Yes, can will and probably has. Basically you are naming one of the down sides to an unchecked, unsupervised, unaccountable security apparatus that can operate in the dark as it pleases. There are many others such as using the security apparatus for industrial espionage/pure profit motive and crush political dissent as they did with the Occupy movement.
If you can't smell the heavy miasma of bullshit wafting off this, you need a new fucking nose.
And yet, the demonize Snowden rhetoric made it pas Slashdot editors to make front page. How many times is that now even just in the last few days?
Wikileaks has shown us that Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian was attempting to abuse his position, sell out and leverage reddit users by working for Stratfor. They turned him down apparently due to already having the area covered. Could we now be witnessing Slashdots Ohanian moment, now directed they peddle pathetic anti-Snowden properganda to the front page?
*sigh*. Because defense, education, social security funding should always be pegged to GDP... facepalm.
"The share of gross domestic product (GDP) is a rough indicator of the proportion of national resources used for military activities, and therefore of the economic burden imposed on the national economy." It is hardly worth my time pointing this out to you... yet again. We understand why you continue - MIC shills with hat in hand begging for more money, on top of the 700 billion/year it already gets - to protect us of course, We get it.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960
Today no war has been declared–and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.
If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of “clear and present danger,” then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.
It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions–by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highl
Lets also be clear what "human smuggling" means in this context: Illegal immigration. Indonesians (and others) trying to enter into Australia illegally by any means possible in search of a better life. The Snowden leaks have exposed how the spy apparatus is being used for industrial espionage. This includes and is not limited to being used to maintain political favor with corrupt Indonesian officials in order to maintain cheap access to resources by Australian and other foreign companies. There are already a few previous examples of such immoral exploitation to the detriment of the poorest classes in this region. Running the spy network being for economic advantage in the region only helps guarantee that people will be forced to immigrate illegally to find a better life.
Much more likely it is an NSA/GCHQ malware USB stick given they have been caught red handed spying at the G20. Even going as far as setting up dummy internet cafes which are a lot more expensive than distributing a few USB sticks.
Accusing Russia at this point of a few malware USB sticks without presenting any hard evidence is really just lame and shows how desperate they are to divert media attention off their own despicable actions (i.e. spying for industrial and economic espionage purposes, G20 has nothing to do with terrorism).
Step forward with the hard evidence if your trying to justify your own criminal actions by accusing others of what you have been caught doing... and even if true it hardly excuses the fact.
That is kind of my point, the term "regulatory capture" is a nice feel-good term but when you boil away all the layers of "competing crooks working together to get rid of the law" - for personnel gain - what your left with is graft. I see nothing in the definition of graft that excludes or excuses the individuals involved just because there are systematic organized and powerful players. At the end of the day it is just unscrupulous use of a politician's (or goverment functionary) authority for personal gain.
Yes however the regulated sector comes to exert control over the relevant regulatory body by, ahem, "incentivizing" individuals involved to subvert the regulatory control, through golden parachutes and what-not. i.e. "unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain" == Graft. I see nothing in the definition of graft that excludes complex multi-channel processes involving one to many players, or limit the term to just bagmen and suitcases full of cash/direct old school bribing. Regulatory Capture is just a nice way of saying Graft - they probably use it because most of our institutions are now wholly corrupted and do not like it when we call it how it is.
"Regulatory capture", what a nice sounding name for Graft: ", a form of political corruption, is the unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain."
I guess that is what you have to call corruption and graft now it is so common/the norm amongst our ruling elites. Brings new meaning to the phrase "politically correct"...
We know - yes. Now we want political and legal action, arrests and all round justice served across at last count 35 countries at the very least. That has not happened yet, most countries are feigning outrage by have not tasked their justice system to start prosecuting all those traitors in and out of the telecoms industry hat have helped violated their respective countries sovereignty, or in the US case our constitution and various other laws, lying to congress etc.
My question is: Where are all the nationalistic flag waving types now - usually they are very vocal when our constitution is violated on such a massive scale, or various countries National security is violated in such a brazen systematic way. Has the French right wing press (for example) not turned on the heat to mobilize their outrage - why not?
The last lot that tried to agitate for political change had the full brunt of the NSA come down on them... anyone remotely connected with the leaders got fired if they had jobs, put on the do not fly lists and do not employ lists. Yes, NSA used for stifling the democratic process and a political movement.
So if you think it is easier for a countries population to change corporate mass media rather than changing out the corrupt politicians, then I am all for the idea!
I agree with you that mass media is hugely to blame but it is catch-22/chicken and the egg problem - if the politicians we voted for are willing to relax media laws, allow entertainment to be marketed as news, and worst of all not allow independent journalists to interview political candidates outside of marketing scripted election "rallies" - then we get what we voted for. Media just helps solidify power into the same old hands, only voting differently can ever hope to change that (discounting any type of revolution, obviously).
