Hillary Performed A Public Service
May 31, 2016 2016 Election, Political
Hillary Clinton did the nation a service when she set up and used a home brew server for her email. She allowed classified information to slip through and she subverted government archiving procedures but in so doing she helped the nation because she got us all talking about the inadequacies of her process.
She got us talking about government officials who think they are above the law and she got us talking about using non-government systems to send and receive classified information. She got us (most of us anyway) to agree that doing so is not wise and puts the nation at risk.
Hillary should be indicted and face the music for what she has done but we should not forget that what she did caused us to engage in the conversation and that is important. Perhaps a judge can take that into consideration at her trial.
These are not my words, these are the words of former Attorney General Eric Holder.
He did not say them about Hillary, he said them about Edward Snowden.
Holder thinks Snowden did the nation a service by exposing how we are surveilled but that he broke the law in the way he did it and should come home to face the music for his actions.
We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made.
~snip
I think that he’s got to make a decision. He’s broken the law in my view. He needs to get lawyers, come on back, and decide, see what he wants to do: Go to trial, try to cut a deal. I think there has to be a consequence for what he has done. CNN
The things Holder said about Snowden are no less true for Hillary. She broke the law, she allowed classified information to spill, and she caused turmoil and endangered the nation.
In essence, Holder is saying that Hillary Clinton should be held accountable for breaking the law.
He just used Snowden’s situation as a proxy…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: crimes, eric holder, Hillary, lies, snowden
Miranda Warning
Aug 20, 2013 Political
David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald, was detained in the UK under that nation’s terror laws. He is not a terrorist, has no terror ties (that have been made public), comes from a nation that is not on the terror watch list and has not engaged in terror. He was held nonetheless, for nine hours and his electronic devices were seized. He was released but his stuff is in the hands of the law.
Why did this happen? Well, Miranda and Greewald have been revealing the information provided by Edward Snowden. These guys have shed light on the dark and possibly illegal spying the US is doing on its own citizens.
The US government was given a heads up about Miranda being detained but denies being involved or asking that it happen.
Whether the US specifically asked or not is not important. What is important is that a person was detained without cause because he has been involved in the reporting of illegal acts the US government is involved in.
Tyrants do not like it when their tyranny is exposed. It does not take long for them to go after those exposing the illegal activity.
This incident might have opened a can of worms as Greewald has vowed to make his reporting more aggressive because of the incident and he warned the government he would expose more spying secrets indicating Britain would be “sorry” for the detention.
Reports indicate that Miranda will sue the UK government over the detention and I hope he does.
Nations are using terror laws to impose upon people not involved in terror in any way. The UK is not the only nation to do it. In the US terrorism laws are used to enslave people, to infringe upon their rights, and to allow the government to do what it wants in the name of fighting terror.
Police departments are being outfitted for war and that war is against the people. They can claim it is because the streets are dangerous but how often do we see these well armed police departments entering gang infested areas with their weapons of war and armored vehicles to flush out and capture or kill gang bangers? How often do they use these items to engage the drug cartels or the illegals running around causing problems?
We hardly see that because they are too busy rousting people from their homes and infringing on their rights.
The Constitution does not allow our Armed forces to be used against us but that is being circumvented by a government that is building up an army of police officers throughout the nation.
An army that will one day be deployed to enforce a police state and to further stomp on our liberty.
Unless they remember their oath…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Despite Denials, Government Is Spying On Us
Aug 1, 2013 Political
The government swears (and we can trust them) that they are not looking at our stuff. Why, they only collect metadata and only worry about terrorists and people with overseas connections. They are as pure as the driven snow and would never violate the privacy of the citizens of this great nation.
The head of the NSA said so and we can trust a guy whose job is to keep secrets and do spy stuff that no one is allowed to discuss.
Edward Snowden claimed that the government is reading all kinds of stuff and has invasive programs that can snoop through all kinds of things. He said that he, as an analyst, could do it from his desk. It looks like an article in the Guardian confirms what Snowden told us. The government has a program known as XKeyscore which makes available everything you’ve ever done on the internet. We will pause while you think back to what you might be worried about.
3-2-1
OK, XKeyscore searches your browsing history, searches, email content, online chats and your metadata. The very things Snowden said the government could do and the very things the government has denied.
[note]Isn’t it funny that government claims it must do certain things (like this) to keep us safe so it basically rationalizes spying on us but when a guy like Snowden reveals the program he is a criminal. He spied on them and revealed what they were doing. How is that different from what they do to us? I still have reservations about how he did things but he revealed a serious problem.[/note]
Think the government is not spying on you? A family was visited by the police after the wife searched for pressure cookers and her husband searched for backpacks. While there might be a problem with this and they might be planning something bad the reality is that both items are legal to purchase. The bigger picture item is; how did the government know what they were looking at online?
Let that sink in. There are probably ways that this could have been discovered BUT now that we are aware of the snooping that takes place and its extent one must wonder how government knew this information.
The government continues to deny many things and promises us that it is not invading our privacy but more and more we are seeing that this is not the truth.
As for the XKeyscore program, we are assured that safeguards are in place and it is not used to spy on people.
You mean like the safeguards in place to prevent the IRS from releasing data to other agencies, or being used as a political weapon against certain organizations? Or perhaps like the safeguards in place to keep voters from being intimidated like happened in Philadelphia? Or maybe the safeguards put in place to ensure guns did not get in the hands of criminals under Fast and Furious.
Let’s just say the government has given us no reason whatsoever to trust the alleged safeguards designed to keep our information private and to keep us from having our rights violated. It appears as if the only safe place is wherever Obama’s birth certificate and college transcripts are housed.
One has to wonder if XKeyscore found anything on Chief Justice Roberts. That would explain why he allowed Obamacare to stand by rewriting the law.
In any event, they are spying on us all the time. Keep that in mind. No matter what they say to your face they are spying on you behind your back.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: backpack, constitution, lies, nsa, pressure cooker, rights, snowden, spying
See Something, Say Something
Jun 24, 2013 Political
I do not agree with what Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden did. Manning did not just expose some cover up of an incident, he released tens of thousands of documents the contents of which could have an adverse effect on our national security. He apparently had a meltdown over his gender identity issues and, in a snit, released lots of stuff. There were other avenues for him to reveal the cover up but he chose an incorrect one. Some hail him as a hero but he is not.
In addition to exposing the illegal spying by our government, Snowden took untold numbers of documents and his actions could damage our security. There were plenty of ways he could have gotten the spying information out that would not have landed him in hot water. He chose an incorrect one and while his actions have enlightened millions of Americans the issue will be more about him than the wrong he exposed.
The interesting thing in both of these cases is that, while what they did was wrong, they both followed the instructions of Homeland Security. For years now the DHS has been telling us that if we see something we should say something. These people, as misguided as their methods were, saw something and said something.
Unfortunately for them they saw something the government was doing or had done and said something about it. Big government does not like its misdeeds exposed. It only likes when we are reporting each other TO them. Being reported for their wrong doing enrages them and results in criminal charges.
I personally think that these two broke the law and should be punished BUT I admit that they had valid concerns and could have exposed the wrong doing legally. They would have had more credibility and would have avoided trouble.
In any event, they were doing as DHS instructed them.
I wonder if DHS thought their see something, say something campaign would come back to bite them…
No matter what, things are wrapping up for Manning but the Snowden saga is just beginning. Regardless of the outcome we are much more aware of government wrong doing because of him.
I just wish he had done it the right way.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: dhs, lies, manning, say something, see something, snowden