Tribalism is at the heart of our scalability problems.
People who do well in politics can have a spine - they just can't use it much. When you are a bug you need to be sure to not get crushed by the powerful. Thriving well enough to rise to power filters out most the good people.
The systems of power ALWAYS keeps threats to the status quo away from gaining enough power to threaten THEIR "security". Even segments of the population participate in this, those being the people who gained power from the way things are and have strong motives to maintain it. Large segments of the population are ass kissing wannabees who will support their idols because they plan to be one of them someday (and don't forget the ones who think they are elite but are not.) You'll hear these people sometimes talk about "their country" and "their way of life" or even the leaders equating themselves to the nation (criticize the leader, you criticize the nation) but it is all a selfish perspective, they only refer to themselves as if all other perspectives do not exist or are unjustified. You see, others suffer because they don't see things the way WE ELITE do... you communist! (or whatever tribal slur) If you were successful/rich/powerful, you'd understand our wisdom...etc.
Human social ordering. same every time. the successful fear losing their advantages and invent excuses to justify their exploitation of the lesser classes (which is nearly always the case in human history.) The middle class takes a middle position and easily will flip flop between both sides... if the nation does well, then their bias will be with the top and they'll generally undermine themselves.
A democratic system is more influenced by these factors than other systems. If more people actively voted... the impact of the defenders of the elite would be greatly diminished... but like all such systems it would still fall into despotism as the majority fails to do their job and gradually fall prey to an elite... wide spread success being a big threat as they shirk their responsibilities to maintain balance to go watch TV.
Ignorance. come on, the whole world jokes about how ignorant Americans are. An American couldn't "get it." No need for discussion and Americans are nearly hopeless to talk to about it, they are unjustifiably overconfident or dismissive on the issue. The Press is nearly dead... a farce. Good education is undermined and attacked (it's always easy to find something to complain about to justify attacking the parts that WORK. Critical Thinking, dead. Civics, dead. Creative Thinking, dead. School psychologist, gone..how dare they blame parents! Math test scores were too low to allow those other subjects...)
American culture has been promoting cowardice for generations now. Fear is the lowest common denominator for humans and it is not just exploited for politics - our modern marketing exploits it, our entertainment as well. The learned behaviors on how to respond to fear have been influenced as well. Americans are less happy and more stressed due to the impact of the commercial culture thrust upon them (which also has them praising it because it also raises us to love it.) IT IS A CULTURE OF FEAR - just spend some time here observing (not that these things are not being exporter abroad... they are. the UK does a bang up job of it.) The downside to having no shared cultural roots is that the population is easier to experiment on. As far as I'm concerned the only good thing about tradition is the temporary firewall it provides.
Propaganda is the source of the huge amount of working control over the masses today. America is home to some of the best of it, even Hitler got a lot of his research material from America. It was American propagandists post WW2 that renamed their new profession: Public Relations. Marketing and Advertizing being offshoots, applying the same techniques... and new ones. The military may weaponize all science but PR weaponizes all social science... and quickly makes it publicly available as a service to anybody with money.
American working poor live well enough; the middle class is happy enough during their decades of decline that it is not enough to get off their addictions long enough to do anything about it. The primary one being consumerism, the main tool behind it all: television.
Also, try arguing with an American in person. Observe the others around you as well. It is almost like you were in a fight, the unpleasantness to the viewers and the participants. See how disagreement is so contentious and how you will be judged and grudges formed simply by your disagreement. The people are WIMPS -- except in New York where everybody being rude has somewhat shielded them. Why learn the actual NEWS when it is so upsetting and depressing?? Turn on GOP TV and hear what "you" want to hear...(aka Fox News - BTW, the project name was GOP TV.) Personalization has led to wall gardens that/. people hate so much-- like the phones, it's more of an invisible fence that you don't mind being restricted to... even enjoying your confinement...
The bigger the disaster the better! Bring on global warming! Lets put our charity funds (and pensions) into BP!
