The fact that you might do something in the future. There are plenty of reasons for people to spy on you, but none of them justify the spying.
Never? Under any circumstances? You do know that Benjamin Franklin opened other people's mail during the Revolutionary War to obtain intelligence information to help the colonial government in its fight to obtain freedom from Great Britain? If Benjamin Franklin could do it, why not today?
If it was OK to use surveillance to obtain freedom, why not to maintain freedom?
Was it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on German spies in America in the 1930s and 1940s?
Was it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on Soviet spies in America in between 1917 and 1991?
Was it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on Americans spying for the Soviet Union such as the Walker spy ring that provided the Soviets the means to read American codes? That damage of that in wartime could have been the defeat of the US Navy. Defeat of the Navy would almost certainly mean losing the war.
Is it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on al Qaida members in America today?
Spying on innocent people is immoral.
Legally speaking, anyone that has committed a crime but is not yet convicted is innocent, even if they did in fact commit the crime. Are you suggesting that it is immoral to engage in surveillance of people who have committed crimes, but have not yet been convicted? The mafia? People in direct communication with al Qaida when plotting an attack?
If there is an indication that a criminal plot appears to be underway, how do you suggest proceeding? Conduct surveillance to see if it is true? Or wait until the crime has been committed, pick up the pieces, collect the bodies, and hope that you can catch the criminals?
Do you have a threshold for saying, "Yes, that appears to be potentially really dangerous, we need to take a look at that in case it really is a plot aimed at killing people?"
What if somebody is exchanging encrypted emails with a known al Qaida email address? Is it unreasonable to investigate that and possibly conduct surveillance?
Do you think it is reasonable for the intelligence services to conduct surveillance outside the United States?
Snowdens situation appears to have been exaggerated. There is a real question as to whether his claims are accurate in any way, or possibly a fabrication. Morons believe many things besides the possibility that exposing genuine sensitive national security programs could have a negative impact on security. For example, a few unauthenticated PowerPoint slides constitute sufficient reason for overturning the democratic process, or even the government, instead of letting Congress do its work addressing concerns of the citizenry. That is pretty ill considered if not in fact moronic.
Assuming you're an American, many aspects of the 1st Amendment rights are far stronger than many nations. The same goes with the 2nd Amendment. There may be others as well, but those are the two common cases.
Not only is there no guarantee that things would be better of the current government is overthrown, it is highly unlikely.
The Soviet Union used to tightly control emigration. Under Stalin there was considerable repression. There was a lot of back and forth with the West on the issue, and internal Jewish dissidents pressuring for it. Over time the policy became more liberal.
I was raised in Soviet Union and live in Russia. And I must say that Black Parrot is quite right.
Emigration from Soviet Union and from Russia was/is driven by various factors. People who emigrate tend to rationalize their choices, sometimes in really twisted way. Well, you really need to find a way to tell yourself that the leaving of your fatherland was justified, to live in peace with yourself. If you want to learn something about Soviet Regime, I'm afraid that an average Soviet (and Russian) emigrant is a wrong person to rely on.
I'm no apologist of USSR, but I must say that you western people have a really bizzare view of it that hasn't got much to do with reality.
Even if you were born in the Soviet Union and live in Russia, I don't think you know your own history. Either that or you are finding a way to justify Soviet crimes and the terrible oppression of the Soviet period.
You could say that. He seems to be in the process of giving everything to the Guardian, which means that the American people will get it, along with Iran, Communist China, Communist North Korea, al Qaida, and any other country or groups that wants it, including Russia which is now flying patrols along American territory again.
It is a pity he didn't give everything to the Inspector General or a Congressman.
Freedom existed before Snowden, it will exist after him.
despite endless fearmongering propaganda in the West that the Ruskies were just itching to swarm over the border and eat your babies.
The Soviets invaded and annexed Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The Soviets invaded and annexed part of Finland. The Soviets invaded and annexed part of Poland.
Eat babies? No. But the Soviets deliberately created a famine in Ukraine that killed 7 million people, men, women, and children, including babies.
After the invasion of Poland, the Soviets massacred the Polish army's officers and police officers in the Katyan Forest massacre - est. 22,000 dead
Swarming over the border with the Red Army might have been difficult at various times.
