XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

[Patranus]

I don't understand the issue.

Take Google or Facebook for instance. You use their services you have no expectation of privacy.

So what is the issue? I don't get it.

 

[mshan]

Oh, I don't know, maybe government overreach and the Fourth Amendment?

These revelations really start to back up Snowden's "architecture of repression" comment (albeit probably on a global scale, by ruling elites, rather than just domestically).

It is hard to tell how much Obama has, willingly or unwillingly, been assimilated into The Borg (ruling elite collective), but our only hope is that like Picard, he still has some vestigial memory that he was actually a constitutional law professor previously and that he, unlike said David Rockefeller, was not born into the richest family in world with presumption of right to rule as he wishes.

He isn't from a pre-existing aristocratic family with lots of political influence and his father wasn't former CIA director / vice president / second generation aristocratic wealth, so unless there is a groundswell of outrage at grass roots level, one that politicians can't ignore, it is honestly hard to see how much influence he has, alone, to change the trajectory laid out by the utterly corrupt, utterly incompetent, and IMO possibly criminal Bush Cheney administration that he is cleaning up after (Chinese are a kleptocracy, praised as great crony capitalists, but at least they are competent at what they do):

"Favoured private equity and insiders who swap US dollars for equity in the banking system will presumably be aware of the survivor bias being engineered on their behalf. Sovereign wealth funds, investment funds and private equity investors ripped off in the first round of recapitalisation may be willing to come back in once it is clear to them that the next round will benefit from official favouritism. Warren Buffett’s timely stake in Goldman Sachs is clearly linked to his confidence the Paulson Plan will benefit them disproportionately.

A factor which is probably critical but has received little discussion is that literally thousands of Bush administration apparatchiks will need jobs come January, and a fair selection of GOP House and Senate legislators and their aides too. What better way to enahance their CVs in their final months in power than to distribute $700 billion or so in pre-Christmas largesse to the most remunerative employers in the world? And what better way to ensure the corporate largesse is returned to the GOP to win back the White House and Congress in 2012 as the recession fuels public anger?

And then there is a huge arbitrage opportunity as well so that everyone makes money for years to come. According to the conference call, the pricing on offer from the Treasury will be a bit below Level 3 pricing.

The toxic assets will be repackaged and resold with a new AAA wrapper, possibly priced well below what the Treasury paid, assuring a huge profit on both immediate liquidation by the banks and ultimate maturity by investors.

The Fed gets its cash and Treasuries back; the banks make huge profits;

the foreigners and off-shore tax avoiders get disguised ownership of the American financial system;

the taxpayer gets ripped off.

What’s not to love?"


http://londonbanker.blogspot.com/2008/10/financial-eugenics-paulson-plan-for.html

Nixon: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/31/opinion/avlon-nixon/ (9 PM tonight on CNN)

 

[z1ggy]

From Doppel's CNN link above:


I remember reading quite a while ago that real terrorists stopped using the internet in the late 1990's when they realized governments could track them.

This monstrosity (and Trailblazer, instead of simple, cheap Thin Thread) was always intended to target the general population, as it sounds like Snowden was referring to with his "architecture of repression" comment.

Isn't this obvious? The government isn't scared of some hack job terrorist like the Boston suspects...More people are gunned down in a single day in Chicago. They are really afraid of their own people. In order to have control over us and to prevent us from over turning them (much like we did to the British) they need to know what we are up to, and what we would be planning.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I don't understand the issue.

Take Google or Facebook for instance. You use their services you have no expectation of privacy.

So what is the issue? I don't get it.

Facebook and Google can't prosecute me, take my kids and take my property.

 

[Nintendesert]

http://news.yahoo.com/google-pressure-cookers-backpacks-visit-feds-140900667.html

Scary scary scary stuff. It's also very sad. Hopefully more people continue to speak out and everyone tells others what's going on here.

 

[Jeff7]

This. IRS going through my emails to make sure i didn't misreport any tax income...

And given the interwoven enormity of the tax code, I'm sure you have, and I almost certainly have as well. Most people probably have done something wrong on their tax returns, including many working for the IRS.

...
Not only is the government--with the blessing of federal courts (one step away from SCOTUS telling us to take in the rear now regarding court orders and cell phones)--lying to us, but corporations are. And hilariously, I can't even blame them as they are legally compelled now to lie about what they are doing. It is a huge fucking sham in the name of the make believe enemy (terrorism) that kills so few people it hasn't ever made it anywhere close to a top 10 list of deaths in the US, even in 2001. All this money and time spent on tomfoolery.

I doubt it's even anywhere close to the top 100 list.

These "enemies of America" should change tactics, and start opening up swimming pool stores - swimming pools kill far more US citizens annually than terrorists do.

 

[gevorg]

http://news.yahoo.com/google-pressure-cookers-backpacks-visit-feds-140900667.html

Hitler or Stalin would salivate over this "capability".

 

[Patranus]

Facebook and Google can't prosecute me, take my kids and take my property.

Never said they could, however it is your responsibility to control what you share with a 3rd party.

 

[OutHouse]

http://news.yahoo.com/google-pressure-cookers-backpacks-visit-feds-140900667.html

holy crap. I weep for what this country has become.

i feel more free while in canada and the bahamas than in my own country.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I don't understand the issue.

Take Google or Facebook for instance. You use their services you have no expectation of privacy.

So what is the issue? I don't get it.

Did you receive an EULA fron the NSA? I must've missed the memo.

 

[disappoint]

And their system did such a good job of stopping (or even detecting) the Boston bombing

They didn't have to detect it. They already knew those 2 numbskulls were up to no good. They were under FBI investigation.

Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the attention of the FBI on at least two occasions prior to a Russian government warning in March 2011 that said he appeared to be radicalizing, FBI Director Robert Mueller said in Congressional testimony this week.
The earlier references have led some lawmakers to question whether the FBI acted too quickly in closing an assessment of Tsarnaev's potential ties to terrorism done in response to the Russian request.
In a little-noticed exchange before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, Mueller acknowledged that the Russian alert was not the first time the elder Tsarnaev brother crossed the FBI's radar.


"His name had come up in two other cases," Mueller said in response to questions from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). "Those two other cases, the individuals had their cases closed. So, he was one or two person [sic] away."

 

[disappoint]

http://news.yahoo.com/google-pressure-cookers-backpacks-visit-feds-140900667.html

Hitler or Stalin would salivate over this "capability".

 

[nf4m]

holy crap. I weep for what this country has become.

i feel more free while in canada and the bahamas than in my own country.

i don't. it's beautiful, really.

 

[Kadarin]

Very reminiscent of this picture:

 

[poofyhairguy]

Never said they could, however it is your responsibility to control what you share with a 3rd party.

Which I do personally. I never reveal anything THAT bad about myself online, at least not tied to my name or poofyhairguy, my most used online identity. Not in Gmail or Facebook or anywhere.

But I have assumed they had this capability for a while because I was "paranoid." Its my friends and families I feel for.

 

[bradley]

I don't understand the issue.

Take Google or Facebook for instance. You use their services you have no expectation of privacy.

So what is the issue? I don't get it.

I don't think you will ever get it. It's hard enough going up against the NSA and Federal govt., much less a sleeping giant.