Governments have issues with waste and corruption but the NGOs get away with far far more and almost nothing ever happens to the crooks. No oversight or recourse.
Just look at Haiti and how much money that poor persecuted nation received but never got their hands on; the claims of corruption justifying the privatization of nearly everything and how little money got to the people. NGOs paying their employees 10x to do local jobs while the locals sat jobless - including the skilled ones. As usual, the 1 size fits all approach was used so things that are expensive and even useless are employed. Bottled water? seriously? They paid more than the price of GAS for water? Whenever it was possible, yes. Happens with everything.
Naturally, a strong military presence is required... to protect the contractors from the increasingly frustrated public... not just the small minority of criminals who provide the justification. Even if they don't exist: look at how the occupy protestors around the world were attacked on the grounds of security and sanitation!
Finally, somebody posting who knows actually something!
Used to be a high school kid could do IT jobs... still can... but HR drones will filter those out for people with degrees who may know less relevant info. Sure more education helps even in indirect ways and it used to be a quality filter as well (but it is hardly one today.) Even then, HR drones are a joke because they are so stupid at hiring.
The local plumbers union is nearby me, they have a traditional trade skill education model tied into their system which fits perfectly with their profession and I think that education model fits with many other professions as well, especially programming or IT. Without their union, their ideal model would fade away into something of a mess like everything else has - I'm simply saying their union's biggest benefit is maintaining the traditional model which is ideal for their profession (at the cost of having a union, but who else is going to preserve what works best? The price we pay is too high, from our perspective-- but from theirs it is necessary. A balance is needed and today selfishness reigns supreme so being reasonable and sounding reasonable are totally different.)
I wouldn't want some inexperienced fool doing plumbing on my house and feel safe insurance will deal with the big mistakes and the useless court system would deal with the minor ones... that is if I even can trace problems back decades to the plumber who fucked up in the first place! Its not kung-fu, but I fail to see why that model (master/grasshopper) is not cool in other areas.
1) Testimony to congress is NOT court, there is no perjury
2) Closed hearings are where secrets are shared; NOT open hearings. The senator should have known the answer already (at least some on the committee who were a little competent did.) They passed the laws authorizing it! The ones that question the NSA head are usually the senators on the committee with security access and closed sessions with the NSA head.
3) Politicians put on a show. that is how they get into office. They ask stupid questions they know the answer to and know what the official public answer is going to be and do it for appearances. It's useful to exploit the public record when you run for office.
4) Clinton's thing wasn't perjury. For starters, he wasn't EVER convicted of perjury and the congress can't make that determination. What they can do, is impeach and boot a president for nothing whatsoever because that is how the system works - it has nothing to do with the law other than the constitution allows them to fire the president if they have enough votes. period. The public wouldn't be happy if they didn't have an excuse which is why we only have 1 idiotic impeachment on record.
5) Legally, Clinton also doesn't get a perjury conviction because the law that would be applied would fail and be dismissed by a reasonable judge or eventually a jury. The law stated that the case in which the perjury occurred had to be legit, in other words the perjured statement had to obstruct justice. The case against Clinton was thrown out with prejudice because it ultimately was a political ploy... or if you didn't pay attention at the time; you could say the judge was a crook and tossed the case simply to protect Clinton from perjury charges later on. On top of all that, extremely few perjury convictions happen in the first place. The many lawyers in congress knew this at the time.
I have a hand crank generator flashlight in my car. It had a battery but I replaced it with a super capacitor... which cost more than the cheapo flashlight.
Oh, its about 4V. Yeah, I put some contacts to the outside; I can power a cell phone, not sure how long - i didn't test it.
Ever have a flashlight in a car? not only do the batteries wear out but in the winter they don't work either! This thing will work well in the cold and for short periods at other times... and not at all in the summer.
As long as No Script and about:config exist I don't care - most intermediate level users I know use Chrome - I can't stand it - I know how to use all these options and I don't like having them taken away.
MS, Google and in 2012 Apple signed up according to the leaks. NONE of them let you compile their software yourself. webkit is just an engine, the apps are not open to compile.
