Police State

Microsoft again caves to users on Xbox One, taking away a major coup for the NSA.

"Microsoft has reversed course on another aspect of the Xbox One. Though Xbox One will come bundled with a Kinect sensor, the console will work without it. Critics were had suggested that an always-on video and audio sensor could be used to spy on users."

Yes we did.

Obama's privacy panel is going to report to Clapper, who runs the NSA. You can't make this stuff up.

NSA has commandeered the internet. It's true. The NSA has made the internet much less valuable. It's made telephones much less valuable. In other words, the NSA, and government in general, is dragging civilization backwards to a time before electronic communication. License plate readers and interconnected cars are doing the same thing to driving. This is a power example of the decivilizing effect of government.

"This is why you have to fight. When it becomes public that the NSA has been hoovering up all of your users' communications and personal files, what's going to save you in the eyes of those users is whether or not you fought. Fighting will cost you money in the short term, but capitulating will cost you more in the long term.
Already companies are taking their data and communications out of the US.
The extreme case of fighting is shutting down entirely. The secure e-mail service Lavabit did that last week, abruptly. Ladar Levison, that site's owner, wrote on his homepage: "I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision."
The same day, Silent Circle followed suit, shutting down their email service in advance of any government strong-arm tactics: "We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now." I realize that this is extreme. Both of those companies can do it because they're small. Google or Facebook couldn't possibly shut themselves off rather than cooperate with the government. They're too large; they're public. They have to do what's economically rational, not what's moral.
But they can fight."

This guy doesn't understand the relationship between government and giant corporations. Government owns them. It controls them through regulation, taxes and intimidation. Corporations are government bureaucracies, but nominally owned and allowed to operate for a profit. They're as much part of the government as explicit government bureaucracies. They won't fight any more than the IRS would fight.

"It's time we called the government's actions what it really is: commandeering. Commandeering is a practice we're used to in wartime, where commercial ships are taken for military use, or production lines are converted to military production. But now it's happening in peacetime."

Peacetime? Where is this guy living? Does he not know we're fighting wars in half a dozen countries or more? Does he not know the Korean War never ended?

Government to release Secret Service file on Aaron Schwartz, but protecting establishment cronies MIT and JSTOR by not releasing documents that reference them.

The associate of Boston Marathon bombing suspect 1 shot and killed by and FBI agent during questioning had a knee injury, making it unlikely he attacked the agent. He was also unarmed and surrounded by armed police, making it unlikely he attacked the agent.

"FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said he couldn't comment on what was said at the news conference because the shooting investigation is ongoing.
But he referred to a statement that was issued by the FBI immediately after the shooting last May.
"The Special Agent, along with other law enforcement personnel, were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual," the statement said. "The Special Agent, acting on the imminent threat posed by the individual, responded with deadly force. The individual was killed and the Special Agent was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. ""

They also lied and said he had a knife. An honest investigation of the shooting should take about five minutes. The reason they haven't finished the investigation is they haven't figured out a lie to justify the killing yet.