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The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

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Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#251

Post by TheRealPomax »

GavinMcG wrote: post #77
TheRealPomax wrote: post #68

Earlier 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"?

No, I think how things were done almost 120 years and 20 US administrations ago does not in any way relate to how the modern organization works, and how the current institutional knowledge is acted on by its employees (from CEO all the way down to the foot workers).

The late 19th century has so much "nothing to do" with today that it's literally irrelevant other than being a good window into how different things were, and as historical setup to then transition into "and then everything changed as a result of the great depression, with the US further burdened in the years following until the repeal of prohibition" which forced literally every government agency to change the way it worked.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#252

Post by TheRealPomax »

JJMcJ wrote: post #74
TheRealPomax wrote: post #68

Earlier 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?

I think 1,200 investigators for the entirety of the USPS's operations isn't out of line.

okay? not really related to my comment?

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#253

Post by oblib »

betwixthewires wrote: post #250
oblib wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's obviously a bad thing when they express their hate by murdering random and innocent victims. When and wherever that line is crossed it is a bad thing. There are no exceptions to that.

Alright, so to take the most obvious example, and one that might not be adjacent to the one we are talking about but is still useful, the rebellion of the 13 colonies in the late 1700s included people being killed. Not just military. Regular people died. Was that rebellion wrong? Also bear in mind that nobody was killed by anyone at the capital except for a participant, by a police officer. Also, you didn't answer ei…

"Also, you didn't answer either of my questions."

I didn't answer your questions because they are bullshit questions.

!. "Out of curiosity. Why do you think that people disliking and even hating their government is necessarily a bad thing?

I didn't even come close to saying or implying that.

2. "Or is it only expressing that feeling that you have a problem with?"

I didn't even come close to saying or implying that either.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#254

Post by cycomanic »

vinay427 wrote: post #209
cycomanic wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much every western country. Sweden, France, Germany to give three examples.

There are only a handful of western countries that use this approach. As counterexamples, Switzerland, the UK, Spain, and many other countries tend to have local municipal police departments, and Germany has state/Bundesland-level police departments as well as the random auxiliary departments that a sibling comment mentioned. France and Sweden are both far more centralized and less federalized. There's a reason more…

None of these have a police per government agency, that's what we are mainly talking about. That there are local police departments or state police departments is not the main issue I think.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#255

Post by CobrastanJorji »

blitz_skull wrote: post #221
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asides from all that stuff about ordering soldiers to kill American civilians, I'm just boggled that it had a FAQ. How old is the FAQ structure? Wikipedia suggests a history going back to the 1600s, and much further if you stretch the definition to Plato.

American civilians who had made a decided effort to commit a federal felony. Also "ordering soliders to kill American civilians" attempts to color the situation in an unfavorable light, as if the soldiers had alternatives, or the situation didn't fully warrant it. There's no reason that killing armed gangsters wasn't totally justified in this case.

They did. The letter clearly instructs soldiers to shoot fleeing people in the back if they don't stop and surrender. "Not killing the fleeing man" is what we can an "alternative."

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#257

Post by dredmorbius »

PLenz wrote: post #127
o0-0o wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also the only agency named in the constitution. The others are all fluff. At least that’s what I was taught!

Census is in the Constitution as well

Census as an activity is, though not a Census Department specifically. Though that may be a quibbling distinction.

Armed forces would be another Constitutionally mentioned function.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#258

Post by dredmorbius »

ryandrake wrote: post #94
snowwrestler wrote: post #45

Pretty 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…

> 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. This distinction is disappearing quickly in the current Internet, where conversations are increasingly company-mediated and facilitated. There's no such thing as a "private" conversa…

Unfortunately, with the Internet increasingly being used to conduct business, government, education, and even religious services, that option is rapidly becoming less tractable.

(I say that as one who shares the general sentiments.)

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#259

Post by knolax »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #115
snowwrestler wrote: post #45

Pretty 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…

>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…

> When you feel like using state violence to harass drunken college kids you create a campus PD.

Someone's never been mugged on campus before... Campus PD exist to give special protection to the children of wealthy upper-middle class families that thw surrounding community is usually deprived of.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#260

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

jayrot wrote: post #237
blitz_skull wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American civilians who had made a decided effort to commit a federal felony. Also "ordering soliders to kill American civilians" attempts to color the situation in an unfavorable light, as if the soldiers had alternatives, or the situation didn't fully warrant it. There's no reason that killing armed gangsters wasn't totally justified in this case.

Where's the BG copypasta quote about why soldiers shouldn't be police

The military defends federal property all the time. US mail is federal property. Is there a copypasta about blanket absolutes?
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