I see very few if any moral stands any longer with politicians or those who are politically active.
Small Govt Republicans- The Govt should get out of our lives unless of course you are doing something we do not approve of like drugs, sex, gambling, or pretty much anything fun.
Anti-War Democrats- Bombing and killing all the brown people around the world is horrible when Bush does it but when Obama doubles down all you hear is crickets
Both sides- The First Amendment is great except when the other side uses it.
Both sides- The President "ruling with his pen" is great when their guy doing is doing it but when the other party is doing it then it is an unconstitutional power grab.
etc etc etc....
All they care about is giving themselves and their party more power and money. The constitution and the actual citizens have no meaning and are just obsticals to run over when they get in the way.
Re: Re: Pipes -- Why shouldn't Google be a "dumb pipe" too, then?
Except that you can avoid Google if you put in a little effort.
Do not use gmail or other Google services Check Do not use Google search Check Do not use Chrome Check Install tracking blockers on your browser Check
Doing the above is not really that hard and will do a good job of blocking Google from tracking you as you wander around the internet.
Now compare that to the situation where Verizon (or Comcast/ATT etc) is your only choice of getting connected to the internet because of a Government enforced monopoly. In this case you do not have the choice to use a different service as the Govt has taken that away from you.
"I guess Alice Weidel only dislikes government censorship when it targets speech she likes."
It is not like she is alone with this as this behavior is pretty standard and not just with politicians. For some really egregious examples pick just about any US University.
If you do not help get rid of bad cops you are a bad cop....
This is not an isolated thing. "Good" almost never do anything about the bad cops.
I was reading a report from the Civilian Review board for NYC sometime last year (so the report was probably for 2016).
I do not remember the exact percentages but I believe it was 80% of the cops did not have any excessive force complaints and I believe it was 84% of the complaints came from 7% of the cops (I could be off a percent or two).
So yes it really is a minority of the cops but until the cops that are not killing and beating the living crap out of suspects do something about the ones that are then they deserve to be called bad cops.
There is actually a very easy fix for the problem. Make all cops carry their own insurance. Give them all a raise to cover the average extra cost and have them buy their own insurance. The problem would be solve in a year or two at the most because cops that keep getting sued are not going to be insurable which means they will not be able to stay on any police force and have to go dig ditches or something.
The US screwing up the Middle East really goes back to 1953 when the US and UK overthrew a democratically elected Govt and installed a dictator in order to keep the cheap oil running.
In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected as the Prime Minister until 1953 when his government was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the US and UK who installed Mohammad Reza as Shah.
Is there any wonder that Iranians do not like the US? We basically killed democracy and handed them over to a brutal dictator for close to 30 years.
The Govt is not allowed to pick and choose. If the college had changed the rules to not allow ANY student group to use the school logo the results would have been more than likely quite different.
However the school singled out one group who's political stand it did not like (or the politicians told them not to like in this case) and said that one group was not allowed to do what other student groups were allowed to do.
You see this quite often with k-12 schools and religious groups. Once a school allows one religious group use school property they have to allow all of them.
Elect a pro-privacy, anti-war, open Govt presidential candidate and then have him double down on every fascist request from the pro-surveillance and pro-war crowd.
While thin skinned politicians and out of control cops are a problem the real problem is that over and over juries in this country are backing up all the stupidity that the Govt and its representatives engage in.
Even in the few instances where cops are brought up on charges the juries let them get away with outright murder.
Until juries stop backing up cops and the Govt when they overstep it is not going to stop.
I would think this ruling would affect all those anti-protester laws that states are trying to pass (not sure if any have been passed yet) to make and and all protesters responsible for any damage or costs that one or some of them caused.
The problem is not that IOT and smart devices can not be secured but that the majority of the population either does realize there is a problem or if they do have no ide how to fix it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hopefully not a problem in 3-5 years
Normally I would agree as they manage to do a good job blocking Google in enough locations that Google decided to start backing wireless.
However any laws that get passed would have to be on the Federal level and I think that would be hard for them to do to Musk and keep it hidden in the dark like business as usual. He could shine a very bright light and make a lot of noise if they try underhanded tactics.
Keep in mind we are talking at least 3 years before he gets this started and by then he will be launching who knows how many satellites a year and ferrying astronauts to the space station on a regular basis. The will give him an even bigger soapbox than he already has to make noise if other companies try to block him out.
