Wow, just wow. Here you are standing before us trying to argue that military spending, worldwide, should be increased to levels at least as high as they were at the hight of the cold war where there actually was a credible enemy capable of threatening our national security Vs today where terrorism does not even manage to be more threatening than your kitchen stool. This completely ignoring the fact that military spending is already a massive drain on the worlds resources and that Military spending, with few exceptions, is pretty much the definition of unproductivewe are quite literally paying people to blast holes in the ground.
- The sequester to cut $50 billion per year out of the defense budget? (With the MIC already down to 4-5% of GDP from 9.3% in 1962?)
"Linking military spending to the GDP is an argument frequently made by supporters of higher military budgets. Comparing military spending (or any other spending for that matter) to the GDP tells you how large a burden such spending puts on the US economy, but it tells you nothing about the burden a $440 billion military budget puts on U.S. taxpayers. Our economy may be able to bear higher military spending, but the question today is whether current military spending levels are necessary and whether these funds are going towards the proper priorities. Further, such comparisons are only made when the economy is healthy. It is unlikely that those arguing that military spending should be a certain portion of GDP would continue to make this case if the economy suddenly weakened, thus requiring dramatic cuts in the military."
Defense spending has in no way been trending down, as your dishonestly trying to imply by comparing to GDP (yet again - like you have an agenda?)). I would draw your eye to the incredible graphic here from the well regarded Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Just shy of an eye popping 700billion/year military spending by the US. Certainly off its historic highs during the good times high rolling 2008, but even the military could not live it up like it is pre-2008. Far more credible than your defense spending as % total budget outlays 1945–2013, which is like saying, "hey the overall budget is growing faster than our budget increases, so... [switch off cognitive functions], See!! The long term trend in defense spending is down!!". Muddled half-truths and nonsense indeed.
It is telling that you repeatedly reference the heritage foundation "an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C." whose shining moment was its "leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study".
I think your touching some raw nerves here sending off some PR talking point alarms. The anonymous shills are crawling out of the woodwork trying to wave their flags and distract from all these uncomfortable points you are raising... (thanks, btw)
Just using the tools put in place. Evil, but hardly as evil as using the surveillance state to squash political dissent which received much less mass media attention that this internal witch hunt. Key OWS supporters lost their jobs, were put on no fly and do not employ lists but since they did not have big Washington insider status, they get no press.
Sure - but private companies cannot scour through the personal electronic information of the world to try and identify which employee is bad mouthing them like the NSA/gov can. Well, unless your company is Booz Allen Hamilton and ilk. Perhaps that will be a new service the NSA can sell to provate companies down the road... monitor every aspect of your employees lives.
How can you have a "war on terror" if you quickly take out the high profile leader of your worst enemy? That was one long decade of profits that they bought themselves...
That isn't really true [that data stolen by the NSA was used for commercial advantage of US companies.].
I have noticed Cold Fjord and other related accounts jumping on this issue a few times now it must be a high priority agenda talking point: "Play down the industrial espionage implications of NSA spying scandal".
Astroturfer Cold Fjord is well aware and has been repeatedly reminded that there is plenty of concrete examples showing that the data stolen by the NSA has, is and will be used for Industrial Espionage, it is not called USA Inc for nothing. (Here are just a few of the most well known cases). Despite this the account operator behind the Cold Fjord account continues time and again to convince us that this is not possible and ignores that these concrete examples exist. Sad really.
Sweden - NSA Codename "Sardine" - more than likely receives secret funding from the NSA to establish the infrastructure, just like the UK does. They may even recieve more funding than the UK given their gateway status to Russian internet traffic.
Also check out the professor blog website I linked previously - you cannot trust Swedens perception of "strong protections" anymore - there are good reasons why Sweden is now rated below Botswana, Romania and Senegal in the WJP Rule of Law Index. Sad how bad it has got there, really.
VPN via Sweden, are you freakin kidding me - you might as well cc all your data to GCHQ directly!? Sweden's NSA Spy Links “Deeply Troubling”, or check out the professors blog for ongoing abuses on all fronts by the Swedish authorities. Whatever cred Sweden may have established during the cold war years, they have more than used up and are still digging down. The country (well its political leaders) can't be trusted - not a good place to do business anymore.
