-2012-6

and have been for decades... DECADES

OK then. All this cost savings is pocketed by billionaires , not passed on to you. The ONLY form in which it's ever passed on to ordinary people is at their own expense, e.g. Walmart prices and Walmart

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/03/1213437/-What-Walmart-Costs-Taxpayers

http://www.walmarteffectbook.com/

So if you want to realize what any of the productivity gains / cost savings you've worked for and created, start a company, force everyone who works for you be to be part time, steal the benefits of THEIR increase in productivity, lobby your congresspig for tax breaks for the wealthy..... oh and shop at Walmart.

America is a nation of by and for billionaires, who fund our elections, occupy our political offices, write our laws and own our media. They do this for their own benefit and anything which does not effect their personal lives is not *real* and doesn't matter.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2296684923/

So no- it's not for you.

Now get back to work.

They told me if I voted for Romney the government would engage in unconstitutional wiretapping.

Nothing is more amusing to me that watching leftists trying to pretend this is all okay because it's Fox and not what they consider real news organizations. I hope you remember this moment when the next Republican president takes office.

Nothing more amusing than watching conservatives complaining about "leftists trying to pretend this is all okay" when virtually none are.

Sure those people exist, but in my experience that level of hypocrisy is a confined to a marginalized fringe on the left.

Hell, just out of curiosity I checked out what Daily Kos had to say. It's mostly schadenfreude and laughing at the hypocrisy but no where do I see them pretending it's ok.

Wow. What a textbook example of a concern troll.

And what a textbook example of a troll: "Anyone who disagrees with you is not a troll. Seriously."

"derailing a thread: A common result of a troll attempting to have fun at the expense of people actually trying to use the forum."

While it does sound like you are responsible (presuming you are the ONLY one with the combination to the safe containing the loaded gun) and you have a good attitude regarding training, I have to disagree with your last statement.

Since Newtown, there have been a number of compilations of shooting injuries in the news, and a number of them have been gun owners shooting innocent bystanders or themselves whilst cleaning their guns. The gun deaths per year number roughly 32,000 in the US whereas the swimming deaths per year number only about 3880.

The bottom line is that you are absolutely right about needing good firearms training. Unfortunately we can't seem to require people to be well trained before purchasing a firearm. We'll let any old schmoe have one - and the results are obvious.

See The U.S. Government Wanted to Know: Am I Jewish"

"This is the conversation I recall having with Chris Kain at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv by telephone:"

CK: Hello. I got your number from ___. You are being questioned by the Israeli authorities, I understand.
ST: They are threatening to deny me entry and to deport me.
CK: Are you Jewish?
ST: No
CK: Have you been in contact with the Israeli government or military in the past?
ST: No
CK: Have you been here before?
ST: Yes, several times. I am a Palestinian with family in the West Bank.
CK: Oh, you have family in the West Bank. Then there is nothing I can do to help you. In fact, if I interceded on your behalf, it will hurt your case with the Israelis.
ST: I don't understand. You are saying you can't speak with them. You have no influence. They are demanding to access my gmail account.
CK: If they have your gmail address, they can get in without your password.
ST: What do you mean? How?
CK: They're good!
ST: This is crazy. You mean you know about these requests to access emails and you have no problem with it.
CK: It is in our travel warning. They won't harm you. You will be sent home on the next flight out.I hope I have been of good service to you.
ST: Frankly, you have done nothing for me.
CK: Well at least you can say I did it kindly.

The "14-year-old" crack is of course code for "the complainers don't count becase they don't donate money to anybody". IMHO, that's even more aggrevating.

So are you little angry about being insulted by this corporate puppet? Well, there is a way you can get back at him. Show your displeasure in a way he understand.

Donate money to his opponent.

There's a Democrat trying to challenge Mike Rogers, by the name of Lance Enderle. I don't know too much about the guy, but he has apparently pledged to take no PAC money. So he may be a drooling pinhead, but if you donate he'll at least be your drooling pinhead, and not the RIAA's.

Sure, but it won't do you any good. Any self-respecting company has legal staff that's seen the "How to not hire an American" video.

Interestingly, you can get links to that video from either DailyKos or Free Republic (actually the first two sites in a search) so you can see that the outrage covers a pretty broad part of the political spectrum. Not that our congress cares - we're just the @#%#^! voters and citizens of this country.

Would this be the same Dianne Feinstein that voted yea on a bill that limits the government's power to regulate guns? Not to mention that the regulations on the sales of games with mature content to minors is working very well and that the percentage of video games with a mature rating is pretty low. So yeah, Dianne, keep pursuing tougher regulation on video games instead of tightening regulations on guns - that definitely seems like the logical stance for a senator to make.

This study has been done 100 times and it always reaches the same conclusion. These prosecutions are just serving as a minor revenue stream and a means to legitimize a set of rules that benefit the record companies far more than the consumers or the artists they are purporting to protect.

So hard that New York Times reporter David Broder had to drive in circles and drain his Tesla's battery.