The whole Red Army development program was nearly wrecked in the 1937-39 period when Stalin's paranoiac purge of Tukhachevsky and some 35,000 other high-ranking officers in the Red Army brought the whole military machine to the verge of chaos. As was the case with the entire Soviet military establishment, Soviet operational maneuver concepts and forces suffered severe damage in the late 1930s, in part because Stalin purged their creators. The multiple waves of military purges, which began in 1937 and lasted into the opening months of World War II, liquidated most Red Army theoreticians and senior commanders. Inevitably, therefore, their ideas fell into disuse or outright disrepute. Incredibly, the slaughter of thousands of his military personnel was seated in Stalin's own paranoia, not any known coup attempt. The families, the friends, and the colleagues of the condemned either joined them in oblivion or sat with faces frozen in mute resignation, waiting for the summons that could arrive at any moment
Although the senior ranks experienced the most severe losses in terms of percentages (11 of 13 army commanders were shot, as were 57 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division commanders), the numerical bulk of the victims came from subordinates unfortunate enough to be on the wrong staff or performing the wrong mission. Estimates of the total losses created by this mass bloodletting range from 15,000 to 30,000 officers, depending upon the dates used and the figures available. And, most of the 1,836,000 surviving Red Army prisoners of war liberated from the Axis powersat the end of World War II were sent to the Gulag as "traitors to the motherland."
Can you provide an example of something that the Soviets did that the United States has not done?
At the end of this post are a couple resources. Please take some time to go through them, or the link to another post that is there. The gap between what is in your post versus the history is staggering. I hope you choose to become better informed. Also, choosing to depict the aberration in American society as typical while ignoring the typical in Soviet society does not illuminate, but adds to confusion.
Now, if we are talking about history of the Soviet Union and comparing it with the United States during the same period, there are a few things that come to mind.
The Soviet Union created the Ukraine terror famine resulting in 7,000,000 million dead.
The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939.
The Soviet Union conspired with Nazi Germany to invade and partition Poland's territory.
After the invasion of Poland, the Soviets massacred the Polish army's officers and police officers in the Katyan Forest massacre - est. 22,000 dead
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country Latvia and annexed it to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country Lithuania and annexed it to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country Estonia and annexed it to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country of Finland and annexing Finnish territory to the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union purged its the Red Army, both before, and after the war.
The whole Red Army development program was nearly wrecked in the 1937-39 period when Stalin's paranoiac purge of Tukhachevsky and some 35,000 other high-ranking officers in the Red Army brought the whole military machine to the verge of chaos. As was the case with the entire Soviet military establishment, Soviet operational maneuver concepts and forces suffered severe damage in the late 1930s, in part because Stalin purged their creators. The multiple waves of military purges, which began in 1937 and lasted into the opening months of World War II, liquidated most Red Army theoreticians and senior commanders. Inevitably, therefore, their ideas fell into disuse or outright disrepute. Incredibly, the slaughter of thousands of his military personnel was seated in Stalin's own paranoia, not any known coup attempt. The families, the friends, and the colleagues of the condemned either joined them in oblivion or sat with faces frozen in mute resignation, waiting for the summons that could arrive at any moment
Although the senior ranks experienced the most severe losses in terms of percentages (11 of 13 army commanders were shot, as were 57 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division commanders), the numerical bulk of the victims came from subordinates unfortunate enough to be on the wrong staff or performing the wrong mission. Estimates of the total losses created by this mass bloodletting range from 15,000 to 30,000 officers, depending upon the dates used and the figures available. And, most of the 1,836,000 surviving Red Army prisoners of war liberated from the Axis powersat the end of World War II were sent to the Gulag as "traitors to the motherland."
If you pardon the language, life's a bitch when you're in the Red Army. Purged before the war, when captured sent to the genocidal prison camps of Nazi Germany, and after the war sent to the slightly less murderous NKVD prison camps. The US did nothing like that.
The Soviet Union kept German POWs for as long as 12 years after the war. The losses were staggering.
In early April 1945, the United States was responsible for 313,000 prisoners in Europe; by month's end this total had shot up to 2.1 million
If you happen to be in, or travel to, the United States, you can tour a real German U-boat at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Check the website and call ahead if that is of interest to you.