If any country near the UK has some semblance of credibility, perhaps try Iceland as the first hop for your VPN. They are even trying to promote themselves as a naturally cooled server hub, which is nice...
You assume that "copyright people", "politicians" and rich elites in general care about "Innocent Sites": censorship for limiting, framing and generally controlling the political discourse is the goal. They have solved the majority of the ISP problem by compensating them with our tax dollars so their complaint's disappear. Soon if not already it is profitable for said ISP's to censor content against secret behind closed door lists, so only those with some sense of moral compass outside of pure profit motive will complain and that will be fine as they can be ignored by mass media. Virgin and Sky were too big to ignore when they were complaining - now they are silent on the issue.
The US government probably has, since I'm hurting their sponsors by downloading the latest movies.
Exactly. Or perhaps your upset with trillion dollar bailouts to the banks while more and more of the middle class slip into poverty so you decide to democratically voice your concerns - only to be picked up the spy dragnet and harassed, fired, put on no-fly and do-not-employ list's (yes, all these things have already happened to key OWS leaders). How long before your crime may be as simple as expressing your dissatisfaction with our ruling elite on forums such as Slashdots. Going by current trends, I would be surprised if it is not already happening.
Spying by your own goverment is the much greater threat.
Let me introduce you to the Overton Window. Less Evil Vs More Evil party work together as a tag team (sometimes so obvious as alternating their positions on the same policy, depending on whether they are in power or not) to slide the window to the extreme territory. The only way out of the trap is to vote third party, regardless of how futile mass media may say that is.
In the Good Old Days whistleblower's leaking "illegally" in the public interest on even greater illegal activities like systematic corruption, war crimes, cover-ups etc were actually afforded some protection (Daniel Ellsberg as one example). Journalists reporting on the whistleblower material were also afforded some protection. Today in the first world there appears to be an all out assault on both reporting and whistleblowing no matter how egregious the crime they are bringing to the publics attention. Libel laws strengthened and extended laws and new ones are being passed like the US Shield law - designed to shield the corrupt from exposure and outlaw any media organization that is not complicit from doing investigative reporting.
Hard not to come to the conclusion that those institutions behind the prosecution of journalists and whistleblowers are wholly and irrecoverably corrupted. Guess that is what happens when the population votes in a two headed single party dedicated to serving power and moneydecade after decade...
Congress was/is ignorant on NSA spying, FISA. Can't be held accountable to ignorance. Entertaining (Tedious?) subservient to power nonsense arguments from the cold fjord account, as usual.
...when the fact emerge that they were defying [Secret, Unaccountable, Undemocratic] court orders.
Cold Fjords subservient cheerleading to power never ceases to entertain. Obviously the operators of the Cold Fjord account have learned absolutely nothing from history, or are on the wrong side. See: "Means Used by the Nazi Conspirators in Gaining Control of the German State". Quote: "To make certain that cases with political ramifications would be dealt with acceptably and in conformity with Party principles, the Nazis granted designated areas of criminal jurisdiction to the so-called Special Courts (Sondergerhte)."
Let's be clear, the single account was Edward Snowden's - and Lavabit's resistance was not futile, the so called nuclear option has backfired on the fed in terms of public sentiment.
on the off chance that it may prevent some terrorist act..
Oh, that must mean those terrorist organizations like Occupy Wall Street, - or any other community based activist group trying to agitate for improved conditions for the people. Must be why we are treated as the enemy.
Slashdot Mirror
$$$ up waay up. % of overall GDP down. Its not that hard to understand please try to keep up...
Woosh - Never said or implied that the GDP percentage points you were quoting are wrong. Try again.
Wow, just wow. Here you are standing before us trying to argue that military spending, worldwide, should be increased to levels at least as high as they were at the hight of the cold war where there actually was a credible enemy capable of threatening our national security Vs today where terrorism does not even manage to be more threatening than your kitchen stool. This completely ignoring the fact that military spending is already a massive drain on the worlds resources and that Military spending, with few exceptions, is pretty much the definition of unproductivewe are quite literally paying people to blast holes in the ground.