Not saying they will not try but I just have a hard time believing they will succeed.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hopefully not a problem in 3-5 years
"I never understood why people believe that is all that is necessary to make a change. People literally develop Stockholm like syndrome with politics and the economy as well, not just with other people. You are most certainly underestimating humanities tolerance for greed and evil. In the vast majority of cases there are superior products and services all over the place by they are not taken advantage of because of the many biases that people develop. People LOVE maintaining the status quo because it is familiar and comfortable and are not quick to depart from it."
You are not wrong, people tend to be creatures of habit even with it is not really in their self interest to be that way.
However I think there are two things "fighting the inertia" in this situation.
The first is the fact that many of the people who are cord cutters are already looking to make a change. They are actively trying to move in a certain direction and being blocked. As soon as there is another choice they will be on it like my dog gets on bacon.
The second is that Comcast is a particularly horrible company and in my opinion a fair percentage of those slow to change have had enough to motivate them to do something. Obviously not all of the or even enough but it will be a big enough number to hurt.
It is not just "Cyber" that gets all the holier than thou hypocrisy. All the hair pulling about the election "hacking" where everyone is completely losing their minds.
The US interferes in the politics of other countries more than any other Govt on the planet. Not only do we interfere with elections we actually have a long history of helping to overthrow democratically elected leaders if we do not like their policies.
If we are going to do it to other countries do not be surprised when they do it us.
I would not bet on him not being able to beat the technological issues. If you had told me a few years ago that someone would be able to have two rockets take off and land in the same weekend I would probably have laughed.
The big problem is cost and if he continues to bring down the launch costs it will work.
As far as being "a man of the people" I never said that and do not even think that. I imagine that he plans on making a whole lot of money with satellite internet and I am OK with that. He can make all the money he wants as long as he delivers a service that is worth buying.
The thing is he is not even going to have to undercut the existing companies on price because their service and contempt for their customers is so bad. I bet a lot of people would be willing to pay MORE just to get out from under Comcast and Verizon.
Hopefully Musk's internet satellite swarm will take care of this problem. He is saying 2019 but my guess from past experience is that it will take a bit longer to get there so probably 3-5 years is realistic.
The thing is the cable/ISP companies will go from sucking us all dry to completely dying in a very short time once the satellites go live. All that bad customer service and price gouging is going to create a huge exodus once something else is available.
I did not read it as him saying that the Chinese were not "authoritarian" but more a "people in glass houses"/hypocrisy thing.
Face it we here in the US get all high and mighty when some other country does something bad even though we do the same or worse. It really time we got off our high horse because whatever moral high ground the US used to have is long gone.
A perfect example is this whole Russia getting involved in our election thing that half the country is losing their minds over. Yes if other countries are trying to interfere in our elections that is a bad thing but all the outrage over it is just plain hypocritical to say the least as the US has a long history of not just interfering with elections but helping overthrow democratically elected leaders we do not like.
"The author of BrickerBot, which “bricks” IoT devices by rewriting the flash storage space and wiping files, has emerged to explain that the malware first attempts to secure the units without damaging them.
Failing that, it reverts to “plan B”, i.e. actions that result in the device being rendered temporarily or permanently unusable."
Killing IOT devices that people have bought and paid for is not really what I would call the best way to go about this. However this is going to force companies to better secure their products or they are going to have a hard time staying in business.
Consumers will not notice (and most will not really care) if their devices are part of a botnet but they sure as hell will care that the IOT device they purchased quits working.
I have been using uBlock for quite awhile now and it is much better than AdBlock. Does a better job and does not suck up resources and leak memory like Adblock does.
The fact that some sites do not realize I am blocking ads is just a added plus.
Site owners have shown they can not be trusted to not crash my browsers by poorly designed and malicious ads. I honestly do not generally care about the ads themselves if they were not the spawn from hell. Well that and trying to track every move I make online so now I pretty much block everything except for a few sites I trust.
No pity for them from me, they are getting exactly what they deserve.
I really fail to see how asset forfeiture ever passed constitutional muster. The complete lack of due process involved just makes the fact that anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together would defend it on constitutional grounds.
I would weep for my country but I have almost become numb to the fact that we are sliding ever more rapidly into a police state.
The question is not will we but what kind it will be. If we finally tip over and the Republicans are in charge we will get Iran. If we finally tip over when the Democrats are in charge we will get Venezuela
Trump is not lying more than the Democrats or the rest of the politicians.
However you are correct that he is lying BADLY. Not only badly but just plain about stuff that does not even matter. Most politicians are much better at picking when and how to lie. Probably comes from all the practice they get from being called out on the stupid lies.
