Not sure if this is good idea.
Their database may be worth too much on a commercial market, and what if they may be tempted to become self-funding.
Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
161–170 of 232 posts
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1. Withhold your taxes. > 2. Protect yourself against the police and the military who will try to extract them by force (possibly by having crowdfunded guards). > 3. Switch from using US Dollar as most of the money government generates comes from inflation (gov sells "bonds" that it will never repay in exchange for new money). Since all national currencies are inflationary and controlled by similar institutions all…
Government != society. By not allowing any excuse for violence (including self-defence) and seeking voluntary arrangement with people around you to protect yourselves you are not isolating yourself. On contrary, you solve the social problem socially , not brutally like today with government.
Wait, you intend to take away my right to defend myself too? Fuck that, me being defenseless ended circa high school. Never again.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#163I think this is fighting the symptom rather than the cause. NSA is a symptom of a much larger problem, which is taxes. If you didn't have them, you wouldn't have to demand those things in the first place, because all the money you'd give would be given voluntarily and to organizations that you choose and think are important.
Ask liberal, and one will say that world is much worse with taxes and govt intervention in the economy.
Other people may be tempted to talk about NSA as issue of civil liberties and govt supervision rather than economy though. Why not to fund EFF and civil liberties group instead?
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
They they can't. Most (all?) of the opensource licenses do not have the "revokable clause" with them.
Ok. What happens if GNU decides to Fork the GPL v3 and call it "GPLv3+NSA Exception" and then relicense all their code to this new forked license? A clause in this forked license is that the NSA can't use it.
You cannot apply license _retroactively_. Once you release code version under a certain License, the License is associated with that version of the code.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#165Didn't congress say no to funding the stealth MH-60 SOF variant and later see tail rotor of a stealth MH-60 SOF variant in someone's backyard in Abbottabad?
I think you're thinking of the Comanche helo. There's absolutely zero chance IMHO that Congress actually went out of their way to de-fund a fancy SOF toy.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone knows we need some kind of government I don't. Many people I know don't either. So what if we don't really need any kind of government?
I hear Somalia is nice this time of year.
Let's not forget that other governments have helped to turn Somalia into what it is today.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meanwhile, back on Earth... Taxes are the means of transferring worth to folks like firefighters, police officers, construction works etc... You know, the folks who hold up infrastructure and need to eat food and stuff. And I can count on one hand the number of people I've met who would donate to these institutions in this economy. Now if there's a way to reroute existing tax funds that used to go to rubbish into thi…
Me and my friends will never stay in your way if you want to fund a firefighter or NSA, or local McDonalds. It's your choice, your property. Even if we don't like your lifestyle or disagree with your ideas. Will you give me the same respect to disagree with you and act upon my beliefs? Since I don't force you to pay for what I think is good, will you please allow me not to participate in things I don't approve of? If…
As long as you don't drink water from public infrastructure, use public Wi-Fi, get power from public lines, drive on public roads, get healthcare at public hospitals, ever call the public 911 line no matter how scary that burglar is, etc. etc. then sure dude, go nuts.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#168Didn't congress say no to funding the stealth MH-60 SOF variant and later see tail rotor of a stealth MH-60 SOF variant in someone's backyard in Abbottabad?
I think you're thinking of the Comanche helo. There's absolutely zero chance IMHO that Congress actually went out of their way to de-fund a fancy SOF toy.
I am almost positive it was the MH60. If my memory is correct: Congress did not defund it, they just did not authorize the funds to go forward with the plans to build a stealth MH60 SOF. Upon hearing the news the CIA said fuck it we have some black budget money we will pay for it. The next time congress heard about the program was news reports about a tail rotor from a stealth chopper in some guys yard in Abbottabad.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
So violence in Somalia is not acceptable to you, but allowing your government a lot of violence is acceptable? If people in Somalia cannot find out a way to avoid violence it does not mean it's not possible in principle, or that government is somehow "good".
My government has not once engaged in violence to me or my family. The one possible exception is my sister (I wasn't there when she was arrested), but you steal $10,000 worth of silver from an in-law to feed your drug habit and I can't say I'd be surprised that the government gets involved. P.S. On that note, how does anarchy account for thieves?
Did you pay taxes lately? Have you ever been disappointed by what government does with your taxes? Why haven't you tried to withhold your participation by not paying taxes? E.g. if you dislike the war in Iraq, what stopped you from not paying a part of your taxes? Also, even if you are hard-core fan of taxation, your neighbour may be not. If he also disagrees with the gov on the same matter as you, but decides to withhold some amount of taxes, would you call the cops to arrest him? Or will you let him do his thing and be disappointed if cops find out? Either way, you will notice there is violence behind taxation.
Anarchy is not some structure imposed on people. When I advocate for non-violent solutions, it's not me who needs to prove anything. It's the advocates of violence need to prove why all of a sudden generally undesirable violence becomes totally valid when done by a man in a special costume.
You yourself live 95% of your life in anarchy. You voluntary interact with people you like and avoid people you dislike. You avoid bad districts, you put locks on your bike, purchase insurance, enjoy security video cameras. Ultimately, with modern technology, people can be ostracized economically without any violence whatsoever. You'd need violent action only in extreme case of personal assault, but that's outside of morality. Morality is needed to avoid such situations in the first place.
Re: Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I don't think it's worth trying. If this is your goal, I think there are far more effective ways to go about it. 1. First, you'll need a political organization that is single-mindedly focused on this one issue. You'll need donors, professional lobbyists, a PR team, and a massive grassroots organization. Think Anti-Saloon League meets Rules for Radicals. 2. Then you focus on one or two elections of prominent polit…
I agree with you that those are all good ways to take action, but I disagree with you that this bill is not worth trying as well. This doesn't target specific NSA programs by name, but amends Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to forbid its use to collect records for people who are not subject to an investigation under that same Section. It's far from an end to domestic surveillance, but it's a significant limitation on…
Amending 215 isn't much good with FISA 702 collection methods still in place, so yes, this bill is useless.
You need new elected representatives because thus far no representative in any election in any district has ever lost an election over this surveillance. Unless and until that happens, the massive forces arrayed against you will sway the votes every time.
This movement lacks support, funding, vision, and credibility. It is at best a placebo that bleeds public motivation, so in many ways it is in fact worse than useless.