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Pentagon Wants To Predict Anti-Trump Protests Using Social Media Surveillance (vice.com)
Alice Marshall shares an excerpt from Motherboard: The United States government is accelerating efforts to monitor social media to preempt major anti-government protests in the U.S., according to scientific research, official government documents, and patent filings reviewed by Motherboard. The social media posts of American citizens who don't like President Donald Trump are the focus of the latest U.S. military-funded research. The research, funded by the U.S. Army and co-authored by a researcher based at the West Point Military Academy, is part of a wider effort by the Trump administration to consolidate the U.S. military's role and influence on domestic intelligence.
The vast scale of this effort is reflected in a number of government social media surveillance patents granted this year, which relate to a spy program that the Trump administration outsourced to a private company last year. Experts interviewed by Motherboard say that the Pentagon's new technology research may have played a role in amendments this April to the Joint Chiefs of Staff homeland defense doctrine, which widen the Pentagon's role in providing intelligence for domestic "emergencies," including an "insurrection."
The vast scale of this effort is reflected in a number of government social media surveillance patents granted this year, which relate to a spy program that the Trump administration outsourced to a private company last year. Experts interviewed by Motherboard say that the Pentagon's new technology research may have played a role in amendments this April to the Joint Chiefs of Staff homeland defense doctrine, which widen the Pentagon's role in providing intelligence for domestic "emergencies," including an "insurrection."
Gosh, is there no limit to this miserable sack of pus' stupidity and ignorance ? Did he seriously tell a journalist and the entire world that he would sign an executive order to effectively repel the 14th amendement of the Constitution of the United States ?
Yes he did. But you know what ? It's not because he's stupid. It's because he knows perfectly well that his supporters are stupid, and that he can say pretty much any complete absurdity and absolute lie, but if it's what they want to hear, then they'll believe him anyway.
After all, didn't he get elected even after basically calling all his supporters fucking morons ?
"I could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot someone, and I still wouldn't lose any voters".
read the article, no source within the article says Trump admin is actually doing that. A bunch of other studies and models referenced.
No you can take your false equivalence and shove it. I've always thought political parties were a bad idea, and nobody is a saint, but the degree of lying and cheating that people in the current US republican party will stoop to is unacceptable in a civil society. Your one example shows your argument is hollow. The GOP was all for repealing the ACA because it sounds good in a campaign slogan but didn't do it because they have no real alternative policy, just talking points. That's a concrete promise that was broken. Then you say some random squishy crap about Obama not sticking to "hope and change". Nothing concrete. On the same issue, the democrats ran on revamping healthcare, and that's what happened. Not single-payer, but the ACA was a concrete improvement to the status quo that could be put into law at the time despite an obstructionist opposition party. One of the main motivations for the ACA was getting the healthcare part of the national economy and national debt and deficit more under control, something the GOP claims they want to do but never do. Your claim that both of these are parties saying one thing and doing another is simply false equivalence.
"They were coming right at us!!"
This will probably happen, so IDK why I'm making a south park joke... :(
It is not that Trump particularly wants to kill them. He seems more amoral than anything else. If they die to serve his agenda, well that's fine, seems to be his thought process. In fact actual deaths of good people don't seem to register much to non teleprompter Trump. He just makes up a lie and moves on.
Let's look at the facts. Who does he admire and get along with? Strongmen. Dictators. That's pretty much it.
Which tactics does he use? You guessed it, the tactics of dictators and strong men. Blaming everything on a minority or two. Calling all your enemies evil or an angry mob, or any of the other variations. Continuous, vast, and uncountable numbers of lies.
People are angry. Righteous anger is normal and at times appropriate, but I worry that Trump is making people so angry with his scorched earth tactics to win, that we as a country can never heal.
Will we have our own Tiananmen Square anytime soon? Possibly.
Imagine this scenario. Does it seem likely?
"They were an angry mob with weapons (of some kind, not necessarily guns. Perhaps just a few brooms or something) and they were getting too close to the president. They had to be stopped. This is what happens when you let an angry mob take too much power, but thanks to our new pentagon programs we are active an alert about potential targets of insurrection against the homeland. In fact, to promote public safety we regularly update the public watch list database so employers can make informed decisions."