You realize that Broder's story was thoroughly, totally debunked by Tesla, right? I mean, there was a story on Slashdot about it.

Why pay through the nose, both in terms of dollars and in terms of horrendous lead times, for space-qualified parts when commercial, industrial, and automotive parts work just fine?

Heh.. Proof right there that you're not affiliated with a US government agency. And, to answer your question, the reason is to keep the tax dollars funneling into the privatized black-holes* It's rampant.
[*]
http://rt.com/usa/blackwater-security-iri-report-300/

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Corporate-Greed/ALEC-s-Funnel-Turns-Public-Dollars-to-Corporate-Profits

http://www.alternet.org/one-states-poor-excuse-funneling-taxpayer-cash-private-schools

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/01/1181678/-Walker-s-Plan-for-Wisconsin-Public-Schools-Make-Them-Private

"The hijackers were not acting on the behalf of the Saudi Government either directly or indirectly. The hijackers were outlaws, terrorists, that wanted not only to attack the United States but to overthrow the Saudi government as well."

You do realize that a big part of the reason for most of the hijackers themselves (ignoring Bin Laden's motives as an organizer) attacked the USA is probably because the hijackers felt the USA supported the Saudi government they thought was oppressive to themselves and had blighted their personal futures? There was an article in the New Yorker (I think) discussing this many years ago. That is why most of those specific people were so suggestible as to go along with it. Still, it's a complex topic, and it is hard to know for sure; a longer list of possibilities:
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/whatwerethecausesof911/

See especially:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_the_September_11_attacks
"Research on Suicide Terrorism; Robert Pape identified 315 incidents, all but 14 of which they classified as part of 18 different campaigns. These 18 shared two elements and all but one shared a third:[20] 1) A foreign occupation; 2) by a democracy; 3) of a different religion. Mia Bloom interviewed relatives and acquaintances of suicide terrorists. Her conclusions largely support Pape's, suggesting that it is much more difficult to get people to volunteer for a suicide mission without such a foreign occupation.[21]"

Or:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/09/09/244452/-What-motivated-the-9-11-hijackers-to-attack-the-US
"The 9-11 Commission held its twelfth and final public hearing June 16-17, 2004, in Washington, DC. On June 16 the Commission heard from several of the federal government's top law enforcement and intelligence experts on al Qaeda and the 9-11 plot. It was at this hearing that the question "What motivated them to do it?" was finally asked. Lee Hamilton, vice chair of the 9/11 Commission said, "I'm interested in the question of motivation of these hijackers, and my question is really directed to the agents. ... what have you found out about why these men did what they did? What motivated them to do it?" The agents looked at each other, apparently not eager to be the one to have to say it. FBI Special Agent Fitzgerald stepped up to the plate and laid out the facts, "I believe they feel a sense of outrage against the United States. They identify with the Palestinian problem, they identify with people who oppose repressive regimes and I believe they tend to focus their anger on the United States." But this testimony was kept out of the 9/11 Commission Report and no recommendation was given to address the main motive for the 9/11 attacks."

So, while people often say "they hate us because we are free", but it seems all too often the geopolitical reality is "they hate us because we fund their oppressors".

See also:
"International Terrorism: Image and Reality"
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199112--02.htm

The USA as a whole also does a lot of good in the world too, of course.

Um, last time I checked, our government was labeling a goodly chunk of its citizens (note: this is left AND right) as potential domestic terrorists LARGELY because they disagree with the administration.

Left: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/1...ist-Org-by-FBI
Right: http://start.umd.edu/start/publicati...STerrorism.pdf

So, when the US gov't starts calling *everyone* terrorists, one has to start looking at the administration suspiciously, no?

Centralized banking IS banking run by the biggest banks themselves. One big private bank whose actions are confidential, yet has complete control over the currency and securitizes the entire banking system. Since when did you think that anything tied to government was not run by the biggest private interests they influenced?

Since when do banks have to be corrupt for-profit industries that, as Matt Taibbi said in 2010 in describing Goldman Sachs

"a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money"

...that literally rip everyone off. National governments, state governments, city governments, conservatives, liberals, anarchists, fascists, pensioners, investors, homeowners, 401k holders, taxpayers...everybody.

Banks should be a non-profit utility or service, just like your local municipal water company or the USPS. North Dakota has a non-profit state run bank that has managed to avoid crashing it's state economy or create massive asset bubbles on junk assets or tell investors they were buying AAA backed securities it privately knew were junk...

No, it's an argument against the government involving itself in even the most absurdly simple economic situations. If

Simplicity is irrelevant - the question is, should government be regulating xyz, or not. And the answer when it comes to the banks: of course, yes. Look at the history of bank crashes before the (flawed) creation of the Fed. Look at our 70 year history of crisis-free banking before the deregulation fetishists took over and repealed Glass Steagall. Look at other countries like Canada, that avoided the financial collapse in 2008 entirely, because they regulated their banks.

If the government had not forced themselves by law to trade a certain ratio of silver for a certain ratio of gold (and vice versa), they wouldn't have gotten themselves into the horrific situations they did.

