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NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

reuters.com

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Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#51

Post by samstave »

chatmasta wrote: post #11
samstave wrote: post #7

Earlier 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…

The problem is w2 employees (i.e. most of the workforce) get their taxes taken out of their paychecks automatically. It would be nearly impossible to withhold those taxes from the government. Interestingly, the more independent contractors in a population, the easier it would be to stage a tax sit-in.

That is my point about it being woven into the economy such that you have no control over it.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#52

Post by AnimalMuppet »

cm2187 wrote: post #43
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 300M people in the US? Of them, at least 250M have phones, so... two calls per person per year? (Double it if both ends of the conversation are in the US.) I'm going to guess that the average is more like four calls per day than four calls per year, so... maybe 0.3% of calls? That's far too many. And yet, it's still a very long way from blanket surveillance.

Yeah, but I doubt it is evenly distributed.

I doubt it is, too. It's probably seeded - starting with one individual, they collect every call. Maybe for ever person they call, they collect every call that person makes. If they're really worried, they may go one layer further. It's a way of tracing networks.

So if one of those people calls you, your call record got collected. If you are one of those people, all of your call records got collected.

But hey, NSA, you want to pick me? Trace some of those spammers who keep calling my cell phone.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#53

Post by BookmarkSaver »

wybiral wrote: post #46
BookmarkSaver wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 goo…

These people seem to think that the NSA is only collecting data to stop mass shootings and normal crimes. The concept of using this data to stamp out more systematic terrorism, espionage and other nation state attacks doesn't occur to them.

Like, they are so ignorant that they don't even have the trivially basic information contained in the first paragraph of their wikipedia page. It's moronic.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#54

Post by ams6110 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #35
sgroppino wrote: post #31

What is that as a percentage of the total number of calls?

With 300M people in the US? Of them, at least 250M have phones, so... two calls per person per year? (Double it if both ends of the conversation are in the US.) I'm going to guess that the average is more like four calls per day than four calls per year, so... maybe 0.3% of calls? That's far too many. And yet, it's still a very long way from blanket surveillance.

Heh. I probably get at least half a dozen calls a day. I actually answer only about one a week though.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#55

Post by mentat »

scrumption wrote: post #38
BookmarkSaver wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 goo…

>Like what? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. Uh, the constant mass shootings that have occurred over the past year wherein, 100% of the time, the perp was already known to police and FBI and had a very public troubling online presence detailing their years of mental instability and virulent racism? >intelligence agencies don't talk about their activities, even their successes, for very good…

So you're saying the NSA isn't spying on Americans effectively enough?

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#56

Post by maybeiambatman »

BookmarkSaver wrote: post #41
scrumption wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Like what? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. Uh, the constant mass shootings that have occurred over the past year wherein, 100% of the time, the perp was already known to police and FBI and had a very public troubling online presence detailing their years of mental instability and virulent racism? >intelligence agencies don't talk about their activities, even their successes, for very good…

I don't even know where to begin, there are just so many logical fallacies and complete misunderstandings in what you've said that the best I can recommend is for you to just not bother thinking about this stuff at all. It does no one any good.

What a horrendously condescending reply. If you want to do any one any good, the least you can do is elaborate.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#57

Post by BookmarkSaver »

scrumption wrote: post #50
BookmarkSaver wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even know where to begin, there are just so many logical fallacies and complete misunderstandings in what you've said that the best I can recommend is for you to just not bother thinking about this stuff at all. It does no one any good.

Nice argument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency

Try having even the tiniest bit of an idea what you are talking about.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#58

Post by scrumption »

RightMillennial wrote: post #49
samstave wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I take issue with some of these points. > Property tax > Schools suck > Roads suck I have no argument there. > Sales tax Have these been rising recently? > Gas tax > Gas peices [prices] are out of control Gas prices and whatever embedded taxes they have aren't that bad. They're much better than their peak around 2008 at over $4/gal. > The recycling fund was looted I'm not familiar with this. > Social security was loo…

"In its annual report filed to the SEC in February 2018, Amazon estimated that not only would the company not be paying anything in 2017 federal income taxes, but it would be getting a $137 million tax refund."

http://services.corporate-ir.net/SEC.Enhanced/SecCapsule.asp...

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#59

Post by BookmarkSaver »

scrumption wrote: post #47
BookmarkSaver wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Realistically the NSA hasn’t been successful in reducing terrorist threats; in fact, the correlation is negative. What are you basing this on?

Mass shootings have tripled since 2011.

This entire thread is proof that people will vehemently spout opinions on topics that they don't even have the slightest understanding of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency

Try reading literally just the first paragraph.

Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report

#60

Post by hmyr »

BookmarkSaver wrote: post #41
scrumption wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Like what? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. Uh, the constant mass shootings that have occurred over the past year wherein, 100% of the time, the perp was already known to police and FBI and had a very public troubling online presence detailing their years of mental instability and virulent racism? >intelligence agencies don't talk about their activities, even their successes, for very good…

I don't even know where to begin, there are just so many logical fallacies and complete misunderstandings in what you've said that the best I can recommend is for you to just not bother thinking about this stuff at all. It does no one any good.

All of your "arguments" so far have been nothing but "you have no idea what you're talking about" and "you know nothing". Why not contribute some facts and rational arguments to the discussion?
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