omnibus PRISM/NSA/free Edward Snowden/encryption tutorial thread

"in which he confessed to being deliberately provocative"

i would imagine, after his conduct of late, that the WTC of the snowden set might be michael hayden

"honey when did we order 4000 pizzas"

etired air force general Michael Hayden, who from 1999 to 2009 ran the NSA and then the CIA, referring to "nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years".

"nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years" sounds like a description of CIA membership.

yeah, it's the Brit spies who are all queer, right?

Under civil forfeiture, Americans who haven’t been charged with wrongdoing can be stripped of their cash, cars, and even homes.

Cars and homes are for herberts, baby; I fly low.

nihilists

although i was kind of shocked that the TSA's entire budget is 100 million dollars. that's less than one x-men: first class!

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, August 7, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm sure they get paid very little.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/dea-and-nsa-team-intelligence-laundering

Drug cases, on the other hand, made up 20 percent of all federal criminal cases filed in 2012, the second most prosecuted type of crime after immigration cases. If the government acknowledges it has to disclose when FAA evidence has been used to make a drug case—even if it's a tip leading to a pretextual traffic stop—the number of challenges to FAA evidence will increase dramatically.

And:

Taken together, the Fifth and Sixth Amendments guarantee a criminal defendant a meaningful opportunity to present a defense and challenge the government's case. But this intelligence laundering deprives defendants of these important constitutional protections. It makes it harder for prosecutors to comply with their ethical obligation under Brady v. Maryland to disclose any exculpatory or favorable evidence to the defense—an obligation that extends to disclosing evidence bearing on the reliability of a government witness. Hiding the source of information used by the government to initiate an investigation or make an arrest means defendants are deprived of the opportunity to challenge the accuracy or veracity of the government's investigation, let alone seek out favorable evidence in the government's possession.

those are unionized federal jobs

http://tsa.afge.org/represent.cfm

http://www.tsa.gov/careers/pay-bands

while it's true the lower pay bands are not great, this site claims the avg is around $15/hr

http://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/TSA-Transportation-Security-Administration-Hourly-Pay-E41347.htm

so yeah you sound really classist

Wait, you think $15/hr is not low pay?

For the most part, living in a major US city, $15/hr does not go a very long way.

The minimum wage for a decent quality of life in Los Angeles is way over $15/hr. More like $20/hr, and even that falls short.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/07/obama-putin-talks-canceled-snowden

Cold War talk has commenced!

$15 is below median for just about every market, yes

but then again "but have you seen the type of people who are hired to do that work at the airport?"

when are the dudes who wrote the article about the al qaeda conference call gonna get arrested

so yeah you sound really classist

― R'LIAH (goole), Wednesday, August 7, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but then again "but have you seen the type of people who are hired to do that work at the airport?"

― R'LIAH (goole), Wednesday, August 7, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Come on, dude. I am all in favour of a large(r) middle class. But the TSA is a joke.

paying ppl crap wages is a pretty good way to increase abuse/corruption

Exactly, Dr.

i have more than once been struck by the dull-witted, almost thuggish obstinacy of TSA workers, so i can only object so much

thank you for going on the record about the meritocracy

"Meritocracy" is a word I really only ever hear classists use.

as a meritocrat i can confirm your belief

"Meritocracy" is a word I really only ever hear classists use.

― i too went to college (silby), Wednesday, 7 August 2013 16:44 (10 minutes ago) Permalink

"open your ears" is an argument I really only ever hear p-funk use

Haven't heard that one. I'm more familiar with Motor Booty Affair.

everyone should start calling Benghazi "the motor booty affair"

That sounds dictatorial.

mister president the american people deserve to know the truth about the motor booty affair

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2013/8/2/20138222246288734_20.jpg

edvard dzhozef snouden

an intelligence official said the controversial NSA programs that gather data on American phone calls or track Internet communications with suspected terrorists played no part in detecting the initial tip. That official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the spying publicly.

A U.S. official familiar with the threat information said the decision to close the embassies was based on a broad swath of information, not just the intercept

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/state-dept-posts-19-countries-remain-closed

Not to sound classist, but have you seen the type of people who are hired to do that work at the airport?
I'm sure they get paid very little.

― c21m50nh3x460n, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 10:57 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

TBH this sounds more racist than classist

most TSA officers just look uncomfortable and bored, which is what I'd be in about 30 seconds if I had their job

you'd think security theater could at least be entertaining

on my flight to Chicago a few weeks ago the TSA guy reminding us to follow the rules smiled a lot. Maybe he got head in the garage before work?