Hardly. The problem was the banks were gambling with 60 to 1 debt-to-asset ratios. What would a backed currency have done to prevent that? Jack and squat, and Jack left town.

If the government had not forced themselves by law to trade a certain ratio of silver for a certain ratio of gold (and vice versa), they wouldn't have gotten themselves into the horrific situations they did.

Nevermind all the horrific stations we've had on a backed currency. Gold Bugging, like drinking drano to cure an ulcer, is the wrong cure for the disease. "Backed" currencies are subject to the same mass manipulation seen in commodities markets, which defeats the purpose of having a backed currency in the first place: having a stable monetary base free from wild fluctuations.

And I have yet to see any Bugs explain how the deal with the problem of hoarding. You switch to a gold, silver, or chicken backed currency, and the Waltons and Kochs will take their annual profits and buy gold. Doing so limits the publicly available supply of the metal, which increases the value of their existing holdings. This will then dramatically worsen income inequality, as the richest can afford to buy the most gold, increasing their own riches, whereas the working poor are especially screwed. And of course, this will lead to an ever-increasing price of gold (or silver or chickens), defeating the stated purpose of having a backed currency: a stable value on your money. Unless of course, a new and plentiful supply of gold is found to reduce the value of the hoarders - but that would also distort the value of money.

Local banks would be far more stable and would probably be based off a franchise system with networked multiple-commodity-based currency syste

The problem with your thesis is that it doesn't work. The banks got hit by tens of billions in fines as the result of robosign abuses.

The thing about the mortgages is that it varies depending on the state. NY for example enforces chain of custody of the note. No note no title no foreclosure.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/02/mers-decision-in-re-ferrel-l-agard-case-no-810-77338-reg/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/23/948986/--Show-Me-The-Note-Foreclosure-Defense-Works

Now? I'll prove a few more (which ought to enlighten MANY here with facts):

"Now - I truly KNOW this post will no doubt be downmodded, because Advertisers do NOT want this type of information getting out en-masse to enlighten users... no way, & if folks don't *believe* that goes on here & this site doesn't make monies off ads? They're insane!" - by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12, @08:34AM (#42566755)

See that, & my subject-line above...

* Yes, I am always correct - that's not very difficult since I know the nature of the opponent!

---

THUS - No matter what? You make ME, look GOOD (and correct, every single time) - you can't win:

Many are getting wise to what I posted which you downmodded unjustly!

In fact?

I challenge ANYONE to disprove my points here -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3377363&cid=42566755

I know you can't, & that's that!

And, the trolls downmodding me know it too, as MANY have tried since 2007 here, not a single 'naysayer' has to date with me utterly SHATTERING their bullshit easily on many grounds...

(Yes - says worlds about it, especially since it stands true no matter what & all you have? Is downmods to *try* to "hide it" from viewers!)

Clue/New NEWS/NewsFlash: MANY here read below the bogus "so-called easily cheated moderation system" here (via multiple accounts, as follows, & the biggest crookes use it) ala:

Small wonder than an Open SORES "big name" in Bruce Perens even said this about how trolling shills work on forums:

"It just takes one Ubuntu sympathizer or PR flack to minus-moderate any comment. Unfortunately, once PR agencies and so on started paying people to moderate online communities, and to have hundreds of accounts each, things changed." - by Bruce Perens (3872) on Friday July 30, @03:55PM (#33089192) Homepage Journal

SOURCE -> http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738364&cid=33089192

---

And, how the Chinese Water Army: does the same:

http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22Chinese+Water+Army%22&btnG=Search&gbv=1&sei=tSchUJjPGYn36gGYtIDACQ

As does HBGary:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All

PERTINENT QUOTES/EXCERPTS:

"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online... And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth... "

and

"They are talking about creating the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader... And another thing, this is just one little company of assholes. I can't believe there aren't others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let's face it, what these guys are talking about is easy

First, it's flatly unconstitutional, via the 14th Amendment:

Section. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Raising the "debt ceiling" isn't making for new spending, it's paying for spending already passed by Congress. Secondly, Obama is perfectly aware of this. Which means this is nothing more than the latest dance in corrupt neoliberal theater between the two parties.

Back in the day Janet Napolitano put out a report warning of right-wing extremist at the time of the Tea Party. Here is a bit of ranting by the progressives on how it should have been pursued: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/06/1117242/-Remember-the-DHS-Right-Wing-Extremist-Report

At the time that the crackdown happened to the OWS people I wrote the following:

"I’m very sorry to hear about your forceful removal from Zuccotti park where you were peacefully demonstrating against what you see as what is wrong with our country. You were exercising your free speech and free assembly rights and I hate to see this taken from you. Let me tell you that I know how you must be feeling right now. About two and a half years ago several of my friends and I joined a movement to protest the government bailing out the bankers that you are so upset with (first time I ever protested anything BTW). We had rallies around the country with the theme of promoting individualism over corporate cronyism. This movement was attacked by the press and government as being racist, gay-bashing, “Astroturf” (term for grass-roots effort sponsored by big money sources), and heartless (I’m sure there were cases where people on the fringe were causing such issues, the same can be said about the fringe in the OWS crowd, but for a majority of people I met while involved this was not the case) but now the whole movement has been marginalized. It is unfortunate that we were unable to convince you at the time of the importance of the issues we were facing and that you chose to sit on the sidelines mocking us as “Tea Baggers” and such. I do hope we can find some common ground now that you are awake and we can take our government back from the statist and big money influences we’ve ceded it to."