You have freedom as an American citizen. The fee is to legally remove your citizenship. The price went from $0 to $450 in 2010, during President Obama's term. There are also these fees if you have some assets:
... leaving America has a special tax cost. You generally must prove 5 years of tax compliance in the U.S. Plus, if you have a net worth greater than $2 million or have average annual net income tax for the 5 previous years of $155,000 or more (that’s tax, not income), you pay an exit tax. You generally pay 15% on any gain, as if you sold your property when you left. There’s an exemption of approximately $668,000. -- Giving Up U.S. Citizenship
Then there is this courtesy of Barbar Boxer (D-Los Angeles):
Apocalypse Now, one of the few movies I've watched...... but I liked it. Anything good come out in the last 30 years I should bother watching?
These are some fairly good films, depending on your tastes and what you want to get out of it. You might see about viewing the trailers on Youtube or somewhere else to see if it looks interesting to you, especially if you are thinking 300 as it is a rather different style of movie retelling the story of the Spartans in movie - comic book form and may not appeal to you. In no particular order:
Master and Commander Act of Valor The Lighthorsemen Saving Private Ryan The Great Raid Das Boot Schindler's List Glory Gettysburg Gladiator The Last Samurai Braveheart We Were Soldiers 300 Gallipoli Breaker Morant
I suppose you could even throw in the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. They are well done and the backdrop is a fight against evil and a gathering war. There is a lot to recommend them, if they might be the sort that is your cup of tea. Of course they are very different from the rest, let alone Apocalypse Now.
Yeah, I have to admit that it sounds like nothing but a paycheck. Given that the last two Terminator films were pretty forgettable, I'm hoping that they just do a reboot. Wipe everything clean, start with a brand new story, and get a real director (with a real name, not a nickname).
I might have found a script for a concept. It already contains a lot of the elements of successful action / adventure / sci-fi movies. It just needs a bit of polishing such as a rewrite refocusing on Arnold's character and higher production values. Terminator: X25.
More seriously, while the "whistleblower" mechanism may be in place, it's clearly not functioning, either by not providing the protection for whistleblowers that it's supposed to, or not pursuing the ethical wrongdoing as it's supposed to.
I agree in that I would like to see better and more consistent protections for whistleblowers. The BATF has shown some abuses recently in that regard, if I recall correctly.
I can only take consolation that whatever NSA people have to be sifting through my data are being actively bored unto death by my Pinterest recipes.
If you can't baffle them with BS, bore them with recipes. I like it.:D
You know the information I would like to get? Just why Obama is acting almost exactly like Bush. I really want to know the answer, although I suspect I already know it.
I think this post covers a lot of ground there, although it is aimed at answering a slightly different question.
I did another post that was more spot on, but the basic idea is pretty much there.
A pity it looks like there won't be one or more sequels. A shame, really. Hollywood can turn comic books into movies, but not more of those books. Thank you for the recommendation on the books. I've seen many people highly recommend the books, and I've always had some interest. But I hadn't considered the audio books. I may very well try that since it would fit my typical schedule better. Thank you again.
I suspect that the USSR was never so different from the way we were then as the propagandists would have us believe. Rigged elections? Media that didn't inform the public what was going on? Warfare and bullying as a way of achieving the top dog's "national" goals?
The Russians, to their great credit, have made the old Soviet archives available to varying degrees over time. (Sometime more open, sometimes less open.) Although it was known before, the record has become ever clearer. Stalin, who lived into the 1950s, was a monster of epic proportions. After Stalin died, the Soviet state continued to be a police state, even if it relaxed somewhat at first, and more gradually over time. But it was, from start to finish, a totalitarian regime. It simply transformed from extremely oppressive and genocidal to not genocidal but still highly oppressive.
If you want to prove that there was no difference between the Soviet Union and the United States you will need to find tens of millions of bodies of ordinary Americans in mass graves in the United States of people killed by bullet or starvation and overwork in prison camps run by an American secret police that you will have to identify. Many people are misinformed on this matter. The media seldom carries stories on the Soviet Union any more. Although the lack of media reporting contributes to people being uninformed today, some of it is due to parts of the media establishment itself that tolerated reporters that were toadies to dictators, such as (the should be infamous) Walter Duranty: New York Times Concealed Ukrainian Genocide
It's understandable that the media seldom covers the Soviet Union any more since it is history, not news, and the Soviet Union has been gone for 22 years now. Although the lack of coverage about the behavior of the former Soviet Union might explain why people are uninformed, it doesn't explain why communism still holds an attraction for so man people. For that you have to understand that the human mind processes some things better than others, and some things badly. Communism is effectively a mind trap - the theory sounds so beautiful to many people that it must be true, but in practice it has always led to oppression, often bloody at that. And please spare me the "no true communist state has ever existed" routine. Dozens of nations have tried. It can't be done, but people will keep trying because the ideas won't die despite a century of bloody failure and misery in so many countries. There are still communists in America today. Communist parties and associated movements used to take their guidance from Moscow. Many leftists supported them, but never realized their fate should the communists come to power. ( Leftists Will be Shot in the U.S. When Marxists come to power- KGB Agent Yuri Bezmenov ) Communism can't succeed because it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and self-labeled scientific theories that are nonsense.
