US cities are being held hostage with stolen NSA tools

[Bullwinkle M]

Cranky says......
"I'm not really interested in listening to you making heroes or icons out of traitors like Snowden."

I AM!

After all, it's Memorial Day!
A day to reflect on the great sacrifices he made for his Country instead of the mindless ramblings of an angry old man

Have you made any sacrifices for the USA? If so, tell us all about it.. If not, it would be much more reflective, courteous, and civilized, if you just kept your mouth shut.

Well now....
That's not a very friendly American attitude

Where did you say you wuz from?

 

[captaincranky]

Well now....
That's not a very friendly American attitude

Where did you say you wuz from?

Since you're so hung up on privacy, I'd have to say, or rather am compelled to say, "none of your damned business".

 

[Knot Schure]

Yeah and Huawei is the problem!

Snowden is a legend like Chelsea Manning, so proud of these people with the courage to unveil what was happening. And now the hypocrites of the USA have the gall to point the finger everywhere else

Secrets are supposed to be kept secret. And your moral outrage at their existence is nothing if not predictable.

I'm not really interested in listening to you making heroes or icons out of traitors like Snowden. The stone cold Darwinian basic of human survival, whether at the personal or national level, is, "do unto others before they do onto you".. And that's whether it's an opposing regime, or a next door neighbor.

I'm glad our federal agencies do what they do in secret, in cyberspace. Hopefully, they'll be able to fend off the next set of turds trying to fly jetliners into our skyscrapers. Or find out what Kim Jong Un , Putin, or anyone else with the potential to harm us is up to.

The most recurring theme I'm finding in these threads, is those who don't live in the USA, think it's quite fashionable to hate the USA. It's also rather tedious and superficial..

Sir, even the EUHR said in their highest court, NSA WAS breaking the law. Over and over again.

So Edward Snowden was justified in releasing what they were up to.

If you have a gripe, take it up with the NSA, whom care nothing for the 'rule of law', as has been widely exposed - and understood by most.

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]...If you have a gripe, take it up with the NSA, whom care nothing for the 'rule of law', as has been widely exposed - and understood by most.

Breaking the law or abiding by it, I don't have an issue with the NSA.

Arguably, the US has its issues with abundant school shootings, but less so with terrorist attacks, which IIRC and if I've been paying attention, are more prevalent throughour Europe.

Reasonably speaking, most cell users calls, aren't worth the time and effort to trap and analyze them.
The easiest why to fight back against the NSA, is for people to stop running their yaps so abundantly, and in an unguarded manner, on cell phones. Which BTW, "cell phone addiction", is very likely to the the next "disorder" recognized by WHO.

I fail to see why everyone is so butt hurt about "the loss of privacy", when they simply can't shut their mouths, and invite AI garbage like "Alexa" into their homes.

It has been said, "the best way to keep a secret, is to not tell it to anyone".

I'd like the NSA to be the first to know if Omar and his Isis buddies just called , "Rent to Anyone with the Money Real Estate", to rent a four bedroom house in downtown LA.

Dude, Orwell pegged "telescreens" as a state enforced draconian phenomenon decades ago. Now people go out and pay money to be spied on by them, so that it's easier to order more soap powder..

The overt facts of the matter are, with millennial heads so far up their own a**es, about gay marriage, petty sexual harassment allegations, what Lady Gaga is wearing to the Grammies, how big Kim Kardashian's butt is, how "beautiful" Honey Boo Boo is, and yes, how powerful their computer has to be to play the next AAA title, I thank my lucky stars someone is looking out for my safety, even if the have to bend the rules a bit to do it.

And please spare me the, "it's the principles of the thing" speech.

Humans do very little that doesn't attach to massaging their egos or contributing to their notoriety. .As far as I'm concerned, Snowden is just one more a**hole chasing the limelight..

With those things said, I'm certainly not against whistle blowing, where it pertains to corporate abuse of the environment, cops on the take, corrupt officials, or anything of that ilk.

 

[brucek]

A quick primer on the threat to democracy from unaccountable spying for those who don't already understand.

Yes, the private communications of many ordinary citizens are snoozefests. While I don't wish to take away anyone's privacy, that's far from the only or even main threat here.

The problem is that the ability to spy on everybody includes the ability to spy on every lawmaker, every judge, every journalist, every politician in every opposing party, every CEO, in short everybody who is supposed to be able to exert oversight on the agency with the spying capability. In practice that translates into an ability to control enough of them, through superior information if not outright blackmail, that the party with the spying control can retain and grow their power indefinitely. The only thing preventing it is the integrity and the good will of the spymaster.

This is not academic. It was not that long ago that J. Edgar Hoover used a far less potent version of this power to retain control of the FBI for probably decades longer than congress and the presidents of the time wanted.

Our system was built on checks and balances for very good reason. Any entity that has moved itself outside of those checks and balances needs to be brought back in.

And to those saying, just don't use your "phone" (really it is all electronic communication), the scope of all the jobs I listed above plus many more can not possibly be conducted entirely via only face to face communication. That limitation alone would constrain their power enough to be in itself a violation of the checks and balances I am talking about.