Is that how you little penguins operate? Of course it is. PURE deceit &/or half-truths.

(It is TRULY, the "why" of WHY You fools will NEVER get ahead, & see "the year of Linux on the desktop"... period!)

Bottom-line - People won't listen to bullshit artists & 1/2 truths, & certainly NOT those using unjustifiable downmods vs. facts!

NOW - The funniest part is, you all seem to *think* people are stupid and can't see posts you bogusly downmod like mine has been (for merely citing verifiable facts & truths... ones "penguins" can't handle!).

Newsflash - many here browse below the default moderation threshold (which is purest bullshit since anyone can pull a downmod - in fact?

I'll let an OPEN "SORES" BIG NAME SPEAK FOR ME on that very account:

---

"It just takes one Ubuntu sympathizer or PR flack to minus-moderate any comment. Unfortunately, once PR agencies and so on started paying people to moderate online communities, and to have hundreds of accounts each, things changed." - by Bruce Perens (3872) on Friday July 30, @03:55PM (#33089192) Homepage Journal

SOURCE -> http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738364&cid=33089192

---

Deceitful little bogus downmodding trolls are JUST like:

The Chinese Water Army:

http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22Chinese+Water+Army%22&btnG=Search&gbv=1&sei=tSchUJjPGYn36gGYtIDACQ

AND HBGary:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All

PERTINENT QUOTES/EXCERPTS:

"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online... And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth... "

and

"They are talking about creating the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader... And another thing, this is just one little company of assholes. I can't believe there aren't others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let's face it, what these guys are talking about is easy."

and

"To the extent that the propaganda technique known as "Bandwagon" is an effective form of persuasion, which it definitely is, the ability for a few people to infiltrate a blog or social media site and appear to be many people, all taking one position in a debate, all agreeing, for example, that so and so is not credible, or a crook, is an incredibly powerful weapon."

---

This takes the cake, as to how "PR Firms" pull crap, in "Confessions of a Shill" (pulling crap on anti-semitic stuff):

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread826545/pg1&addstar=1&on=13829871#pid13829871

Unbelievable... but, there it is, along with ALL THE OTHER PROOF just above!

---

(Forums sockpuppeting mu

What exactly is the problem with calling a racist a racist?

Nothing, if the person the label is being applied to has actually said something truly racist deliberately.

But, if it is a case of ignorance of the listener ("niggardly" is not a racist term), or someone helpfully trying to "decode" a "keyword" for us, or assuming because one party to some event was white and the other black that the event must have been racially motivated (e.g., the white cop who made a black congressman who had just broken into his own house show ID), there's a lot wrong with trying to permanently stain someone with the accusation. This would include the case of someone who, nine and a half years previously, while working with a Hollywood script writer to create dialog for a cop show, suggested that the bad cop being portrayed might use 'the N word'.

Adding to it by posting true identities and physical locations just makes it worse.

Now, I haven't seen the tumblr stuff so I don't know if the person who was doing this limited himself to clear-cut unambiguous things, but I'm responding to your simple question "what's wrong with".

This had little to do with unions.

This is just typical vulture capitalism. Hedge funds bought the company, loaded it with debt to repay the 1 percenters and are now selling off the corpse and union busting all in one smooth move.

Please read and learn instead of playing into the hands of those that would pit workers against workers.
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/26/hostess-twinkies-bankrupt/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/16/1162235/-Private-equity-owned-Hostess-blames-striking-workers-as-it-liquidates

They are making a veritable God out of him: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/08/1158776/--NateSilverFacts-now-trending

Nifty piece of information on Zimmerman's background as a bouncer: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/31/1079454/-Zimmerman-was-Fired-from-Security-Job-after-he-Snapped. Yeah, it's dailykos, but that story was pretty broadly distributed. Feel free to find your own link.

By "any other president" do you mean Bush?

Hell no, Bush added to the debt nearly as much as Obama. I'm talking about non-retards.

And you do know there is "a lot more money in the bank" right now? http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/3/Dow_4-year-high2.jpg

Did you know the relative positions of stocks in the stock market have little to do with corporate cash on hand and certainly has nothing to do with government budgets or deficits, which is what I meant when I was speaking of "money in the bank" (referring to sovereign spending capabilities).

...any other president could have rolled into office and twiddled their thumbs for 4 years and right now we'd have similarly unemployment and a lot more money in the bank.

By "any other president" do you mean Bush?