Here some resources if you want to know more (focusing mainly on the Soviet Union):
You also own the hardware that the software runs on, which isn't a lot of comfort. It's a pity that the common sense displayed by the old Borland company didn't carry forward.
Additionally, Borland was known for its practical and creative approach towards software piracy and intellectual property (IP), introducing its "Borland no-nonsense license agreement". This allowed the developer/user to utilize its products "just like a book"; he or she was allowed to make multiple copies of a program, as long as only one copy was in use at any point in time. -- Borland
Maybe this will help. Are there any lines that you think could be drawn regarding currently classified information as far as who gets to see it, or do you think that all of it should be freely available to both American citizens and al Qaida, Iran, Communist China, North Korea, and anyone else that cares to know?
Lists of surveillance subjects? Identities and locations of informers against al Qaida*? Surveillance plan for the rumored terrorist "sleeper cell" possibly involved with the Boston attack? Gaps in the US customs inspection scheme that might allow smuggling in weapons? Schedules of US port inspections so they can be bypassed? The plan for watching Iran's exports and imports of illegal weapons? Surveillance plans for North Korea's nuclear and missile programs? Location of US nuclear submarines? Delivery schedules of nuclear weapons? Gaps in missile defenses? Passwords to the Federal Reserve's computers? Passwords to the IRS computers with your financial records?
There is a lot of confidential information that the government holds that ordinary citizens uninvolved with the matter have no need to know. I think it is pretty safe to say that every plan has a weakness, every technology makes trade-offs and has flaws, and every system has gaps. Should we make that sort of information available to everyone that just wants to know, or needs to know? Where would you draw the line, and how will you be held accountable if giving information to everybody that wants it goes badly?
* Wikileaks already blew that one once. Apparently you are untroubled by it.
If by 'long settled', you mean since 2001, then fine.
Sorry, but the Supreme Court ruled on that question long before 2001.
And if you mean legal, you mean that Congress waived it's constitutional war-making authority, then sure.
No, it exercised that power and authorized the use of military force to purse the conflict with al Qaida.
As the lone protestor in Congress stated:
Did the declarations of war against Germany, Japan, and Italy limit combat operations to only the interior of those countries? Or did American forces fight them wherever in the world they were found?
As for Bin Laden. Uh, no. Al Qaida just wants the US out of the middle east. Like most Americans do.
(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
That is convert to Islam.
(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?
Implement Sharia.
Bin Laden's demands would also necessitate merging church and state in a manner like the Caliphate.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact that you might do something in the future. There are plenty of reasons for people to spy on you, but none of them justify the spying.
Never? Under any circumstances? You do know that Benjamin Franklin opened other people's mail during the Revolutionary War to obtain intelligence information to help the colonial government in its fight to obtain freedom from Great Britain? If Benjamin Franklin could do it, why not today?
If it was OK to use surveillance to obtain freedom, why not to maintain freedom?
Was it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on German spies in America in the 1930s and 1940s?
Was it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on Soviet spies in America in between 1917 and 1991?
Was it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on Americans spying for the Soviet Union such as the Walker spy ring that provided the Soviets the means to read American codes? That damage of that in wartime could have been the defeat of the US Navy. Defeat of the Navy would almost certainly mean losing the war.
Is it wrong for the US Federal government to conduct surveillance on al Qaida members in America today?
Spying on innocent people is immoral.
Legally speaking, anyone that has committed a crime but is not yet convicted is innocent, even if they did in fact commit the crime. Are you suggesting that it is immoral to engage in surveillance of people who have committed crimes, but have not yet been convicted? The mafia? People in direct communication with al Qaida when plotting an attack?