Soo... there has been a vote to suspend Swift data sharing that will be ignored anyway + leave plenty of time to "sway" parliament vote by 2015 when it comes up for review. By then the people would have forgotten anyway and public outrage will be even more fringe than it already is.
You mention a toothless sharing data law (link?), but as we see from todays news there is nobody in goverment willing to enforce it - it takes a bunch of law students to even get some kind of acknowledgment of the problem.
If that is the best examples we have of world leaders are falling over themselves to protect the national interests of their citizens and private companies against mass spying, then my original observation still stands. Most (affected) world leaders seem to be Ok with it all/do not work for their citizens or private home grown companies.
Where are all the nationalistic flag waving types now on this issue - all silent...
Sure they make a little public stink about it and feign outrage to get re-elected (yes that means you, Merkel), but where are whole of goverment cross-department investigations into the telecoms and rush of new laws to raise the criminal penalties for any telecoms personnel to knowingly allow foreign intelligence monitoring of national networks? Oh thats right - it has not happened (well maybe Brazil has some balls). Compared all the knee jerk reaction anti-terrorism laws that got rushed through, it is obvious that most of our countries leaders/politicians do not work for their actual country or are too afraid to do so. Voters to blame, as usual...
Yeah, but then someone would point out that old people just don't give a shit. It's what makes them so endearing.
I am sure they give a shit, watching their nieces and nephews get blown to bits by remote control, from the link:
A report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalists has uncovered Pakistani government documents suggesting the civilian death toll from US drone strikes is higher than previously thought. In a three year period 147 people were killed, including 94 children. Adam (@adamsich) takes a look at how many kids have been killed in Pakistan by US drones. See below for sources and extra links.
Must be a hard problem to solve right as unfortunately no such Federated/distributed system has stepped up to the plate. (Diaspora springs to mind but the average user could hardly install and start using it...).
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, can will and probably has. Basically you are naming one of the down sides to an unchecked, unsupervised, unaccountable security apparatus that can operate in the dark as it pleases. There are many others such as using the security apparatus for industrial espionage/pure profit motive and crush political dissent as they did with the Occupy movement.
If you can't smell the heavy miasma of bullshit wafting off this, you need a new fucking nose.
And yet, the demonize Snowden rhetoric made it pas Slashdot editors to make front page. How many times is that now even just in the last few days?
Wikileaks has shown us that Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian was attempting to abuse his position, sell out and leverage reddit users by working for Stratfor. They turned him down apparently due to already having the area covered. Could we now be witnessing Slashdots Ohanian moment, now directed they peddle pathetic anti-Snowden properganda to the front page?
*sigh*. Because defense, education, social security funding should always be pegged to GDP... facepalm.
"The share of gross domestic product (GDP) is a rough indicator of the proportion of national resources used for military activities, and therefore of the economic burden imposed on the national economy." It is hardly worth my time pointing this out to you... yet again. We understand why you continue - MIC shills with hat in hand begging for more money, on top of the 700 billion/year it already gets - to protect us of course, We get it.
Copied from s.petrys post above...
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960
Today no war has been declared–and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.
If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of “clear and present danger,” then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.
It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions–by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highl
Most likely a small few run many sock puppet accounts, mod point harvesting: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/18/023239/us-military-commissions-sock-puppet-program
By nature of their powers they are often in possession of considerable amounts of confidential information that they have a duty to keep confidential
I guess that is why Snowden went to work for the private sector then (BAH) - to get access to considerable amounts of confidential information...
That is before you get to the question of confidential intelligence information necessary to perform industrial espionage profitably. FTFY
It is really quite odd that you fail to recognize that. Do you simply think of the private military industrial complex as your playmate?
Lets also be clear what "human smuggling" means in this context: Illegal immigration. Indonesians (and others) trying to enter into Australia illegally by any means possible in search of a better life. The Snowden leaks have exposed how the spy apparatus is being used for industrial espionage. This includes and is not limited to being used to maintain political favor with corrupt Indonesian officials in order to maintain cheap access to resources by Australian and other foreign companies. There are already a few previous examples of such immoral exploitation to the detriment of the poorest classes in this region. Running the spy network being for economic advantage in the region only helps guarantee that people will be forced to immigrate illegally to find a better life.
Much more likely it is an NSA/GCHQ malware USB stick given they have been caught red handed spying at the G20. Even going as far as setting up dummy internet cafes which are a lot more expensive than distributing a few USB sticks.
Accusing Russia at this point of a few malware USB sticks without presenting any hard evidence is really just lame and shows how desperate they are to divert media attention off their own despicable actions (i.e. spying for industrial and economic espionage purposes, G20 has nothing to do with terrorism).