Firefox does things fast enough just like the other browsers are just good enough feature wise to keep simple users happy. I usually can't move faster than firefox but I can't have dozens of useful additions in the other browsers (the main ones have been ported but the cool new ideas still happen as firefox plug-ins 1st.)
The law is US dollars shall be accepted for payment; it is not a bi-conditional. You can pay in anything you wish but the recipient must always accept if you choose to pay in dollars.
If you are a target of interest, your network stack or OS is probably open to them - pile whatever you want on top of it, they only need to enter below that point.
So you think compiling clean windows code on Visual C++ makes it safe? Security holes aside, a hacked compiler will produce hacked compilers even if all the source everywhere is clean. A clear chain of trust is required. With the time and effort, a breach can be placed at lower levels in the chain and obfuscated at multiple points ensuring decades of access without requiring to be notified of security holes. (you'd think an org bigger than the CIA would have people capable of finding holes on their own let alone getting them put in.)
A security breach in the 90s in Visual C++ at MS themselves could likely continue to this day - they use their old software to compile their new software.
The system is built around quotas by nation; which is idiotic. Mexico has a huge population and should get more slots open for legal immigration than some tiny nation.
Simple rule based policy solutions (if the legal still system functions:)
Abuse of rights severe enough make you immune from conviction. This has been eroding but works quite well.
Proper rules regarding these new powers can curb their abuse. Say they do listen to everything you do; if they are never able to convict you on that evidence (inadmissible, no warrant) then they will still continue to do it but you will be protected to some degree. Obviously, more rules would be needed and no matter what one does you still could draw attention to yourself so then they can fish for something they can legally use against you.
This was bound to happen when the government privatizes it's services. It is extremely foolish and moronic to take such secretive organizations and begin to privatize them.
The GOOD thing is naive young consultants gain access to things that were out of reach (until they were ready) and can let the public and officials know definitively what is going on. This is the only good aspect to this privatization religion we've subscribed to. On the flip side, we have created the largest most powerful and up-to-date private corporations in the security, intelligence, and military realms probably in modern history. They won't or don't exclusively work for 1 client...
The CIA won't be the one crashing your plane, blowing up your car or giving you cancer in the future (arguably, it has been going on since the mob hired vets.) Powerful corporations can ask their security firms to take care of people and more skillfully than a mob boss ever could. If you do catch them, they are extremely well protected. We already have some disclosures of private firms spying on activists and don't forget the mercenaries going in on their own after Katrina (where looting was not the problem... at some point the contractors will influence the news as a form of advertizing.)
Small leaks and implications by former government employees, reasonable deductions, disclosures from other nations, proper expert speculation and historical references have been telling us the sort of information that Wikileaks and Snowden have been leaking for over a generation.
The difference is that it isn't released with so much attention so the masses become aware of things that an informed elite were already aware of. Sure, you can't prove a lot of things in court or scientifically but that does not make them false. This is why you ask competent experts for their guesses and opinions; the odds are in their favor.
When the proven truth leaks out, one should go back an evaluate the experts and the winners should get higher standing. The press does not do this; less now than ever before. When somebody who just competently does a simple job like election polling, and that man becomes a celebrity genius you know the system is broken... and that is a rare situation today, most the time being correct is not rewarded.
Snowden is doing a great deal of good in his attempt to wake up the public. Diplomats KNOW all this stuff already or at least suspect it - they are professional liars after all... It's complete propaganda that this changes diplomacy much, each side always suspects the other - they just get to enjoy little jabs and fake excuses to stick it to US diplomats for a while. Diplomats eat shit for a living they can handle it and continue to smile. (people who don't understand this should shut up; sadly, Americans are raised to be over confident - and scientific studies back that statement up.)
Cold War budgets didn't go down and the NSA has many times the budget as the CIA, how anybody can think they stopped doing all those things that have been leaked or declassified from that era? We may not crash planes as much but that doesn't mean that we are not giving mildly radioactive items to people we don't like...
