Saturday, June 08, 2013
The Government/Verizon data-mining I was going to say scandal
But it's clear that many don't even see it as a scandal and I'm even reading those on the Right like John Podhoretz who actually seem to support it. OK so millions of Verizon customers have had the duration but not the content of their phone calls tracked, the numbers of both parties are even on the record and the times of day but ultimately there is just too much to sift through so some pretty advanced NSA computers analyze the metadata to look for what are called "suspicious patterns" and then if that turns up then the feds can go further in their pursuits. Didn't prevent Boston but I'd like to know what a suspicious pattern is and as for the millions of other customers of the other major carriers they're probably in the Database too but the government hasn't said so yet. Simple rule here though - if Obama does it it must be good but if Bush did it then it's bad. The major players like Microsoft and Google are fully cooperating of course, it's yet another corporate/government Leviathan monster arising out of the ocean and as for myself as regards my phone I just do what I gotta do the government be damned. Life's too short and the government bureaucracy being what it is they're gonna fuck it up anyway.
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Do you know, back in the day, after 9/11, my credit card was flagged and I couldn't use it.
ReplyDeleteDo you know why?
Because at the time I was doing a lot of buying clothes from Kuwait, Pakistan and India.
My credit card information was not only mined but it was blackflagged and I couldn't use it.
Because I spent $58 at a website called alhediya dot com.
That was thanks to the Patriot Act.
I'm not impressed with people looking at my phone records, and I DO have Verizon.
The hoops I had to jump through and the massive inconvenience of not having my (only) credit card be functional is vastly more than this. It took me days and days of arguing, fighting and accusations of xenophobia before my card was given the green light again. Meanwhile we had to think quick to get shit paid for.
Yeah, it was all good when Bush did it. Anyone who said different was collaborating with terrorists, unpatriotic and probably a terrorist themselves.
I do recall a fight I had with someone at Citibank wherein I lost my temper and yelled, "YOU CANNOT BUY AN @^*(#@%%@ SCUD MISSLE FOR $58!!!!!!"
ReplyDeleteOh, imagine if Obama had been president when THAT went down.
Nope, it was GWB, and people gave me the hairy eyeball just for BITCHING about what happened to us.
Back then they called this patriotism. I was damn near called a terrorist.
I don't know what planet you are living on, Saty, but libertarian minded people (like doesn't Chris come around here anymore?) that were completely pissed off at the Patriot Act, but Z-man brought up an excellent point that whatever Obama is up to DID NOT STOP the Boston bombing. The Constitution gets shredded a little more everyday, with Bush it was tiny pieces, with Obama it is huge chunks everyday.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Franklin once said that “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”. With our current administration, I feel like we have neither.
ReplyDeleteTraffic signals DO NOT STOP car accidents.
Shall we eliminate them?
There are those on the Right who are defending Obama's data-mining program and those on the Left who are also supportive. They're saying anyone who is not down with this is hysterical. I call these defenders of Obama useful idiots.
ReplyDeleteBut Sat here's the point you're missing, in many ways the guy who you fully seem to support is in many ways a continuation of Bush esp. in the War on Terror. Drone strikes, data-mining etc. and while you bring up some good points relating to your own experiences right after 9/11 I'm just waiting for your and BB's passion for Obama to dull a little. Obama scandals, massive invasions of privacy...the press has turned against Obama over the AP snooping, labor unions are now against him because ObamaCare is not turning out as promised and on it goes but meanwhile you guys are like the last of the Mohicans, the lone holdouts.
ReplyDeleteThey are probably data-mining the heck out of your neighbor's three
ReplyDeletebig antennas...
Have a friend who sensed these trends before they fully developed. I remember many years ago being in a library in Putnam County setting up my first e-mail account and basically was going mostly with my actual name and my friend was watching and helping me and goes "don't use your real name, you could get in trouble" and I was like why? I'm not doing anything wrong or plan on doing anything wrong. It's just a vibe you get always being watched by Big Brother.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor, he probably gets programming from other galaxies.
Don't hold your breath. And don't make me call you Alex Jones.
ReplyDelete"...like doesn't Chris come around here anymore.."
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I wonder.
So basically Patriot Act was bad because Bush did it, but that it is being taken to new heights by the current administration it is now a good thing, that sound right to you, Saty?
ReplyDeleteHi Chris, hope things are well by the way.
ReplyDeleteThings are very very well. Thank you. Hope all of you are fairing as well or better.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you finally entered the digital age with your smartphone purchase Zman.
ReplyDeleteWith any hope you're using Tor and you've encrypted it.
They're both one and the same Bush and Obama. They're so similar in fact as regards the War on Terror that how can you like one and not the other or dislike one and not the other.
ReplyDeleteAll I'm saying is I could give a shit about who looks at my very boring phone bill. I was far more concerned that my MasterCard was blackflagged and unusable for damn near two weeks while I fought with everyone from God to Mickey Mouse.
ReplyDeleteThe irony in your statement is profound. The greater the jurisdiction; the reach over your data (be it your phone records, your banking records, etc.) the greater susceptibility you have in being targeted or scrutinized (be justly or unjustly, with or without your knowledge).
ReplyDeletePeople that care about their data take the necessary steps to protect and preserve the integrity of their data and their information.