- The sequester to cut $50 billion per year out of the defense budget? (With the MIC already down to 4-5% of GDP from 9.3% in 1962?)
"Linking military spending to the GDP is an argument frequently made by supporters of higher military budgets. Comparing military spending (or any other spending for that matter) to the GDP tells you how large a burden such spending puts on the US economy, but it tells you nothing about the burden a $440 billion military budget puts on U.S. taxpayers. Our economy may be able to bear higher military spending, but the question today is whether current military spending levels are necessary and whether these funds are going towards the proper priorities. Further, such comparisons are only made when the economy is healthy. It is unlikely that those arguing that military spending should be a certain portion of GDP would continue to make this case if the economy suddenly weakened, thus requiring dramatic cuts in the military."
— Chris Hellman, The Runaway Military Budget: An Analysis (PDF), Friends Committee on National Legislation, March 2006, no. 705, p. 3
(With the MIC already down to 4-5% of GDP from 9.3% in 1962?)
Defense spending has in no way been trending down, as your dishonestly trying to imply by comparing to GDP (yet again - like you have an agenda?)). I would draw your eye to the incredible graphic here from the well regarded Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Just shy of an eye popping 700billion/year military spending by the US. Certainly off its historic highs during the good times high rolling 2008, but even the military could not live it up like it is pre-2008. Far more credible than your defense spending as % total budget outlays 1945–2013, which is like saying, "hey the overall budget is growing faster than our budget increases, so... [switch off cognitive functions], See!! The long term trend in defense spending is down!!". Muddled half-truths and nonsense indeed.
It is telling that you repeatedly reference the heritage foundation "an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C." whose shining moment was its "leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study".
I think your touching some raw nerves here sending off some PR talking point alarms. The anonymous shills are crawling out of the woodwork trying to wave their flags and distract from all these uncomfortable points you are raising... (thanks, btw)
Real Identity behind a twitter feed is NOT public information. You have to use goverment sanctioned surveillance to get that...
Just using the tools put in place. Evil, but hardly as evil as using the surveillance state to squash political dissent which received much less mass media attention that this internal witch hunt. Key OWS supporters lost their jobs, were put on no fly and do not employ lists but since they did not have big Washington insider status, they get no press.
Sure - but private companies cannot scour through the personal electronic information of the world to try and identify which employee is bad mouthing them like the NSA/gov can. Well, unless your company is Booz Allen Hamilton and ilk. Perhaps that will be a new service the NSA can sell to provate companies down the road... monitor every aspect of your employees lives.
How can you have a "war on terror" if you quickly take out the high profile leader of your worst enemy? That was one long decade of profits that they bought themselves...
Irresponsible, yes, but it sure does help sell the whole war on terror. Look, this could be you if your country does not bend over and contribute to the world war on terror (Icelands experience).
Slightly offtopic - new information just in on Icelandic independence (or lack of).
That isn't really true [that data stolen by the NSA was used for commercial advantage of US companies.].
I have noticed Cold Fjord and other related accounts jumping on this issue a few times now it must be a high priority agenda talking point: "Play down the industrial espionage implications of NSA spying scandal".
Astroturfer Cold Fjord is well aware and has been repeatedly reminded that there is plenty of concrete examples showing that the data stolen by the NSA has, is and will be used for Industrial Espionage, it is not called USA Inc for nothing. (Here are just a few of the most well known cases). Despite this the account operator behind the Cold Fjord account continues time and again to convince us that this is not possible and ignores that these concrete examples exist. Sad really.
Sweden - NSA Codename "Sardine" - more than likely receives secret funding from the NSA to establish the infrastructure, just like the UK does. They may even recieve more funding than the UK given their gateway status to Russian internet traffic.
Also check out the professor blog website I linked previously - you cannot trust Swedens perception of "strong protections" anymore - there are good reasons why Sweden is now rated below Botswana, Romania and Senegal in the WJP Rule of Law Index. Sad how bad it has got there, really.