Not to sound classist, but have you seen the type of people who are hired to do that work at the airport?
I'm sure they get paid very little.

― c21m50nh3x460n, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 10:57 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

TBH this sounds more racist than classist

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 7 August 2013 20:44 (1 hour ago) Permalink

Now you're just putting words in my mouth.

(As in, I can't imagine in what dimension what I said could be interpreted as a reference to race.)

"type of people" -- what can you learn about the backgrounds of TSA employees from seeing them for a minute or two at a time?

they just look like normal people. in chicago they seem to be about 80% black/hispanic.

Of course, this is all from my experience. I like to think I've done my fair share of travelling. So, that plus the articles on them, I think this is a different case than a simple generalisation after a few minutes of the TSA accosting me. But then I also don't think very highly of the US border patrol, and I've definitely never seen a black person working there.

Here is a random article, for starters: http://www.infowars.com/government-report-tsa-corruption-misconduct-soaring/

Any other time, I'd probably agree with you, though.

I've been to Chicago, but never through the TSA there. But just to clarify, I'm not singling out a race or races.

In Los Angeles, I don't recall there being enough black people for them to stand out in my memory.

(Actually, I wouldn't be able to tell you the race of the last TSA screener who checked my stuff.)

lol you got caught being a straight republican instead of just a libertarian, just own up and move on already

In Los Angeles, I don't recall there being enough black people for them to stand out in my memory.

― c21m50nh3x460n, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 7:14 PM

it's one thing to link to a bunch of articles about TSA employees being corrupt/whatever

it's another to say you can guess what "type" of people they are just by looking at them. i mean what do you glean by looking at them other than gender/race/weight and the fact that they are working a shitty, low-paying job? i mean, yeah, you can probably surmise that they weren't born with silver spoons in their mouths b/c they are, after all, working a shitty job. but beyond that...?

(Actually, I wouldn't be able to tell you the race of the last TSA screener who checked my stuff.)

― c21m50nh3x460n, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 7:19 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh wow you don't see color how enlightened

i think we've piled on enough... time to move on to the next article detailing the newest revelation about which government agency is trampling on the constitution...

NASA trying to get to mars just bc there's no constitution there, and they would sure enjoy that

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114234/lawrence-odonnell-yells-julia-ioffe-about-putin-and-snowden

there's a weird thing afoot of ppl wanting to boycott olympics over their truly horrifying ott homophobic policies, ppl wanting to boycott olympics over snowden/syria/'romney was right', and ppl decidedly opposed to any boycott of olympics cuz hey russia is right to bash gays/harbor snowden/arm assad. very skeptical a boycott is possible or likely (by and large history hasn't looked favorably at carter's boycott as far as i can tell), it's really not obama's style (though i could see him wanting to fuck over the olympics for personal reasons), and i'm not even sure the using russia's anti-gay policies as cover for a boycott actually motivated by realpolitik motivations would work (doubt the concerns over russia's anti-gay policies has registered at all for putin tbh, certainly not to any degree he remotely takes seriously, esp since the activism so far has taken the form of boycotting a vodka bottled in latvia by a company hq'ed in luxembourg. dan savage, genius, strikes again.), if americans were mixed over boycotting olympics over russia invading another country when russia was the proverbial boogeyman and an actual existential threat i kinda doubt they're gonna be more on board w/ an issue they know little about (and hence would definitely see as cover for snowden motivated boycott)(syria so far off the radar for average american no way would that occur as actual reason) and would probably only read as 'o so they're like chik-fil-a' if they did find out about it.

We should poll these bullet points:

Vladimir Putin is not omnipotent. He does not control everything that happens in the Russian Federation, a vast and often inhospitable landmass that spans 10 time zones.

Similarly, Barack Obama does not have total control over the minutiae of the United States of America.

Putin does not orchestrate, he reacts. Putin is no chess player. He is a knee-jerk, short-sighted little tyrant. Don't give him credit where credit isn't due.

Americans, especially Americans who have never been to Russia, overestimate the abilities of both Putin and the Russians. Because, I mean, come on. Tank!

The Russians did not create the Snowden situation; Julian Assange and the U.S. government did. Assange insinuated himself into the situation and sent Snowden to Ecuador (the country granting him asylum) through Russia (his great friend).

would be so pissed if we boycoted the olympics, i love the olympics