Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think this is attributing too much agency to "government". Voters wanted slavery, and so public officials supported it. The voters vote what they're told to -- and they're told to by those in power who can pay for campaigns, have their pals in party positions, etc. Plus, the voters get all kinds of stuff that benefit the powerful that they never explicitly asked or voted for, and that were never on any platform.…
> voters vote what they're told to who's "they"?
NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
261–270 of 360 posts
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#262Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#263Doesn't half a billion seem small?
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#264Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your comment is meant to be sarcastic, then I am failing to see it... Could you explain what you mean by enslaving as prisoner? So you would let a rapist free or what?
> Could you explain what you mean by enslaving as prisoner? It means having 25% of the world's prison population but only 4% of the world's population. It means being a prison state. It means using BS reasons, like marijuana possession, to imprison a large part of your population. It means predominantly giving long prison sentences for small offenses, just because of an "Old Testament" idea of revenge -- that is carr…
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So let me get this straight. For years, I've been disrobing in public and subjecting myself to groping on the off-chance that someone might have a bomb tucked under their scrotum, yet on the BUSIEST DAY EVER it's okay to throw all those security protocols out the window.... why?? I get your point, but you are making a logical mistake here. If a building shuts down it's fire warning systems and blocks the fire exits…
>If a building shuts down it's fire warning systems and blocks the fire exits for a week because of some construction work, that doesn't mean that they should just be removed because obviously they are not needed. Do fire alarms have a 95% failure rate? Because the TSA does.
I don't know the failure rate of building file alarms, but the damn ceiling alarms seem to have a failure rate of 99.99%. We don't use those in Europe, and every time I travel to the US I get frustrated beyond belief how they scream at me every time I cook or take a shower.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is attributing too much agency to "government". Voters wanted slavery, and so public officials supported it. Voters wanted wars and a surveillance state after 9/11. Etc. (Same goes for the good things that the public sector does, of course) Yes there is inertia and self-perpetuation, like in any organisations, but not overwhelmingly much.
> I think this is attributing too much agency to "government". Voters wanted slavery, and so public officials supported it. The voters vote what they're told to -- and they're told to by those in power who can pay for campaigns, have their pals in party positions, etc. Plus, the voters get all kinds of stuff that benefit the powerful that they never explicitly asked or voted for, and that were never on any platform.…
Sure the public opinion is affected by PR efforts, but people still possess facilities for critical thinking, and everyone knows to be critical about political claims rather than take them at face value.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't say total slaves vs. total prisoners - I said black men. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/michelle-alexander... edit: I can't imagine why I'm being downvoted here. My statement was utterly correct, and when challenged I cited a credible source. What'd I do wrong?!
Although I tend to see most ultra-liberal conspiracy babble as nonsense, experience with my own psychology and observation of those around has led me to believe that white male fragility is a real thing. You're being downvoted because people on HN, who are by and large financially secure, well-educated technocrats (like myself!), feel like there's something deeply irritating about your post, whether or not it is stat…
Wait no, sorry, I got that backwards. It's feminist women who do the female equivalent of this. And who find it deeply irritating if you only imply men do not exist to serve at their beck and call, and have zero obligation to them even if they damsel.
And no, not all women. But definitely even some who do have all the power, money and influence they could want. So who's fragile? Or perhaps more accurately: who succeeds in using their facade of weakness as a lever of power, time and time again?
I don't mind admitting the world is not fair, but it takes a special kind of obliviousness to look at women's position in the West in the 21st century and still see a class of victims and men as the ones who need to suck in their gut and soldier on for once.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thankfully, I’m not sure if this remains the case, I’ve read NSA salaries cap out around $150k for devs, so they might not have anybody competent enough to do anything with the data. I consider this a valid hypothesis
I don’t know if that salary cap is true, but these agencies have the option of hiring well-paid contractors from private firms.
Re: NSA collected 500M U.S. call records in 2017, a sharp rise: official report
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
The NSA only counts data as collected once it was accessed by a human in a query... but they do have all the data.
Indeed. That was Clapper's cover for his perjury in front of Congress: "collected" records are labeled as such only after they are "returned as part of queries" -- which is not what people usually think "collected" means. Any normal person would consider all records potentially subject to queries have already been "collected" for that end, and should be counted as such.