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The NSA Would Be Eliminated Under President Gary Johnson (thehill.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the executive-orders dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson says he'd sign an executive order eliminating America's National Security Agency if he wins the 2016 election. And he's also forcefully arguing that domestic surveillance of internet activity and phone calls in the United States is worse than in China. Johnson took issue with an interviewer at The Daily Beast who pointed out that China monitors political dissidents, saying "What do you call the NSA and the satellites that are trained on us and the fact that 110 million Verizon users are having everything we do on our cell phones being data-collected?"

Johnson also wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, replacing both income taxes and corporate taxes with a single federal consumption tax, and says he'd be willing to sign legislation eliminating the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Commerce, which he says fuels "crony capitalism". "I'll sign legislation to eliminate any federal agency that they present me with."
Johnson has also said that if he were elected President, he'd pardon Edward Snowden.

18 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Too Bad He's Shown His True Colors by zenlessyank · · Score: 4, Funny

    And he still sounds better than Trump and Clinton.

  2. And he means it .. literally .. by burni2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personal point:
    keeping the secret agencies in check & under control = good/wise

    abolishing everything = idiotic

    bolstering secret agencies further = equally idiot as abolishing them

    Hint:
    Never choose an extreme, because you can certainly be sure that you are wrong even when you are right.

    1. Re:And he means it .. literally .. by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 5, Informative

      People forget that the part of the NSA that does spying is just that - part of it. There's also the Information Assurance Directorate, whose sole job is to make computer and communications systems in the government _more_ secure. They're the people who brought you SE Linux. And of course, never mind the fact that there are foreign countries that probably need spying on (North Korea, just to name one). The problem was never about the NSA's very existence, it's about what it's been pushed into by the people in charge in recent years.

      Now, if you want to talk about an agency that's been horribly toxic to civil liberties, and really is not serving a positive purpose at all, to abolish, why don't we talk about the DEA?

    2. Re:And he means it .. literally .. by dcollins · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yikes, no citations. Let's fix that. The following is from the Swedish government education site. Executive summary: Sweden has centralized and uniform funding, entrance exams, curriculum, teacher training/certification, and grading. Even independent charter schools must follow the same system!

      From the age of six, every child has equal access to free education in Sweden. The Swedish school system is regulated through the Education Act, which ensures a safe and friendly environment for students. The act mandates nine years of school attendance for all children from the year they turn seven...

      New education act

      The new Swedish Education Act of 2011 contains basic principles and provisions for compulsory and further education, pre-school, pre-school year, out-of-school care and adult education. It promotes greater oversight, freedom of choice, and student safety and security.

      New curricula

      New consolidated curricula for compulsory schools for all students, Sami schools, special schools and upper secondary schools came into force 1 July 2011. The curricula contain new general goals, guidelines and syllabuses. The pre-school curriculum includes clearer goals for children’s linguistic and communicative development and for science and technology. Mandatory national subject tests are held in years 3, 6 and 9 of compulsory school to assess student progress. There are also new qualification requirements for areas including upper secondary school studies.

      New grading system

      The old Swedish system with four grades from Pass with Special Distinction (MVG) down to Did Not Pass(IG) was replaced by a new grading scale with six grades from A to F in 2011. A to E are passing grades, with F as a failing grade. Grades are assigned starting in year 6. The new grading system is very similar to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), the standard grading system for higher education in Europé.

      Teacher certification

      As of 1 December 2013, professional certification is required for school and pre-school teachers on permanent contracts. The decision, a milestone in Swedish education policy, aims to raise the status of the teaching profession, support professional development and thus increase quality in education...

      Same rules apply

      In Sweden, charter schools must be approved by the Schools Inspectorate and follow the national curricula and syllabuses, just like regular municipal schools.

      https://sweden.se/society/education-in-sweden/

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    3. Re:And he means it .. literally .. by Agripa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Which part of the NSA is it which sabotages encryption standards?

  3. Re:Too Bad He's Shown His True Colors by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right now, Juan Perón and Ferdinand Marcos could run and I couldn't say if they'd be the worst choice.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:If shove came to push... by TrekkieGod · · Score: 5, Funny

    Far more likely that the NSA would eliminate him.

    They'd try, but it's ok. Captain America wouldn't stand for that anymore than he stood for SHIELD's bullshit.

    I mean, if we're going to talk about the fictional pop-culture portrayal of the NSA, Captain America is fair game, right?

    Look, I don't like what they're doing anymore than you do. They're way exceeding their authority, they shouldn't be allowed to collect any data domestically. But they're not fucking assassinating political candidates or office holders. If we start using that type of hyperbole, we stop getting taken seriously when we complain about the shit they ARE doing.

    --

    Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

  5. Re:That's nice by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Still, voting for him could be the "sensible" thing to do. Especially if you're a in a state where it's already more or less a given how the election will end.

