Even the mail man is glowing now.
The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
171–180 of 261 posts
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#172This is a tough issue for a government. We do have crazies out there and we do need to investigate potential dangerous groups and individuals and reel them in before they do something crazy. On my FB feed I have seen friends and friends of friends call for armed revolt many times over the past few years. Most all of them are blowing steam and many are in their 60s or older and couldn't run a block in gym shorts, and…
FWIW, the protestors at the capitol didn't kill anyone.
As far as I know, the only person that actually killed anyone was the Secret Service agent that shot Ashley Babbit.
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I will say that personally I have fewer concerns about programs to monitor public content on the Internet, than programs that seek to access, monitor, and store content that people intended to be privately communicated to other people. You may have fewer concerns about public monitoring vs private spying, presumably because in the latter case privacy is being violated in a way that isn't the case for the former. Bu…
Public vs Private: Public: I can think of an example. If the USPS finds out that in a certain area of a certain city, there is a big chance to have riots "tomorrow after 10am" (protests because of X-Y-Z resason), they can alert their local teams to e.g. deliver the post at 7am instead of 11am. Yes, some operations would be impacted (e.g. noon delivery won't happen), but this will protect the staff, protect the items…
I'd be surprised if they could deliver anything ahead of schedule, but I imagine they can tell people to stop what they're doing at 9am if they're in a dangerous area
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a dumb argument because they were at least trying to IMPLEMENT A COUP. It seems pretty clear to me that they would have assaulted and killed representatives if they would have gotten the chance which they very nearly did. Also, don't call them "protestors". The nicest term I can think of for them would be rebels since they were in open rebellion to the United States. Some people at the capital that day were p…
Funny "coup" where none of the plotters were armed.
> 17 charged with weapons crimes
> These include people arrested outside the Capitol grounds with weapons like guns and Molotov cocktails
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/04/us/capitol-ar...
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They were created to meet the specific law enforcement needs of each agency. Dept of Education agents investigate misuse of Dept of Education funds, That's a really charitable way of saying "handle petty stuff that the FBI can't justify spending resources on". Every specialty police department exists for this reason and this reason only. Because the mission is often so petty they wouldn't get any resources if it was…
Makes a lot of sense to me that each department handles their own law enforcement, and can set the priorities they prefer. One centralized Federal Police Department would be a single point of failure and bureaucratic nightmare. Imagine if there were not State and local police departments. Just the FBI managing every shoplifting arrest in the country.
Lots of countries do just that though, without the crazy specific separation and specialisation that America does.
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#176Pretty much any federal agency you have heard of has an investigative dept that employs federal special agents. These are law enforcement roles with the same training, authority, and responsibilities as investigative agents in the FBI, etc. They were created to meet the specific law enforcement needs of each agency. Dept of Education agents investigate misuse of Dept of Education funds, for example. The Postal Inspec…
Well... when you're posting things on social media you're publishing them to the world. That somebody is going to look at them... well I guess I don't have that much of a problem with it. If you don't want the minor details of your life recorded and put up to government scrutiny, stop making your existence a reality show.
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does incompetence and failure bear on intent? I don't think that usually flies in court.
Is it remotely plausible to believe a group of unarmed protestors were seriously attempting to gain control over the most powerful superpower the world has ever seen with their barehands? This narrative strains credulity, counselor.
That does seem to be the intent they announced.
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but the 19th century ended over 120 years ago. So that's kind of not relevant to how they're structured and operate today?
Not relevant? Do you somehow imagine that how things were done in the past doesn't affect "how they're structured and operate today"?
Depends if we're talking how they are structured vs should be structured
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, are you sure about this? The only clause I find in the constitution mentions post offices and post roads (perhaps that's what you're thinking of?), but nothing about their security. To my knowledge federal agencies were only established by the Administrative Procedures Act after WWII (which is basically the "constitution" of federal agencies), but I'm not sure if there's other similar terminology that mi…
Yeah buddy. The security service is just like internal affairs for the USPS. It's actually pretty creepy inside the USPS they enter through different doors, they have catwalks with two-way mirrors, etc. The SSF and DCF or whatever they're called (been a while) are super creepy to observe. You are CONSTANTLY being watch when you work there, but unseen faces. There is a reason 'going postal' became a thing. Imagine tha…
Having worked there, you drown out the catwalks and just consider them like fancy camera monitoring. We never, ever saw law enforcement, so it was out of sight, out of mind.
Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts
#180I must say you have written a great article. The way you have described everything is phenomenal