Earlier quoted context omitted.
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The US provides substantial financial, military, and political aid to Israel, that it does not provide to Germany.
The US rebuilt Germany and continues to support them to this day militarily.
U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
291–300 of 651 posts
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#292Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can believe there are shadow organizations that lack oversight. In fact, it seems likely. But that these shadow organizations are maintaining power by surveiling and blackmailing congress people is a whole other ballgame and seems highly unlikely to me. For one, it's likely that not every Congressperson has some deep dark secret that makes them blackmail-able. And pissing off the only group of people that could cut…
Politics is a funny business. I have spent alot of time dealing with political people ranging from staffers to actual officials. Many are very well meaning public servants, others careerists, some are… insane on various scales. Politics is a business with uncertain outcomes where “friends” are important and personal stakes are high. From a blackmail perspective, you have people like the bartender turned member of con…
AOC is an obvious puppet?
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 3) have almost zero regulation; What would shadow government regulation look like?
Maybe stop funding them, for a start? Congressional oversight used to be a thing. Snowden showed the NSA lied to congress. No heads rolled.
Why would heads roll?
Congress has blocked inquiries into their split loyalty as far as them having multiple citizenship in other countries. If you were McDonald's board of directors would you allow someone to be on both the McDonald's board and Wendy's?
Congress isn't personally harmed by a surveillance state unless you consider they may all be being blackmailed but that is another conversation. In fact mass surveillance widens the barrier to new entries into politics as they can use whatever dirty they find and give it to federally funded media mouthpieces.
This week we saw articles of sexual crimes against children being swept under the rug to "protect our country" do we really think that congress would actively pursuit this line of inquiry?
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Imagine how much society would improve if all the dirt got aired. Depends on the dirt. Some of it might be private and personal stuff, such as infidelity. That type of stuff, while blackmailable, doesn't really benefit the public much.
The public's elected representatives being easily blackmailable is obviously of great concern to the public, I don't know why you're downplaying this.
Everyone has dirty laundry they would prefer not be aired, and if they don't then their friends, family, or partners do. I don't think we want to live in a world where absolute moral purity (as determined by the most vocal, biased critics of a given person) is required to hold public office.
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 3) have almost zero regulation; What would shadow government regulation look like?
Maybe stop funding them, for a start? Congressional oversight used to be a thing. Snowden showed the NSA lied to congress. No heads rolled.
I'm all for sorting the problem out, but isn't the reality a little more complex given other countries? Doesn't cutting your intelligence / signals budgets give your "enemies" an advantage? By "enemies" I'm referring predominantly to foreign nation states.
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Then there's the time they stole nuclear material from us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apollo_Affair On a related note, JFK was trying to shut down Israel's nuclear weapons program in the months before his murder. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kennedy-letter-to-ben-g...
I'm sure he was conducting a lot of international policy initiatives in the months before his assassination
Yeah, like (secret) detente with Fidel Castro [1].
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is nothing supporting the theory or conclusion
What are you trying to suggest? It's just a typical reflexive reactive response to any comment that the government acts in ways other than presented to you by corporate media. It only takes 3 minutes of google searches or even a daily scan of Hacker News to see endless examples of government corruption and malfeasance. Government employees are only human after all, and there are millions of them. To think this sort o…
> Government employees are only human after all
This weekend I was traveling and I put the stray $20 from my pocket in the bin at the TSA checkpoint. An agent quickly pulled it out and handed it back to me. He then said "a lot of good people work here, but they're still human". It's kind of wild that we endure that level of complacency here in the States.
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Imagine how much society would improve if all the dirt got aired. Depends on the dirt. Some of it might be private and personal stuff, such as infidelity. That type of stuff, while blackmailable, doesn't really benefit the public much.
The public's elected representatives being easily blackmailable is obviously of great concern to the public, I don't know why you're downplaying this.
Don't believe representatives are elected because of their integrity and their willingness to serve.
They represent groups of interest. And being blackmailable is, in my opinion, a handy leash to keep them in check, for those groups which propose the candidates
The public is not concerned with corruption until they feel affected by it.
Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe stop funding them, for a start? Congressional oversight used to be a thing. Snowden showed the NSA lied to congress. No heads rolled.
I can believe there are shadow organizations that lack oversight. In fact, it seems likely. But that these shadow organizations are maintaining power by surveiling and blackmailing congress people is a whole other ballgame and seems highly unlikely to me. For one, it's likely that not every Congressperson has some deep dark secret that makes them blackmail-able. And pissing off the only group of people that could cut…
how would you cut the budget of the CIA for example, an organization that doesn't really answer to anyone but itself ? an organization that can self fund when it wants.
Eisenhower, a general called out the so called military industrial complex in a way that befits a prophet