When an organization that is founded on "extreme" beliefs in free information -- one has to expect them to trend towards releasing MORE information than the majority of the public would be comfortable with. The call is subjective just as the decisions to publish leaks are also subjective. You may not agree and it does not matter what you feel because the RIGHT to think differently is theirs. In the USA, when we actually follow the 1st Amendment, the press is unrestricted and the price of that comes with occasional harm. Yes, it must be OK for the press to indirectly kill people in the process of doing their job. As soon as the press is limited, not only is it the beginning of the end, but it no longer fits the definition of "free press."
They almost always say that your info is not protected from authorities and that they comply with laws or even say directly they will volunteer info if authorities ask (no warrant or whatever required)
not jk. First they came for the jokers with bad taste standing in line waiting to be strip scanned or sexually molested. We said little, did nothing...
There is nothing wrong with democracy and having the people govern themselves as they see fit. If the people are fools, they will have a useless government that fails to serve them which will ultimately fall into despotism and shall no longer be a democracy. That is the cycle is the history and future of all democratic governments (to paraphrase Ben Franklin.)
Healthcare wasn't turned over to the "gumint" you ignoramus! I would be glad it if was actually turned over to the government; any failures of an actual healthcare system (what existed was nearly anarchy and is not that much further from it after The Heritage Foundation's "Obamacare" begins in 2014) -- i repeat: any failures of a government system, would be the responsibility of the citizens and they would deserve whatever they managed it to become.
The limitations imposed on the people's will (such as liberties that are out of reach of government) always end up failing eventually to the majority which again leads to despotism imposed upon minority groups (smokers for example) which undermines ideals -- the importance of which is really just an indicator of the lack of wisdom of the public. It's not long until they begin relinquish their powers as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Not as simple as a direct dictatorship but a functional level of control is still possible.
Tribalism is at the heart of our scalability problems.
People who do well in politics can have a spine - they just can't use it much. When you are a bug you need to be sure to not get crushed by the powerful. Thriving well enough to rise to power filters out most the good people.
The systems of power ALWAYS keeps threats to the status quo away from gaining enough power to threaten THEIR "security". Even segments of the population participate in this, those being the people who gained power from the way things are and have strong motives to maintain it. Large segments of the population are ass kissing wannabees who will support their idols because they plan to be one of them someday (and don't forget the ones who think they are elite but are not.) You'll hear these people sometimes talk about "their country" and "their way of life" or even the leaders equating themselves to the nation (criticize the leader, you criticize the nation) but it is all a selfish perspective, they only refer to themselves as if all other perspectives do not exist or are unjustified. You see, others suffer because they don't see things the way WE ELITE do... you communist! (or whatever tribal slur) If you were successful/rich/powerful, you'd understand our wisdom...etc.
Human social ordering. same every time. the successful fear losing their advantages and invent excuses to justify their exploitation of the lesser classes (which is nearly always the case in human history.) The middle class takes a middle position and easily will flip flop between both sides... if the nation does well, then their bias will be with the top and they'll generally undermine themselves.
A democratic system is more influenced by these factors than other systems. If more people actively voted... the impact of the defenders of the elite would be greatly diminished... but like all such systems it would still fall into despotism as the majority fails to do their job and gradually fall prey to an elite... wide spread success being a big threat as they shirk their responsibilities to maintain balance to go watch TV.
Ignorance. come on, the whole world jokes about how ignorant Americans are. An American couldn't "get it." No need for discussion and Americans are nearly hopeless to talk to about it, they are unjustifiably overconfident or dismissive on the issue. The Press is nearly dead... a farce. Good education is undermined and attacked (it's always easy to find something to complain about to justify attacking the parts that WORK. Critical Thinking, dead. Civics, dead. Creative Thinking, dead. School psychologist, gone..how dare they blame parents! Math test scores were too low to allow those other subjects...)