And you do know there is "a lot more money in the bank" right now?
http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/3/Dow_4-year-high2.jpg

Just google "political activist no fly list" and you'll find several. Just look at this: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/No-fly-blacklist-snares-political-activists-2791720.php http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/10/1073245/-Occupy-activist-filmmaker-put-on-no-fly-list

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AATULb8MJcQ

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/05/28/736242/-UPDATE-Children-raped-at-Abu-Ghraib-Gibbs-Pentagon-Deny

What crazy nonsense to base a secret castle theory on. Yup, the guy is bat shit insane.

Just another liberal happy to kill for the cause I suppose. There sure are a disturbing number of you around these days, unwilling to debate and only to destroy.

That's some nice projection you've got going on there. I invite you to visit any number of message boards and count the number of death threats vs. liberals vs. death threats against conservatives and see if it supports your assumption.

--Jeremy

I don't think it's projection when he's posting on a forum with hundreds of posts wishing for Republicans to die. Projection is when your project your own faults onto others who do not have those faults. So, in this case, it is hardly what I'd call "projection".

Next, I challenge you to go to "right wing" sites and find me some death wishes. May I recommend Hot Air, Red State or even News Busters. Now, granted, you will find a few whack jobs out there, but nothing like what you have seen here and nothing like what you may find on Democratic Underground or Daily Kos.

Sorry, but in light of what I've read here, it would appear that you are the one who is projecting.

And that "liberal" Jesus was against sexual deviancy, which includes homosexuality. That's not exactly what I would call a "liberal". Sure, Jesus was a liberal for someone living he first century, but not a liberal by today's standard. You should really clarify that.

One can't talk or think without the teleprompter ...

Oh please, will you Fox News-watching nuts give it a fucking rest? Reagan used a teleprompter. Bush used a teleprompter. Clinton used a teleprompter. Bush II used a teleprompter. Did you not see Obama in his QA session with republicans in 2010? He answered every one of their questions point for point, not a teleprompter in sight. Watch. Could you imagine Dubya having a grasp of the issues and being able to think on his feet like that?

It's Obamacare that specified 700B of cuts to Medicare in the baseline budget.

And, it's Ryan who proposed the exact same cuts.

FTFY

Nope, he rejects her because she was an atheist. He's always rejected her, didn't you know? All those words of praise in the past never happened, we all imagined it! We've always been at war with EastAsia!!

This is the kind of dishonest argument we see on Slashdot all too much. One can agree with some of a person's positions and not all of them. Thinking that Atlas Shrugs is an important book doesn't necessarily imply that you agree with Ayn Rand on every single thing she believes. I'm fond of saying that Rand got many things right for the wrong reasons. I certainly don't agree with her on her anti-religious beliefs, and I have some serious misgivings with Objectivism. But that doesn't change the fact that I think she made a lot of important arguments in her books. You seem to be arguing, however, that to endorse one idea is to be forced to endorse all the ideas of the writer. This simply isn't true. Do YOU endorse every single idea of the writers that you read? No? Then why do you expect others to do so?

Nope, he rejects her because she was an atheist. He's always rejected her, didn't you know? All those words of praise in the past never happened, we all imagined it! We've always been at war with EastAsia!!

Yeah, why would you all care if someone knew what party you registered with.

You know, I didn't used to care. Then recall season hit here in Wisconsin, and happy groups like this started popping up on Facebook, not to mention tons of veiled threats online (I received plenty just commenting on Madison.com during the height of the circulation)...and even a few open ones. Then, of course, the employers started getting harassed over their employees having signed the recall petitions and shit like this started happening.

While I'm not afraid of those people when it comes to violence against me (they're largely trailer park living, welfare collecting, hypocritical cowards), when those signatures were released I was definitely worried about repercussions in the workplace. How do you prove you were terminated in response to political ideology? Even if you could prove it, political affiliation is not considered a protected class.

Maybe if you'd lived up here in Wisconsin over the last year you would understand better why shit like this being made public could intimidate some people.

Yeah, why would you all care if someone knew what party you registered with.

You know, I didn't used to care. Then recall season hit here in Wisconsin, and happy groups like this started popping up on Facebook, not to mention tons of veiled threats online (I received plenty just commenting on Madison.com during the height of the circulation)...and even a few open ones. Then, of course, the employers started getting harassed over their employees having signed the recall petitions and shit like this started happening.

While I'm not afraid of those people when it comes to violence against me (they're largely trailer park living, welfare collecting, hypocritical cowards), when those signatures were released I was definitely worried about repercussions in the workplace. How do you prove you were terminated in response to political ideology? Even if you could prove it, political affiliation is not considered a protected class.

Maybe if you'd lived up here in Wisconsin over the last year you would understand better why shit like this being made public could intimidate some people.

