Wait, people still make phone calls?
NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
21–30 of 360 posts
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#22If it's collecting this much stuff why not be useful and stop all these annoying phone scammers!
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#23Wait, people still make phone calls?
Kidding, I'm kidding.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the people who control 60% of the nations wealth want to do this, all the complaining in the world isn't going to do anything. Can you elaborate on this? Why are the wealthy interested in empowering the NSA?
What he is saying, I think, is that because of Citizens United, money controls our politics at this point and it really doesn't really matter what Joe Smith thinks. We can prove that wrong in November, of course. EDIT: Its true that the democrats are just as bought, but I have faith that they would also appoint a supreme court that would rule the other way as well.
It is other way round I feel. Because of Citizens United a lot of groups are able to raise money and awareness about this.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the people that do realize, short of armed rebellion, can do very little. If the people who control 60% of the nations wealth want to do this, all the complaining in the world isn't going to do anything.
The nation needs a “tax sit-in” - everyone ridicules this, but wtf do people think the boston tea party was about. If you want governments to listen without armed rebellion, the only thing one can do is refuse taxes. They know that this is the inly othe tool you have - and thats why taxes are woven into the fabric of the economy such that its automatically taken without you having any control over them. Its also why…
> Its also why you can never truly own land. Dont pay taxes on land, and they will take it.
> You can only pay for the privilege to rent land. Forever.
Yet, you benefit from the state recognizing your rights to exclusively use that land, and from foreign military invasion. Why should I subsidize the government protecting your assets?
If anything, land should be the primary source of taxable revenue. Mis-distribution of land (And the low cost of asserting ownership of it) is the cause of no end of social ills.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the people who control 60% of the nations wealth want to do this, all the complaining in the world isn't going to do anything. Can you elaborate on this? Why are the wealthy interested in empowering the NSA?
What he is saying, I think, is that because of Citizens United, money controls our politics at this point and it really doesn't really matter what Joe Smith thinks. We can prove that wrong in November, of course. EDIT: Its true that the democrats are just as bought, but I have faith that they would also appoint a supreme court that would rule the other way as well.
This argument is obviously flawed: Hillary Clinton received more money, spent vastly more money, and lost.
[edit] Down-voting does not change the above facts.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#27I think the bottom line is that the American people do not really mind the NSA doing this. I suspect this is because most people do not realize just how powerful and privacy-invading metadata surveillance is, or how the dataset does not need to be added to indefinitely to have tremendous value to law enforcement (for appropriate and inappropriate uses) once it exists at sufficient scale.
Part of the problem is that privacy invasion is only visible when it results in arrests, leaking, or some other use of the power to effect change. Most people will never experience someone obviously exploiting their trust here.
Of course, the complacency of us individuals reduces the security and privacy of us all. Realistically the NSA hasn’t been successful in reducing terrorist threats; in fact, the correlation is negative.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the people who control 60% of the nations wealth want to do this, all the complaining in the world isn't going to do anything. Can you elaborate on this? Why are the wealthy interested in empowering the NSA?
The wealthy dont care what the NSA does so long as they can remaim wealthy. The 1% can pay whatever is required to protect their wealth - and its why the panama papers is the biggest scandal of all time. So long as the 1% can live without consequence, they dont care how anything the government does affects the masses.
It's more complicated than that. You can bet many wealthy people DO care about these things (in fact, I know some who do); however, if they stand up against them then they riak preferential targetting far more than the average citizen precisely because they have influence and need to be shut down.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The nation needs a “tax sit-in” - everyone ridicules this, but wtf do people think the boston tea party was about. If you want governments to listen without armed rebellion, the only thing one can do is refuse taxes. They know that this is the inly othe tool you have - and thats why taxes are woven into the fabric of the economy such that its automatically taken without you having any control over them. Its also why…
There are municipalities in the USA that do not extort property taxes -- I've heard of one in Colorado, one in Arizona, a few in Texas, and some in Alaska. Since a common justification is to finance public schools, I suppose that complete privatization of education would be a necessary step in order to vastly reduce or generally abolish property taxes.
Ostensibly they tax you for “services”
Property tax
Gas tax
Sales tax
---
Schools suck
Roads suck
Law enforcement sucks
Pollution sucks
---
But shiny new government buildings
All cops have new cars
Gas prices are out of control
The recycling fund was looted
Social security was looted
Trump just announced today to the NRA that he just gave a shit-ton of military weaponry to the police “you cant buy this stuff” he said.
Corporations pay no taxes
Flint has no water
This country is a joke.
Wait until big agra (monsanto) and inefficient governments take over legal marijuana.
Legal marijuana is a scam from a tax perspective.
Look at the lotto - that was supposed to pay for schools.
Look at “paid cable television” - that was supposed to eliminate commercials for a paid service.
Have you timed how many minutes a commercial break is on CNN?
Its all a joke.
EDIT:
And the thing that pisses me off, is they want to push all the costs down to the consumers. Are ANY of the water bottle companies held accountable for the mass plastic pollution in every thread of our environment? Obviously plastic isnt going anywhere - but the oil companies and chemical companies that produce all these materials and products pay nothing.
Look at this douchebag in the EPA right now. Are you following any of his antics? He had his lackeys being pay $40,000 PER MONTH just by Morrocco alone for lobbying access.
He had his "security" guy spending $100,000 on first class flights. He stole $65,000 from his campaign fund saying that he was reimbursing himself.
And then you have morons apologizing for them and defending these clowns.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#30Automatically collecting everyone's cell phone data, has software automatically installed in Smart TV's everywhere, monitors your online footprint (emails, social media[of course]). All those warning from Snowden all those secret software reveals from wikileaks an untold amount of funding from congress with virtually no oversight. And yet tons of bad things keep happening to regular citizens in the US. What exactly d…
>And yet tons of bad things keep happening to regular citizens in the US.
Like what? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here.
>What exactly does the NSA do? Whom are they protecting? Cause it sure is not the average citizen.
??? Sounds like you know absolutely nothing about espionage. Maybe you are right, but intelligence agencies don't talk about their activities, even their successes, for very good reason.