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You commit three felonies a day

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Re: You commit three felonies a day

#101

Post by quantumpotato_ »

einhverfr wrote: post #8
danso wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've become more bearish about the idea of electronic medical records. The ability for a bureaucracy to keep those safe seems far, far off in the future, no matter what technology advances come through. And guns: well, if you're pro-gun-control, this mindset (justified or not) should help you understand why the NRA is so passionately against gun registration of any kind. In terms of the NSA: I don't think they care m…

We should all today make a pact to name our children "Spartacus" with no last name.

I'm in, got a site?

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#102

Post by zero_intp »

brown9-2 wrote: post #100
gambiting wrote: post #47

As a person coming from a former soviet republic, I am very familiar with the saying "show me a man, and I will show you the crime he is guilty of" - which basically meant that if KGB wanted to charge you with something, they always could find a paragraph for you, because there were so many and so vaguely defined. As an outsider, to me it seems that the USA is not a "free" country and I honestly don't see any differe…

> As an outsider, to me it seems that the USA is not a "free" country and I honestly don't see any difference between what the US and Russian governments are doing to journalists and people who disagree with them. You seem to describe at least five stark differences: 1. If you wanted to travel out of your town - you had to register that fact with the nearest police department. 2. Wanted to travel abroad - had to appl…

actually, I think you are incorrect. Comparisons of today versus yesterday with a thought about where we want to be tomorrow.

Velvet glove or iron fist, both are the controlling hand; but it is good to acknowledge that we are not completely in a locked down police state- yet. However, these are the exact canaries we should look for in our own society.

I do find the need to call and notify Fraud Detection in order to have resources while traveling a bit congruous to the Soviet style travel restrictions.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#103

Post by gohrt »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #97
JanezStupar wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are better and worse slave masters. But slave master is a slave master still.

What? Where are you pulling this from? The only form of arguably existing slavery in the entire United States is the lack of social mobility exacerbated by a lack of education in lower income classes, which becomes both a self-fulfilling prophecy and a cycle. Other than that - and I note slavery would be a passionate, emphatic term for that, not anything close to a literal one - there is no slavery and there are no s…

Well, and prisons, where felons go. And most Americans could be convicted of a felony.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#104

Post by zero_intp »

jasallen wrote: post #80
gambiting wrote: post #47

As a person coming from a former soviet republic, I am very familiar with the saying "show me a man, and I will show you the crime he is guilty of" - which basically meant that if KGB wanted to charge you with something, they always could find a paragraph for you, because there were so many and so vaguely defined. As an outsider, to me it seems that the USA is not a "free" country and I honestly don't see any differe…

"US...are doing to journalists" The US government, still maintains a pretty strong protection of journalists. They will go after the leakers themselves, but rarely even attempt to make a journalist reveal a source, let alone prosecute the journalist directly for revealing secret information. In fact, I say still , but this tendency has actually grown stronger over the last 50 years. It has, in my not-very-researched-…

Recent DOJ opinion (that a court gave warrant for) that an AP author was party to a crime while (/because of) trying to avoid surveillance.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#105

Post by zero_intp »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #92
npongratz wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True only if chattel slavery were the only kind of slavery. The ruling masters treat those who work "at will for pay" like livestock when the masters demand taxes, threatening violence upon those who withhold the protection money. The livestock are being milked with every paycheck. We definitely do not live in a system of chattel slavery, but that's only because chattel slavery is so much less efficient (for the mast…

"Chattel slavery"...I'm sorry, but what are you on about? This comparison doesn't reflect the current state of affairs in the United States. Yeah, the NSA did some shitty things that circumnavigated loopholes in the Constitution. But you still don't realize how good you have it. Being in a Western country like the United States is spectacularly better than living conditions on many other entire continents, and someti…

US Commercial Prisons

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#106

Post by larubbio »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #97
JanezStupar wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are better and worse slave masters. But slave master is a slave master still.

What? Where are you pulling this from? The only form of arguably existing slavery in the entire United States is the lack of social mobility exacerbated by a lack of education in lower income classes, which becomes both a self-fulfilling prophecy and a cycle. Other than that - and I note slavery would be a passionate, emphatic term for that, not anything close to a literal one - there is no slavery and there are no s…

While this is off topic from the NSA story, and the article I'm linking to is from 2009, the conditions for tomato pickers in Florida could be described as slavery with slave masters in the United States. I don't believe things have gotten substantially better for them.

http://boingboing.net/2009/02/26/slavery-among-florid.html

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#108

Post by moron4hire »

kyllo wrote: post #89
moron4hire wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insider trading is only a crime when people want to find you guilty of a crime. That's why congresscritters are not prosecutable for insider trading. Insider trading is the entire point of trading, you wouldn't make any money if everyone had the same information.

Perhaps those with the right type of political power/influence are able to shield their trading activity from SEC scrutiny. But trying to use this guy as an example of the "You commit three felonies a day" argument? Really? Do we all commit three felonies a day unknowingly? Maybe. But the suggestion that tens of millions of dollars in insider trading falls into that category, is flat-out demented.

No, you're missing the point. It's not about obscuring anything from SEC scrutiny. The SEC sees everything that is going on. You don't even have to have used insider knowledge to be tagged with insider trading; the SEC says that it's enough to have had access to insider information to be guilty of insider trading. It does nothing about it because it would render Wall Street moot. Insider trading is so vaguely defined and broadly applied that it is a rule meant to be broken so they have something to blackmail you over when they decide they want to shove you around over something else.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#109

Post by gohrt »

taoufix wrote: post #34
Kiro wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I want to know what felonies I commit.

Maybe one of these: * Illegal downloads. * Forwarding a corporate email. * Some weird term of service in one of the dozen "I read and accept these terms" check-boxes you clicked.

Downloads are not illegals. Copyright-protected uploads are illegal.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#110

Post by x__ »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #97
JanezStupar wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are better and worse slave masters. But slave master is a slave master still.

What? Where are you pulling this from? The only form of arguably existing slavery in the entire United States is the lack of social mobility exacerbated by a lack of education in lower income classes, which becomes both a self-fulfilling prophecy and a cycle. Other than that - and I note slavery would be a passionate, emphatic term for that, not anything close to a literal one - there is no slavery and there are no s…

I think it was an analogy.
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