American culture has been promoting cowardice for generations now. Fear is the lowest common denominator for humans and it is not just exploited for politics - our modern marketing exploits it, our entertainment as well. The learned behaviors on how to respond to fear have been influenced as well. Americans are less happy and more stressed due to the impact of the commercial culture thrust upon them (which also has them praising it because it also raises us to love it.) IT IS A CULTURE OF FEAR - just spend some time here observing (not that these things are not being exporter abroad... they are. the UK does a bang up job of it.) The downside to having no shared cultural roots is that the population is easier to experiment on. As far as I'm concerned the only good thing about tradition is the temporary firewall it provides.
Propaganda is the source of the huge amount of working control over the masses today. America is home to some of the best of it, even Hitler got a lot of his research material from America. It was American propagandists post WW2 that renamed their new profession: Public Relations. Marketing and Advertizing being offshoots, applying the same techniques... and new ones. The military may weaponize all science but PR weaponizes all social science... and quickly makes it publicly available as a service to anybody with money.
American working poor live well enough; the middle class is happy enough during their decades of decline that it is not enough to get off their addictions long enough to do anything about it. The primary one being consumerism, the main tool behind it all: television.
Also, try arguing with an American in person. Observe the others around you as well. It is almost like you were in a fight, the unpleasantness to the viewers and the participants. See how disagreement is so contentious and how you will be judged and grudges formed simply by your disagreement. The people are WIMPS -- except in New York where everybody being rude has somewhat shielded them. Why learn the actual NEWS when it is so upsetting and depressing?? Turn on GOP TV and hear what "you" want to hear...(aka Fox News - BTW, the project name was GOP TV.) Personalization has led to wall gardens that /. people hate so much-- like the phones, it's more of an invisible fence that you don't mind being restricted to... even enjoying your confinement...
The bigger the disaster the better! Bring on global warming! Lets put our charity funds (and pensions) into BP!
Governments have issues with waste and corruption but the NGOs get away with far far more and almost nothing ever happens to the crooks. No oversight or recourse.
Just look at Haiti and how much money that poor persecuted nation received but never got their hands on; the claims of corruption justifying the privatization of nearly everything and how little money got to the people. NGOs paying their employees 10x to do local jobs while the locals sat jobless - including the skilled ones. As usual, the 1 size fits all approach was used so things that are expensive and even useless are employed. Bottled water? seriously? They paid more than the price of GAS for water? Whenever it was possible, yes. Happens with everything.
Naturally, a strong military presence is required... to protect the contractors from the increasingly frustrated public... not just the small minority of criminals who provide the justification. Even if they don't exist: look at how the occupy protestors around the world were attacked on the grounds of security and sanitation!
Finally, somebody posting who knows actually something!
Used to be a high school kid could do IT jobs... still can... but HR drones will filter those out for people with degrees who may know less relevant info. Sure more education helps even in indirect ways and it used to be a quality filter as well (but it is hardly one today.) Even then, HR drones are a joke because they are so stupid at hiring.
The local plumbers union is nearby me, they have a traditional trade skill education model tied into their system which fits perfectly with their profession and I think that education model fits with many other professions as well, especially programming or IT. Without their union, their ideal model would fade away into something of a mess like everything else has - I'm simply saying their union's biggest benefit is maintaining the traditional model which is ideal for their profession (at the cost of having a union, but who else is going to preserve what works best? The price we pay is too high, from our perspective-- but from theirs it is necessary. A balance is needed and today selfishness reigns supreme so being reasonable and sounding reasonable are totally different.)
I wouldn't want some inexperienced fool doing plumbing on my house and feel safe insurance will deal with the big mistakes and the useless court system would deal with the minor ones... that is if I even can trace problems back decades to the plumber who fucked up in the first place! Its not kung-fu, but I fail to see why that model (master/grasshopper) is not cool in other areas.
1) Testimony to congress is NOT court, there is no perjury
2) Closed hearings are where secrets are shared; NOT open hearings. The senator should have known the answer already (at least some on the committee who were a little competent did.) They passed the laws authorizing it! The ones that question the NSA head are usually the senators on the committee with security access and closed sessions with the NSA head.