On the post: NY Times, Winner Of A Key 1st Amendment Case, Suddenly Seems Upset That 1st Amendment Protects Conservatives Too
Moral stands are few and far between
Small Govt Republicans- The Govt should get out of our lives unless of course you are doing something we do not approve of like drugs, sex, gambling, or pretty much anything fun.
Anti-War Democrats- Bombing and killing all the brown people around the world is horrible when Bush does it but when Obama doubles down all you hear is crickets
Both sides- The First Amendment is great except when the other side uses it.
Both sides- The President "ruling with his pen" is great when their guy doing is doing it but when the other party is doing it then it is an unconstitutional power grab.
etc etc etc....
All they care about is giving themselves and their party more power and money. The constitution and the actual citizens have no meaning and are just obsticals to run over when they get in the way.
On the post: Verizon's Sad Attempt To Woo Millennials Falls Flat On Its Face
Re: Re: Pipes -- Why shouldn't Google be a "dumb pipe" too, then?
Do not use gmail or other Google services Check
Do not use Google search Check
Do not use Chrome Check
Install tracking blockers on your browser Check
Doing the above is not really that hard and will do a good job of blocking Google from tracking you as you wander around the internet.
Now compare that to the situation where Verizon (or Comcast/ATT etc) is your only choice of getting connected to the internet because of a Government enforced monopoly. In this case you do not have the choice to use a different service as the Govt has taken that away from you.
But yes they are the same....
On the post: German Politician Decries Censorship, Follows It Up By Suing Facebook To Have A Critical Comment Deleted
Pretty Standard...
It is not like she is alone with this as this behavior is pretty standard and not just with politicians. For some really egregious examples pick just about any US University.
On the post: Recordings Capture Cops Discussing Department's Most Rotten Apple
If you do not help get rid of bad cops you are a bad cop....
I was reading a report from the Civilian Review board for NYC sometime last year (so the report was probably for 2016).
I do not remember the exact percentages but I believe it was 80% of the cops did not have any excessive force complaints and I believe it was 84% of the complaints came from 7% of the cops (I could be off a percent or two).
So yes it really is a minority of the cops but until the cops that are not killing and beating the living crap out of suspects do something about the ones that are then they deserve to be called bad cops.
There is actually a very easy fix for the problem. Make all cops carry their own insurance. Give them all a raise to cover the average extra cost and have them buy their own insurance. The problem would be solve in a year or two at the most because cops that keep getting sued are not going to be insurable which means they will not be able to stay on any police force and have to go dig ditches or something.
On the post: Court Dismisses -- For A Second Time -- Lawsuit Seeking To Hold Facebook Responsible For Acts Of Terrorism
Re: wHY?
In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected as the Prime Minister until 1953 when his government was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the US and UK who installed Mohammad Reza as Shah.
Is there any wonder that Iranians do not like the US? We basically killed democracy and handed them over to a brutal dictator for close to 30 years.
On the post: Iowa State's Attempt To Violate Its Students First Amendment Rights To Cost State Nearly $400k In Damages
Re: BOGUS
However the school singled out one group who's political stand it did not like (or the politicians told them not to like in this case) and said that one group was not allowed to do what other student groups were allowed to do.
You see this quite often with k-12 schools and religious groups. Once a school allows one religious group use school property they have to allow all of them.
On the post: Canadian Government Looking To Step Up Domestic Surveillance, Scale Back Intelligence Oversight
Sounds familiar
I guess it is Canada's turn now...
On the post: DOJ Finally Drops Case Against Protester Who Laughed During Jeff Sessions' Confirmation Hearing
Burying the Lead...
While thin skinned politicians and out of control cops are a problem the real problem is that over and over juries in this country are backing up all the stupidity that the Govt and its representatives engage in.
Even in the few instances where cops are brought up on charges the juries let them get away with outright murder.
Until juries stop backing up cops and the Govt when they overstep it is not going to stop.
On the post: Court Tosses Cop's Lawsuit Against Social Movement, Twitter Hashtag
About those laws...
On the post: IOT Devices Provide Comcast A Wonderful New Opportunity To Spy On You
Re: Depends on the setup, doesn't it?
On the post: 50 Million US Homes Can't Get 25 Mbps From More Than One ISP
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hopefully not a problem in 3-5 years
However any laws that get passed would have to be on the Federal level and I think that would be hard for them to do to Musk and keep it hidden in the dark like business as usual. He could shine a very bright light and make a lot of noise if they try underhanded tactics.
Keep in mind we are talking at least 3 years before he gets this started and by then he will be launching who knows how many satellites a year and ferrying astronauts to the space station on a regular basis. The will give him an even bigger soapbox than he already has to make noise if other companies try to block him out.
