You are being watched

[FZR1KG]

You've got it completely wrong. The gun nuts wouldn't fight off Commie death squads; they'd be recruitment fodder for Fascist death squads. Having a reservoir of fanatics with weapons training would suit a theocratic dictatorship just bloody fine.

Sadly, I have to agree with this.
Everyone thinks having an armed militia will help you avoid a dictatorship...eh...no.
If the government decided to turn against its people it would be a slow process that would recruit all the crazies for their own agenda.

Hell, you've got enough wanting to leave the USA because Obama won a fair democratic election.
Just look at what was happening in Texas and other crazies wanting to break the country up because they didn't get to have their psycho religious politicians win the election.
If anyone thinks these idiots wouldn't fight with their guns to help preserve a "christian" democracy they truly don't understand the level of insanity/ misplaced fanatical patriotism we are dealing with.

Mind you, not that I'm thinking this will happen.
Its just that if something insanely ludicrous does happen so the government goes rogue, it will be because of the gun nut religious right supporting their brand of democracy rather than them defending us against a hostile take over.

[Swift]

Umm dudes, I am not going Libertarian on you. Relax. I don't have it in for the President, and frankly I think the Tea Party people are idiots. "Going Soviet" is a turn of phrase; a police state could be based on any number of ideologies (and here it probably won't be based on Communism).

In other words, way to completely fucking miss the point.

And you completely fucking missed the point.

The recent "work" of the NSA doesn't really change any of this in a fundamental way. The tools for police states predate the Internet and telephones by decades and centuries.

And the danger to our democracy, as I see it, is not from these spying activities, it is the deliberate mythology spread for several decades by various groups, which has been greatly enabled by the increasing ability for corporations and individuals with deep pockets to purchase opinion-making means (such as advertising and false-news-networks like Fox). They have also disenfranchised a good portion of the electorate, either directly, by gerrymandering and by recent changes in state and Federal election laws, and by disgusting so much of the electorate with the whole political process that they stop participating in it.

I am very much not a conspiracy believer, but I believe this has been a very deliberate effort by various elements of the conservative movement (particulary the Christian conservatives) and people like the Koch Brothers, Rupurt Murdock, and Karl Rove, going back over several decades.

[Cyborg Girl]

Oh, I agree with you on the propaganda and disenfranchisement. I just don't see how it makes further concentration of power a nonissue.

[SciFi Chick]

Oh, I agree with you on the propaganda and disenfranchisement. I just don't see how it makes further concentration of power a nonissue.

No one here has said it's not an issue. What we've said is that just because you now know what you earlier suspected doesn't change anything.

[Sigma_Orionis]

When we do it is counter-intelligence

[FZR1KG]

When we do it is counter-intelligence

Likewise, pedophilia should be dealt with harshly and the perpetrator punished in the most severe form possible, unless its a priest, then its ok as they answer to a higher power and who are we to judge.

[Sigma_Orionis]

And when they do it, it's defending freedom

Hint: It's not you damned gringos, it's your cousins from across the Pond

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oh my, even the Ausies are in it

What could happen next? the Swedes spying on the Norewegians?

[Sigma_Orionis]

Remember that back in August I posted about a Hosting service in Ireland that was taken down for facilitating Child Pornography trafficking and all the servers there ended up with a had a web page that said “Down for Maintenance” and eavesdropped on whomever tried to visit them (through a browser vulnerability) and sent the info to an IP address in Virginia?

Well: it wasn't the CIA, it was the FBI.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Hm. Interesting given that the servers were in Ireland. I'm pretty sure that the FBI has no legal mandate to operate outside of US borders unless the country they're working in has given them express consent to do so.

Either the FBI is in trouble, or the government of Ireland is.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Meh, considering that the FBI itself said so on an Irish court, I think it's the government of Ireland who will have to answer that....

[SciFiFisher]

Just a bit of friendly bit of cooperation between two law enforcement agencies.

[Cyborg Girl]

The NSA physically tampers with exported US network hardware

Never was a fan of Larry Niven, but I'm reminded a bit of his paranoid-schizophrenic secret police in the "Known Space" universe.

[Sigma_Orionis]

If this is true, the US just managed to look like a complete bunch of hypocrites. Particularly if its routing equipment shipped to friendly countries. (And I presume that the US doesn't allow Cisco to be sold to North Korea or Iran (if It's Russia or China I presume they'll make a big ruckus out of it and use it to their advantage) I remember the US Government bitching against HUAWEI (and I recall posting something about that in FWIS 2).

And so far I have no reason to believe it's false. The reporter who leaked this is Glenn Greenwald, the same dude that leaked all the Snowden stuff. I presume that Scheneier will confirm it sooner rather than later.

[Rommie]

List of US Citizens spied on to be published

Honestly, I actually think if any change at all is going to happen this is going to be the catalyst for it (considering the "jack all" that's happened so far). Because it doesn't take a genius to realize if I were the government I'd be spying on a lot of wealthy and influential people, who these days hold a lot more sway with politicians, so if they get pissed off something may actually happen.

Not holding my breath, but I do think it'll be interesting.