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E. F. Beall commented on the blog post The Roundup for June 19, 2013
Good evening, fatster and all.
Merkel may have welcomed Obama with open arms in spite of saying beforehand that she would raise the surveillance issue with him, but not everyone in Berlin did. There were protests, relatively small because of record heat, but nonetheless greeting him with slogans like “yes we scan,” “Ich bin ein snoop,” and “tear down this firewall.” The best coverage is in German, of course, from the sueddeutsche.de website (original here; syntactically-challenged Google-translate version here).
Nor has everyone in the US been completely buffaloed by General Alexander’s performance at yesterday’s hearing. As your link shows, even CNN was skeptical of the “over 50 plots disrupted” claim. WaPo’s Dana Milbank basically saw the hearing as Kabuki:
The hearing was really a pep rally, as lawmakers praised the officials involved in the surveillance programs and then yielded the floor for an hour so the officials could make statements about how responsible and restrained they’ve been. The congressional overseers of the intelligence agencies quite clearly are captivated by — if not captives of — the people they are supposed to be supervising.
That’s in WaPo, a pillar of the establisment. All in all, it seems to me that the movement against this thing is coming along nicely.
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E. F. Beall commented on the blog post The Roundup for June 18, 2013
Good evening, fatster, CTut, teuz, and all. A great round-up, to which I have two things to add with respect to Surveillance Planet.
First, Katrina vanden Heuvel has a decent Op-Ed in WaPo, calling for Congressional investigation and action to reign in the surveillance.
Second, for those who haven’t seen Jane Hamsher’s e-mail today, FDL Action has put together a letter to be sent to the US Senate asking it to form, in effect, a new Church Committee. The letter reads:
In light of recent disclosures about the surveillance of Americans by federal intelligence agencies, we the undersigned call upon the U.S. Senate to convene a special committee to conduct a full and formal investigation into the size and scope of such programs conducted by the NSA, CIA and FBI.
Here’s a link to add your signature.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post What FDL can do about internet spying by ThingsComeUndone.
“NSA … re really interested in Occupy” I think that’s probably true, BT, but I’d like to put together some actual evidence that the official line that they only query the metadata if there’s a foreign connection is false. I know we can show that the Boston area DHS “fusion center” was monitoring Occupy and [...]
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
I think it’s right that business has a large role in this,juliania, albeit I recall that Marcy made the point almost as soon as the story broke.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
:)
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Several good points there, juliania; now maybe we can get back to the real issues, yes?
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E. F. Beall commented on the blog post The Roundup for June 17, 2013
Good morning and hello again, fatster and all.
In addition to other methods of distracting us from attention to Edward Snowden’s revelations of massive government surveillance, such as attacking the messenger from the right (calling him a traitor, a narcissist, etc.), we now have attacking him from the left.
One version of this approach is the thesis of Naomi Wolf (which is getting increasing attention on the net), that Snowden is a government plant whose purpose is to persuade us that Big Brother is so powerful that resistance is futile. Another is the position of a late-night commenter to the thread I started on Sunday, to the effect that Snowden is a “managed op” whose purpose is to get what the commenter views as the true scandals of IRS, AP, and Benghazi out of public view.
I wonder what’s next.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Good morning to all who are up and watching. A night’s sleep has given me a fresh perspective on a new method of distracting attention from Edward Snowden’s message. In addition to defending the massive surveillance, escalating involvement in Syria, and attacking the messenger from the right by calling him a traitor, a narcissist, not [...]
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
ThD, you are humoring someone who thinks (see #2) the current disclosures constitute a distraction from the true scandals of IRS/AP/Banghazi. Suit yourself, but I think you’re making a mistake in doing so.
In any case, good night all.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Your position stated @ 2 has been demonstrated in numerous comments since then to be off the wall, EV, and I, at least, am not going to respond to it anymore.
To people in general:
I’m off to bed, but carry on. -
E. F. Beall commented on the blog post The Roundup for June 17, 2013
Good evening, fatster and all.
I haven’t been able to assimilate all of the huge number of surveillance links you have tonight, but I love the new “Surveillance Planet” heading.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Thanks for the link, ThD. His main point, that the massive surveillance undermines the “internet freedom” that the US has bandied about, seems on target.
Also, people, tonight’s faster’s round-up has a slew of links under the new heading Surveillance Planet that I haven’t even begun to assimilate.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Glad you liked it, sta.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Thanks for dropping by, sta, and you’re welcome.
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
And @ 54 Thanks for driving another nail in the coffin of the EternalVigilance hypothesis, OB. (It was quite disruptive for a time.) M$M, LOL. And it’s not only overseas where where the diversions aren’t working: the latest CNN/ORC poll shows that O’s popularity has dropped 8 percentage points since May 17-18. I thought the news [...]
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Sorry I missed you before dinner, wd. Yes, kgb999’s post is challenging (although not as opaque as some of the comments on the thread from others), but I did recommend it to everyone on my last thread. Thanks for the primer on Yves Smith. I read the Q and A on the Guardian’s website, so [...]
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
And @ 50 Thanks, ThD; I didn’t notice the point about foreigners having rights too, which is certainly a good one. And thanks for the thumbnail sketch of the history of the surveillance state (which coincides with what I know where I know it). I certainly agree with what “it is time for.” That’s a [...]
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
Storing megadata behind bronze doors; what an image! Thanks, juliania. To everyone: I want to recommend Kevin’s post from earlier in the day, which handily shoots down one of the most common accusations against Edward Snowden, that he is not “a true whistle-blower because he did not go through channels” to make his revelations. Of course [...]
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
I just looked at his site, with a missive against ES from a half hour ago; his hatred is irrational. And he has quite a retinue of followers in the comments. But enough of him, wouldn’t you say?
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E. F. Beall commented on the diary post NSA Surveillance: Diversions From The Message Aren’t Working by E. F. Beall.
OK, it sounds like Johnson is a piece of work. So much for Little Green Footballs, then.
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