Bugs were invented for the purpose of spying on embassies, which were from time immemorial used as a good place to headquarter your espionage operations in foreign countries.
I remember a story from the '80s where a new US embassy in Moscow was so infested with bugs that it had to be abandoned. The very concrete rebar served as antennae for the bugs.
So it should be no surprise at all that any embassy is buggier than an ant hill.
My favorite story was the the bugged version of the Great Seal Seal given to the US Ambassador, which hung in his residence. Dr Theremin got an order Stalin award for that one.
It's one thing to be bugging private citizens, and another altogether to be bugging embassies.
These cards actually sound like a good idea compared to paper checks for those who don't have bank accounts. All that's needed is fair dealing with respect to the fees. Perhaps a regulation that there needs to be free access to funds near the workplace.
The United States has a special relationship with Panama, i.e. Panama is something we've been fucking over bigtime for a century. What happened under Reagan was hardly something unusual.
And by the way the French were in there first.
In fact the French, in their own inimitable way were able to build their adventure up to the biggest corruption scandal of the 19th century.
Why would I want the Panopticon to have correct data? Improving the accuracy of the data would only make it more economically attractive to collect even more data.
No, I want the data to be as inaccurate as possible. If they give access to data it seems best to change any correct facts to inaccurate non-facts.
1. The banks aren't extorting anything. They are not getting any significant profit from this, only some small short term benefits from the origination of new mortgages. The interest rates they loan money at, and in particular the flatness of the yield curve is suppressing their normal profitability, quite severely. Meanwhile Americans taking loans to buy homes are making out like bandits with the low loan rates.
2. It isn't particularly inflationary. Low interest rates increase money supplies a bit, yes, because of the loans. But the money printing is not because the money the Fed creates is held in reserve accounts at the Fed. It never goes into circulation. Why do you think inflation rate has been ZERO three out of the past four months?
3. The government pays interest because of the loans it issues. It would ALWAYS pay interest regardless of whether the Fed bought the loans or not. What the Fed purchase does is a gift to the taxpayers because the resulting interest rates are much LOWER than would be the case in a free market.
Umm no. Transaction costs are quite low these days. All that computerization you know.
If it weren't that way HFT would not be useful. Large brokerages aren't sinking money into that just for fun.
Even for Joe Mainstreet stock purchase transactions can be ridiculously inexpensive. Fees in the single digit dollar levels and no carrying charges for 6 figure transactions. i.e. less than 0.001%.
Add in the fact that since 1901 stocks have appreciated an average of 9% per year compounded. It is a pretty compelling game that returns many billions per year to individuals and institutions like pension funds.
I assume you are referring to the indirect purchase of GOVERNMENT issued debt by the FEDERAL Reserve aka Quantitative Easing?
Well. you have just about every fact in your post either flat out wrong or completely muddled. First it's 85 billion a month, and second the money flow is this:
1. Federal Gov issues bonds. 2. Banks buy the bonds. 3. Federal Reserve buys the bonds from banks.
Note this is a flow of money TO the government from the banking system. The banks are simple intermediates in the process. They don't profit on the transaction.
What does happen is the banks deleverage. They have less money loaned out In this case to the Federal Government). This allows the banks to make more loans. Because of the increased demand for bonds the overall interest rates decline. Because the banks have less debt and can loan more interest rates decline.
The idea that this is extorting money from the taxpayers is complete unvarnished BS.
I have a couple of suggestions for you:
1. Don't start off you post with an ad-hominem attack. 2. Learn something about what you are posting on before you make yourself look really bad when you respond.
Slashdot Mirror
> The US needs a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to privacy.
No, it doesn't. The Constitutional right to privacy is already well established in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_privacy#United_States
The problem is that it is not observed.
The answer has already been found. Government by civil law. Freedom of conscience.
Eventually people will recognize what the truth is.
The US Constitution was accepted unanimously by state representatives at the Convention, and then ratified unanimously by the states.
Plus it is a glorious thing to read, based on the philosophies of the Enlightment and full of brilliant compromises.
The Egyptian constitutional convention was a complete farce in comparison. Rammed through in a classical demonstration of the tyranny of the majority.
Lesson from history: Majority isn't enough for a Constitution.
> There's laws (in theory at least) in the US to protect whistle blowers, even those who release information the way he did
There are processes for whistleblowers within the government that would have given Snowden protection.
He didn't use these processes.
Bugs were invented for the purpose of spying on embassies, which were from time immemorial used as a good place to headquarter your espionage operations in foreign countries.
I remember a story from the '80s where a new US embassy in Moscow was so infested with bugs that it had to be abandoned. The very concrete rebar served as antennae for the bugs.
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-29/news/mn-177_1_embassy-building
So it should be no surprise at all that any embassy is buggier than an ant hill.
My favorite story was the the bugged version of the Great Seal Seal given to the US Ambassador, which hung in his residence. Dr Theremin got an order Stalin award for that one.
