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FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

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Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#11
post #2

Presumably this also includes journalists and other people the government has no business tracking. At what point will people say enough is enough to these kinds of insane overreaches?

Right now, I'm more concerned about the people who broke into the Capitol and tried to take away my voting rights.

They were reacting to their voting rights being taken away. Seems like a better response than vandalizing a Starbucks.

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#12

>"And they can actually pinpoint on Google Maps exactly where you were standing. Like, he knew where I was standing on the sidewalk, like specifically, based on my cell phone ping." You don't get that level of granularity by merely triangulating cell tower pings. Sounds like they got GPS location data from people's Google accounts.

You don't get that level of granularity from a single ping, but you theoretically could from hundreds, the noise will tend to center around the true location.

Also consider that more than 3 stations probably were nearby.

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#13
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Insane? The capitol was assaulted in order to prevent the democratically elected president. An actual insurrection which maybe had some attempted assassination and theft/sale of national security secrets mixed in. Seems like a pretty reasonable response.

If that was an actual insurrection or attempted assassination, it was the weakest effort imaginable. That doesn’t necessarily change the thrust of your comment (that enforcement is appropriate) but the breathless hyperbole around what happened has really surprised me. An actual insurrection would have looked very different. More guns and C4, fewer selfies.

"More guns" is right.

I watched it live and then dug through the videos, selfies, etc after and inside the Capitol, I found one guy who might have had a gun. The other weapons appear to have been convenient - a fire extinguisher, flags, etc. It looks less and less like an "insurrection" and more like jackasses doing jackass things.

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#14
post #3

Worth noting that the headline refers to "DC residents get visits" , but the story is based solely on one person's account (so far). It's not unbelievable that the FBI would overreach in an investigation, but if the interviewee's account is true, we should in the next few days see more people come out.

I didn't catch this! Good point.

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#15

>"And they can actually pinpoint on Google Maps exactly where you were standing. Like, he knew where I was standing on the sidewalk, like specifically, based on my cell phone ping." You don't get that level of granularity by merely triangulating cell tower pings. Sounds like they got GPS location data from people's Google accounts.

5G significantly increases granularity by a metric shit ton, and if they were continually pinging in the same area, eventually you end up with roughly one zone.

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#17
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Insane? The capitol was assaulted in order to prevent the democratically elected president. An actual insurrection which maybe had some attempted assassination and theft/sale of national security secrets mixed in. Seems like a pretty reasonable response.

If that was an actual insurrection or attempted assassination, it was the weakest effort imaginable. That doesn’t necessarily change the thrust of your comment (that enforcement is appropriate) but the breathless hyperbole around what happened has really surprised me. An actual insurrection would have looked very different. More guns and C4, fewer selfies.

Just because you failed at crime doesn’t mean you didn’t commit a crime. Attempted murder is still a thing.

And I think you should probably read more about what actually happened. The initial photos were of idiots in horns and face paint and that has colored the public perception of what happened, but the clownshow gave cover to a smaller number of organized militia types compromised of former and active duty military and law enforcement. Those people were armed, came prepared, had intelligence about the layout of the building, and received updates on the location of MOC. They were there to kill and take hostages, and they came within minutes of achieving that goal.

Nothing about this was laughable, and the concern is not overblown.

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#18
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that was an actual insurrection or attempted assassination, it was the weakest effort imaginable. That doesn’t necessarily change the thrust of your comment (that enforcement is appropriate) but the breathless hyperbole around what happened has really surprised me. An actual insurrection would have looked very different. More guns and C4, fewer selfies.

Look into Mussolini and Hitler's early attempts. They looked really amateur and ridiculous too. The Munich Beer Hall Putsch was almost as much of a clown show. You even had some volkisch occult wackos who would have felt quite at home with the Q shaman.

Look into the burning of the Reichstag...

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#19
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, I'm more concerned about the people who broke into the Capitol and tried to take away my voting rights.

They were reacting to their voting rights being taken away. Seems like a better response than vandalizing a Starbucks.

[deleted]

Re: FBI agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

#20
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, I'm more concerned about the people who broke into the Capitol and tried to take away my voting rights.

They were reacting to their voting rights being taken away. Seems like a better response than vandalizing a Starbucks.

That seems beside the point though. Nation-states could well coopt/dupe unwitting agents to do their deeds for them. Not necessarily saying that's what happened here, just making a point.
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