If there is an indication that a criminal plot appears to be underway, how do you suggest proceeding? Conduct surveillance to see if it is true? Or wait until the crime has been committed, pick up the pieces, collect the bodies, and hope that you can catch the criminals?
Do you have a threshold for saying, "Yes, that appears to be potentially really dangerous, we need to take a look at that in case it really is a plot aimed at killing people?"
What if somebody is exchanging encrypted emails with a known al Qaida email address? Is it unreasonable to investigate that and possibly conduct surveillance?
Do you think it is reasonable for the intelligence services to conduct surveillance outside the United States?
"we're gathering data on everyone but we're not looking at it without a warrant."
That seems to be a new one to me. Have you heard of that one being used before?
Snowdens situation appears to have been exaggerated. There is a real question as to whether his claims are accurate in any way, or possibly a fabrication. Morons believe many things besides the possibility that exposing genuine sensitive national security programs could have a negative impact on security. For example, a few unauthenticated PowerPoint slides constitute sufficient reason for overturning the democratic process, or even the government, instead of letting Congress do its work addressing concerns of the citizenry. That is pretty ill considered if not in fact moronic.
Assuming you're an American, many aspects of the 1st Amendment rights are far stronger than many nations. The same goes with the 2nd Amendment. There may be others as well, but those are the two common cases.
Not only is there no guarantee that things would be better of the current government is overthrown, it is highly unlikely.
You would probably pick up a lot from these two videos.
The Soviet Story (2008)
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
The Soviet Union used to tightly control emigration. Under Stalin there was considerable repression. There was a lot of back and forth with the West on the issue, and internal Jewish dissidents pressuring for it. Over time the policy became more liberal.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/fsuemig.html
http://forward.com/articles/12254/declassified-kgb-study-illuminates-early-years-of-/
It was a horrific system for a very long time. (Some of the material in the videos is pretty rough.)
The Soviet Story (2008)
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
I was raised in Soviet Union and live in Russia. And I must say that Black Parrot is quite right.
Emigration from Soviet Union and from Russia was/is driven by various factors. People who emigrate tend to rationalize their choices, sometimes in really twisted way. Well, you really need to find a way to tell yourself that the leaving of your fatherland was justified, to live in peace with yourself. If you want to learn something about Soviet Regime, I'm afraid that an average Soviet (and Russian) emigrant is a wrong person to rely on.
I'm no apologist of USSR, but I must say that you western people have a really bizzare view of it that hasn't got much to do with reality.
Even if you were born in the Soviet Union and live in Russia, I don't think you know your own history. Either that or you are finding a way to justify Soviet crimes and the terrible oppression of the Soviet period.
You probably should read some Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. - The Gulag Archipelago
And maybe watch a documentary or two:
The Soviet Story (2008)
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
You probably should read some Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. - The Gulag Archipelago
And maybe watch a documentary or two:
The Soviet Story (2008)
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
DO NOT FUCK with the Woz. You cannot even begin to comprehend the forces you are dealing with.
Woz: If you switch me on, I shall draw more power than you can possibly imagine.
Police: Watt?
Woz: Gigaxactly.
Snowden's a patriot who gave everything ...
You could say that. He seems to be in the process of giving everything to the Guardian, which means that the American people will get it, along with Iran, Communist China, Communist North Korea, al Qaida, and any other country or groups that wants it, including Russia which is now flying patrols along American territory again.
It is a pity he didn't give everything to the Inspector General or a Congressman.
Freedom existed before Snowden, it will exist after him.
despite endless fearmongering propaganda in the West that the Ruskies were just itching to swarm over the border and eat your babies.
The Soviets invaded and annexed Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The Soviets invaded and annexed part of Finland. The Soviets invaded and annexed part of Poland.
Eat babies? No. But the Soviets deliberately created a famine in Ukraine that killed 7 million people, men, women, and children, including babies.
After the invasion of Poland, the Soviets massacred the Polish army's officers and police officers in the Katyan Forest massacre - est. 22,000 dead
Swarming over the border with the Red Army might have been difficult at various times.