Tried to profit by creating sockpuppets galore and anonymous coward usage too! Proof? Ok, here goes (lots of it):

HBGary who got caught in the act doing it:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All

PERTINENT QUOTES/EXCERPTS:

"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online... And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth... "

&

"The Chinese Water Army"

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Chinese-Water-Army-Posts-Comments-For-Anyone-Who-Pays-236294.shtml

* Each doing the same bogus sockpuppet crap, & they're ALL/EACH scum too - just like trolls like you that do the same here...

However - the BEST source of evidence of that going on, especially on /., is probably the words of Mr. Bruce Perens on it:

"It just takes one Ubuntu sympathizer or PR flack to minus-moderate any comment. Unfortunately, once PR agencies and so on started paying people to moderate online communities, and to have hundreds of accounts each, things changed." - by Bruce Perens (3872) on Friday July 30, @03:55PM (#33089192) Homepage Journal

SOURCE -> http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738364&cid=33089192

* Want MORE? I can show evidences, hard evidences no less, of far more than just a few idiots around here doing it too (tomhudson = barbara, not barbie being one of the worst).

APK

P.S.=> How's that, vs. what you said? The problem imo @ least, is that the sword cuts BOTH ways, but I have a REAL problem with idiots saying "it's freedom of speech" well, not when it's used to harm others untruthfully... when it's truth, you should have NO problem posting it as your REAL self, period, because as the saying goes? "The truth shall set you free!"...

... apk

I totally agree that we need to watch "Everyone" to make certain that folks are being honest and forthright, don't have axes to grind, or powerful vested interests that might render their conversations... well, let's just say less than reliable and honest. Of course you have to put everything in context. The vast majority of researchers are just accumulating data, while the CEO of Exxon-Mobil just publicly acknowledged that "Yes, fossil fuel is causing the world to warm up...", of course he immediately added that "We understand the problem and can mitigate the worst effects." All while the American west is burning down, a whole new class of heat wave never seen before fries the eastern seaboard, and America experiences the worst/largest drought since the 30s and 50s, in some of the very same places that were under 10 feet of water last year... precisely what the climate scientists predicted.

The government officials in Australia responsible for the great barrier reef said last week, the end of reefs on the planet is in sight. This is particularly bad news considering the number of people who's primary food supply is the fish that live in those quickly dying reefs. So perhaps when the CEO of Exxon-Mobil spoke about mitigating the worst of the impacts of global warming he was speaking of the economic impacts on Exxon-Mobil and I'm certain his legal staff has excellent ideas on how to mitigate those circumstances.

Do I have to be the one that says physical reality trumps your belief system, not just today, but everyday. Faith is lovely, but please limit faith to the unanswerable questions. When you bring faith to the party on things we do have answers to, unless your faith is aligned with physical reality, it just looks goofy. Like enough believing would suspend gravity or something. Technology is a powerful amplifier. It makes it easier and easier for smaller groups (right down to individuals) to create problems that impact us all. Its time to be responsible. I know you hate putting your toys away and cleaning up your mess. I know you hate bathing before bed time. I understand you want to stay up late and play... but you know how cranky you get the next day. So let's all grow up just a little bit, lets not crap where we eat. Lets not piss on one another. Lets not turn Eden into a toilet. Let's respect life, starting with our own and one another's and stop putting hubris and self service ahead of a future worth living in. I know this "Greater Good" thing just pisses some folks off no end, but I really am talking about personal responsibility, including fiscal, environmental, social and educational. Wake up. That smell of coffee burning is the cup in your hand... the place is on fire and you just gotta stop fanning the flames.

I wrote an essay about this in more detail here. To try to sum up: People often talk about colonizing another planet like early settlers colonizing the New World. But that's a bad analogy. Early settlers had dramatically simpler technology trees that they could readily assemble with their bare hands.

Except they didn't. Even the simple firearms of the day were imported for many years.

How do you realistically expect a self-sustaining colony to be achieved? Or is your idea of sustainability just "make water, power, heat, fuel, and a few other things, and them import the rest from Earth"?

Funny, that's exactly like early settlers colonizing the New World. Even by the revolution, when you could find someone in the colonies engaged in most any business, America remained heavily dependent on trade for foreign manufactures.

I wrote an essay about this in more detail here. To try to sum up: People often talk about colonizing another planet like early settlers colonizing the New World. But that's a bad analogy. Early settlers had dramatically simpler technology trees that they could readily assemble with their bare hands. Human survival on Mars depends entirely on new and replacement parts using modern technology (everything from CO2 scrubbers to space suits), which means to be self-sustaining, you have to implement a large chunk of our modern technology trees on Mars. How would you plan to do this staggeringly massive feat?