Not saying they will not try but I just have a hard time believing they will succeed.
On the post: 50 Million US Homes Can't Get 25 Mbps From More Than One ISP
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hopefully not a problem in 3-5 years
You are not wrong, people tend to be creatures of habit even with it is not really in their self interest to be that way.
However I think there are two things "fighting the inertia" in this situation.
The first is the fact that many of the people who are cord cutters are already looking to make a change. They are actively trying to move in a certain direction and being blocked. As soon as there is another choice they will be on it like my dog gets on bacon.
The second is that Comcast is a particularly horrible company and in my opinion a fair percentage of those slow to change have had enough to motivate them to do something. Obviously not all of the or even enough but it will be a big enough number to hurt.
On the post: 'Hacking' Of US Nuclear Facilities Appears To Be Little More Than The Sort Of Spying The US Approves Of
Par for the course hypocrisy
The US interferes in the politics of other countries more than any other Govt on the planet. Not only do we interfere with elections we actually have a long history of helping to overthrow democratically elected leaders if we do not like their policies.
If we are going to do it to other countries do not be surprised when they do it us.
On the post: 50 Million US Homes Can't Get 25 Mbps From More Than One ISP
Re: Re: Hopefully not a problem in 3-5 years
The big problem is cost and if he continues to bring down the launch costs it will work.
As far as being "a man of the people" I never said that and do not even think that. I imagine that he plans on making a whole lot of money with satellite internet and I am OK with that. He can make all the money he wants as long as he delivers a service that is worth buying.
The thing is he is not even going to have to undercut the existing companies on price because their service and contempt for their customers is so bad. I bet a lot of people would be willing to pay MORE just to get out from under Comcast and Verizon.
On the post: 50 Million US Homes Can't Get 25 Mbps From More Than One ISP
Hopefully not a problem in 3-5 years
The thing is the cable/ISP companies will go from sucking us all dry to completely dying in a very short time once the satellites go live. All that bad customer service and price gouging is going to create a huge exodus once something else is available.
On the post: China To Require Drone Owners To Register, Just As Similar US Requirements Are Struck Down
Re: FAA Dicktators
Face it we here in the US get all high and mighty when some other country does something bad even though we do the same or worse. It really time we got off our high horse because whatever moral high ground the US used to have is long gone.
A perfect example is this whole Russia getting involved in our election thing that half the country is losing their minds over. Yes if other countries are trying to interfere in our elections that is a bad thing but all the outrage over it is just plain hypocritical to say the least as the US has a long history of not just interfering with elections but helping overthrow democratically elected leaders we do not like.
On the post: Malware Hunts And Kills Poorly Secured Internet Of Things Devices Before They Can Be Integrated Into Botnets
Brickerbot author says...
Failing that, it reverts to “plan B”, i.e. actions that result in the device being rendered temporarily or permanently unusable."
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/04/24/brickerbot-damage/
Killing IOT devices that people have bought and paid for is not really what I would call the best way to go about this. However this is going to force companies to better secure their products or they are going to have a hard time staying in business.
Consumers will not notice (and most will not really care) if their devices are part of a botnet but they sure as hell will care that the IOT device they purchased quits working.
On the post: New 'Perceptual' Ad Blocking Tech Doesn't Win The Ad Blocking War, But It May Put Advertisers On Their Heels... Permanently
uBlock is much better than AdBlock
The fact that some sites do not realize I am blocking ads is just a added plus.
Site owners have shown they can not be trusted to not crash my browsers by poorly designed and malicious ads. I honestly do not generally care about the ads themselves if they were not the spawn from hell. Well that and trying to track every move I make online so now I pretty much block everything except for a few sites I trust.
No pity for them from me, they are getting exactly what they deserve.
On the post: Kim Dotcom Asks US Supreme Court Not To Allow US Government To Steal All His Stuff Without Due Process
How is any of this constitutional
I would weep for my country but I have almost become numb to the fact that we are sliding ever more rapidly into a police state.
The question is not will we but what kind it will be. If we finally tip over and the Republicans are in charge we will get Iran. If we finally tip over when the Democrats are in charge we will get Venezuela
On the post: 'Fake News' Now Means Whatever People Want It To Mean, And Legislating It Away Is A Slippery Slope Toward Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Trump Lying More
However you are correct that he is lying BADLY. Not only badly but just plain about stuff that does not even matter. Most politicians are much better at picking when and how to lie. Probably comes from all the practice they get from being called out on the stupid lies.
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