1937-1941 - Military Purges
The whole Red Army development program was nearly wrecked in the 1937-39 period when Stalin's paranoiac purge of Tukhachevsky and some 35,000 other high-ranking officers in the Red Army brought the whole military machine to the verge of chaos. As was the case with the entire Soviet military establishment, Soviet operational maneuver concepts and forces suffered severe damage in the late 1930s, in part because Stalin purged their creators. The multiple waves of military purges, which began in 1937 and lasted into the opening months of World War II, liquidated most Red Army theoreticians and senior commanders. Inevitably, therefore, their ideas fell into disuse or outright disrepute. Incredibly, the slaughter of thousands of his military personnel was seated in Stalin's own paranoia, not any known coup attempt. The families, the friends, and the colleagues of the condemned either joined them in oblivion or sat with faces frozen in mute resignation, waiting for the summons that could arrive at any moment
Although the senior ranks experienced the most severe losses in terms of percentages (11 of 13 army commanders were shot, as were 57 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division commanders), the numerical bulk of the victims came from subordinates unfortunate enough to be on the wrong staff or performing the wrong mission. Estimates of the total losses created by this mass bloodletting range from 15,000 to 30,000 officers, depending upon the dates used and the figures available. And, most of the 1,836,000 surviving Red Army prisoners of war liberated from the Axis powersat the end of World War II were sent to the Gulag as "traitors to the motherland."
The Soviet Story (2008)
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
Can you provide an example of something that the Soviets did that the United States has not done?
At the end of this post are a couple resources. Please take some time to go through them, or the link to another post that is there. The gap between what is in your post versus the history is staggering. I hope you choose to become better informed. Also, choosing to depict the aberration in American society as typical while ignoring the typical in Soviet society does not illuminate, but adds to confusion.
Now, if we are talking about history of the Soviet Union and comparing it with the United States during the same period, there are a few things that come to mind.
The Soviet Union created the Ukraine terror famine resulting in 7,000,000 million dead.
The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939.
The Soviet Union conspired with Nazi Germany to invade and partition Poland's territory.
After the invasion of Poland, the Soviets massacred the Polish army's officers and police officers in the Katyan Forest massacre - est. 22,000 dead
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country Latvia and annexed it to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country Lithuania and annexed it to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country Estonia and annexed it to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union engaged in aggression by invading the country of Finland and annexing Finnish territory to the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union purged its the Red Army, both before, and after the war.
1937-1941 - Military Purges
The whole Red Army development program was nearly wrecked in the 1937-39 period when Stalin's paranoiac purge of Tukhachevsky and some 35,000 other high-ranking officers in the Red Army brought the whole military machine to the verge of chaos. As was the case with the entire Soviet military establishment, Soviet operational maneuver concepts and forces suffered severe damage in the late 1930s, in part because Stalin purged their creators. The multiple waves of military purges, which began in 1937 and lasted into the opening months of World War II, liquidated most Red Army theoreticians and senior commanders. Inevitably, therefore, their ideas fell into disuse or outright disrepute. Incredibly, the slaughter of thousands of his military personnel was seated in Stalin's own paranoia, not any known coup attempt. The families, the friends, and the colleagues of the condemned either joined them in oblivion or sat with faces frozen in mute resignation, waiting for the summons that could arrive at any moment
Although the senior ranks experienced the most severe losses in terms of percentages (11 of 13 army commanders were shot, as were 57 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division commanders), the numerical bulk of the victims came from subordinates unfortunate enough to be on the wrong staff or performing the wrong mission. Estimates of the total losses created by this mass bloodletting range from 15,000 to 30,000 officers, depending upon the dates used and the figures available. And, most of the 1,836,000 surviving Red Army prisoners of war liberated from the Axis powersat the end of World War II were sent to the Gulag as "traitors to the motherland."
If you pardon the language, life's a bitch when you're in the Red Army. Purged before the war, when captured sent to the genocidal prison camps of Nazi Germany, and after the war sent to the slightly less murderous NKVD prison camps. The US did nothing like that.
The Soviet Union kept German POWs for as long as 12 years after the war. The losses were staggering.
In early April 1945, the United States was responsible for 313,000 prisoners in Europe; by month's end this total had shot up to 2.1 million
If you happen to be in, or travel to, the United States, you can tour a real German U-boat at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Check the website and call ahead if that is of interest to you.
U-505 Submarine
Enjoy the movie.
You essentially must buy your freedom.