Step forward with the hard evidence if your trying to justify your own criminal actions by accusing others of what you have been caught doing... and even if true it hardly excuses the fact.
...not to mention disrupting a string of profitable industrial espionage gigs!
Since when has free speech been squashed in the US?
Here is one recent example. NSA helping shut down a political movement. There are many other examples please pay more attention.
That is kind of my point, the term "regulatory capture" is a nice feel-good term but when you boil away all the layers of "competing crooks working together to get rid of the law" - for personnel gain - what your left with is graft. I see nothing in the definition of graft that excludes or excuses the individuals involved just because there are systematic organized and powerful players. At the end of the day it is just unscrupulous use of a politician's (or goverment functionary) authority for personal gain.
Yes however the regulated sector comes to exert control over the relevant regulatory body by, ahem, "incentivizing" individuals involved to subvert the regulatory control, through golden parachutes and what-not. i.e. "unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain" == Graft. I see nothing in the definition of graft that excludes complex multi-channel processes involving one to many players, or limit the term to just bagmen and suitcases full of cash/direct old school bribing. Regulatory Capture is just a nice way of saying Graft - they probably use it because most of our institutions are now wholly corrupted and do not like it when we call it how it is.
I guess that is what you have to call corruption and graft now it is so common/the norm amongst our ruling elites. Brings new meaning to the phrase "politically correct"...
My question is: Where are all the nationalistic flag waving types now - usually they are very vocal when our constitution is violated on such a massive scale, or various countries National security is violated in such a brazen systematic way. Has the French right wing press (for example) not turned on the heat to mobilize their outrage - why not?
The last lot that tried to agitate for political change had the full brunt of the NSA come down on them... anyone remotely connected with the leaders got fired if they had jobs, put on the do not fly lists and do not employ lists. Yes, NSA used for stifling the democratic process and a political movement.
and the remaining fourteen million will be used to attack little brown men on camels with drones**.
** Only the ones riding on oil fields.
sheeplés, French for sheeple...
So if you think it is easier for a countries population to change corporate mass media rather than changing out the corrupt politicians, then I am all for the idea!
See above, Merkel feigned outrage to get re-elected.
I agree with you that mass media is hugely to blame but it is catch-22/chicken and the egg problem - if the politicians we voted for are willing to relax media laws, allow entertainment to be marketed as news, and worst of all not allow independent journalists to interview political candidates outside of marketing scripted election "rallies" - then we get what we voted for. Media just helps solidify power into the same old hands, only voting differently can ever hope to change that (discounting any type of revolution, obviously).
Soo... there has been a vote to suspend Swift data sharing that will be ignored anyway + leave plenty of time to "sway" parliament vote by 2015 when it comes up for review. By then the people would have forgotten anyway and public outrage will be even more fringe than it already is.
You mention a toothless sharing data law (link?), but as we see from todays news there is nobody in goverment willing to enforce it - it takes a bunch of law students to even get some kind of acknowledgment of the problem.
If that is the best examples we have of world leaders are falling over themselves to protect the national interests of their citizens and private companies against mass spying, then my original observation still stands. Most (affected) world leaders seem to be Ok with it all/do not work for their citizens or private home grown companies.
Where are all the nationalistic flag waving types now on this issue - all silent...
You must have missed this story then: German Federal Police Helicopter Circles US Consulate - right before the election. What a publicity stunt, but the Germans fell for it obviously...
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me... fool me for decades on end - WTF are we boiling frogs here!!??
Sure they make a little public stink about it and feign outrage to get re-elected (yes that means you, Merkel), but where are whole of goverment cross-department investigations into the telecoms and rush of new laws to raise the criminal penalties for any telecoms personnel to knowingly allow foreign intelligence monitoring of national networks? Oh thats right - it has not happened (well maybe Brazil has some balls). Compared all the knee jerk reaction anti-terrorism laws that got rushed through, it is obvious that most of our countries leaders/politicians do not work for their actual country or are too afraid to do so. Voters to blame, as usual...
Yeah, but then someone would point out that old people just don't give a shit. It's what makes them so endearing.
I am sure they give a shit, watching their nieces and nephews get blown to bits by remote control, from the link:
A report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalists has uncovered Pakistani government documents suggesting the civilian death toll from US drone strikes is higher than previously thought. In a three year period 147 people were killed, including 94 children. Adam (@adamsich) takes a look at how many kids have been killed in Pakistan by US drones. See below for sources and extra links.
So yeah, I'd say old people are just as/more likely to want revenge (i.e a threat) as any other age range,,,
Must be a hard problem to solve right as unfortunately no such Federated/distributed system has stepped up to the plate. (Diaspora springs to mind but the average user could hardly install and start using it...).