To elaborate on what I mean by "technology trees": Let's say you have a metal part designed to handle high temeratures, say, in some forge. High temperature alloys are typically some mix like titanium, nickel, and iron. So now we have three metal requirements; let's trace back the one that's usually easiest. Iron is typically produced from iron oxide, coke, limestone, oxygen, and fluxing agents such as fluorspar and magnesium minerals, as well as insert gases to ensure proper mixing, water for watercooling of parts, etc. That went from one required resource to "a bunch". Not to mention all the new parts you need to maintain and replace when they break: crucibles, slag skimmers, tubing of all sorts, valves of all sorts, cranes with cables and pulleys, bearings, and on and on. Now, iron oxide is readily available to be mined on mars. The others not so much. On Mars it gets a bit easier using the Linz-Donowitz process instead of a blast furnace, so you'd probably burn methane from the Sabatier process with insufficient oxygen from electrolysis with low-sulfur iron ore (sulfur reduced by yet process to generate the sulfuric acid needed for other industrial processes, since getting sulfur from petroleum isn't possible on mars). Limestone isn't as readily available on Mars; you need to use oolitic lime, or maybe dolomite as a substitute. And of course you need to mine and refine your fluxes (each of them having their own refining proceses).

Notice how quickly it expands? It keeps on going because each of those processes have their own inputs with their own processes and even something that sounds extremely simple - say, mining some abundant mineral - would involve a staggering array of mining machines (each with tons of parts to wear down and break, as well as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, etc), bucket loaders, trucks, separation processes (float baths, etc), ball mills, and of course various leaching and rinsing stages, all imparting their own dependency trees. Modern technology is dependent on tech based on tech based on tech; it's the nature of the beast.

If you want to try to at least simplify the "refining" stages, yes, there are other less "industrial" processes that can be used for isolating minerals, like, say, plasma centrifuges. But the rub is that everything has an opportunity cost, and when you're making yourself consume vast amounts of energy, labor, or separation facility resources in order to produce only small amounts of resources, you're imposing brand new requirements on what your colony must produce to yield those newly-imposed demands. Then on top of this, you have the fact that not every resource will be found in one spot. As on earth, Mars would need to ship resources from all around the planet. So you need to have a planetary transportation network that can move things in bulk, with minimal energy usage and usage of other consumables.

Raw elements must become compounds and alloys, in a variety of forging and refining processes (just think of the crazy complexity of an oil refinery and chemical plant for an example). Compounds must become parts, in a variety of casting and milling processes (and with the scale of all of the above, "one-off" rapid prototyping processes like 3d printing don't cut it except for suitable rare parts, or you hit the

I've written about this before several times, so I don't want to have to write it all again; here's a link instead.

And, FYI, according to the charges, the first woman told friends at the party that same night about the "violent" sex with Assange and that she didn't feel safe, then subsequently moved out of her own apartment until he left. The second woman freaked out immediately after Assange started having unprotected sex with her while she was sleeping (something she hadn't even done with her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years). They only brought *charges* after talking.

It took me about three months before I was able to simply use the word "rape" for what happened to me. It moved from "an unwanted sexual experience" to "some of my friends tell me I should call it rape" to "rape or something like that" before I could accept just using the term. You don't want to see yourself as a victim and you don't want to empower the perpetrator. You just want to try to forget it and move on. It's only when it becomes obvious that you can't just do that that you have to face up to it. I'm still trying to deal with some of the effects, like a fear of saying no (because if you don't say no, you can't be raped... I know, that's messed up, but I'm trying to get past it, and I'm doing better).

People have often berated me for not reporting it (like most rape victims), on the grounds that he is free and could well do it again. But that's easy to say from your ivory tower (sadly, I in the past once did the same thing to a rape victim, something I now really regret). The last thing you want is to have to relive it and have people accuse you of being a liar, a slut, etc; you just want to get on with your life and not think about it. However, if I had talked to someone a couple days after it happened and found that the same guy had just done the same thing to another girl... I don't know how that would have my altered course of actions, but it definitely would have affected me.

"I know people who troll and get all sorts of +5 Insightful" -

So do I - considering trolls here use MULTIPLE REGISTERED ACCOUNTS to do so (gaming the moderation system here on /. bogusly)... proof?

Ok:

barbara.hudson@unjava.com from http://slashdot.org/~Barbara%2C+not+Barbie = barbara.hudson@barbara-hudson.com from http://slashdot.org/~tomhudson

After all - we ALL know it goes on here... including hairyfeet, a respected enough regular poster member, who's WELL AWARE of that scum's tactics -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2872677&cid=40123423

* Funniest part of all of that was that tomhudson/Barbara, not Barbie "disappeared" from May 21, 2012 onwards once he/she was exposed in it...

(That's a KNOWN /. troll who has multiple accounts for trolling others, modding herself up and her opponents down, and stalking them by ac posts which she admits to here and told others to join her in doing which is breaking the rules of this forum as well as laws. )

"Wait until he starts on another kick, then reply to him as an AC. It's the new meme." - by tomhudson (43916) on Sunday May 09 2010, @08:29PM (#32150544) Journal

from http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1646272&cid=32150544

Others are aware of it going on also:

"It just takes one Ubuntu sympathizer or PR flack to minus-moderate any comment. Unfortunately, once PR agencies and so on started paying people to moderate online communities, and to have hundreds of accounts each, things changed." - by Bruce Perens (3872) on Friday July 30, @03:55PM (#33089192) Homepage Journal

SOURCE -> http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738364&cid=33089192

---

Lastly, there's also entire GROUPS practicing it as well:

This really bothered me, don't know about the rest of you:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All

PERTINENT QUOTES/EXCERPTS:

"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online... And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth... "

and

"They are talking about creating the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader... And another thing, this is just one little company of assholes. I can't believe there aren't others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let's face it, what these guys are talking about is easy."

and

"To the extent that the propaganda technique known as "Bandwagon" is an effective form of persuasion, which it definitely is, the ability for a few people to infiltrate a blog or social media site and appear to be many people, all taking one position in a debate, all agreeing, for example, that so and so is not credible, or a crook, is an inc

I'm a rape victim, and the only people I find offensive in this conversation are the people making arguments like yours.