You have freedom as an American citizen. The fee is to legally remove your citizenship. The price went from $0 to $450 in 2010, during President Obama's term. There are also these fees if you have some assets:
... leaving America has a special tax cost. You generally must prove 5 years of tax compliance in the U.S. Plus, if you have a net worth greater than $2 million or have average annual net income tax for the 5 previous years of $155,000 or more (that’s tax, not income), you pay an exit tax. You generally pay 15% on any gain, as if you sold your property when you left. There’s an exemption of approximately $668,000. -- Giving Up U.S. Citizenship
Then there is this courtesy of Barbar Boxer (D-Los Angeles):
Owe The IRS? Bill Would Suspend Passport Rights For Delinquent Taxpayers
Apocalypse Now, one of the few movies I've watched...... but I liked it. Anything good come out in the last 30 years I should bother watching?
These are some fairly good films, depending on your tastes and what you want to get out of it. You might see about viewing the trailers on Youtube or somewhere else to see if it looks interesting to you, especially if you are thinking 300 as it is a rather different style of movie retelling the story of the Spartans in movie - comic book form and may not appeal to you. In no particular order:
Master and Commander
Act of Valor
The Lighthorsemen
Saving Private Ryan
The Great Raid
Das Boot
Schindler's List
Glory
Gettysburg
Gladiator
The Last Samurai
Braveheart
We Were Soldiers
300
Gallipoli
Breaker Morant
I suppose you could even throw in the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. They are well done and the backdrop is a fight against evil and a gathering war. There is a lot to recommend them, if they might be the sort that is your cup of tea. Of course they are very different from the rest, let alone Apocalypse Now.
Bah, traditional Daleks have been done to death. Someone needs to take them in a new direction.
What about this: Dalek Beauty Salon.
Dalek: Missus Moneypenny....you skin looks.....awful .....I have warned you..... now we EXFOLIATE... EXFOLIATE ... EXFOLIATE
Dalek: Do you find ... your appearance ... agree..able?
Missus Moneypenny: Oh, rather!
Yeah, I have to admit that it sounds like nothing but a paycheck. Given that the last two Terminator films were pretty forgettable, I'm hoping that they just do a reboot. Wipe everything clean, start with a brand new story, and get a real director (with a real name, not a nickname).
I might have found a script for a concept. It already contains a lot of the elements of successful action / adventure / sci-fi movies. It just needs a bit of polishing such as a rewrite refocusing on Arnold's character and higher production values. Terminator: X25.
More seriously, while the "whistleblower" mechanism may be in place, it's clearly not functioning, either by not providing the protection for whistleblowers that it's supposed to, or not pursuing the ethical wrongdoing as it's supposed to.
I agree in that I would like to see better and more consistent protections for whistleblowers. The BATF has shown some abuses recently in that regard, if I recall correctly.
I can only take consolation that whatever NSA people have to be sifting through my data are being actively bored unto death by my Pinterest recipes.
If you can't baffle them with BS, bore them with recipes. I like it. :D
You know the information I would like to get? Just why Obama is acting almost exactly like Bush. I really want to know the answer, although I suspect I already know it.
I think this post covers a lot of ground there, although it is aimed at answering a slightly different question.
I did another post that was more spot on, but the basic idea is pretty much there.
A pity it looks like there won't be one or more sequels. A shame, really. Hollywood can turn comic books into movies, but not more of those books. Thank you for the recommendation on the books. I've seen many people highly recommend the books, and I've always had some interest. But I hadn't considered the audio books. I may very well try that since it would fit my typical schedule better. Thank you again.
Enjoy your weekend.
I suspect that the USSR was never so different from the way we were then as the propagandists would have us believe. Rigged elections? Media that didn't inform the public what was going on? Warfare and bullying as a way of achieving the top dog's "national" goals?
The Russians, to their great credit, have made the old Soviet archives available to varying degrees over time. (Sometime more open, sometimes less open.) Although it was known before, the record has become ever clearer. Stalin, who lived into the 1950s, was a monster of epic proportions. After Stalin died, the Soviet state continued to be a police state, even if it relaxed somewhat at first, and more gradually over time. But it was, from start to finish, a totalitarian regime. It simply transformed from extremely oppressive and genocidal to not genocidal but still highly oppressive.