VPN via Sweden, are you freakin kidding me - you might as well cc all your data to GCHQ directly!? Sweden's NSA Spy Links “Deeply Troubling”, or check out the professors blog for ongoing abuses on all fronts by the Swedish authorities. Whatever cred Sweden may have established during the cold war years, they have more than used up and are still digging down. The country (well its political leaders) can't be trusted - not a good place to do business anymore.
If any country near the UK has some semblance of credibility, perhaps try Iceland as the first hop for your VPN. They are even trying to promote themselves as a naturally cooled server hub, which is nice...
You assume that "copyright people", "politicians" and rich elites in general care about "Innocent Sites": censorship for limiting, framing and generally controlling the political discourse is the goal. They have solved the majority of the ISP problem by compensating them with our tax dollars so their complaint's disappear. Soon if not already it is profitable for said ISP's to censor content against secret behind closed door lists, so only those with some sense of moral compass outside of pure profit motive will complain and that will be fine as they can be ignored by mass media. Virgin and Sky were too big to ignore when they were complaining - now they are silent on the issue.
The US government probably has, since I'm hurting their sponsors by downloading the latest movies.
Exactly. Or perhaps your upset with trillion dollar bailouts to the banks while more and more of the middle class slip into poverty so you decide to democratically voice your concerns - only to be picked up the spy dragnet and harassed, fired, put on no-fly and do-not-employ list's (yes, all these things have already happened to key OWS leaders). How long before your crime may be as simple as expressing your dissatisfaction with our ruling elite on forums such as Slashdots. Going by current trends, I would be surprised if it is not already happening.
Spying by your own goverment is the much greater threat.
and nice slap down.
Who decides?
Sex, one of the Four Horsemen of the Info-pocalypse. Thin edge of the wedge stepping stone to more politically motivated types of censorship...
Let me introduce you to the Overton Window. Less Evil Vs More Evil party work together as a tag team (sometimes so obvious as alternating their positions on the same policy, depending on whether they are in power or not) to slide the window to the extreme territory. The only way out of the trap is to vote third party, regardless of how futile mass media may say that is.
In the Good Old Days whistleblower's leaking "illegally" in the public interest on even greater illegal activities like systematic corruption, war crimes, cover-ups etc were actually afforded some protection (Daniel Ellsberg as one example). Journalists reporting on the whistleblower material were also afforded some protection. Today in the first world there appears to be an all out assault on both reporting and whistleblowing no matter how egregious the crime they are bringing to the publics attention. Libel laws strengthened and extended laws and new ones are being passed like the US Shield law - designed to shield the corrupt from exposure and outlaw any media organization that is not complicit from doing investigative reporting.
Hard not to come to the conclusion that those institutions behind the prosecution of journalists and whistleblowers are wholly and irrecoverably corrupted. Guess that is what happens when the population votes in a two headed single party dedicated to serving power and moneydecade after decade...
Congress was/is ignorant on NSA spying, FISA. Can't be held accountable to ignorance. Entertaining (Tedious?) subservient to power nonsense arguments from the cold fjord account, as usual.
...when the fact emerge that they were defying [Secret, Unaccountable, Undemocratic] court orders.
Cold Fjords subservient cheerleading to power never ceases to entertain. Obviously the operators of the Cold Fjord account have learned absolutely nothing from history, or are on the wrong side. See: "Means Used by the Nazi Conspirators in Gaining Control of the German State". Quote: "To make certain that cases with political ramifications would be dealt with acceptably and in conformity with Party principles, the Nazis granted designated areas of criminal jurisdiction to the so-called Special Courts (Sondergerhte)."
Let's be clear, the single account was Edward Snowden's - and Lavabit's resistance was not futile, the so called nuclear option has backfired on the fed in terms of public sentiment.
on the off chance that it may prevent some terrorist act. .
Oh, that must mean those terrorist organizations like Occupy Wall Street, - or any other community based activist group trying to agitate for improved conditions for the people. Must be why we are treated as the enemy.