It's one thing to be bugging private citizens, and another altogether to be bugging embassies.
There are several problems with that statement.
1. One of the things business has gotten away with is the purchase of government.
2. It's people's job to watch out for that. But actually all the people watch are news shows that have been purchased by business.
3. Mostly people don't watch out for this stuff. They watch pwned news or the Kardasians.
It wasn't this way until after 1980 or so when everything became all about the DOLLAR.
It could easily swing back. All it would take is another activist generation. The seeds for that already exist in the current abuses.
The new one to makes me want to puke.
The old one is genius, and what my great-grandfather lived.
Every rich nation on the planet has significant numbers of low paid immigrant workers.
As far as war goes, I haven't seen any indication that the European nations have put that aside.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Europe
Issuing cash has all sorts of problems.
These cards actually sound like a good idea compared to paper checks for those who don't have bank accounts. All that's needed is fair dealing with respect to the fees. Perhaps a regulation that there needs to be free access to funds near the workplace.
Yes, where slightly creative includes creating forged Kenyan birth certificates for the President of the United States.
This guy is a 100% NUT JOB.
Apparently the GP is wrong. Some people are not intelligent enough.
The EU has some intelligence analysis services.
However they are hamstrung because the state level agencies don't trust each other. After all they were at war with each other not that long ago.
Having a confederation to watch is endlessly amusing.
The United States has a special relationship with Panama, i.e. Panama is something we've been fucking over bigtime for a century. What happened under Reagan was hardly something unusual.
And by the way the French were in there first.
In fact the French, in their own inimitable way were able to build their adventure up to the biggest corruption scandal of the 19th century.
The statement that they didn't know about it is very bad.
1. If they didn't know about it they are completely incompetent.
2. If they did know then they are lying.
Why would I want the Panopticon to have correct data? Improving the accuracy of the data would only make it more economically attractive to collect even more data.
No, I want the data to be as inaccurate as possible. If they give access to data it seems best to change any correct facts to inaccurate non-facts.
Was an election year.
> Dealing with a foreign national, on foreign soil, is quite clearly a CIA matter and not what the FBI is supposed to be doing.
Not correct.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/international_operations/overview
There are lots of supporters of Wikileaks who might want to extract some sort of revenge via electronic means.
Wrong again, in many ways.
1. The banks aren't extorting anything. They are not getting any significant profit from this, only some small short term benefits from the origination of new mortgages. The interest rates they loan money at, and in particular the flatness of the yield curve is suppressing their normal profitability, quite severely. Meanwhile Americans taking loans to buy homes are making out like bandits with the low loan rates.
http://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/articles/en/us/?articleType=HTML&assetID=1245346055206
2. It isn't particularly inflationary. Low interest rates increase money supplies a bit, yes, because of the loans. But the money printing is not because the money the Fed creates is held in reserve accounts at the Fed. It never goes into circulation. Why do you think inflation rate has been ZERO three out of the past four months?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324081704578233751687277638.html
3. The government pays interest because of the loans it issues. It would ALWAYS pay interest regardless of whether the Fed bought the loans or not. What the Fed purchase does is a gift to the taxpayers because the resulting interest rates are much LOWER than would be the case in a free market.
> Can Joe Mainstreet afford a six figure stock transaction?
Average net worth at age 65 is $200,000
Umm no. Transaction costs are quite low these days. All that computerization you know.
If it weren't that way HFT would not be useful. Large brokerages aren't sinking money into that just for fun.
Even for Joe Mainstreet stock purchase transactions can be ridiculously inexpensive. Fees in the single digit dollar levels and no carrying charges for 6 figure transactions. i.e. less than 0.001%.
Add in the fact that since 1901 stocks have appreciated an average of 9% per year compounded. It is a pretty compelling game that returns many billions per year to individuals and institutions like pension funds.
http://observationsandnotes.blogspot.com/2009/03/average-annual-stock-market-return.html
I assume you are referring to the indirect purchase of GOVERNMENT issued debt by the FEDERAL Reserve aka Quantitative Easing?
Well. you have just about every fact in your post either flat out wrong or completely muddled. First it's 85 billion a month, and second the money flow is this:
1. Federal Gov issues bonds.
2. Banks buy the bonds.
3. Federal Reserve buys the bonds from banks.
Note this is a flow of money TO the government from the banking system. The banks are simple intermediates in the process. They don't profit on the transaction.
What does happen is the banks deleverage. They have less money loaned out In this case to the Federal Government). This allows the banks to make more loans. Because of the increased demand for bonds the overall interest rates decline. Because the banks have less debt and can loan more interest rates decline.
The idea that this is extorting money from the taxpayers is complete unvarnished BS.
I have a couple of suggestions for you:
1. Don't start off you post with an ad-hominem attack.
2. Learn something about what you are posting on before you make yourself look really bad when you respond.
> The stock market isn't that much different than Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is a zero sum game.
Wall Street is a positive sum game.
Huge difference.