2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

do they still ask "are u gonna do a terrorism?" on the visa form? we should double check

do you swear you're not a terrorist?
do you swear that you're not crossing your fingers behind your back as you complete this form?
AND YOUR TOES!?!??!

yeah it wasn't social media it was just private messaging (why does anyone think this matters)

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 17, 2015 12:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is going to be used as an argument for government access to encrypted communication

http://i.imgur.com/03P6ZV5.jpg

i answered all their riddles

and ironically i posted a screenshot of my answers on facebook

this is going to be used as an argument for government access to encrypted communication

Obama and Clinton leading the pack

looking forward to the gov't demanding access to plans scribbled on cocktail napkins

But what about the things that people just think about scribbling on cocktail napkins? There has to be a way for them to tap into those thoughts, as well, or we'll never be safe.

do they still ask "are u gonna do a terrorism?" on the visa form? we should double check

you joke but El-Al asks questions like that all the time

that screenshot i posted is from USCIS form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker

doesnt el al interrogate the shit out of you at customs?

I mean not me bc my name is Mordechai and I wear a yarmulke but yes

A Brooklyn couple discussed their El Al interrogation at a Hanukkah party I went to last weekend. "Do you go to temple? Why not?" He's a secular Jew, she's Gentile; she advised him to play it cool, she wound up losing her temper at them.

an argument for government access to encrypted communication

lol like they don't already have this

oh yeah, I think even the US re-entry form has something akin to "did you talk to some terrorists?"

they don't have a "back door," is their story? xp

take it to the gay thread, champ

there aren't any backdoors to major encryption software, the main "side door" to a lot of corporate authentication tokens was discovered (the encryption was good but the key generation was bad) and no one uses RSA tokens anymore

the majority of things people think are "encrypted" really aren't, though, or you can be legally compelled to provide access. so no, the government likely has no real way to break good encryption now, but nobody who has been a threat has actually used any encryption worth mentioning

mh u are my hero

if The Fort and The Feebs had reliable ways of cracking encryption their bosses probably wouldn't spend quite so much time bitching and whining about it in public

Tomboto u are also my hero

they're gonna have to waterboard me to find out "w33ab00bs" is my password

our government probably already has a back window they can secretly crawl though. they just want to use a door because they're getting fat

Discussion re Paris terrorists and encrypted messages

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/paris-terrorists-used-whatsapp-telegram-plot-attacks-according-investigators-1533880

Officials involved in the investigation of the Paris terror attacks have revealed they believe some of the terrorists used encrypted apps WhatsApp and Telegram to plot and communicate.

.....Those close to the investigation state "the apps were used in communication among the terrorists" – however exactly what was said may never be known as the encryption is impossible to crack. The terrorists also frequently swapped out sim cards in their mobile phones to avoid surveillance.

However some unencrypted data was recovered from at least one mobile phone, where the user may have slipped up and used a different form of communication. The investigation continues as officials attempt to string together further clues.

The news the terrorists used encrypted messaging apps to operate will strengthen the case for governments who are currently fighting tech companies with court orders to allow them access to data. Apple's iMessage and WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) are just two platforms that offer encryption even they cannot decipher.

the presidential huoynhms

footnote: the huoyhnhnms were the noble ones; the yahoos were the filthy, smelly, disgusting creatures.

you know i realized my mistake about an hour later and forgot to change it; thx

the NYT added an editor's note to their original story on Malik's use of "social media":

Editors’ Note: December 18, 2015
The original version of this article, based on accounts from law enforcement officials, reported that Tashfeen Malik had “talked openly on social media” about her support for violent jihad.

On Wednesday, however, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said that online communications about jihad by Ms. Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, involved “direct, private messages.” His remarks indicated that the comments about jihad were not made in widely accessible social media posts.

Law enforcement officials subsequently told The Times that Ms. Malik communicated with her husband in emails and private messages, and on a dating site. Ms. Malik’s comments to Mr. Farook about violent jihad were made on a messaging platform, officials said. Neither Mr. Comey nor other officials identified the specific platforms that were used. (This article and headline have been revised to reflect the new information.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/us/san-bernardino-attacks-us-visa-process-tashfeen-maliks-remarks-on-social-media-about-jihad-were-missed.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/12/28/deep-south-4/

Other factors add to the difficulty of the poor finding work. Those who can’t afford to live in city centers often must depend on walking, hitching rides or laborious public transportation commutes. A 2011 Brookings Institution report ranking public transit in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas found that 15 of the weakest 20 systems — judged by coverage and job access — were in the South. They included systems in Birmingham, Ala.; Greenville, S.C.; Baton Rouge; and Atlanta — where, in earlier decades, majority-white suburbs voted against the expansion of a transit system they viewed as being primarily for black residents.

The lack of physical mobility feeds into the deeper but related problem of economic immobility: Areas throughout the South — and Atlanta in particular — provide among the lowest chances that someone born into poverty will move up the income ladder.

Over the past 20 years, Atlanta’s wealthiest areas, spread along the north of the city, have changed little. But formerly middle-class suburbs to the south — areas of modest single-family homes — have been deluged by newcomers who lost homes as city officials dismantled dozens of housing projects in the hopes of reducing concentrated poverty. Experts who have studied Atlanta’s economic geography say the change has been partly successful; class no longer changes so clearly between neighborhoods, but meanwhile, the poor — given modest vouchers to help subsidize their housing costs — must head far from the city to find places they can afford.

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/president-barack-obama-just-tell-him-you-re-the-president

"centrist" POS Steve Israel, D-NY, not running for House reelection

but don't fuss, Debbie endures

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41011/debbie-wasserman-schultz-abortion/

I gotta say, Obama was at his best in yesterday's town hall:

"I'm sorry, Cooper, yes," the President laughed. "It is fair to call it a conspiracy. Are you suggesting the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so we can impose martial law is not a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. I would hope that you would agree with that." President Obama then turned the question back on Cooper, asking, "Is that controversial?" "There are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to go further and further and further," Cooper countered. Incredulous, Obama reminded everyone that he's only going to be in office another year. "When would I have started on this enterprise?" he asked.

lol yes

nu thread for a nu year of the s.o.s.

"Debbie endures"? Say rather, The Deb Abides.

paul lepage, everyone. wtf.

what a great wiki

4 Governor of Maine
4.1 2010 election
4.2 2014 election
4.3 Tenure
4.3.1 Overview
4.3.2 Hiring of family members
4.3.3 2011 MLK Day activities
4.3.4 "Little Beards"
4.3.5 Renaming conference rooms and removing murals
4.3.6 Criticism of state employees
4.3.7 Education reform efforts
4.3.8 "The new Gestapo" remark
4.3.9 Jobless benefits work
4.3.10 Alleged censorship and office move
4.3.11 Vaseline comment
4.3.12 Views on newspapers
4.3.13 President Obama
4.3.14 Federal government shutdown response
4.3.15 Meetings with a group alleged to be connected with the "Sovereign Citizen movement"
4.3.16 Good Will-Hinckley funding threat

can we poll those

4.3.11 Vaseline comment

Little Beards are the hot new band out of DC

on calling the IRS the 'New Gestapo':

"On July 12, while at a fundraiser for Vermont gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock, LePage was questioned about his comment. When asked by a reporter if he knew what the Gestapo did, LePage said that he knew they "killed a lot of people" and that he thought the IRS, while not there yet, was headed towards killing many people as well. LePage clarified that he did not think the IRS would intentionally kill anyone, but that he meant the IRS would eventually ration the medical care of Americans, which would result in deaths."

so it would act like republicans?

American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money