People that do not thus should not be at all surprised when they find themselves compromised in that regard.
If people want to get excited all of a sudden over a program that started way the hell back in the day, they can. This is not a new program, it's been going on since 9/11... but just now all of a sudden it's gone from patriotic to despotism. Just like so many laws that Republicans used to support until Obama supported them, and now all of a sudden they're overreaches, bastions of socialism.
ReplyDeletePeople just aren't happy unless they have some kind of fear going on. Just like all the assholes out buying up guns because OBAMA IS COMING TO TAKE YOUR GUNS. This started in 2008. Has anyone's guns been taken? No, but arms manufacturies have been raking in the profits generated by this false fear, and loving every minute of it, while the NRA fans the flames and works on convincing people that they need three guns in each room (including of course baby's room). Because OBAMA IS COMING TO TAKE YOUR GUNS. It's all manipulation.
All of a sudden people are freaking over phone records? Phone records, this has been going on for ten years. Find a better conspiracy.
"Has anyone's guns been taken?"
ReplyDeleteYes, gun confiscation was widely reported during hurricane Katrina.
It happened then as it happens now (legislatively and otherwise). Polticians from both major parties have been culpable in it.
ReplyDeleteThis is fact. You can accept it or not but it still is a fact.
Blaming this administration for this and any other such scandals or political woes while dismissing the cuplability of the previous administration and those before it (as 'conservatives' are want to do) is disingenious and shows a lack of integrity and honesty by those that espouse it.
Similary, excusing such abuses under the present administration because they also occured on some other administration's watch (as Saty is want to do) is too quite an ill attempt at itellectual honesty.
But...here we are many years later and the same discussion is going round and round....
For all the time and energy expended in this perpetual circle jerk, an individual could do so much more...
This quote from Edward Snowden says it all:
"You can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but then I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."
Less waiting...less talking....more doing.
As usual if Obama supports it Saty is down with it. Saty:
ReplyDelete"This is not a new program, it's been going on since 9/11...now all of a sudden it's gone from patriotic to despotism."
I must have missed something here. MOST conservative commentators and lawmakers support the program and are branding Edward Snowden as some sort of massive traitor that needs to be brought back home from whatever hotel he's in now and face justice (e.g. see Peter King's endless blathering at the mouth). Also the latest polling data shows the public seems to support this Prism program. There's a word for all this, Good German Syndrome.
Reading Saty's ho-hum comments the word apathy comes to mind always a dangerous thing.
ReplyDeleteI remember Saty telling me that one cannot [to paraphrase] 'be' Krishna...cannot achieve that state of perfection.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, Christians will many times make similar claims with respect to man's penchant for sin, etc.
Perhaps perfection is indeed unatainable in either religion but what I find most striking is that there seems to be no desire...no fortitude to invoke any semblance of morality in an attempt to try.
Time and time again you sanction, endorse, excuse atrocities and abuses that any rational or moral being adamantly would oppose.
So why do you look to a God; a deity? For what purpose?
It's only a matter of time before we're willing to give up all our privacy in order to keep us safe and again but this didn't prevent Boston. I'm guessing if this came out when Bush was president she'd be blogging her sweet little head off, somehow when Obama does it it's ok because he's some sort of Philosopher.
ReplyDeleteAgain but I'm not getting modern conservatives. This is one of the very few rare times where they seem to be supporting the president. So do they believe in Privacy or not? take a stand but they're confusing. Rand Paul you kinda know where he's gonna come down on this because he's consistent but as for the rest I just think they're somehow in love with the whole War on Terror, gives purpose in a WW2 sense or something.
ReplyDeleteThey have to be. But let's not make any mistakes about it. There isn't a war on terror. The war is to simply protect the Federal Reserve's hegemony and to soak up as many resources in as as many countries as possible.
ReplyDeleteOnce the dollar collapses the game ends. Until of course it begins again...
OK so folks don't seem to mind the Verizon data-mining but what about reading e-mails? As Lionel has said our rights aren't being taken away, we're gladly giving them away because we're too busy.
ReplyDeleteThat is false. Your rights aren't taken away. Unless you are shackled and bound you can still act. The question becomes...will you?
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that there aren't enough government resources to jail or penalize everyone that the state might wish to deem a criminal.
I've often thought this way about the IRS. We could as a nation abolish them and end the income tax tomorrow if every single American taxpayer, millions of us refused to file returns and pay our taxes. There's no way in hell you could prosecute and jail all of us if the country did it en masse. Is that gonna happen? of course not and you and a friend do it you're a couple of oddballs and they might squeeze you in on the Evening News.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say someone is an oddball for not filing an income tax return (it's an individual's choice they can make if they so desire) and it's doubtful they'd make the nightly news. They have to report on other meaningless infotainment.
ReplyDeleteNo I agree they're not an oddball but the press would treat it as such. Of course you no longer have that unified spirit in this country where you could pull such a thing off.
ReplyDeleteMining is considered a gathering profession. It is also a very useful skill to learn in playing the World of Warcraft. Ores, metals and jewels that you are mining are basically needed by other professions for crafting new items. For this reason, Miners are very much in demand on the Auction House. Here are some strategies to improve your mining skills. Learning these concepts will equip you in mastering the skill. Mining Management System
ReplyDelete