I wrote about it here and here (the latter got a lovely comment in reply... I posted AC at the time, but doesn't matter anymore since I forgot to post AC another time...)

How'd it get upmodded? Simple: A lot of the clowns here keep alternate registered user accounts to upmod their other alternate registered luser accounts, and to downmod their opponents with.

Here's a perfect example proof of THAT going on here on /.:

barbara.hudson@unjava.com from http://slashdot.org/~Barbara%2C+not+Barbie = barbara.hudson@barbara-hudson.com from http://slashdot.org/~tomhudson

Does he/she do THAT? Absolutely, & even hairyfeet, a fairly respected enough member around here KNOWS about it:

http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2872677&cid=40123423

He's not the only one either!

Heck - try Mr. Bruce Perens as one who realizes it also (a respected enough name from the Open Source World):

"It just takes one Ubuntu sympathizer or PR flack to minus-moderate any comment. Unfortunately, once PR agencies and so on started paying people to moderate online communities, and to have hundreds of accounts each, things changed." - by Bruce Perens (3872) on Friday July 30, @03:55PM (#33089192) Homepage Journal

SOURCE -> http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738364&cid=33089192

* "Nuff said", as the saying goes, & I didn't really even HAVE to do the saying of it... others have for me.

APK

P.S.=> Goofs like that? They're NOTHING NEW/ORIGINAL or even slightly creative...!

H.B. Gary + The Chinese Water Army are just MORE widely publicized examples of the same:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All

PERTINENT QUOTES/EXCERPTS:

"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online... And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth... "

and

"They are talking about creating the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader... And another thing, this is just one little company of assholes. I can't believe there aren't others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let's face it, what these guys are talking about is easy."

and

"To the extent that the propaganda technique known as "Bandwagon" is an effective form of persuasion, which it definitely is, the ability for a few people to infiltrate a blog or social media site and appear to be many people, all taking one position in a debate, all agreeing, for example, that so and so is not credible, or a crook, is an incredibly powerful weapon."

---

It goes on ALL THE TIME, but you have to be able to "see through it", as you obviously have, by questioning the bogus upmod... apk

It clearly matters who is president of America Inc. As I pointed out, Republican presidents of it are intolerable, while Democratic presidents of it suck, but are tolerable. There's plenty of other supporting data. Like the GDP and the stock market each growing faster under every Democratic president than Republicans, since Eisenhower. Of course we can always do better. Then there's the warmonger record, which Republicans dominate (except are roughly equal on Vietnam, which is now just a middling war). It's absolutely false that the two parties are equivalent. And when there are only two on the ballot that can govern, let alone win, we have to be honest about which one is an unacceptable choice.

Of course America was designed for the Congress to primarily determine how much the country sucks, and Republicans are the source of most of the suck. If we call them "Conservative" (and its "Libertarian" flavor that's really "corporate anarchy"), we can include the Democrats who make the case for equivalence. This is the problem. But it's far too easy, because it's wrong, to say that it doesn't matter which party rules. When Republicans rule, all but a few suffer and pay for it. When Democrats rule, far fewer suffer.

You know...after over 3 years, the "blame Bush" for everything is getting a little old.

Indeed. What did Nikita Khrushchev say about blaming your predecessor? Sit down and write two letters

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/06/24/746456/-Fox-has-mislabeled-Republican-scandals-before-more-picts

Incompetent or malicious? You make the call.

This is why I never bought the whole "we should leave more things up to the states to decide" line of argument

As someone living in Wisconsin, I completely agree.

I shudder to think how much worse the fuckheads in this state's government would have screwed us if they'd had more power. They did enough damage with the power they have. We've got a full-blown witch hunt going on right now over people who signed a recall petition against Governor Walker, our Supreme Court justices are physically assaulting each other, disenfranchisement efforts are in full swing, and women now have to prove to a doctor they're not being coerced before they're allowed to have an abortion (because, you know, there are tons of forced abortions in this country, am I right?) and allowing schools to restrict sex-ed programs to abstinence-only...

Luckily we can still recall our reps, although they did everything they could to try and take that right away from us, too.

to the Heartland Institute's recent attempt towards demonizing the concept of global warming. I think Secretary Paneta's position may sounds a little extreme, regardless - but then again, I'm not in politics.