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John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

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Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#151

Post by woodman »

stvswn wrote: post #146
vonklaus wrote: post #23

This is Edward Snowden's fault. Let's look at the facts: * Edward Snowden declared war against terrorists. * Edward Snowden started indescriminently bombing villages in the middle east. * Edward Snowden created massive ill will against America, then left a huge power vacuum in the region by pulling out after, dare I say it, conducting terrorism against the native inhabitants. So, Ed, wherever you are, this is your fa…

"Indescriminately(sic) bombing?" "conducting terrorism?" I led a platoon in Iraq, and we did nothing of the sort. I'm fine with opposition to U.S. foreign policy; this is just lazy slander, and it shows a very shallow understanding of what actually happened.

> I led a platoon in Iraq, and we did nothing of the sort.

I fought in Fallujah; I would be very surprised to hear from the residents that they did not feel terrorized or modify their behavior in response to our activities. I have no doubt that you don't see yourself in that light, but your intents mean very little to those people.

Putting too much weight on either perspective, the action's originator or recipient, leads to all sorts of silliness (the concept of hate crimes, donglegate, etc). Try to detach yourself and just consider the facts.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#152

Post by merpnderp »

vonklaus wrote: post #23

This is Edward Snowden's fault. Let's look at the facts: * Edward Snowden declared war against terrorists. * Edward Snowden started indescriminently bombing villages in the middle east. * Edward Snowden created massive ill will against America, then left a huge power vacuum in the region by pulling out after, dare I say it, conducting terrorism against the native inhabitants. So, Ed, wherever you are, this is your fa…

Don't forget that in 2007 Edward Snowden started funding and training anti-government groups in Syria, then in 2009 when he won election, he upped his game and then in 2011 started arming them. Then in 2012 when Russia approached him with a deal to have Assad step aside and force the Syrian government to stop murdering its people, Snowden laughed and said Assad was on his way out anyways and he didn't need their deal. This is definitely all Snowden's fault.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#153

Post by merpnderp »

vonklaus wrote: post #31
dev1n wrote: post #6

We really need to set an age limit on how old people can get while staying in office before being forced to retire. We already prevent people younger than 40 from running for President. Why should we let people older than 65 do it? What's the difference?

No. This makes little sense, is arbitrary and absurd. We need people to be qualified by measurable factors like degrees, years working in a particular field, ability or intelligence and/or other relevant facts. John McCain is a good man, I think he has good intentions, and is very qualified for certain positions. This is just not one of them, and it isn't because I disagree with him (I do), it is because he isn't qua…

Isn't he being briefed by US intelligence agencies?

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#154

Post by Sven7 »

ecdavis wrote: post #36

Is it really worth leaving a thoughtful comment about such an ignorant statement? It's clear to me that these people have no idea what encryption actually is and only have a cursory understanding of what it does. They're aware that criminals and terrorists can use encryption to communicate covertly. That's why they want to ban it. Are they also aware that the exact same technology is used to protect their online bank…

The problem is not awareness of privacy and financial sec issues.

The problem is how do you prevent the next Boston Bombing or Paris.

Since we don't have a good answer to that, what else do expect them to do?

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#155

Post by merpnderp »

serge2k wrote: post #25
cs702 wrote: post #17

Evidently he doesn't realize that this is like asking for addition or subtraction to be outlawed, which is nonsensical. Like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, encrypting is a mathematical operation that transforms numbers into other numbers.

How is that relevant? I disagree with him too, but this is a lousy argument.

I think he's pointing out that terrorists will still have access to PGP or other encryption tools.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#156

Post by andrewchambers »

dogma1138 wrote: post #140
linkregister wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to hear anything about state level actors surreptitiously accessing an OpenBSD system.

Are you claiming that OpenBSD never had or has exploits that the NSA could or can use to access systems running it? Because if so that would be a heck of a lofty claim.

Given the context, he probably meant cracking a private key given just the public key and accessing servers at will.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#157

Post by jessaustin »

WildUtah wrote: post #50
mucker wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep your generalizations to yourself. There is a wide array of Republicans who believe in limited government not cracking private security because it doesn't belong there. McCain is a nice guy but is an extreme hawk.

McCain isn't a nice guy. He's always been opposed to every kind of civil rights and in favor of total central government power and total war. He introduced the campaign finance bill that forced the government to argue before the Supreme Court that it had the power to ban books with political opinions it didn't agree with, the same argument that led to the Citizens United decision. He made up a song about bombing Iran…

He introduced the campaign finance bill that forced the government to argue before the Supreme Court that it had the power to ban books with political opinions it didn't agree with, the same argument that led to the Citizens United decision.

Did you oppose that bill at the time, on the grounds that it would lead to such ridiculous arguments? If you had, you would have been the only one. Most First-Amendment nose-thumbers loved that bill. I suspect their hearts were in the right place, just as I suspect McCain's was (then, on that topic; various statements made since have been disconcerting).

It would be nice if the rich bastards didn't play the body politic like a marionette, but this isn't the way to change that.

The fact that you didn't lead off with a reference to the Keating Five indicates to me that you don't actually know much about McCain or his career.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#158

Post by takeda »

daemin wrote: post #139
spin wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The movie companies and the record companies wanted DRM -- they were under the delusion that they could both control digital information while sharing digital information. So now Washington is suffering from a similar delusion: you can build encryption to keep criminals out of your banking website, but still allow the feds access to whatever they choose.

So then if a federal agent is/becomes a criminal does that mean they won't be able to access the back door then?

You know the answer to this, but that's not the point. The old system did not prevent crooked agent to have access as well.

The problem here is much bigger, because they assume that no one in the world (including foreign governments) would be able to figure out how to exploit backdoor(s).

Imagine a foreign government eventually would discover it. Such knowledge would be extremely powerful weapon in cyber warfare. What McCain is suggesting is extremely dumb, even if he's not concerned about our privacy.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#159

Post by vezzy-fnord »

jessaustin wrote: post #149
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you considerably stretch the definition. He's a moderate Republican closer to old school states' rights conservatism than neoconservatism, but certainly not a libertarian, though he does exploit the label to make himself look edgy.

This sort of true-Scotsmanning does libertarianism no favors. I say that having voted for Gary Johnson last time around. Rand Paul would be better for USA residents and for the world than any president in my lifetime has been. Of course he isn't perfect, but no one who was would have anything to do with national government.

It isn't true-Scotsmanning, it's a factual statement. Make no mistake, I too consider Rand Paul to be among the higher stock available in the U.S. mainstream political scene.

Re: John McCain wants to outlaw encryption that the US government can't crack

#160

Post by jessaustin »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #126
whoopdedo wrote: post #66

Can we have a new rule when laws are proposed? Whenever you see the headline "(name of politician) wants to pass a law which will do ____" it should be rewritten to "Lobbyists have convinced (name of politician) that they need a law which will do _____". From opensecrets.org: Industry Favorite John McCain is a top recipient from the following industries in 2015-2016: Cable & satellite TV production (#1) Defense Aeros…

It's amazing how cheaply the public interest gets sold out for.

Really! To me, this suggests that the fundamental problem is the enormous size of USA. If it were replaced by twenty other nations each a twentieth the size, could the parasites even afford to subvert the popular will and well-being? Divide all those bribes by 20, and you're not left with much to corrupt a reasonable person.
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