If you want to prove that there was no difference between the Soviet Union and the United States you will need to find tens of millions of bodies of ordinary Americans in mass graves in the United States of people killed by bullet or starvation and overwork in prison camps run by an American secret police that you will have to identify. Many people are misinformed on this matter. The media seldom carries stories on the Soviet Union any more. Although the lack of media reporting contributes to people being uninformed today, some of it is due to parts of the media establishment itself that tolerated reporters that were toadies to dictators, such as (the should be infamous) Walter Duranty: New York Times Concealed Ukrainian Genocide
It's understandable that the media seldom covers the Soviet Union any more since it is history, not news, and the Soviet Union has been gone for 22 years now. Although the lack of coverage about the behavior of the former Soviet Union might explain why people are uninformed, it doesn't explain why communism still holds an attraction for so man people. For that you have to understand that the human mind processes some things better than others, and some things badly. Communism is effectively a mind trap - the theory sounds so beautiful to many people that it must be true, but in practice it has always led to oppression, often bloody at that. And please spare me the "no true communist state has ever existed" routine. Dozens of nations have tried. It can't be done, but people will keep trying because the ideas won't die despite a century of bloody failure and misery in so many countries. There are still communists in America today. Communist parties and associated movements used to take their guidance from Moscow. Many leftists supported them, but never realized their fate should the communists come to power. ( Leftists Will be Shot in the U.S. When Marxists come to power- KGB Agent Yuri Bezmenov ) Communism can't succeed because it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and self-labeled scientific theories that are nonsense.
Here some resources if you want to know more (focusing mainly on the Soviet Union):
The Soviet Story (2008) Section in Soviet Story on the Soviet inflicted Ukrainian holocaust (only about 5 minutes in)
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
Why Doesn't Communism Have as Bad a Name as Nazism?
It looked like a small victory.
I love the smell of small victories in the morning. It almost makes up for being napalmed.
You also own the hardware that the software runs on, which isn't a lot of comfort. It's a pity that the common sense displayed by the old Borland company didn't carry forward.
Additionally, Borland was known for its practical and creative approach towards software piracy and intellectual property (IP), introducing its "Borland no-nonsense license agreement". This allowed the developer/user to utilize its products "just like a book"; he or she was allowed to make multiple copies of a program, as long as only one copy was in use at any point in time. -- Borland
Could I ask you to read my reply to "That" and let me know your thoughts?
In short, you don't really have an answer then.
Maybe this will help. Are there any lines that you think could be drawn regarding currently classified information as far as who gets to see it, or do you think that all of it should be freely available to both American citizens and al Qaida, Iran, Communist China, North Korea, and anyone else that cares to know?
Lists of surveillance subjects?
Identities and locations of informers against al Qaida*?
Surveillance plan for the rumored terrorist "sleeper cell" possibly involved with the Boston attack?
Gaps in the US customs inspection scheme that might allow smuggling in weapons?
Schedules of US port inspections so they can be bypassed?
The plan for watching Iran's exports and imports of illegal weapons?
Surveillance plans for North Korea's nuclear and missile programs?
Location of US nuclear submarines?
Delivery schedules of nuclear weapons?
Gaps in missile defenses?
Passwords to the Federal Reserve's computers?
Passwords to the IRS computers with your financial records?
There is a lot of confidential information that the government holds that ordinary citizens uninvolved with the matter have no need to know. I think it is pretty safe to say that every plan has a weakness, every technology makes trade-offs and has flaws, and every system has gaps. Should we make that sort of information available to everyone that just wants to know, or needs to know? Where would you draw the line, and how will you be held accountable if giving information to everybody that wants it goes badly?
* Wikileaks already blew that one once. Apparently you are untroubled by it.
If by 'long settled', you mean since 2001, then fine.
Sorry, but the Supreme Court ruled on that question long before 2001.
And if you mean legal, you mean that Congress waived it's constitutional war-making authority, then sure.
No, it exercised that power and authorized the use of military force to purse the conflict with al Qaida.
As the lone protestor in Congress stated:
Did the declarations of war against Germany, Japan, and Italy limit combat operations to only the interior of those countries? Or did American forces fight them wherever in the world they were found?
As for Bin Laden. Uh, no. Al Qaida just wants the US out of the middle east. Like most Americans do.
Your information appears to be incomplete.
The Future of Terrorism: What al-Qaida Really Wants
Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'
(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
That is convert to Islam.
(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?
Implement Sharia.
Bin Laden's demands would also necessitate merging church and state in a manner like the Caliphate.