3) Politicians put on a show. that is how they get into office. They ask stupid questions they know the answer to and know what the official public answer is going to be and do it for appearances. It's useful to exploit the public record when you run for office.
4) Clinton's thing wasn't perjury. For starters, he wasn't EVER convicted of perjury and the congress can't make that determination. What they can do, is impeach and boot a president for nothing whatsoever because that is how the system works - it has nothing to do with the law other than the constitution allows them to fire the president if they have enough votes. period. The public wouldn't be happy if they didn't have an excuse which is why we only have 1 idiotic impeachment on record.
5) Legally, Clinton also doesn't get a perjury conviction because the law that would be applied would fail and be dismissed by a reasonable judge or eventually a jury. The law stated that the case in which the perjury occurred had to be legit, in other words the perjured statement had to obstruct justice. The case against Clinton was thrown out with prejudice because it ultimately was a political ploy... or if you didn't pay attention at the time; you could say the judge was a crook and tossed the case simply to protect Clinton from perjury charges later on. On top of all that, extremely few perjury convictions happen in the first place. The many lawyers in congress knew this at the time.
I have a hand crank generator flashlight in my car. It had a battery but I replaced it with a super capacitor... which cost more than the cheapo flashlight.
Oh, its about 4V. Yeah, I put some contacts to the outside; I can power a cell phone, not sure how long - i didn't test it.
Ever have a flashlight in a car? not only do the batteries wear out but in the winter they don't work either! This thing will work well in the cold and for short periods at other times... and not at all in the summer.
Just prey your body is not a match for his head or you'll have an accident! (like what happened when he got a new heart?)
As long as No Script and about:config exist I don't care - most intermediate level users I know use Chrome - I can't stand it - I know how to use all these options and I don't like having them taken away.
Sadly, Americans are quite ignorant and need to read INFORMATIVE things like this.
BTW, D.C. is heavily managed by the US HOUSE which is part of the reason it is a mess, it's an odd situation, not like a state or the fed.
MS, Google and in 2012 Apple signed up according to the leaks. NONE of them let you compile their software yourself. webkit is just an engine, the apps are not open to compile.
Firefox does things fast enough just like the other browsers are just good enough feature wise to keep simple users happy. I usually can't move faster than firefox but I can't have dozens of useful additions in the other browsers (the main ones have been ported but the cool new ideas still happen as firefox plug-ins 1st.)
The law is US dollars shall be accepted for payment; it is not a bi-conditional. You can pay in anything you wish but the recipient must always accept if you choose to pay in dollars.
NSA - no comments on MS working with the NSA yet?
If you are a target of interest, your network stack or OS is probably open to them - pile whatever you want on top of it, they only need to enter below that point.
So you think compiling clean windows code on Visual C++ makes it safe? Security holes aside, a hacked compiler will produce hacked compilers even if all the source everywhere is clean. A clear chain of trust is required. With the time and effort, a breach can be placed at lower levels in the chain and obfuscated at multiple points ensuring decades of access without requiring to be notified of security holes. (you'd think an org bigger than the CIA would have people capable of finding holes on their own let alone getting them put in.)
A security breach in the 90s in Visual C++ at MS themselves could likely continue to this day - they use their old software to compile their new software.
The system is built around quotas by nation; which is idiotic. Mexico has a huge population and should get more slots open for legal immigration than some tiny nation.
Simple rule based policy solutions (if the legal still system functions:)
Abuse of rights severe enough make you immune from conviction. This has been eroding but works quite well.
Proper rules regarding these new powers can curb their abuse. Say they do listen to everything you do; if they are never able to convict you on that evidence (inadmissible, no warrant) then they will still continue to do it but you will be protected to some degree. Obviously, more rules would be needed and no matter what one does you still could draw attention to yourself so then they can fish for something they can legally use against you.
This was bound to happen when the government privatizes it's services. It is extremely foolish and moronic to take such secretive organizations and begin to privatize them.