    If you're in a red|blue state where the outcome is roughly 70/30 in every election, it doesn't really matter whether you cast your vote for Hillary|Trump. It doesn't even matter whether the state is for or against the candidate you're for or against. Your vote simply does not matter.

    You now essentially have three choices. Either you can say "fuck this shit" and stay at home, knowing that it doesn't matter anyway. You can participate in the circus and vote for Hillary|Trump. Or you can show that yes, you would've gone there, you wanted to participate but neither of the two clowns is good enough for your vote, but there is someone who voices your concerns, and he got your vote because of this.

    No, this will not change anything. At the very least not immediately. The most you could hope for is that in further elections politicians will try to gain votes and check what agendas moved people. If you can get 5% more votes by catering to the anti-surveillance crowd, they'll go for this.

    But then again, since your vote is for the toilet anyway, why not be creative with it?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. "libertarianism" == "mafia rule" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no "capitalism" under "libertarianism". Without government to enforce laws, it all devolves into "strong man with big stick takes everything".

  7. Re:Too Bad He's Shown His True Colors by pla · · Score: 4, Informative

    He can't abolish the IRS, but he most certainly can abolish the NSA and the Departments of Ed, HUD, and Commerce. All of those operate under the authority of the executive branch, and as long as the president doesn't want to spend more money, he can effectively do whatever the hell he wants within his own domain.

  8. headline is misleading by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The headline makes it sound a bit more radical than it is.

    First his beef with the NSA is domestic spying. He says he'd still have "the sattelites" but make sure they were outward looking not domestic. By "sattelites" I am fairly sure he's using that as a proxy for all the NSA does in scooping domestic intelligence. And after all isn't that exactly what gets slashdotter's all uppity. The things that Snowden pointed out? So really for slashdot this is bowling a strike.

    Second, a federal consumption tax. Now normally a consumption tax is regressive: if you spend your whole pay check, as a poor person, then you are paying a greater share of the tax. That's not quite as bad as it sounds. Even if you have a progressive income tax, Where people richer than you or corporations pay income taxes they want higher wages or higher margins and so it drives up the cost of the poor person's consumables. You can make a consumption tax somewhat anti-regressive by making any residual income taxes more progressive. I don't know if Johnston is planning such compensation. I'd like to see his numbers. But I'm not going to flatly reject it.

    Eliminatine the dept of education? Well as long as states can manage it, okay. I'm sure congress will tie the fed kickback to the states to educational standards so things won't go to hell in mississippi or texas.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:headline is misleading by shilly · · Score: 4, Interesting

      On the consumption tax, as I understand it, he's proposing eliminating state and federal income tax, instituting a flat-rate consumption tax instead. Taxes for purchases of "basic necessities" would be prebated (which actually appears to amount to a universal basic income in the form of a check to anyone holding a social security number).

    2. Re:headline is misleading by gfxguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with the people you're arguing with is they are skipping over the 50th to 99th percentile of the people to complain about the 1% at the top - and they're willing to "punish" all the people in the middle just to get at that 1%. They say "look at Bill Gates" or "look at Paris Hilton," not look at the people making six figures that are having as much problem putting their kids through college because they're ineligible for ANYTHING because they make "too much." They get ZERO benefits because of their incomes, but are paying top or near top effective income tax rates. In the U.S. you are punished the most for making more up until you get that 1%, who only pay capital gains (if that) and have the means to avoid taxes. That's not how it should be, but god forbid Paris Hilton can flash her money around.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
  9. Re:If shove came to push... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    But they're not fucking assassinating political candidates or office holders.

    Of course not, GP has mistakenly associated to the NSA what actually is a CIA job.

  10. Dead wrong on 2 of 3 but I'm still voting for him by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because he's not a criminal or a raving nut. Sad but necessary.

  11. Re:If shove came to push... by the_povinator · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but I know people who have worked with the NSA, and these people have always been very impressed with how seriously NSA employees take the legislative limits on what they can do.

    NSA people work in big office buildings, in a corporate-like environment; they're tightly controlled. It's not like the CIA used to be where you were in a field office somewhere and your superiors weren't always 100% sure what you were doing.

    --
    The .sig is dead, and I believe I had a hand in killing it.
  12. Uh, really? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What, like Guantanamo Bay was going to be closed under President Obama?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  13. Re:If shove came to push... by John.Banister · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, when they found out that their superiors had been lying to Congress, what did they do about that? I'm guessing that they acted in a manner that would ensure self-preservation in a situation where their superiors are always 100% sure what the subordinate employees are doing. If they call their bosses on nefarious bullshit, they will get told that they, themselves, are a threat to national security, and that's how they will be treated if the behavior persists. The individuals can be really conscientious, but the structure of their organization can prevent that from making any difference.