I find such a scenario quite possible, and if it happens, I'm not sure where it ends. (Needless to say the pentagon should not be involved in law enforcement at all.)
We already are talking kids in cages. Now he is openly talking about disobeying the constitution and throwing out people born in our country. We now have the military facing a non existent threat just to gin up his poll numbers. All of this should be grounds for removal, yet the right does nothing.
We just had proof that one of his rabid followers tried, seriously tried to assassinate two former presidents and a bunch of others. The fact that the guy was apparently too stupid to build a credible bomb is all that saved from disaster.
Another guy walked into a church and started killing, and if you don't think Trump's Us vs Them rhetoric fed the flames your an idiot. I remember Charlotsville well. He was an apologists for an angry mob shouting, "Jews will not replace us!" He said they were fine people.
We don't really need a vast system to predict and quell protests. That way leads on right down a path probably more like Communist China or possibly North Korea, though the shear number of guns in this country limits how far that is likely to go.
What we do need is simple honesty and people in charge willing to at least try to work together and do the job they were elected for, including the president.
I'm beginning to think we also need some history lessons, so as to better guide and guard us against making even more mistakes.
In the last election far too many of us asked, "What do we have to lose?" Now that answer is clear. We could lose everything that makes us a great country that one can be proud of. If there is a time to take action it is one week from now to restore checks and balances, for if we fail, it is possible we won't get another chance.
America the surveillance state. Just the words smell like ashes. Let us hope we can right this ship of state.
the for profit insurance industry did. There's multiple studies that show it kept prices down.... a bit. They're selling you something you can't live without and that has virtually no competition (since most get it from employers and there's only a few big companies left). The only cap on what they can charge is how much Americans will bear before they demand single payer.
Single payer solves everything. Every country in the world that's implemented it has made it work. Costs are limited because there's virtually no overhead. Doctors aren't employees of the government. It's single payer not single employer. The government is just paying. Docs do better because they no longer fight insurance companies for every scrap and penny.
Malpractice doesn't go away either. Again, we're not talking about nationalizing healthcare, we're nationalizing insurance. Just the paying for it.
The problem you're having is there's a multi-billion dollar propaganda engine putting ideas in your head. That's because the insurance companies are fighting for their lives. If Americans every realize they've got a bloated tick literally sucking the life out of them that's it. End of the gravy train. They spent half a billion last time we did a major reform and it paid off in spades with the "individual mandate" aka Romneycare being the best we could do even with Dems in charge. Don't fall for it. Single payer has been shown to work again and again. It saves money and it saves lives. 45,000 Americans will die of treatable illness this year. Next year you might be one of them. Demand single payer and don't vote for anyone who won't give you it.
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its been a while since I worked in that industry (1995 when i first came back from 3 tours in the persian gulf after the gulf war); but pre-existing conditions were never permanent. Usually they had a 6month clause that meant that for the first 6 months they would review claims to look for a pre-existing condition. It basically meant that you could not choose to forgo insurance to keep more money, find out you needed medical attention, get insurance, and pay less; then later drop the insurance again. That was supposed to be a deterrent. They would order medical records to see if you had been seen for anything related to it prior to having insurance. They would even invoke the 'prudent person' clause that said 'a prudent person WOULD have sought help'. Internally we had a commentary that went like "No, actually I was in the waiting room for something else, but while I was here, suddenly this started happening..." However the Healthcare Reform act of 1996 had abolished most of this and then HIPAA came along and helped with that by fixing the gap that happened when an insured had to leave one employer and go to another employer.
FACT. The idea that insurance is provided by the employer is deliberately geared to turn you into an undervalued slave. No other insurance works this way. How likely are you to accept abuse or take shit from your employer because they hold the strings on some health benefits you might currently need? It empowers the employee to enter a codependent relationship with the employee where they can misuse you.
Please do not get caught up in the bullshit belief this is only a GOP thing. This shit has been going on since 1995 at least. From 1996 - 2018 the Democrates have controlled the House, Senate, and Executive branch more than once. They COULD have fixed this. They get paid by these special interest too. Nobody in congress is in it for your best interest. Dont fall for the partisan bullshit on this particular topic.