The GOOD thing is naive young consultants gain access to things that were out of reach (until they were ready) and can let the public and officials know definitively what is going on. This is the only good aspect to this privatization religion we've subscribed to. On the flip side, we have created the largest most powerful and up-to-date private corporations in the security, intelligence, and military realms probably in modern history. They won't or don't exclusively work for 1 client...
The CIA won't be the one crashing your plane, blowing up your car or giving you cancer in the future (arguably, it has been going on since the mob hired vets.) Powerful corporations can ask their security firms to take care of people and more skillfully than a mob boss ever could. If you do catch them, they are extremely well protected. We already have some disclosures of private firms spying on activists and don't forget the mercenaries going in on their own after Katrina (where looting was not the problem... at some point the contractors will influence the news as a form of advertizing.)
Small leaks and implications by former government employees, reasonable deductions, disclosures from other nations, proper expert speculation and historical references have been telling us the sort of information that Wikileaks and Snowden have been leaking for over a generation.
The difference is that it isn't released with so much attention so the masses become aware of things that an informed elite were already aware of. Sure, you can't prove a lot of things in court or scientifically but that does not make them false. This is why you ask competent experts for their guesses and opinions; the odds are in their favor.
When the proven truth leaks out, one should go back an evaluate the experts and the winners should get higher standing. The press does not do this; less now than ever before. When somebody who just competently does a simple job like election polling, and that man becomes a celebrity genius you know the system is broken... and that is a rare situation today, most the time being correct is not rewarded.
Snowden is doing a great deal of good in his attempt to wake up the public. Diplomats KNOW all this stuff already or at least suspect it - they are professional liars after all... It's complete propaganda that this changes diplomacy much, each side always suspects the other - they just get to enjoy little jabs and fake excuses to stick it to US diplomats for a while. Diplomats eat shit for a living they can handle it and continue to smile. (people who don't understand this should shut up; sadly, Americans are raised to be over confident - and scientific studies back that statement up.)
Cold War budgets didn't go down and the NSA has many times the budget as the CIA, how anybody can think they stopped doing all those things that have been leaked or declassified from that era? We may not crash planes as much but that doesn't mean that we are not giving mildly radioactive items to people we don't like...
When an organization that is founded on "extreme" beliefs in free information -- one has to expect them to trend towards releasing MORE information than the majority of the public would be comfortable with. The call is subjective just as the decisions to publish leaks are also subjective. You may not agree and it does not matter what you feel because the RIGHT to think differently is theirs. In the USA, when we actually follow the 1st Amendment, the press is unrestricted and the price of that comes with occasional harm. Yes, it must be OK for the press to indirectly kill people in the process of doing their job. As soon as the press is limited, not only is it the beginning of the end, but it no longer fits the definition of "free press."
They almost always say that your info is not protected from authorities and that they comply with laws or even say directly they will volunteer info if authorities ask (no warrant or whatever required)
not jk.
First they came for the jokers with bad taste standing in line waiting to be strip scanned or sexually molested. We said little, did nothing...
There is nothing wrong with democracy and having the people govern themselves as they see fit. If the people are fools, they will have a useless government that fails to serve them which will ultimately fall into despotism and shall no longer be a democracy. That is the cycle is the history and future of all democratic governments (to paraphrase Ben Franklin.)
Healthcare wasn't turned over to the "gumint" you ignoramus! I would be glad it if was actually turned over to the government; any failures of an actual healthcare system (what existed was nearly anarchy and is not that much further from it after The Heritage Foundation's "Obamacare" begins in 2014) -- i repeat: any failures of a government system, would be the responsibility of the citizens and they would deserve whatever they managed it to become.
The limitations imposed on the people's will (such as liberties that are out of reach of government) always end up failing eventually to the majority which again leads to despotism imposed upon minority groups (smokers for example) which undermines ideals -- the importance of which is really just an indicator of the lack of wisdom of the public. It's not long until they begin relinquish their powers as well.
One can dream that Monsanto management visits their Chinese offices...